Posted on 03/10/2006 8:16:05 PM PST by crushelits
President Bush said Friday the collapse of the Dubai ports deal could hurt U.S. efforts to recruit Mideast governments as partners in the worldwide war on terror.
Separately, in what may have been an aftershock to the failed transaction, a new round of trade talks between the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates was postponed.
On Thursday, Dubai-based DP World backed away in the face of unrelenting criticism and announced it would transfer its management of port terminals in major U.S. cities to an American entity.
Bush struck a defiant tone Friday with the Republican-led Congress whose new willingness to buck him has taken its most dramatic form with the ports controversy.
The president said he was open to improving the government's method of reviewing such transactions, but he insisted his administration's approval of the deal had posed no security risk — and that the reversal could have the opposite effect.
"I'm concerned about a broader message this issue could send to our friends and allies around the world, particularly in the Middle East," said Bush during an appearance before a conference of the National Newspaper Association. "In order to win the war on terror, we have got to strengthen our friendships and relationships with moderate Arab countries in the Middle East."
The United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is a part, is just such a country, Bush said.
Dubai services more U.S. military ships than any other country, shares useful intelligence about terrorists and helped shut down a global black-market nuclear network run by Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan, the administration says. This week, though, the State Department's annual human rights report called the UAE's performance "problematic," citing floggings as punishment for adultery or drug abuse.
The president said he would now have to work to shore up the U.S. relationship with the UAE and explain to Congress and the public why it's a valuable one.
"UAE is a committed ally in the war on terror," he said.
En route Friday to a presidential inauguration in Chile, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice echoed Bush. The failed ports deal "means that we are going to have to work and double our efforts to send a strong message that we value our allies, our moderate allies, in the Middle East," she said.
Thursday's action spared Bush an embarrassing showdown, which he seemed likely to lose, over the veto he had threatened of any attempt by Congress to block the transaction.
After weeks of questions from lawmakers of both parties about whether giving a state-owned company from an Arab country control of significant port operations could increase terrorist dangers, the silence from Republicans on Friday was telling. The only statements came from Democrats who sought to keep the issue alive.
Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y., a chief critic of the Dubai deal, said lawmakers needed more detail on DP World's planned divestiture. It wasn't clear which American business might get the port operations, or how the U.S. entity would be related to the Dubai government.
"Make no mistake, we are going to scrutinize this deal with a fine tooth comb," Schumer said.
And the Democratic Party planned a mobile billboard in Memphis, Tenn., where GOP activists were gathering for a weekend conference, accusing Republicans of standing in the way of providing enough funding for port security. "Republicans owe the American people answers as to where they really stand," said party spokesman Luis Miranda.
Republicans, too, have said the deal's end does nothing to address the nation's continuing vulnerability at its ports, where the vast majority of shipping containers are not inspected. In fact, work continued on Capitol Hill on two fronts: reworking the process under which the government approves foreign investment and boosting port security.
Senate Homeland Security Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, promised a committee vote by the end of April on legislation to strengthen cargo inspections and port security. Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif., was readying a nearly identical measure for the House. Both bills have Democratic co-sponsors.
There were some signs the president's worries about the impact abroad were warranted.
Analysts said the developments could make cash-rich investors in the Persian Gulf, where there is the widespread belief that the furor was rooted in anti-Arab bias, wary of high-profile investments in the United States.
And the latest round of negotiations on a new free-trade arrangement between the U.S. and the UAE, scheduled for Monday in the United Arab Emirates, was postponed.
Both sides hastened to dispel speculation that the delay was the result of the ports controversy.
Neena Moorjani, spokeswoman for U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman (news, bio, voting record), would not directly address that question, but said it's not unusual for delegations to need more time to prepare. A UAE official said there was no connection, and that working groups would continue discussions by phone.
So whats your point? The Islamofascists get a free kill on all anti-war activists??
There are many Christians opposed to war of any kind. I disagree with that personally but that doesn't make them a target for murder by Islamic terrorists!
The man was an AMERICAN citizen as well!
Does that count for nothing to you people????
Now it is every dumb A' Senator for themselves apparently.
I've never witnessed anything quite like it. They need to turn off the camera's and go home.
