Port Nonsense

[Undertoad]

More of the evidence of the unexpected side-taking: Hillary is against the sale, but Bill is an advisor to the Dubai firm looking to buy the ports.

[Happy Monkey]

"An advisor"? His advice was to submit to a 45-day investigation. Which is probably what they'd have to do in any case.

[wolf]

Whores will do anything for money. Prostitutes will do almost anything.

[Happy Monkey]

Non sequitur.

[Undertoad]

Novak makes a compelling case that Bill was also pushing for Joe Lockhart, his old press secretary to be spokesman for the company. He wouldn't do that if he were truly against it.

Meanwhile CNN is saying that the CEO of Israel's largest international shipping firm has written in favor of the deal, giving the Dubai company a strong vote of confidence. That's enough for me. If they can comply with Israeli security requirements, they may actually be able to teach the US a thing or two.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Well that takes care of that.
It was nice to see congress grow some balls and stand up to Bush, regardless of the issue.

[Griff]

It is telling that they stood up to him on a pretty much bogus issue though. The Patriot Act has been renewed, Reichstag fire and cancelled elections to follow.

[jaguar]

Any of you been to the UAE? Know anything about it? The UAE is about as western-minded as possible, they saw where things were going to go and invested all that oil revenue in a new Singapore, an open, tolerant, business-friendly city with seriously world-class facilities and world-class standards across the board. I mean if glatt thinks their health&safety he should start looking at accidents closer to home.

If someone wants to do some wetwork though a US port they'd have a far easier time just blackmailing p& bribing people as spies traditionally do that buying bloody P&O. What amuses me is that this deal, is in it's full scope, has so little to do with US ports. DPW runs ports all over the place and does so very well. DPW is government owned because the government has been pumping all those oil revenues into building private industry, it's not even some kind of state-run strategic thing. Flown Emirates? Doubt you feared being blown out of the sky while enjoying probably the best economy class around for often the lowest fear. If it was a European company noone would have batted an eyelid. Pathetic xenophobia. Excellent way to ostracise probably the most progressive of ME states.

[Kitsune]

Originally Posted by jaguar

Any of you been to the UAE? Know anything about it?

Yeah, we're screwed no matter what happens.

We could allow UAE manage P&O and allow them to hold all the port records offshore and inaccessible to US courts or we could piss them off, have them dump the deal, and really screw everything up.

It is not clear how much of Dubai’s behind-the-scenes anger would be followed up by action, but Boeing has been made aware of the threat and is already reportedly lobbying to save the ports deal.

The Emirates Group airline will decide later this year whether it will buy Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner or its competitor, Airbus A350. The airline last fall placed an order worth $9.7 billion for 42 Boeing 777 aircraft, making Dubai Boeing’s largest 777 customer.

Oops. There go scores of US manufacturing jobs!

Retaliation from the emirate could come ... by curtailing the docking of hundreds of American ships, including U.S. Navy ships, each year at its port in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the source added.

Well, uh, that docking center for US warships was just slightly important. This reaction is one of the downsides to dealing with a state-owned entity, but the US was going to get screwed on this one way or the other.

Oh, and would you like to take a guess as to which US company the ports are probably going to be turned over to? Give you a hint: It starts with an "H" and is going to seriously benefit the vice president.

[Kitsune]

Originally Posted by jaguar

If it was a European company noone would have batted an eyelid. Pathetic xenophobia. Excellent way to ostracise probably the most progressive of ME states.

I honestly don't think the scrapping of this deal really involved a fear of an Arab nation controlling major US ports. This was the spin the media put on it to whip up the public, but I really think this is all about kickbacks, behind-the-scenes deals, politics, and a lot of US businesses and contracts that we're not fully aware of.

[jaguar]

Probably not behind the scenes but in the media and on this thread is a different story.

[Trilby]

jag. You sound so very different when it's a country you like. You don't like the US and will play devil's advocate no matter what we do. If I say black, you'll scream white. We can't win with you. you say 'pathetic xenophobia' when it's us, but, when it's YOU (or, countries you lurve) you are all set to fight. It's boring.

your blind hatred for the US is every bit as misguided as Toby Keith's blind love for the same.

[busterb]

Wolf Shitzer is on cnn and the big money people are worried. He also talks to a woman from UAI. Don't get this wrong, but when does a woman speak for an arab country?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Most of the people I talked to were surprised that a foreign company has been running the ports up till now. I didn’t know it either.
The UAE company is as qualified as any to do the job and security doesn’t seem to be a problem, but it still irks me that our critical infrastructure, at least some of it, is foreign owned. Globalization be damned.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Kitsune

I honestly don't think the scrapping of this deal really involved a fear of an Arab nation controlling major US ports. This was the spin the media put on it to whip up the public, but I really think this is all about kickbacks, behind-the-scenes deals, politics, and a lot of US businesses and contracts that we're not fully aware of.

There is a ‘line of thought’ that the Congress has slapped George Jr in the face in part due to what was discovered in a House Investigation of 520 pages entitled "Failure to Initiate". Discovered? Did they read his autobiography?

Meanwhile, don't think for one minute that this Port Nonsense is an isolated incident. From The Economist of 4 Mar 2006:

Patriotism said Samuel Johnson is the last refuge of a scoundrel. That may be unfair to the proper sort of patriot, but it would be an entirely valid comment about politicians today who make a fuss about foreign takeovers in their countries, in the name of "national interests". The truth is that they are defending their own interests and (often) those of their cronies [remember the big H which is one of few American companies who can do this job]. Recent weeks have seen American politicians attack the purchase of a port management firm by DP World from the United Arab Emirates ... the French prime minister ... hastily arranging a merger between a state-owned gas firm, Gaz de France, and another big utility, Suez, in order to see off an Italian bid for Suez ... the Spanish government trying to block a German firm's bid for Endesa, a Spanish utility; the Polish government hindering an Italian takeover of a German bank because it involves Polish subsidiaries; South Korean politicians yelling foul at an American-led attempt to buy KT&G, formerly the state-owned tobacco and ginseng monopoly; and the French and Luxembourg government both trying to discourage a takeover by the world's biggest steel firm, Mittal, for the Franco-Belgian-Luxembourgois Arcelor.

It did not start here. Remember when a Chinese company bid for Unocal. The uproar about selling off strategic interests was completely bogus. But Rush Limbaugh logic and fears prevailed. Meanwhile how does Lukoil - a Russian company - own so many American gasoline stations without hype and fear?

Using the logic of fear about Port Nonsense, then Singapore also cannot be trusted to operate American ports OR any port that ships containers to America. BTW, that is where the larger risk is. If we cannot trust someone to simply move containers from ships to trains and trucks, then we also cannot trust those actions in overseas ports where the danger really originates.

Unfortunately above is too logical to promote Port Nonsense fears. Instead, better to torture someone, have him lie to stop that torture, then use that lie to hype more Orange alerts about another Al Qaeda attack.

Its bull shit. Best thing we can do for terrorists is to accuse and fear our closest friends. This includes the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, and ... did you hear of new restrictions George Jr wants to put on Canadians? Yes, even Canadians can no longer be trusted.