Free Republic

An email made public through the organization WikiLeaks suggests that a company controlled in part by the family of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear weapons mastermind donated to the Clinton Foundation’s Clinton Global Initiative before a different company controlled by the same family was awarded a 35-year no-bid lease to Port Canaveral’s cargo container terminal.

China has often been accused of luring the poor African countries in its debt-trap by providing them loans for much-needed infrastructure projects and then control them when they fail to pay off their debts. Tanzania President John Magufuli has cancelled a Chinese loan worth $10 billion signed by his predecessor Jakaya Kikwete to construct a port at Mbegani creek in Bagamoyo over terms and conditions that, he said, beat the logic. Magufuli said that the terms of the Chinese loan agreement could only be accepted by a drunken man. His predecessor, Jakaya Kikwete had signed the deal with Chinese...

Under a long-term deal sealed by the Obama administration, a Chinese Communist company was set to control the second-busiest container port in the United States. In an unreported Trump administration victory, the Communists are out after a drawn-out national security review forced a unit of China-based COSCO Shipping Holdings Co. (Orient Overseas Container Line—OOCL) to sell the cherished container terminal business, which handles among the largest freight of imports into the U.S. It all started with a 40-year container terminal lease between the Port of Long Beach in southern California and Hong Kong. The Obama administration proudly signed the agreement...

by Mark Finkelstein February 25, 2006 Look for Ellen Ratner on the barricades next time the World Trade Organization gets together for a coffee klatsch. On this morning's Fox & Friends Weekend, Ratner hurled the verbal equivalent of a paving brick through the window of a Mickey D's. Ratner escalated the flap over the UAE ports deal to an entirely new level, claiming no foreign companies, regardless of nationality, should control our ports, or for that matter other significant chunks of our economy. Claimed Ratner, the real issue is "what kind of jobs, what kind of outsourcing are we going...

The oil minister of the United Arab Emirates has announced that a new oil pipeline bypassing the Strait of Hormuz is nearly complete. The Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline project would ship crude from the UAE’s main oil producing region to the port of Fujairah on the country’s eastern coast, bypassing the vital Strait. The timing of the announcement could not be more prescient; Iranian officials have recently made their most threatening remarks to date about “closing” the Strait of Hormuz as fresh U.S. and international sanctions have put the regime on the defensive. In recent weeks alone, the head...

DUBAI DUETS Late Friday, Department of Justice lawyers in the Office of Legal Counsel were attempting to determine if former President Bill Clinton had registered as an "Agent of a Foreign Principal." Federal statute requires that anyone -- even a former President -- doing political or public affairs work on behalf of a foreign country, agency or official must register with the Department, and essentially update his status every six months. It was not clear the Clinton had done so. If his status is less clear, here is what we do know: If Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton did not know...

RUSH: All right. It's time, ladies and gentlemen, for the moment that I have been waiting the whole program for. I've been practicing patience and restraint. I know that there are other more pressing issues, and I have devoted myself to the discussion and exploration of those issues. But now, time to indulge myself. Dadelut dadelut dadelut dadelut dadelut! (That's the trumpet fanfare. It means an update is upcoming.) It's our new theme. It's the Sittin' on the Ports of Dubai. (Playing of Sitting on the Ports of Dubai spoof.) That's our old buddy Paul Shanklin with a takeoff on...

Dear Milam County Citizens, Do you recall a few months ago reading an article in which State Representative, Mike Krusee, Chairman of the House Transportation Committee (and according to the Star Telegram, one of six Texas representatives issued a subpoena investigating accusations of illegal fundraising), made statements telling Milam county not to worry because the Trans Texas Corridor was not going to run through Milam County? I read it in a local newspaper, and I wondered at the time how he knew this when the proposed route had not been decided on or approved by Washington yet. But, have you...

Federal officials have been squabbling in recent weeks over a proposal to give operations of some U.S. ports to a Dubai company, but in Texas, state officials don't appear to share the same concerns about a Spanish company operating portions of the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor. On Thursday, a state-owned Dubai company announced it was backing out of a deal to manage some terminal operations at six American ports, amid a political firestorm in Congress. President Bush supported the arrangement, but it was opposed by some in Congress who expressed concern about security issues arising from having a foreign company operating...

Here's a question no one has asked since the Dubai ports deal erupted as a major election-year terrorism issue: Whatever happened to biometric identification cards for dockworkers and other transportation-industry employees? Congress mandated them over three years ago in the Maritime Transportation Security Act. They were supposed to start rolling out in 2004. It's now 2006, and the system, now barely a pilot project, might not be ready until late 2007, early 2008 or possibly even later.

by Mark Finkelstein March 10, 2006 If ever Congress might think it was in for some Perky-One praise, it was this morning. After all, the kids on the Hill had just dealt President Bush a humiliating defeat on the ports deal, while safeguarding our terminals from those fanatical furriners. But - surprise! - Katie came not to praise Congress, but to bury them. In her interview of Tim Russert, Couric quickly turned the talk to the fact that "only 5% of the cargo coming into this country is checked. It might be one of the biggest national security threats we...

