Posted on 04/28/2006 4:32:20 PM PDT by neverdem
WASHINGTON, April 27 — President Bush is expected on Friday to announce his approval of a deal under which a Dubai-owned company would take control of nine plants in the United States that manufacture parts for American military vehicles and aircraft, say two administration officials familiar with the terms of the deal.
The officials, who were granted anonymity so they could speak freely about something the president had not yet announced, said that the final details had not yet been set and that Mr. Bush might put conditions on the transaction to keep military technology in the United States.
But his action is almost certain to attract scrutiny in Congress, because of the political furor that erupted over the administration's approval of a deal earlier this spring that would have given another Dubai-owned company, Dubai Ports World, leases to operate several American port terminals through its acquisition of a British company, the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company.
Dubai Ports agreed to drop the port deal after it became clear that Republicans were abandoning Mr. Bush and opposing the takeover.
In this case, the plants in question are owned by Doncasters Group Ltd., a British company that is being purchased for $1.2 billion from the Royal Bank of Scotland Group by Dubai International Capital, which is owned by the United Arab Emirate government.
Because the plants make turbine blades for tanks and aircraft, the deal was reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which sent it on to Mr. Bush himself for a decision, a step used only when the potential security risks or political considerations are particularly acute.
Administration officials alerted Congress that the deal would go through the committee's review process in an effort to head off the kind of public debate that surrounded...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I agree --- I certainly would rather see a political fight on energy grounds in an election year.
While there will be some strong opposition from the far left to developing our energy resources, it will be solely from the left. These other items, where the debate is over national security matters, will tend to divert critical support from the base in a critical election season. It's just not politically wise.
That's the only reason Schumer made it an issue, and he played the GOP Congress (Duncan Hunter being exhibit A) for fools.
How about the World Trade Center?
Er, Oh never mind.
Sorry, I think Japan can claim squatter's rights there. Isn't the Pearl O-club their 19th Hole?
He's not supposed to get involved in the initial approval process; CFIUS has to finish its review first.
And the Republicans WERE racist. They had no valid reasons for spitting on a country that has serviced our Navy's ships for four years, so they tried to make the UAE out to be a haven for terrorists.
It was the most shameful display of xenophobia I've ever witnessed in an elected body.
We're friendly with Japan and we only sell out to people who want to screw us.
What's the problem?
"Some of you people are such media dupes."
Agreed. Yeesh.
Actually I believe they are giving money to the palestinians eith on or off the books. In any case, I for one am not happy arming the animals killing our soldiers.
I'm more concerned about our cousins across the pond. What else (beside Buckingham Palace and Big Ben) do they have left? He!! the London Freakin' Bridge is in Arizona! The Arabs own most everything else over there.
Well... Considering that the invasion of Iraq was launched from Qatar and Kuwait and that the U.S. Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain, I believe that the governments of the Gulf States are our allies. Of course, this alliance comes out of enlightened self-interest. The Gulf States emirs have a very liberal view of Islam that doesn't jive with Osama and friends' vision of the Arab world and understand that they're Osama's next target. Helping America out protects them from external and internal enemies. (Think the first Gulf War).
B. It's better to be a hyena than a lobotomized elephant.
C. The Conn. congressional delegation has been speaking out against this idiotic deal from Day one, as well as almost every other legitimate conservative activist and radio talk show host.
Andrew Wilcow has been excoriating this strategic blunder for weeks, if not months.
I didn't say he should have known about it, it was a two bit deal. However to say he had no idea what was going on gave teh democrats all the power. Like I said I only had a problem with how he played it politcally, for such a small deal, he had nothing to gain and everything to lose supporting it. He chose poorly.
"Can you guys think of anything else we can give away?"
He could give the drug cartels and human smugglers 500 yards along our side of the mexican border. Imminent domain and all that, it's for the common welfare. /sarc
The Connecticut congressional delegation? All three of them?
I haven't heard a peep out of the usual suspects: Malkin, Ingraham, Hannity. I did read that Savage is pissed that Schumer didn't come on his show and raise hell.
He doesn't realize that Schumer played him for a putz.
Each congressional district contains over half a million people, give or take a few thousand.
I see that you need to brush up on your math skills as well.
625,000, to be exact.
We've got five congressional districts in Dallas and its suburbs.
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