Criminals don't respect that sort of thing, not even from other criminals.
I doubt terrorists are any different.
He and his group were in Iraq ILLEGALLY and to do AMERICA harm.
How do you feel about the late and unlamented Rachel Corie?
And NO, this man being an American counts for less than nothing with me. Johnny Jihad is an American too.
Gee, you make them sound like good allies.
You've come full circle with your talking points.
So if the Muslim Sheiks who control and operate the UAE won't be divesting in the U.S. after a failed port deal and if the Muslim Sheiks who control and operate the UAE won't be kicking out our military after a failed port deal, then what makes you think that they were a risk to send WMD through our ports in the first place?
We can't have a mock flame war now. It looks too scheduled and arranged.
I bet you get your jollies by pulling the wings off insects and torturing small animals, as well.
Insects, maybe. Animals, never. Birds, reptiles and amphibians "never" either.
Just to take that to a meaningful level, I emphatically and (I think) effectively took the anti-Greer side of the Schiavo battle.
Go menace someone else!
Who? You are the most expert on heated exchanges and I value your expertise, as you said ...
you WILL lose and lose horrifically, in any kind of a flame war with me
You go on, " ... even IF it got me banned. Do you REALLY want THAT on your conscience?"
Of course I do not want you banned. I assume you will restrain yourself so don't cross the line into "banned-land," but that is something I cannot control.
I must travel in different circles. Oh yeah, I hitch-hike ;-)
Yeah that's quite a caper you're on-to. The president ain't going to pull one over on ole "Reagan Man".
The president wasn't worried about keeping a loyal ally in the WOT.
The president was out dare faverin big bizniz concerns...
Post to me or about me, again and I SHALL, from this moment forwards, type William S. Gilbert's lyrics and/or poetry in response.
Congress voted to bypass the inquiry, not the president.
BTW the 62-2 vote also included a military appropriations bill to fund both Iraq and Afghanistan. You really have to have your head up your butt to ignore that fact and claim that all 62 of those votes were in opposition to the deal.
Yeah thats obvious...and sickening.
Should THAT fact have made their treason more palatable?
Agree.
Nice straw man attempt to get off a subject that apparently you don't want to face.
I would never post ABOUT you, behind your back. But I may post TO you, and your proposed response will be music to my ears, as I am Gilbert reincarnate. [BTW, that is a flat-out lie - I never heard of the bloke 'til your mention]
Gilbert was knighted by Edward VII in 1907 and died in 1911, at age 74, while attempting to save a drowning woman.
From the same source, this, "Gilbert had shown a proclivity for caustic wit and sarcasm from an early age and it was this talent that put him on the path to greatness."
Well, I must say that I enjoy and participate in casutic wit and sarcasm (in moderation, of course), but in all humility cannot hold a candle to a master.
I am looking forward to a lesson, at your earliest convenience.
Oh for pity sakes..........stop being so silly!
What a fun fellow. He says, "I wasn't born with enough middle fingers."
"I believe that the entire UAE is actually the CIA."
What do you mean exactly?
Of course the MSM is staggeringly biased and fervently opposed to letting him promote his agenda. The exact same thing was true during the Reagan administration. The difference is that Reagan and his people were masterful at getting out the message despite the MSM, while Bush and his folks have done an abysmal job at the same.
In this particular instance, I think Bush was dead wrong and that the deal was doomed for failure no matter what, but I most certainly take no pleasure in the fact that Bush has once more totally failed at circumvention of the MSM.
MM
I have been to his home, Grym's Dyke ( it's now a hotel, where, in summer, they DO give performances of G&S operettas ), been all over the public rooms and grounds, and stood by the stone wall, which overlooks the waterway, where he died and cried. I also said a prayer for him there.
And now...here's just a wee bit of a song, meant especially for you. :-)
Whene're I poke
Sarcastic joke
Replete with malice spiteful.
This people mild
Politely smiled
And voted it delightful,
Now when a weight
Sits up all night
Ill-natured jokes devising,
And all his wiles
Are met with smiles
It's hard, there's no disguishing!
O, don't the days seem lank and long
When all goes right and nothing goes wrong,
And isn't you life extremely flat
With nothing whatever to grumble at!
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