Members of Congress are right to be holding firm on the need for a credible investigation into the plan to turn over significant operations of six major U.S. ports to an Arab nation with a mixed record on terrorism. Revelations Monday that the U.S. Coast Guard had security concerns about the company raise questions anew about why the full 45-day review process was not followed by the interagency panel that approved the deal.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, emerged from a briefing Monday about the Coast Guard questions saying she was “more convinced than ever that the process was truly flawed.”
And it’s amazing that Cabinet officials with relevant oversight authority, including the secretaries of Defense, Treasury and Homeland Security, knew nothing about the sale until it hit the newspapers — nor did President Bush, who nonetheless stuck to his talking point that there is no big difference between a British firm and an Arab firm running our ports.
Wow. Really? Good luck selling that. Most Americans don’t see it that way. In fact, 70 percent of Americans, including 58 percent of Republicans, oppose the sale, according to the latest CBS News survey.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Here is Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen’s take on President Bush’s defense of the port sale:
“There are times when George Bush sorely disappoints. Just when you might expect him to issue a malapropian explanation, pander to his base or simply not have a clue about what he is talking about, he does something so right, so honest and, yes, so commendable, that — as Arthur Miller put it in ‘Death of a Salesman’ — ‘attention must be paid.’ Pay attention to how he has refused to indulge anti-Arab sentiment over the Dubai ports deal.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Osama bin Laden is alive and well and living large in Pakistan, according to a Washington Post commentary by Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid, who charges that the Bush administration and its Pakistan “ally,” Gen. Pervez Musharraf, aren’t doing nearly enough to catch him. Far from cowering in a cave, bin Laden probably is living quite comfortably in the friendly Pashtun region of Pakistan, according to various sources.
After five years, why can’t the world’s last superpower and its allies find the 6-foot-5-inch al-Qaida leader and his lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, whose latest taunting videos only underscore the failure to bring them to justice?
Apologists trot out the case of abortion clinic bomber Eric Rudolph and how long it took to catch him — but Rudolph wasn’t the subject of a manhunt this massive, involving every resource of government.
Does it matter whether we catch bin Laden? Yes. As Rashid observes, “Every single day that bin Laden stays alive is a day that inspires the extremists who protect him and join his ranks.”
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The Washington Post has had two recent commentaries with contrasting portraits of Hamas. The first was a Q&A with Hamas’ new prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh (in photo). Here is a sample:
Q: Does a peace in stages means the ultimate obliteration of the Jewish people?
A: We do not have any feelings of animosity toward Jews. We do not wish to throw them into the sea. All we seek is to be given our land back, not to harm anybody.
Q: Do you recognize Israel’s right to exist?
A: The answer is to let Israel say it will recognize a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, release the prisoners and recognize the rights of the refugees to return to Israel. Hamas will have a position if this occurs.
The other commentary was by Henry Kissinger. Here’s his take:
“Hamas represents the mind-set that prevented the full recognition of Israel’s legitimacy by the PLO for all these decades, kept Yasser Arafat from accepting partition of Palestine at Camp David in 2000, produced two intifadas and consistently supported terrorism. Far too much of the debate within the Palestinian camp has been over whether Israel should be destroyed immediately by permanent confrontation or in stages in which occasional negotiations serve as periodic armistices.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Kansas’ Kathleen Sebelius, in Washington, D.C., for the National Governors Association meeting, is among those governors worried about what the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are doing to the National Guard. The hardships created by the deployment of tens of thousands of Guard members has been the most obvious result, but The New York Times also noted that the Army National Guard has left more than 64,000 pieces of equipment in Iraq alone since 2003. In addition to the personnel, Sebelius said, “We are also missing a lot of the equipment that’s used to deal with situations at home, day in and day out.” That’s not a small thing for the states that must rely on their National Guard in natural disasters. Just ask Louisiana.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Americans might have to dig deeper to help the Gulf Coast recover from Hurricane Katrina. Two-thirds of the record-breaking $3 billion in private charity funds raised after Hurricane Katrina have already been spent on immediate relief efforts such as food and water, temporary housing and living stipends, according to a Washington Post survey.
Meanwhile, the federal response continues to fall short. It’s far from certain whether the government will find the hundreds of billions of dollars needed for long-term infrastructure reconstruction.
Millions of dollars were wasted by FEMA on trailers that will never be used. Thousands of people are still living near the wreckage of their homes, waiting for cleanup help. And New Orleans has started allowing residents to rebuild homes at existing levels, in part because FEMA still hasn’t issued guidelines for rebuilding above flood stage.
The immediate federal Katrina response was a mess. But the reconstruction and follow-up aren’t looking any better.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
NORTH KOREA WINS CONTRACT TO PROVIDE LUGGAGE INSPECTION AT U.S. AIRPORTS; Bush Dismisses Concerns as the ‘Soft Bigotry of High Expectations’
DOUG MAYS DROPS F-BOMB ON VISITING SCHOOLKIDS; Children Had Asked House Speaker Why There Wasn’t More Money for Schools
SEBELIUS’ PICNIC WITH MUPPETS TURNS UGLY; Miss Piggy Refuses to Eat Kansas-Made Fried Pork Skins
MAYANS CALLS FOR COMPETITIVE BALLROOM DANCING AT WSU; Mayor Complains That Athletic Director Jim Schaus Won’t Return Phone Calls
Posted by Randy Scholfield
