The deal giving a United Arab Emirates-owned company the management of six major U.S. ports has launched a bipartisan mutiny in Congress, but the security fears are probably overblown: Shipping is an international business, say industry experts, with many flags operating in American ports. And under the deal, port security would still be handled by the U.S. Coast Guard and other domestic authorities.
That said, port security is a huge concern, and there’s some dispute about how trusted an ally the United Arab Emirates is in the war on terror. Allowing an Arab nation to operate U.S. ports sounds crazy to many Americans.
Instead of threatening lawmakers with his first veto, President Bush should consult with them about how this port deal was vetted and convince them that it doesn’t open the door to terrorists. Congress also needs to look into why port security — a glaring vulnerability with only 5 percent of containers inspected — remains woefully underfunded.
That’s something to really get scared about.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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58 Comments
Shrub has allowed millions of filthy third worlders, tons of drugs and weapons to come across our southern border so why should he suddenly be concerned with homeland security?
White, Christian and Proud!!
Dear Randy,
Congress has to look no farther than the Ways and Means commmittee to determine why container inspection is underfunded! Congress controls the budget!
As far as a veto goes, Congress will never send a bill to the president that stops this deal. They’d much rather fume and sputter for the press a few weeks and then have it for an election issue later.
The deal is done.
Hank
I look forward to the day when shrub is put on trial for his crimes against the American People!
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
More than 10,000 students from Osama bin Laden’s homeland are attending U.S. colleges and universities this year, thanks to an agreement between President Bush and King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz.
While U.S. universities welcome the Saudis – especially because Riyadh is paying 100 percent of their tuition and enrollment costs – some critics see potential security problems associated with the tremendous influx of Muslim students from a closed society that virtually invented Wahhabism, the radical brand of Islamism that spawned al-Qaida.
Because of the agreement, as many as 25,000 Saudi students are expected to arrive over the next five years, with all their bills paid by the Saudi government.
Following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the U.S. clamped down on foreign student visas.
Currently there are 15,000 Saudi applicants for U.S. university undergraduate degrees.
The scholarship program is unrolling quietly, without announcement from the Saudi Embassy or the White House. The White House Press Office has declined to comment on the program and Saudi embassy officials did not return calls inquiring about the program.
But it’s a cause of major celebration in Saudi Arabia.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48899
Viva La Raza Blanco!!
Is making a decision based on someone’s country of origin or religion anything like profiling? Don’t most of the critics of this proposal tell us to avoid profiling?
“As far as a veto goes, Congress will never send a bill to the president that stops this deal. They’d much rather fume and sputter for the press a few weeks and then have it for an election issue later.”
Hank,I think you are wrong. I believe many Republicans in congress calculate that they have to oppose Bush on this deal because the “on-the-street” perception is that inviting Arab countries into our ports is crazy. I concede it may not be as crazy as it sounds. But this deal is not a political winner for Bush.
As support for my conclusion on this, notice Scott McClellan’s conciliatory tone today. Bush et al. now seem to know that they stuck their foot in it. Of course, they can always fall back on their other defense – “the deal was already done before I (GW) knew about the issues.” This latter defense, does not sound good if you are trying to portray yourself as a leader and one concerned about terrorism.
And Hank,Have you noticed that Bush and company cannot for the life of them control the message any more. Instead they are reacting all the time to troubling stories — it started with Katrina and has not stopped since.
That bunch needs your political consultation sooner, rather than later. Why aren’t you helping that pathetic lot?
Hank adopts the usual ‘nothing to see here’ Karl Rove tactic of declaring victory and then continuing on with a studied nonchalance.
Moreover, who is the ‘they’ who would like to keep this issue for an election? Democrats? Well, ‘they’ aren’t controlling the flow of legislation out of the Congress: that’s Repukes. And the last thing THEY want is to have this issue, and this President, dogging them in November.
You may want to think through the details a little more fully, Hank.
I heard Tim Russert say on Imus this morning that in D.C., this show down is viewed as a political winner for all involved, no matter what the outcome.
If the preznit wins, he can pressure congress members by withholding help for November. If he loses, well, hey, he tried to be tough and reason with that bad ol’ congress. They didnt listen.
