I do not agree with outsourcing the ports to a Middle Eastern country - but it has also been in the UK's hands for quite some time - where they have their own issues regarding terrorism and corruption...
The UAE essentially handles all monies going in and out of the region - so, to link them to terrorism funds - well, every country probably could then...
What I don't like is that there are Islam nuts within the UAE, much more than the US or UK - so that is where I see the threat. Obviously this would require serious oversight by the US - but we all know how well our 'oversight' and 'communication' is on topics like this...
And now that they have suspended this - what message is this sending someone like the UAE for a reason why...? Yikes - surely this will make things a whole lot more interesting if we decided not to do business with anyone affiliated to the Middle East...
Maybe the next step is to outsource all of our airport screeners to a French company?
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I don't see any reason to stop doing business with the Middle East. Hell, we're addicted to their oil! Doing business with them doesn't have to have anything to do with turning contol of our ports over to them.
I don't see any reason to stop doing business with the Middle East. Hell, we're addicted to their oil! Doing business with them doesn't have to have anything to do with turning contol of our ports over to them.
I think that maybe the biggest point here. You didn't have control to turn over in the first place.
The mistake was made when the ports were originally sold to P&O, a privately owned British shipping operation. I've tried to find some history, but nobody seems to mention at what point the British took over control of the ports.
That said, two wrongs don't make a right, and the state and federal governments should definitely take a more active interest in securing all US ports. Something like 99% of all shipping containers entering the country do so without inspection. That's a scary statistic no matter how you slice it.
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Why is Bush so adament about this deal when nearly everyone on both sides of the political fence are dead-set against it? What is the "sweetener" in this deal that we are not seeing?
I've never seen anything the president has tried to do that has drawn this much nearly universal fire from both sides.
In 2003, led by Bush using post 9/11 fervor, we attacked Iraq, a country with no significant ties to the heartless, murderous thugs who brought down the towers and killed 3000 innocent people.
Now Bush wants to flip the keys of our ports to the UAE who has the following record on terrorism:
-The UAE was one of three countries in the world to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.
-The UAE has been a key transfer point for illegal shipments of nuclear components to Iran, North Korea and Lybia.
-According to the FBI, money was transferred to the 9/11 hijackers through the UAE banking system.
-After 9/11, the Treasury Department reported that the UAE was not cooperating in efforts to track down Osama Bin Laden's bank accounts.
I guess Reps Bill Frist, Peter King, Charles Schumer, as well as Governors Patacki and Ehrlich are all lunatics because all are lining up to whack this deal as quickly as possible.
By the way, you, Rockstar, put yourself in the fine company of Jimmy Carter who is about the only individual outside of Bush's administration who is actually in favor of this deal.
By the way, you, Rockstar, put yourself in the fine company of Jimmy Carter who is about the only individual outside of Bush's administration who is actually in favor of this deal.
I'm not in favor of it at all. I believe my first post was that the whole situation is a fucking joke. My point is, this has nothing to do with George Bush directly, and everything to do with the US government for an undetermined amount of years now.
This has everything to do with Bush. Virtually everyone on every side wants him to nix this deal and he's got the power to do it.
You standing up for Bush are making an ass of yourself rather than making me look bad.
I haven't stood up for him at all. I love how you read these pages and still see only what you want to see.
Making you look dumb does not equal standing up for Bush. I can see how you would make that assumption though, since everything in your life is Bush's fault.
After learning a little more about this topic over the past couple days - I am torn on the topic... Politically it is a disaster - Economically it makes perfect sense...
Since we have no US firms to do this - it has to be done by another country. Would I rather have Australia or the UK do it - sure - but they are not options...
From an economic standpoint - this is an $8billion dollar deal - and it isn't like the UAE now ships a bunch of ragheads over here - the ports would still be managed by the US as they always have been, our Unions get the work, and Homeland/coastguard oversees - the same way they have been.
Since the UAE controls almost all world ports - and if they would have wanted a bomb to come through - I am pretty sure they could have done it by now... With that being said, it probably is not in their best intention to blow up billions of dollars of their own equipment...
But, then there is another part of me that wonders why the Adminstration completely fucked up yet another piece... Why or why did it take all of this to finally get Ridge in front of the Nation to say, "relax, we checked it out, it is ok".
Instead they wait weeks - let all the political people 'speculate' - and form their own stories... Hence why this is now a political disaster - they never came out and 'sold' the idea - instead they let everyone under the sun 'speculate'...
You have to also remember that these port controllers simply act as logistics on a global scale. We do not manufacture containers - we do not manage their global logistics... So, no matter who this is contracted to - they are simply performing logistics - and 100% of the containers coming into this country are coming from all the countries people are whining about - that is not going to change no matter whom runs the port logistics...
This administration's ability to manage the PR process sucks, that's for sure.
I do like how people are all indignant about "outsourcing" this, as if it were not already outsourced.
Bush missed a major opportunity to use this for positive spin... getting out in front of the issue, "we aren't profiling all arabs", etc.
I think *I* could run their press and political planning department better than they can. Over and over again they totally miss the positioning and misplay their hands.
There are a few things that are very disturbing about this deal.
1. Bush himself just found out about the deal a few days ago, yet adamantly supports it to the point of threatening a veto.
2. What is the fucking rush? Why does this have to be closed right now? (March 2) What is so unreasonable about a 45 day window for congress, the state offices, etc., to thoroughly investigate the deal so that everyone feels comfortable?
3. What is the unseen sweetener to this deal? The must be some angle to this deal which makes it urgent in the mind of the president. This is not to imply that it is necessarily nefarious, but I think it is going to need to come out. It seems as though the White House would have preferred that this deal slide right under the radar. Why?