Bill and Hillary Clinton are the first couple to appear simultaneously and independently on the national political stage. They are using their special circumstances as a convenient shield for one another, fulfilling, at once, Hillary’s dream of no accountability and Bill’s of being able to take both sides of an issue. Did Hillary know that Bill was pardoning the FALN terrorists to help her win Puerto Rican votes in New York? Oh, she was opposed to the pardon. Did Hillary find out that Bill was granting pardons to felons and drug dealers who had hired her brothers for six-figure fees...

Given the extraordinary amount of petro-dollars that Dubai has spent in recent years, much of it with US companies, transforming itself from a desert fiefdom into a centre for tourism, media, technology and finance, the tiny state's commercial interests are inextricably aligned with the West rather than the Jihadis. Dubai's Internet City has attracted leading US technology companies, such as Cisco Systems, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard. American designers are behind the $1bn Burj Dubai development, which includes the world's tallest building. Boeing has been selling fleets of aircraft to Dubai's Emirates airline.

WASHINGTON, MARCH 3: The political firestorm over Arab management of six US ports threatened to widen on Thursday after a senior House Republican said he wanted foreign firms to sell their investments in American ports, electricity plants and other infrastructure critical to US security. California Republican Duncan Hunter, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said foreign investments in such areas should be rolled back along with the pending $6.85 billion deal involving Dubai Ports World, which is state-owned by the United Arab Emirates. Hunter was scathing in his assessment of Dubai Ports World’s plan to buy Britain-based P&O, including...

WASHINGTON, March 3 (UPI) -- A top Republican has declared opposition to allowing a Dubai government-owned company to assume control of operations at U.S. ports. House Armed Services Committee Duncan Hunter said the United Arab Emirates has a "terrifying" record of allowing the transshipment of nuclear materials and weapons of mass destruction through its country to Pakistan, Iran and other countries. The controversial deal will give Dubai Port World, Inc. control over P&O North America, a shipping and port terminal operator with a presence in 21 American ports on the East and Gulf Coast. P&O runs public port terminals --...

When the Council on American-Islamic Relations parrots White House talking points, you know there's something very wrong inside the Beltway. CAIR spokesman Arsalan Iftikhar agrees there's no reason to get in a lather over the United Arab Emirates taking over just about every major shipping terminal along our Eastern Seaboard. The UAE is harmless, and if you're alarmed about the deal, well, you're an Islamophobe caught up in the post-9/11 "industry of fear." "What's important to understand here is that all this is doing is demonizing the entire world Muslim population," Iftikhar complained on MSNBC. And besides, he says the...

On Sunday, the Australian government issued the following alert to its citizens: "We advise you to exercise a high degree of caution in the United Arab Emirates because of the high threat of terrorist attack. We continue to receive reports that terrorists are planning attacks against Western interests in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Commercial and public areas frequented by foreigners are possible terrorist targets." The United States has approved a business deal that would turn over the operation of six major American ports to a company that is owned by the UAE, the very country Australians are to be...

Under Heading of Government Country name: conventional long form: United Arab Emirates conventional short form: none local long form: Al Imarat al Arabiyah al Muttahidah local short form: none former: Trucial Oman, Trucial States abbreviation: UAE Government type: federation with specified powers delegated to the UAE federal government and other powers reserved to member emirates Capital: Abu Dhabi Administrative divisions: SEVEN EMIRATES (imarat, singular - imarah); 1) Abu Zaby (Abu Dhabi), 2) 'Ajman, Al Fujayrah, 3) Ash Shariqah (Sharjah), 4) Dubayy (Dubai), 5) Ra's al Khaymah, 6) Umm al Qaywayn Independence: 2 December 1971 (from UK) National holiday: Independence Day,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House welcomed on Friday the temporary delay in a deal allowing a state-owned Arab company to run U.S. port terminals, but senators called for a law to put the deal on hold pending a security review. President George W. Bush backs the deal, but is under fierce pressure to cancel it from lawmakers and other critics who fear the Dubai-based port operator could be a Trojan horse for militants wanting to attack the United States. The United Arab Emirates company Dubai Ports World said it would proceed with the $6.85 billion takeover of the global...

Coast to Cast AM Discussing Ports Deal LiveTonight's Schedule: (all times PT): 10-10:30p: Capt. Kelly Sweeney discusses how the port deal exacerbates already vulnerable security. 10:30-11p: Charles R. Smith comments on the US' military relationship with UAE. 11-11:30p: Steve Quayle shares behind the scenes info on the port giveaway. 11:30p-12a: Howard Bloom offers analysis of what the port deal means for the US' future. 12-12:30a: Jerome Corsi discusses UAE relationships with Iran and clerics. 12:30-1a: Douglas Hagmann highlights the terrorism implications of foreign port operations. 1-2a: Alex Jones addresses how the port deal is chipping away at U.S. sovereignty.