And the r’s in congress, win or lose, get to show the folks back home that they didnt drink the koolaide, and they can in fact stand up to the preznit. And the d’s can say the same thing, dance if they win, and point to the r’s if they lose this show down.
I hadnt thought of those angles. And KCL, yes, profiling is abhorent, but then UAE has a history of terrorist “tolerance” at a minimum, kinda like someone with a criminal record. I dont think it is profiling if it is based on real history.
Besides, if anyone but shrub took the administration’s position on this, they would be accused of sucking up to terrorists. :)
Profiling is a wise part of allocating scarce resources.
Viva la Raza Blanco!!
I just read an incredible essay by John Craig Roberts about his “Epiphany” concerning his cross-over from Reaganomics maestro to social apostle of truth and justice. I would suggest this to anybody who is willing to face the truth that this administration is interested in one thing only: power.
D.D.
Hell I may be wrong, but I don’t think so. Dubai has been a very important ally the last few years. We need allies in that part of the world.
As far as the democrats go, they’ll last as long as the polls are in their favor. Their principles are poll driven. The news cycle on something as big as this is only about two weeks.
As far as the republicans are concerned, they’ll fall in line eventually.
the problem is that there are about a dozen Senators tht think they can be president. That pretty much keeps them from doing anything sensible. We aught to ammend the constitution to prevent anyone that has ever been a senator from runnig for president. We’d get more done in congress.
The debate will be interesting!
Newt and Condi in ‘08!
Hank
Duh . . . MOTHER is having a bad hair day. The link : http://www.vdare.com/roberts/060207_epiphany.htm
Dear ksfarmgrrl,
Imus? Tim Russert?
Is Imus still alive?
Love ya,
Hank
Mother,
Don’t you know that VDARE is an evil, racist site? What are you doing over there? lol
V.L.R.B!!
Great article Mother. Good to see you again.
Oh, and it is Paul Craig Roberts, not to mess up your hair or anything….:)
Lol Hank, Imus, Cher and cockroaches will be the last living things on earth!!
I hear that!
Interesting point, KCL. The flip side is this: within a week of the Danish Allah cartoons, millions of Islamists were burning flags (embassies too) at the behest of unknown Islamic leaders.
That’s an indelible profile, doncha think? ;)
This administration, sheesh.
First they choose a date more related to Nov-02 elections than to any threat posed by Hussein to wage an unnecessary war in Iraq, and as a result attack with a resource-poor coalition. The administration’s adminstrative arm, the CPA, quickly finds itself cocooned within the Green Zone due to the undermanned coalition’s poor security resources. An insurgency is allowed to adapt to US military tactics, and in fact adapts so well it actually grows in size and potency. The net result is that a low-level civil war there still prevents any direct foreign investment in a country governed by a democratically elected Islamic theocracy.
Why in the world would President Bush now allow a company owned by the UAE to control port operations in the US, especially after 3 years of war in the Middle East has handed anti-Western Islamists such an excellent education in violent anarchism, provided by the low-level civil war there?
You can’t blame Americans for thinking that some vulnerable DPW employee, perhaps a veteran of Iraq and whipped into a frenzy by a new cartoon (who knows), may well decide that Newark would make an easy target for revenge.
Is this scenario any less unlikely than 20 guys with box cutters bringing down the Twin Towers and one wall of the Pentagon?
And within an American political context, why would President Bush spend 4+ years whipping up fear over the dangers of Islamist terrorism and only now ask Americans to look the other way?
Ksfarmgrrl,John, Paul, they all look alike after so many years;-0
Ian,I also watch free-speech TV. My knowledge comes from many varied sources, not all of them mainstream.
Lol mother, especially for us old band biotchs. Of course, I am just a plain biotch, not of the band variety! :)
LOL, you don’t know what you missed, darling:-)
23rd Qualm
Bush is my shepherd; I dwell in want.
He maketh logs to be cut down in national forests.
He leadeth trucks into the still wilderness.
He restoreth my fears.
He leadeth me in the paths of international disgrace for his ego’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of pollution and war, I will find no exit, for thou art in office.
Thy tax cuts for the rich and thy media control, they discomfort me.
Thou preparest an agenda of deception in the presence of thy religion.
Thou anointest my head with foreign oil.
My health insurance runneth out.
