So now critics of the ports deal are the bad guys ?

From The Dallas Morning News

Mark Davis:
So now critics of the ports deal are the bad guys ?
No way, and no amount of spin will make me change my mind
05:18 AM CST on Wednesday, March 1, 2006

Welcome to 45 days of positioning on both sides of the Dubai Ports World controversy. Since the issue heated up last week, those of us who have chosen to stand up for port security have been rewarded with a wide variety of insults.
We are racists, as if only hatred of Arabs could spur opposition to Islamic control at U.S. ports;
We are isolationists, as if such opposition means we have no tolerance for foreign investment in America:
We are panicky nervous Nellies, as if strong negative reaction can only be born of paranoia and prejudice;
And, my favorite, we are idiots, as if we have not grasped all the comforting spin proponents have been offering up. But a lot of their arguments have been peppered with irrelevancies.
They seem driven to tell us the United Arab Emirates will not run security. Anyone paying attention knows that. The problem is not that the UAE will take over security, but that its involvement makes security harder.
We are constantly reminded that the ruling emirs of the UAE have been an ally in the war, as if that means we have nothing to fear from their general population. I am filled with gratitude for the intelligence they have shared, which I'm sure has helped nab more than a few terrorists. As Muslim nations go, they have been virtual Boy Scouts. But we simply must find a way to express our thanks that falls somewhere short of giving them the keys to our ports.
Maybe that will snuff out the most insipid of the arguments offered up for this deal – the notion that it is a proper reward for being such good friends.
Have we noticed what our buddies among the citizenry from Dubai to Abu Dhabi have been saying about America as opinion polls revealed our hesitancy? Reporters sought reaction from the coffee shops and street corners of the UAE, and the general sense is that they feel betrayed by American racism and Islamophobia.
With friends like that, who needs the French?
We are warned that if we thwart the Dubai Ports World acquisition, all that swell cooperation will grind to a halt. If that's true, these pals of ours are about as two-faced as our other chums, the Saudis, who talk a good game about fighting terror while their schools and media promote it.
We should have made clear to the UAE that while its dicey terror history makes the ports deal impossible, we value its continued journey toward moderation and look forward to additional cooperation. That's called diplomacy.
So what happens now instead? The White House has to figure out how much political capital it wants to squander. President Bush's previously unblemished record of post-9/11 cautiousness and tenacity now bears a stain, allowing countless hypocritical (but nonetheless correct) Democrats to position themselves as more alert to national security than he is. Great timing there, in an election year.
But that timing is also an arrow in his quiver. The president can certainly call countless Republican members of Congress who are critical of the deal and express how much he would love to make a campaign visit this fall in return for a change of heart this spring.
How many will buckle? How many Bush supporters will wither under the strain of disagreeing with their man?
I'll tell you, it's not fun. Throw in Rush Limbaugh's willingness to swallow the port deal, and even Jimmy Carter's approval of it loses its fatal sting. In our short attention span nation, a month and a half is plenty of time to lose sight of the security threat this acquisition would present.
I confess to curiosity as to how those who so ardently want this deal will spend this time. What new material can they come up with? How much lipstick can be put on this pig?
Meanwhile, I can only hope the critics will stay focused and try to keep America on the post-9/11 footing Mr. Bush so wisely instilled in us what seems like so long ago.
The Mark Davis Show is heard weekdays on News/Talk 820 WBAP and nationwide on the ABC Radio Network. WBAP airtime is 9 a.m. to noon. His column regularly appears Wednesdays on Viewpoints, and his e-mail address is mdavis@wbap.com.
source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/columnists/all/stories/DN-markdavis_01edi.ART.State.Edition1.135e56fe.html
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Senators question Dubai firm's stance on Israel boycott
Carl Hulse, New York Times
Wednesday, March 1, 2006
Washington -- Lawmakers raised new objections on Tuesday to the proposed takeover of some terminal operations at six U.S. ports by a Dubai company, demonstrating that the administration-backed plan still faces significant obstacles despite an agreement for a more extensive review of any security risks posed by the change in control.

Senate Democrats seized on a report that the parent company of state-owned Dubai Ports World honors an Arab boycott of Israel, saying the United States should not be rewarding companies tied to discrimination against a major ally.

"This boycott not only violates at least the spirit of U.S. law," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., "it is inconsistent with everything we believe in as Americans."
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On Capitol Hill, administration officials said they are confident that they have weighed the possibility of a security breach and found no cause for alarm.

"We assessed the threat to U.S. national security posed by DP World to be low," John Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "In other words, we didn't see any red flags come up during the course of our inquiry."

source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/03/01/MNG9PHGED91.DTL

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Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Cong. King says Bush admin. did NOT investigate UAE company's ties to Al Qaeda
by Joe in DC - 3/01/2006 04:21:00 PM


In an interview at the start of the "Situation Room" with CNN's Ed Henry, Congressman Peter King, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, said that the Bush administration did not investigate whether the UAE company had ties to terror. King said there was "no investigation into terror whatsovever." According to Henry, King maintained that he had asked officials at Treasury and Homeland Security whether they had checked out whether the company had ties to Al Qaeda. The response was to King was "You don't understand. We don't conduct a thorough investigation."

I had to watch this piece a couple times...and made John watch it, too. This is insane. The President is determined to enact this port security deal but we don't even know if there are Al Qaeda ties.

The Bush administration is on the verge of turning over port security to a foreign country which is bad enough. It is downright criminal that the Bush team did not check out if that company had Al Qaeda ties...especially given UAE's history with Al Qaeda.

source: http://americablog.blogspot.com/