If it seems like only yesterday that Senate and House Republicans were talking tough on the Dubai Ports deal, that's because it was!
Today, GOP leaders are singing a completely different tune. Here's Bill Frist:
Frist said Republicans trust the Bush administration and think its determination that the port deal doesn't threaten American security is "in all likelihood absolutely the right one."
Have we learned anything new to give us more confidence in Dubai? Not exactly! This is from the evil Rupert Murdoch's GOP rag:
Al Qaeda warned the government of the United Arab Emirates more than three years ago that it "infiltrated" key government agencies, according to a disturbing document released by the U.S. military.
The warning was contained in a June 2002 message to UAE rulers, in which the terror network demanded the release of an unknown number of "mujahedeen detainees," who it said had been arrested during a government crackdown in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
The explosive document is certain to become ammunition for critics of the controversial UAE port deal, who fear the Dubai-based firm could be used by terrorists to sneak money and personnel into the United States.
Were there really no objections to the deal within the bureaucracy? Not exactly.
Homeland Security Protested Ports Deal
The Homeland Security Department objected at first to a United Arab Emirates company's taking over significant operations at six U.S. ports.
Do all "security experts" support the deal, as NPR's Adam Davidson claimed in his atrocious report? Not exactly.
Thomas Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey who led the bipartisan probe of the Sept. 11 attacks, said the deal was a big mistake because of past connections between the 2001 hijackers and the UAE.
"It shouldn't have happened, it never should have happened," Kean said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
The quicker the Bush administration can get out of the deal, the better, he said. "There's no question that two of the 9/11 hijackers came from there and money was laundered through there," Kean said.
Has Bush abandoned his Doctrine of Permanent War Against Evildoers and their Friends (like the rulers of the UAE) been abandoned? Not exactly:
I've set a clear doctrine: America makes no distinction between the terrorists and the countries that harbor them. If you harbor a terrorist, you're just as guilty as the terrorists, and you're an enemy of the United States of America.
So why the triple back flip by the GOP? Because there's $$$$$ involved!!!
Poppy Bush's Carlyle Group has skin in the game, as Bill Press make clear:
Who sold all their shipping operations in Hong Kong and South America to Dubai Ports? The Carlyle Group! Who’s already one of Dubai Ports’ biggest customers? Horizon Lines, the former CSX Lines, now owned by — you guessed it — the Carlyle Group!
And who stands to make a ton of money from all the business that Carlyle’s fleet of Horizon Line ships is going to do with Dubai Ports? Old Pappy Bush himself, who is a major shareholder in, and big-time consultant to — the Carlyle Group!
Follow the money! Maybe the reason President Bush is willing to fight so hard for an Arab country against the United States is because he wants his daddy to make a lot of money out of the Dubai Ports deal now — so he can inherit it later.
How much money could the Carlyle Group make in UAE? Billions, as Joe Conason observes:
Last year, to cite only the most recent example, Carlyle's newest buyout fund won an infusion of at least $100 million from the Dubai Investment Corp. -- another state-owned outfit created by the ruling families to reinvest the enormous inflows of capital from rising oil prices and oil consumption. If that individual deal with Carlyle represented only a small fraction of the Emirates' investments, the upside potential of the relationship could be far greater in the future. The directors of Dubai Investment expect to invest as much as $5 billion every year for a long time to come.
BushBrother Neil Bush is extremely tight with the UAE, as Joe Conason observes:
The ports controversy could cause similar problems for Neil Mallon Bush, the president's most troublesome brother, who has become a familiar face in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Neil Bush seems to be in constant pursuit of investors and government contracts in the Emirates, and is treated there with a respect and deference that have always eluded him in his own country. For reasons that must be painfully obvious, UAE royals have been quite eager to engage the former Silverado Savings and Loan director ever since his eldest brother entered the Oval Office. That embrace only intensified after 9/11.
In October 2001, only a month after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, Neil Bush showed up in Dubai to attend a technology trade fair -- and to meet with Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. While peddling the products of Ignite!, his educational software company, Bush was feted as the guest of honor at a gala dinner for a charitable foundation, also hosted by the crown prince. (Former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore, who had been scheduled to travel to the Emirates around the same time, both canceled their attendance at those events.)
Some of Neil Bush's UAE friends would be pretty appalling to Bush's Jewish and fundamentalist supporters, if they only knew:
Sheik Zayed also funds the Abu Dhabi-based Zayed Center for Coordination and Follow-Up, a prominent think tank of the Arab League, founded in 1999. The Zayed Center, described on its Web site "as the fulfillment of the vision of Sheikh Zayed," promotes Holocaust denial, anti-American conspiracy theories and hate speech in its lectures, symposiums and publications. In August 2002, the Los Angeles Times quoted Mohammed Murar, the executive director of the Zayed Center, saying about Jews that "the truth is they are the enemies of all nations." His comment came on the heels of a Zayed Center report stating that "the Zionists are the people who killed the Jews in Europe."
And then there's the GOP dirty money machine, as Joseph Cannon points out:
Jeff Wells at rigorousintuition.com takes us way past politics by linking to this Village Voice piece from Wednesday. The Voice asserts that the port deal with the UAE is all about their "management" of the very cargo that Dubai is so famous for trafficking, namely drugs, guns, and money. Invisible money. At the center of this intrigue is a ruthless Russian arms dealer named Victor Bout, accused by the UN of selling arms to all manner of tyrants, including the Taliban. One wonders if he might have run into Tom and Jack on their Russian excursion.
Impeach Bush and Cheney - and Defeat All Republicans!
