Dubai Ports World

I think there is a lot to criticize the Clintons for (nice how chummy Bill and BushDaddy have become, eh?). But I still get ticked off at the typical rightwing strategy of "blame the Clintons" for, well, everything! It's not just that it distracts from Bush's truly scandalous actions -- but it also takes away from  well-placed criticism of Bill and Hillary. Ironically, during the Clinton years, the rightwing spin machine often worked in reverse. Back then a real scandal like the Clintons and the Indonesian money trail was ignored -- because Republicans were up to similar schemes! (Such as Tom DeLay and the Koch Brothers/Triad scandal, or Haley Barbour and his Chinese money connection). So instead of pursuing Clinton over a legitimate scandal, the rightwing had to invent a whole array of  pseudo-scandals, such as  Whitewater,  Travelgate, etc, etc.  But now whenever Bush and/or the Republicans are cornered in a  real scandal --  guess what? -- the Rightwing propaganda machine goes into hyperdrive to twist it into a "bipartisan scandal."  As Joe Conason writes:

Update #2 - Save Our American Ports (SOAP) and SCRUB THE DEAL! Proposed operation of 21 American ports on the eastern seaboard, from Maine to Texas, by the United Arab Emirates' owned-company Dubai Ports World remains contested today, as Mr. Bush renewed his threat to veto any congressional action blocking the sale. Despite that, the Republican-dominated House Appropriations Committee voted 62-2 (only Reps. Jim Kolbe, R-AZ and Jim Moran, D-VA, voted against the measure) today to bar DP World from holding leases or contracts at US ports.

The British Court of Appeals today declined to hear an appeal by Miami-based Eller Company. The British seller, P&O issued a statement saying that the takeover by the United Arab Emirates monarchy's company, DP World, will occur this Wednesday, March 8th. British Justice Nicholas Warren reportedly wrote in his opinion that he didn't find Eller's concerns about US port security creditable. So now, forty million of our fellow Americans (85% of them blue state residents) have increased reason to wonder whether they will be safe from a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) attack each day. Americans affected today live in areas surrounding not only New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Miami, but also near Portland ME, Wilmington DE, Davisville RI, Boston MA, Norfolk VA, Gulfport MS, Baton Rouge LA, St. Charles LA, Beaumont TX, Port Arthur TX, Houston TX, Galveston TX, Freeport TX and Corpus Christi TX. Almost 40% of military equipment supporting Iraqi Operation Freedom flows through the Texas ports of Beaumont and Corpus Christi. Soon, a Middle Eastern monarchy used as “a key transfer point for illegal shipments of nuclear components to Iran, North Korea and Libya” will directly control substantial shipments of U.S. military equipment. There are many valid reasons to question our national security interests in this deal, none of them xenophobic. Dubai, recognized as the Middle East's financial capital, is the old wild west, Middle Eastern-style. It's renowned as a hub for smuggling, money laundering, and underground banking. "Iran," adds one U.S. official, "is building a bomb through Dubai." The Department of Homeland Security objected to the deal in the initial CFIUS review. The Coast Guard cautioned the Bush administration weeks ago that it could not determine DP World might support terrorist operations. "There are many intelligence gaps, concerning the potential for DPW or P&O assets to support terrorist operations, that precludes an overall threat assessment" of the potential merger, the unclassified Coast Guard intelligence assessment said. "The breadth of the intelligence gaps also infer potential unknown threats against a large number of potential vulnerabilities," the assessment said. Even the White House acknowledged the dangerous potential in its The National Strategy for Maritime Security. "The complexity of the process for handling containerized shipments makes it more difficult to embed security practices and reduce vulnerabilities than for other types of cargo. Container ships carry cargo for thousands of companies, and the containers are loaded individually away from the port. Each transfer of a container from one party to the next is a point of vulnerability in the supply chain. The security of each transfer facility and the trustworthiness of each company are therefore critical to the overall security of the shipment. Cargo must be loaded in containers at secure facilities and the integrity of the container maintained to its final destination. Supply chain personnel will employ various methods to prevent the misuse of containers and conveyances for transporting illegal commodities, as well as to detect tampering. They will report the occurrence of each incident to the Department of Homeland Security and, when appropriate, resolve such incidents prior to the arrival of the identified containers in the United States." The State Department ranks the United Arab Emirates as a third tier (lowest) nation in its 2005 Trafficking in Persons report. "The United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) is a destination country for women trafficked primarily from South, Southeast, and East Asia, the former Soviet Union, Iran and other Middle Eastern countries, and East Africa, for the purpose of sexual exploitation. A far smaller number of men, women, and teenage children were trafficked to the U.A.E. to work as forced laborers. Some South Asian and East African boys" (some younger than 4, who ride velcroed in place) "were trafficked into the country and forced to work as camel jockeys...The Government of the U.A.E. does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so." Despite these and more legitimate concerns, "Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, said there was no going back on the deal."Why not?

(Media Matters) Summary: Faced with widespread criticism in recent weeks, the Bush administration and some of its supporters have promoted numerous false and misleading claims intended to downplay the approval of a deal that would turn over control of terminal operations at six U.S. ports to Dubai Ports World (DPW) -- a company owned by the government of Dubai, a member state of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) -- and cast critics of the transaction as racist, politically opportunistic, or both. The media, in turn, have oft

From AfterDowningStreet.org:

NEW YORK, March 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Bloomberg News(R) today reported on the results of the latest Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times national public opinion poll, which shows that 54 percent of American's disapprove of President Bush's handling of terrorism -- marking a significant reversal in public sentiment from a year ago.

According to the Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll, support for Bush waned due to the administration's defense of the Dubai port deal and American frustration with the Iraq war. The Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll revealed that 58 percent of respondents oppose allowing DP World, Dubai's state-owned port operator, to acquire facilities at six U.S. ports. On Iraq, Bush has an approval rating of 34 percent in the Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll, down seven points since last month.