Posted on 07/20/2007 7:33:05 PM PDT by RTO
Former Inside the Ring co-author Rowan Scarborough has written a new book revealing a key reason the Bush administration pressed hard for the 2006 deal for the United Arab Emirates-based Dubai Ports World to take over management of several U.S. ports. According to Mr. Scarborough, the administration wanted the deal to go through because the UAE government had agreed to let the United States post agents inside its global port network who could report on world shipping...
... "Dubai Ports, in essence, was going to become an agent of CIA," Mr. Scarborough said in an interview. "The arrangement is helping us detect whether any kind of terror contraband was being moved around."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
“They were consistently on message describing what the deal involved, why it did not compromise security and the benefits of stroking an ally.”
The same way the Administration is “consistently on message” about “guest worker programs,” citizenship for illegals, etc?
The problem is more about whether we can afford to trust our supposed “allies.” Remember, we are not dealing with a western mindset... that, IMHO, is the crux of the matter.
But, I guess we must agree to disagree.
RTO
You may be correct on his initial response, I do not recall it. I do recall that he began searching for facts just as quickly as I did and that by the end of the show he was not in opposition but promoting the idea that we needed to find out what all the facts are.
The first words out of Rush's mouth are often reactionary, but he does a good job of switching into data acquisition mode, most often within the same hour that his original reaction takes place. I don't always agree with his assesment of the facts, but I respect his efforts to obtain them before digging himself into a hole.
He can in no way be characterized as in oppositon to Dubai ports. He in fact ended up ridiculing those who reacted without examining the facts.
Hmm...the Japanese have a western mindset? I don't think so. Maybe the Taiwanese do. No. Well then, surely the Russians, or the South Koreans do. No, I don't think they do either. Those with a western mindset are a minority in the world. Philosopy is provincial, Economics is universal.
As long as the Middle East has us dependent economically on their oil while they lack econimic dependence on us, they are a wild card. If their economies become enmeshed and therefore dependent on a robust world economy, then they become partners, whether willing or not.
It was foolishness.....masquerading as patriotism and a concern for NS....
Handing over our Ports Security to UAE so we can have CIA operatives working within the system? Bullcrap!
It’s like the Pro Amnesty crowd saying our Government cannot protect our borders without giving Amnesty to 12 million Illegals.
“Our opponent is radical Islam. Any opportunity to promote involvement in world trade, other than oil, among the Islamic nations works to our benefit.”
I am not too sure there is a difference between the “radical” and the “normal” variety of Islam... Here is an excellent overview of the subject matter:
Islam 101... An incredible insight into Islam by Gregory M. Davis, PhD
http://home.comcast.net/~vincep3...101.1.html
Then you believe that anihalation is the only solution. Okay, we may as well start loading up the nukes. Per your philosphy, it is the only solution.
Any argument based on a false assertion is false.
We in no way were turning over Port Security to UAE. They were acquiring the management of terminals. In most cases the operating personell for the terminals would not have changes; a little thing about the longshoreman's union.
“the Japanese have a western mindset? I don’t think so. Maybe the Taiwanese do. No. Well then, surely the Russians, or the South Koreans do. No, I don’t think they do either. Those with a western mindset are a minority in the world. Philosopy is provincial, Economics is universal.”
OK...
So then, the above-listed cultures...
Throw bomb-strapped children into battle?
Commit mass murder against unarmed civilians?
Use civilians as human shields in their combat operations?
Use civilian facilities to house military assets?
Do not outfit their military personnel with uniforms, but send them to intermingle with the civilian population?
Decapitate those whom they think unworthy?
Instruct their peoples to kill all non-adherents to their religious creed?
Sir, philosophy may indeed be “provincial,” but the moral law is universal, because it is God’s law—written indelibly upon the hearts of all men.
western culture goes far deeper than political expressions of democracy and free-market economics... The heart of western culture is the Christian Faith, and the Judeo-Christian heritage. I do not know of Taiwan, but Japan, South Korea and Russia all have/had significant Catholic populations. The Christian Faith is what defines western civilization... not economics.
RTO
“...They were acquiring the management of terminals.”
I understand your understanding of the proposal with UAE as a managerial proposition, however at the time the major argument was that the Bush Administration was proposing to contract the administration of Port Security to the UAE owned company.
So why was “Port Security” the argument that raised the hackles amongst our Congresscritters if it was simply a Management proposition?
Regardless of either, why couldn’t the same CIA investment have been made with the preceding management company P.& O.
The whole thing reeks of Bullcrap to this day, and I don’t buy the story Gertz relates from The referenced book.
Sir, you put words in my mouth. I said no such thing... and if I did, then shame on me... that would make me no better than the terrorists we fight. My argument is that these people have not changed their thinking in 14 centuries. The West has been caught up in an off-again on-again war with Islam since the seventh century... The threat is not new to the western world in general... It is new to the American psyche.
However, should you recall your US History, then you will note our conflict with the Barbary Coast Pirates, circa 1793-1805, Muslim pirates of the Islamic faith. That conflict started centuries before, where the European nations and the Catholic Church would paid tribute to ransom their ships and sailors from the Barbary prisons and Muslim slave galleons. The Americans did similar, for a short while, until President Jefferson had quite enough of the extortion. That is where the Marine Core got its anthem.
I am told that somewhere in the Congressional record of the time period—perhaps now in the archives at the US Library of Congress—there is a speech given to the US Congress by a prince of one of these Barbary Coast states... when asked what it would take for his contemporaries to cease their practice of piracy, his reply was “when you convert to Islam.”
We were to get info on "key U.S. intelligence targets" Venezuela, China, Pakistan, India and Saudi Arabia.
Pakistan, India and Saudi Arabia don't already cooperate?
Venezuela, China? The PLA defers to the UAE to run Chinese ports? The PLA runs everything through the UAE? Really?
Venezuela? Our CIA is so incompetent that it cannot find people there to cooperate with us?
The Ports Deal fiasco was definately a “Pogo Moment” for the conservative movement.
What’s a “Pogo Moment”?
RTO
“We have met the enemy and they is us.”
Oh, so you mean “Pogo” the comic strip.
This is a totally bogus story. The intelligence is already there and already within the fingertips of the CIA. If Bush and his dimwit staff believed this story....then they are as stupid as we are starting to think.
Japan has very few Christians.
The current Wikipedia article Religion in Japan (section Christianity) gives the figure of 0.8% of the population. However, the Wikipedia is quite unreliable, and particularly so on these kind of subjects where some cranks around the world feel obligated to add their own opinions. However, looking at the more reliable The CIA World Factbook, its estimate is very close to the Wikipedia number at 0.7%. (From what I have seen, I would say that even 0.7% seems high to me. I suspect those numbers probably include ethnic Koreans and other non-Japanese segments of the population.)
Also, the previously mentioned Wikipedia article states that most Japanese Christians are Protestant. From what I have seen, that statement seems accurate to me although no source is given for that statement. Another Wikipedia article, Roman Catholicism in Japan, puts the number of Catholics in Japan at 500,000.
A better source of information would be the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Japan, but while their website has a very interesting history of Catholicism in Japan here, they don't seem to have any numbers for the number of Catholics in Japan.
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