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There is something remarkable about this port deal flap everyone is talking about. Think about it: President Bush, the 9/11 president who says he thinks every day about how to protect the country... who said he wanted Osama bin Laden "dead or alive"... whose top political adviser Karl Rove said in January, "Republicans have a post-9/11 view of the world and Democrats have a pre-9/11 view of the world"... his administration is now making a much more nuanced argument about why the U.S. cannot block a deal with the UAE just because it's an Arab government with terror links. Two 9/11 hijackers were UAE citizens and money for the plot went through UAE banks.
A top Bush adviser, who preferred to remain anonymous since he was offering more than the White House line, sent me an e-mail yesterday saying: "The President feels strongly that if we're to win this war (on terror) we've got to be adding partners in the ME (Middle East), not subtracting them. We can't pull the rug out from under them." This is an economic hearts-and-minds argument. We can't coax autocratic, anti-western Arab governments to be more modern and to clamp down on jihadists in their countries if we tell them, "We want you to modernize, but you can't do any business in the U.S. because we don't trust Arabs."
Democrats are still playing catch up on the security politics of this White House, so they are happy to run to the right of the president on this. That's what Republicans are so worried about.
At the White House, officials said today it was unfair to hold Dubai Ports World, a state-owned company in the UAE, to a different standard than a British company that had the contract until Dubai Ports acquired them. The real point he was making is that there are good Arab governments and bad ones. The UAE is a solid military partner for us in the Persian Gulf and we don't want to sever that relationship.
There may be a dollars-and-cents argument just as important as the hearts-and-minds appeal. As Steve Liesman from CNBC told me today during an interview, the U.S. is running a $7 billion trade SURPLUS with the UAE, not including a recent $10 billion deal between the Emirates and Boeing to buy airplanes. We don't have many trade surpluses around the world and we don't want to start a trade war with some pretty big markets.
It's not clear how any of this will turn out, but I can't be alone in scratching my head about how the administration let this one catch them off guard.
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David is on the money when he speaks about the dollars and sense reasoning. Interesting to note the outcry when China, which probably owns more U.S. dollars then we do,attempted to use their dollars by investing in another enterprise OIL.
Eddie Kay, Ft. Lauderdale Fl. (Sent Feb 22, 2006 9:47:23 PM)
Just because we don't want U.A.E. to operate our ports doesn't mean we don't or won't do business with them. Why is Bush so adamant about vetoing any bill that infringes on the apparently inalienable right of a suspect, so-so Muslim ally to operate our ports? He certainly didn't care about the pork in all those spending bills, the bridges to nowhere etc?
Rod Kaufmann, Evergreen, CO (Sent Feb 22, 2006 9:34:10 PM)
The Dubai Ports World deal may be extra dangerous to the Bush Administration because it demonstrates that for them the Global War On Terror stops at the check books of Bush's base and the check books of their domestic and international friends. The American people are expected to tolerate warrantless wiretapping and national identity cards, but God forbid that national security take precedence over so-called free trade, globalization and corporate privilege. I wonder if an American company has the contract to manage the ports of Dubai?
Edward J. Szeczyk, Granite City, Illinois (Sent Feb 22, 2006 9:23:35 PM)
I was shocked to hear that the President did not know about the port deal until he heard it from the media. Is this President involved or is he out of touch completely?
Dave, Chantilly, VA (Sent Feb 22, 2006 8:51:05 PM)
Here's another, little-noticed aspect of this outsourcing of US port control to the United Arah Emirates:
P&O (the British firm being sold to the UAE-owned company) has just renewed a contract with the United States Surface Deployment and Distribution Command to provide stevedoring [loading and unloading] of military equipment at the Texan ports of Beaumont and Corpus Christi through 2010.
According to the journal Army Logistician "Almost 40 percent of the Army cargo deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom flows through these two ports."
Thus, the sale would give a country that has been a key transfer point for illegal shipments of nuclear components to Iran, North Korea and Lybia' direct control over substantial quantities U.S. military equipment.
In essence, UAE would have operational control over 40% of US Army shipments to Iraq.
George Bush talks a lot about national security, but his track record is dismal. Fact is that the 9/11 Commission gave the Bush Administration a failing report card on national security, and nothing has changed for the positive since their final report was issued in December 2005.
Deborah White (Sent Feb 22, 2006 8:29:20 PM)
Dot One
"Among the reported visitors [at the bin Laden camp] were high-ranking UAE and Saudi government ministers. According to U.S. and former Afghan civil air officials, the hunters included Prince Turki al Faisal, son of the late Saudi King Faisal. He headed that nation's intelligence service until late August, maintaining close ties with Bin Laden and the Taliban. Another visitor, officials said, was Sheik Mohammed ibn Rashid al Maktum, the Dubai crown prince and Emirates defense minister." LA Times 11/18/2001 (I believe this is in the late 90s, and may be referring to the same thing that Tenet mentioned in his 9/11 hearings testimony.)
Dot Two
"We're pleased by this development and remain encouraged by the P.& O. board's unanimous recommendation to its shareholders of our offer," said the DP World chairman, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, who works directly for the crown prince of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum.
New York Times 2/11/2006
Lori, Buffalo, NY (Sent Feb 22, 2006 6:49:49 PM)
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