Surely megalomania and false patriotism shall follow me all the days of thy term,
And my jobless child shall dwell in my basement forever.
The only pressure Bush can exert at this point, is to threaten to campaign in the congressmen’s home district, if they don’t get behind the dubai/Snow deal.
Even Cal Thomas is against selling ports to the Arabs.
This is such a stupid idea it has UNITED both conservatives and liberals AGAINST IT.
But Bush Co. has that effect, don’t they.
The deal is done, move on nothing to see here.
Best pay attention to something more critical at the moment:
http://theflyoverzone.blogspot.com/2006/02/shiites-waste-no-time-in-reprisal.html
http://theflyoverzone.blogspot.com/2006/02/iraqi-mosque-attack-bid-for-civil-war.html
Bush will unite the world, in it’s distaste for his policies.
I saw on the Nat. news that he is already backpeddeling, and falling back on the ol “Who Knew” routine. The “What Me Worry” one didn’t fly.
Meanwhile, on the west coast…http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060212/bs_nm/transport_port_mexico_dc
Doesn’t this Reuter’s headline say it all:
“Terror fears, stoked by Bush, now bite him”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060222/pl_nm/security_ports_fears_dc
Cher and cockroaches will be the last living things on earth!!
You forgot the Rolling Stones.
Oh well, looks like i’m voting democrat from now on.
Now it seems Bush didn’e even know about the sale until his administration had approved it:http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-02-22-bush-ports_x.htm
It’s called plausible deniability! lol
V.L.R.B!!
Brandon writes in his “Skip Over Zone”:
“[The impending Iraqi Civil War will lead to] chaos, killing, and disintegration of American efforts for a stable, unified, democratic Iraq. Who benefits from that is obvious.”
Hehe, this would be funny if it weren’t so sad. Of course the US doesn’t want a stable Iraq–then we’d have to leave.
Did the British voluntarily leave India? Did the French voluntarily leave Indo-China? Did Spain walk away from Mexico? England from the US? Israel give back the West Bank in Palestine?
Imperialists don’t invade and occupy a country because they wanted a little vacation. They came to stay.
The neo-cons intend to occupy Iraq until the last drop of oil is pumped into their bank accounts.
The chaos in Iraq, the civil unrest, the sectarian violence is not in spite of American efforts, it’s BECAUSE OF IT.
It’s BY DESIGN. As long as Iraq is a mess, we can’t pull out. And Bush Co. doesn’t want to pull out.
Why did a group of British commandos dressed as locals get caught with a car load of explosives? Why did the British gov’t without explanation or even warning, free them by knocking down the wall of a jail in despite of the local authority to free them?
The one surprise the neo-cons got was that Iraqis were so adamant about free elections. Paul Bremer thought he could stall them with his Administration puppets, but the Shia in the south staged massive peaceful protests to pressure the US into allowing elections.
The elections were a referendum on the US occupation. The parties that were strongest to get the US out NOW, won big time.
Except for the election glitch, things are going down in Iraq, as planned and by design.
I’ve wondered this, and havn’t seen a satisfactory explanation: How is Bush & Co. supposed to benefit from Iraqi oil? How does the oil and money flow?
I wonder because of this: During Katrina, we were told that the oil companies conspired to restrict the flow of oil so that prices would be high.
if we add a lot of Iraqi oil to the world market, won’t prices go down due to increased supply? If so, how does that help American oil companies, or any oil companies, for that matter?
I’m not saying that I believe one way or another that the war is over oil. I would like to see an explanation, though, of how the money is supposed to flow.
That’s a good question, KCL, and I don’t have the answer to it. I’ll have to google it.
Right now, it appears that the oil men are making money on it by not pumping it. (Like DeBeers does by hoarding diamonds, which aren’t all that rare except when they’re hoarded.) That’s what the Iraqis are complaining about.
They’ve got 24 hour lines for gas and it’s quintupled in price. Oil production is down significantly since under Saddam . . .
BTW, this link is hilarious.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITSJS4BrKmw&search=letterman%20cheney
It’s last night’s David Lettermen discussing the Cheney mess that won’t go away.
“Cheney: just a big bowl of bad”
Must be seen to be believed . . .
