Dubai Ports World Agrees to Delay Ports Takeover
by Pamela LeaveyDubai Ports World has offered to delay “part of its $6.8 billion takeover of most operations at six U.S. ports” to give the Bush administration more time to try convince skeptical lawmakers and the American public that the deal poses no security risks, as the Bush administration claims. Earlier today Karl Rove hinted in an interview with Fox News that Bush might “accept a slight delay in implementing” the takeover. This let’s him off the hook for making his own decision…
The surprise announcement relieves some pressure from a standoff between President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress, which has threatened to block the deal because of the UAE’s purported ties to terrorism.
Under the offer coordinated with the White House, Dubai Ports World said it will agree not to exercise control or influence the management over U.S. ports pending further talks with the Bush administration and Congress. It did not indicate how long it will wait for these discussions to take place. The company said it will move forward with other parts of the deal affecting the rest of the world.
The announcement of the delay did not appease all of the deal’s critics. Senator Chuck Schumer who was among the first to speak out against the deal said, “If the president were to voluntarily institute the review and delay the contract that would obviate the need for our legislation, but a simple cooling-off period will not allay our concerns.”
As Reuter’s writer Alan Elsner put it so well about the concerns over the deal, “For almost five years U.S. President George W. Bush has warned Americans to fear terrorism, but now those words may come back to bite him.” For all his posturing, Bush has little to show for it and now’s he a victim of his own lies and spin…
Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University, said, “Bush is a victim of his own rhetoric. This deal flies in the face of the Bush administration’s general posture, which has been that there is much to fear out there and they have been vigilant in protecting the country.”
Clark Kent Ervin, former inspector general of Homeland Security from 2003 to 2004 shares some insight on the deal here: Strangers at the Door.
Ervin has a book due out in May based on his personal experiences and observations of how Homeland Security is failing to make America safe — Open Target : Where America is Vulnerable to Attack
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It’s ok Bubblehead, you’re off the hook again. The noose is tighter, but the hook is dangling – for now.
Ginny
I just pieced together the money and connections trail in a post above. If anyone has more I can add it.
Friends, I have been genuinely concerned that Mr. Rove will find a way to get out of this “Ports for the Arabs” public opinion quagmire.
I think that it will be smart for Democrats, if only for the sake of political strategy, to take a position of studied puzzlement rather than stoke the fires of opposition at this time. Note that both Carter and Wes Clark refuse to get into knocking the deal as a security threat, but rather comment on the technical merits and the need for a better review process.
John Kerry’s call for “full disclosure” is excellent in that that this will be a long dispassionate process though which Bush will likely get his way even as his hypocrisy is exposed.
Schumer’s and Hillary’s effort to work with republicans to block the deal are either misguided or self-interested demagoguery. It is they who should be blocked. I think they are sacrificing the party’s opportunity for a sweeping victory in the fall campaign just to pander to their constituents who are already firmly in the democratic camp.
The worst possible outcome for Democrats is for the Ports deal to fall through while the Republican congress distances itself from Bush in the name of the Flag and national security.
For the past five years Bush/Cheney has stoked fear terrorism and anti-Arab sentiment in the land. If Arabs own the ports come November, Democrats will have a chance to own Congress.
Eyes on the Prize!
I think wisdom is on the money about Rove.
I think in the end the GOP is so upset about it now may hang the dems out to dry on this one and side with bush in the end.
It doesn’t mean the dems are wrong but you can believe if rove threaten them about wiretaps he is certainly threatning them about this one.
I think the dems are to make sure the Rethugs necks are stretched out as far as theirs.
I think its a bad idea to have any foreign owned government work the major ports in this country. Hil is definately pandering and I hope she gets called on it since Bill tried the same thing with LA.
Kerry’s approach is better than Hill’s for the simple reason The GOP can’t be trusted on any issue.
The question about bush being sleep at the switch on Ports can be used for his lack of common sense in regards to Katrina.
The fact that chertoff was involved or not involved as well as he sould have been for Portgate and Katrina goes to the heart of the lack of competence and honesty.
Bush wasn’t willing to help the gulf but yet he is willing to put foreigners in charge of gulf ports.
Dems need to stay on message: Bush is asleep at the switch when it comes to homeland security,
Bush circumvented the law with not waiting for 45 days just as he did with the wiretaps
The incomptence angle is one that will trip him up and above all the dems need to keep saying the buck stops with bush.