Bush was unaware of the deal? giving control of major ports to aother country? If this is not telling of his total lack of being aware what does? When he is aware of the deal his reaction is to threaten to veto a bill blocking it. Not I will look it over? Not asking why the President of the United States was unaware of such a deal until it became public?
I am sure all that voted for his re-election are sleeping well with the knowledge that they have kept this man in office! If they are sleeping well then I believe they also must leave the doors unlocked and piles of money laying on the coffee table. And of course are walking the streets in a daze, saying “Yeah I have thousands dollars in my pockets. Why are you pointing a gun at me…You want what? I do not understand, BUsh said it was ok to walk around in a daze with thousands of dollars in my pockets…He is protecting me!”
Yeah those that re-elected Bush did the best thing for…what country did you have in mind?
http://home.cinci.rr.com/justamerican/skinColor.htm
I know this is unrelated, but it deserves some investigation. Try it out.
http://www.aaanet.org/stmts/racepp.htm
and this one.
Us liberals…..(this particular one being a former Reagan conservative) knew what bush was since 1998. He is a puppet of interests not vested in this nation or its security but rather in their own personal gain and wealth.
REAL Republicans are beginning to know this as well, hence the first time bush has managed to be the “uniter” he pledged to be…..despite himself.
America is concerned about the security of its ports. Bush says “I know best.Do not dispute me or I use my power to veto your protest”
All REAL Americans are right to demand a rein in of this arrogance and stupidity.
Painful as it is, REAL Republicans best concerned for America may need to join the call to impeach an executive and his minions who seem to have grown beyond accountability to the safety of America.
Well said J.R.
What does it mean if Bush really didn’t know anything about the sale of the ports until it was a done deal?
The more facts that come out about this the more rediculous a lot of people look. On both sides of the political aisle.
Lets look at some basic facts.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Is Always In Charge Of The Nation’s Port Security, Not The Private Company That Operates Facilities Within The Ports.
The Transaction Is Not About Port Security Or Even Port Ownership, But Only About Operations In Port. DP World will not manage port security, nor will it own any ports.
DP World Has Played By The Rules, Has Cooperated With The United States, And Is From A Country That Is A Close Ally In the War on Terror.
The UAE Is An Established Partner In Protecting America’s Ports. Dubai was the first Middle Eastern entity to join the Container Security Initiative (CSI) – a multinational program to protect global trade from terrorism. Dubai was also the first Middle Eastern entity to join the Department of Energy’s Megaports Initiative, a program aimed at stopping illicit shipments of nuclear and other radioactive material.Port Security Begins Abroad. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) created the CSI to enable CBP to inspect 100% of high-risk containers at foreign seaports before they are loaded onboard vessels destined for the United States. Dubai was the first Middle Eastern entity to join CSI. Cooperation with Dubai has been outstanding and a model for other operations.( the above are not of my writing but are matters of fact)
There is much more to this issue- issues of Al Quada money going through Dubai, 9-11 highjackers coming from UAE, support for Hamas, etc.etc.etc.
But by debating this thing without acknowledging the basic facts of what is actually going on here a lot of you folks show yourselves to be just what you are, Barking Moonbats high from too much Koolaid.
I havent decided where I stand on this thing because I’ve got a feeling that there is more relevant information yet to see the light of day.
Bark at the Moon.
WE ARE NOT SELLING PORTS!
WE ARE NOT SELLING SECURITY RESPONSIBILITIES!
THE WHITE HOUSE DIDNT MAKE THIS DEAL, THERE IS A GOVERNMENT AGENCY WHO’S JOB IT IS ARANGE THESE DEALS.
How do any of you people expect to be taken seriously when you cant frame your debate base upon known facts.
Heck, I am laughing so hard I have to hang on to the chair. I agree we are not selling ports, but how does it feel to have your political adversaries TOTALLY DISTORT THE TRUTH?
Now you know our frustration with the “truthiness” of bushco and the republicans.
And since you posted this: “The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Is Always In Charge Of The Nation’s Port Security” well, gosh heck. I feel better now.
I am so glad to know that Chertoff, who did so well with with protecting the port of new orleans, who supervised brownie, who was supposedly in charge of the planning for Katrina, has our backs at the ports.
Maybe that is what scares us Heck. No one needs to distort the truth to make that point.
BTW, john snow is the Secretary of the Treasury, the last time I checked, and that is a cabinet position. Isnt he appointed by bush and doesnt he work for bush and serve at his pleasure? How can you say he isnt part of the “white house”?
ksfarmgrrl
Speaking of Katrina, this story may rank right up there with Katrina for the amount of news generated that is flat out wrong.
The media and politicians on both ends of the political spectrum have been flopping about and screaching like a tazered cat.
This deal needs to be scrutinized but it’s not what 95% of the people in this country think it is.
As far as I’m concerned the department of Homeland Security should have never been created.It’s just another big beaurocracy to paralyzed by process to move.
“As far as I’m concerned the department of Homeland Security should have never been created”.
Omg, I need the fainting couch again. Heck and I actually agree! And I agreed with kansassam this week, and Ian twice last week. I need to go to visit a blue state soon or I will be lost forever.
Help mr. wizard……
I feel for ya Heck. It has to be tough to be you right now.
Rush is all ball to the wall bush on the port deal. But hannity is concerned. But O’Reilly says we must not nix this deal as it would “offend” the mideast. (Invasion not being enough of an offense?) And Michael Savage is finally read to impeach this moron bush.
It does have to be tough to be you just now Heck. I bet your head really hurts.
As a liberal, let me try and help.
Bush is way past out of the loop, and out of control.
He has one out in this hole he is digging. It appears tonight he may yet dance away from accountability as the UAE is willing to back off the deal for a bit.
It should not end there. Our national security may well be compromised. And it seems sure that this deal was done aboveand beyond the law.
Bush has expressed his desire to make this seemly issue the stuff of his first veto. I say it is time for all America to make this the stuff of the first censure and veto of this out of control adminisration.
Another nudge for you Heck? Bush just says “Trust me” Ronald Reagan said “Trust .but verify”
“And it seems sure that this deal was done aboveand beyond the law.”
Jr.
How is this deal above and beyond the law?
The mistake you make is thinking that we get our talking points from Hannity, Rush, or O’Reily.
I love listening to them all, but I don’t believe or agree with everything they say.
Lets stick to the FACTS and skip the BS.
You wouldn’t listen to me heck. Go listen to Savage. He can tell you how this was above and beyond the law
And now it seems that the 6 ports have morphed to 21 ports. I wonder when the administration was going to share that little detail with us?
A lie by ommission is still a lie.
Keep digging XXX I bet it goes a lot deeper.
I have this administration figured out! The way they avoid getting impeached or imprisoned is to simply keep doing stupid or illegal things! We barely get teeth into one transgression when the NEXT ocurrs and the last is forgotten!
Yeah, you hardly hear anything about lobbyists buyng republicans anymore, or shooting people in the face, or illegal wiretapping, or New Orleans, or outing CIA agents.
Don’t have to dig much deeper. Carlyle (papa Bush) is involved. Something smells funny.
It is all about the money that the Bush/Cheney group are going to make. Not national security since it is a sham anyhow. Bush/Cheney keep the terrorist threat up to scare the Americn citizen which allows them to violate the rule of law and the constitution.
An interesting article follows:
February 24, 2006
AMERICA FOR SALE / THE SAUDI CONNECTIONAmerica is for sale ~ Dick Cheney is the auctioneer, Bush is the oblivious cheerleader, Rumsfeld is the bad cop , Rice is the good cop and the target is Arab wealth : Allen L Roland
by Allen L Roland, Ph.D
http://www.opednews.com
To understand the attempted Cheney/Bush selloff of U.S. port operations to Dubai ~ you must first fully understand that its all about big money, the Saudi connection and the Saudi-backed Carlyle Group.
Congress and the American people have every right to not only oppose this sale but to finally fully explore the Saudi Connection.
In March, 2004 I posted a brilliant must read synopsis of the ominous Saudi Connection, pre 9/11 to post 9/11, by the Center for American Progress ~ and it still rings true today.
Excerpt: ” As the Boston Herald reported, a “revolving U.S.-Saudi money wheel” exists “within President Bush’s own coterie of foreign policy advisers.” First and foremost, the current President’s father “remains a senior adviser to the Carlyle Group” – an investment bank with deep connections to the Saudi royal family, and received $1 million for his Presidential library from the royal family.
George W. Bush “himself is also linked” to the Saudi-backed Carlyle Group: he was a director of a Carlyle subsidiary called called Caterair. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice “is a former longtime member of the board of Chevron which did business in the Saudi desert.” And Vice President Cheney’s tenure as CEO of oil giant Halliburton was among his dealings with “firms connected to the Saudis that paid big dividends.”
Allen L Roland
THE SAUDI CONNECTION
Center for American Progress 3/11/04
As President Bush today squeezes in a visit to a 9/11 memorial as part of a fundraising trip, his Administration is coming under increasing pressure to explain its close relationship with a “Saudi government that not only provided significant money and aid to the suicide hijackers but also allowed potentially hundreds of millions of dollars to flow to Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.”
Just yesterday, Newsday reported the family of the FBI’s late counterterrorism chief who was killed in the 9/11 attacks “filed lawsuits Wednesday accusing Saudi Arabia of aiding terrorists worldwide.” And today, an explosive excerpt from the new book “House of Bush, House of Saud” examines how top White House officials orchestrated the post-9/11 exodus of Osama bin Laden’s relatives before U.S. law enforcement officers could ask them for critical details about the Al Qaeda leader and his terror network.
Meanwhile, Time Magazine reports “the Saudis still appear to be protecting charities associated with the royal family” which funnel money to terrorists. And yet, despite all this, President Bush has continued to praise Saudi Arabia, has invited Saudi government leaders to his Crawford mansion, and in general is far “cozier than most [Presidents] to Riyadh.”
As Vanity Fair noted, “the Bush-Saudi relationship raises serious questions, if only because it is so extraordinary for two presidents to share such a long and rich personal history with any foreign power” – especially one that has been so closely implicated in the 9/11 attacks.
And despite the calls to get tough, Time Magazine concludes that the Administration’s all-too-close ties to the Saudi royal family makes “it seem unlikely that the Bush Administration will adopt a tougher policy toward Riyadh.”
BEFORE 9/11 – WHAT WAS KNOWN ABOUT THE SAUDIS:
According to U.S. News, a 1996 CIA report found that a third of the 50 Saudi-backed charities it studied “were tied to terrorist groups.” Similarly, a 1998 report by the National Security Council had identified the Saudi government as “the epicenter” of terrorist financing, becoming “the single greatest force in spreading Islamic fundamentalism” and “funneling hundreds of millions of dollars to jihad groups and al Qaeda cells around the world.” Over the past decade, “al Qaeda and its fellow jihadists collected between $300 million and $500 million – most of it from Saudi charities and private donors” and the very “origins of al Qaeda are intimately bound up with the Saudi charities.”
At the same time, these Al Qaeda-Saudi government ties were strengthening, U.S. “inquiries about bin Laden went unanswered by Riyadh. When Hezbollah terrorists killed 19 U.S. troops with a massive truck bomb at Khobar Towers in Dhahran in 1996, Saudi officials stonewalled, then shut the FBI out of the investigation.”
BEFORE 9/11 – STRENGTHENED BUSH-SAUDI TIES:
Despite the clear ties to terror, the Bush Administration maintained and strengthened its ties to the Saudi government upon taking office. As the Boston Herald reported, a “revolving U.S.-Saudi money wheel” exists “within President Bush’s own coterie of foreign policy advisers.”
First and foremost, the current President’s father “remains a senior adviser to the Carlyle Group” – an investment bank with deep connections to the Saudi royal family, and received $1 million for his Presidential library from the royal family. George W. Bush “himself is also linked” to the Saudi-backed Carlyle Group: he was a director of a Carlyle subsidiary called called Caterair. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice “is a former longtime member of the board of Chevron which did business in the Saudi desert.” And Vice President Cheney’s tenure as CEO of oil giant Halliburton was among his dealings with “firms connected to the Saudis that paid big dividends.”
BEFORE 9/11 – APPOINTING A CRONY INSTEAD OF A DIPLOMAT:
With the Saudis’ ties to terror clear, the Administration refused to appoint a qualified diplomat or counterterrorism expert as the U.S. government’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
Instead, the President appointed his Texas crony Robert Jordan – a man with no diplomatic experience, who spoke no Arabic and who had never set foot in Saudi Arabia. Jordan’s chief qualification for the post was that he had been Bush’s lawyer during the SEC inquiry into the Harken energy scandal, was part of the legal team representing the president in Florida during the 2000 election. He also worked at the law firm Baker-Botts, which is headed by former Secretary of State James Baker, a man who has considerable ties to the Saudi government, and who continues to tout Saudi Arabia as “an ally and friend of the United States for as long as I can remember.”
Even after Jordan retired earlier this year, the Administration still refused to appoint a diplomatic/counter-terrorism expert, instead appointing Texas oil lobbyist James Oberwetter.
AFTER 9/11 – WHITE HOUSE FLIES BIN LADENS OUT OF AMERICA:
In the immediate wake of 9/11, all flights in the United States were grounded. But as the new book “House of Bush, House of Saud” notes in its first excerpts on Salon.com, the flight ban had one exception: the Saudi relatives of Osama bin Laden.
As Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledged, members of bin Laden’s family were put on flights that “were coordinated within the U.S. government” and allowed to go back to Saudi Arabia.
According to the excerpt and to Gerald Posner’s “Why America Slept,” the White House-authorized flights out of the United States also included Saudi Prince Ahmed, who a top Al Qaeda terrorist said “knew beforehand that an attack was scheduled for American soil” on 9/11.
The White House’s decision to allow the Saudis to leave came at the same time Vanity Fair notes “Arabs were being rounded up and interrogated” all over the country and Attorney General John Ashcroft was asserting that the government had “a responsibility to use every legal means at our disposal to prevent further terrorist activity by taking people into custody who have violated the law and who may pose a threat to America.”
Law enforcement officers were asking why these family members – some of whom had direct ties to Osama bin Laden – were allowed to leave and wondered “how could officials bypass such an elemental and routine part of an investigation during an unprecedented national-security catastrophe?
At the very least, wouldn’t relatives have been able to provide some information about Osama’s finances, associates, or supporters?”
AFTER 9/11 – WHITE HOUSE ASSAILED FOR GIVING PASS TO SAUDIS:
In the year following the 9/11 attacks, Fox News reported lawmakers investigating the Sept. 11 attacks believe the Administration “has not aggressively pursued the possibility that the Saudi government provided money to students who helped two of the hijackers.”
Congressional committees also “accused the Saudi government of not fully cooperating with American investigators” but faced a strong defense from the White House. Bush Communications Director Dan Bartlett “disputed congressional critics” saying “As anyone who knows this issue will tell you, it’s very difficult to track financing of terrorist networks because most of it is done in cash.”
AFTER 9/11 – CLASSIFYING INCRIMINATING EVIDENCE:
In 2003, more and more evidence began to appear tying the Saudi royal family to the attacks. For instance, Newsweek reported that thousands of dollars in charitable gifts from Princess Haifa, the wife of Prince Bandar, “ended up in the hands of two of the September 11 hijackers.”
Yet, as congressional committees prepared to release a bipartisan report on the 9/11 attacks, the Bush Administration swiftly moved to classify a section of the report which dealt with the Saudi ties to the attack.
According to CBS News, that section “examined interactions between Saudi businessmen and the royal family that may have intentionally or unwittingly aided al Qaeda or the suicide hijackers.”
Not surprisingly, months after 9/11, Vice President Cheney went on Fox News to announce the Administration’s full opposition to an independent 9/11 commission.
AFTER 9/11 – STILL PRAISING THE SAUDIS WHILE THEY REFUSE TO COOPERATE:
President Bush has simultaneously repeated a mantra that “if you aid a terrorist, if you hide terrorists, you’re just as guilty as the terrorists” while also going “out of his way to compliment the Saudis.”
While the President says the Saudis are an “important friend” to the United States, the royal family “refuses to permit United States investigators to interrogate one of bin Laden’s key financial aides-Sidi Tayyib” a man who “probably knows as much as anyone else about bin Laden’s intricate financial empire.”
Meanwhile, officials at the Treasury and Justice departments have privately expressed deep frustration over the failure of the Saudi government to impose stricter controls over their Islamic charities and turn over crucial evidence about the murky flow of money to Al Qaeda.
Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on Conscious talk radio http://www.conscioustalk.net
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