The Bush administration may have misread how badly the Dubai Ports World deal was playing with the American people, but the company itself didn’t, announcing today that it’s giving up its management stake in some U.S. ports to a U.S. entity (though it isn’t clear yet how DP World would manage the divestiture). The decision comes after the House Appropriations Committee’s stunning rebuke of the White House on Wednesday, in the form of a 62-2 vote to block the ports transfer. Senate GOP leaders also were unable to block a push by Senate Democrats and some Republicans to vote on stopping the port deal.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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43 Comments
This has got to make most Americans breath a sigh of relief!!
I know Im resting a little better now.
I think the deal sounded crazier than it really is/was.
Bush’s terrorist fear-mongering came back to bite him in the butt. I bet it smarts.
I guess it was easier to pick up the phone to Dubai and ask them to back off than it was to back up his big veto threat.
Good thing they listen to shrub!
In the end it was a non-issue but the whole thing made shrub look bad and that is always a good thing! lol
Viva La Raza Blanco!!
It looks like Bushs first ever veto might also be his first first over ridden one too
Be Careful what you wish for. The devious sleazebags in the backroom are disgustingly smart.
They’re all psychopaths. filthy rotten psychopaths along with their supporters.
Worthless people.
I agree with Ed somewhat. It may be a little early to breathe a sigh of relief. These are some very sneaky people we’re dealing with (Bush, et al).
Who is this “American entity” DP is going to divest the American ports to? Is there any American company willing/able to handle the job? If it’s a newly minted company, I think we should see a very clean pedigree, one that doesn’t lead back to Dubai.
That said, I wonder how UAE is going to take all of this. They are an important strateigic partner for our military in the Middle East. We have 2-3 bases there and we use their ports to refuel and repair warships. Will they continue to cooperate now that we’ve essentially slapped them in the face?
Of course if we weren’t persuing an unjust and illegal war in that part of the world, maybe their ports and bases wouldn’t be quite so critical.
New york gave their drug-addicts clean-needles so as not to lose customers.
If they cared about people they wouldn’t start there.
Controlling Ports means worldwide shipping with no hassles.
I was really hoping this would drag out for a few more months. The ports situation was a running pistule on the face of the GOP. If it falls off the radar screen now, American voters will forget that president “give me the cash and take what you want” tried to sell off port security in about 2 weeks. How many Americans do you suppose remember what the big issue was before the ports deal?
I’ll be the one to say that the whole DPW fiasco was the worst thing to happen to us this year. I mean, NOT lettting the deal go through.
*Shaking Head* You guys just got played by pundits and politicans on fear. Think for youself.
Now that Americans want to be protectionist, Dubai has announce that they will suspend all activity and commerce with American companies. That means no more Navy ships to dock on their ports, and the cancellation of over 70 Boeing Aircraft orders. Can you say, another round of massive layoffs for Boeing.
You guys got played. You let the media, pundits, and politicans play you and you never read or looked at the whole picture.
There was no terrorist threat. Well! At least it shows who the racist are in our political system, Republican and Democrats.
Even Bill Clinton was working to help Dubai and the port terminal deal. Bill Clinton people!!! Wake up! This has nothing to do with defeating Bush and making him look bad.
*shake head in disgust*
Now watch our oil price go to the roof.
XXX,Looks like you were right to be suspicious.
New York – In what could be a last-ditch effort to salvage its deal to operate East and Gulf Coast ports in the U.S., DP World told Congress that it would agree to transfer control to a “U.S. entity,” which could simply mean a subsidiary of the Dubai operation.
In a statement, first read on the floor of the U.S. Senate by Virginia Republican John Warner, DP World said the decision was made to “preserve the strong relationship between the U.S. and the U.A.E.” But in fact, it sounded suspiciously like a device carefully crafted by DP World’s huge team of lobbyists and lawyers to salvage the deal in some fashion.
The new entity is supposed to have an American board and American managers, but the ownership was still questionable. Or, as New York’s Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer observed, “the devil is in the details.” If DP World is in fact merely planning to put its U.S. assets under a U.S.-managed subsidiary with oversight from a U.S.-staffed board, it would be following in a long line of foreign suppliers of defense technology to the U.S.
The above is the beginning of a Forbes article – the rest here:
http://www.forbes.com/home/logistics/2006/03/09/dubai-ports-divests-cx_daa-0309autofacescan12.html
Bush’s puppeteers don’t care how he looks. They’ve got three years to destroy this country, then he’s history back to chopping wood.
Joe W.:”*Shaking Head* You guys just got played by pundits and politicans on fear. Think for youself.”
I believe that you are right on the question of how dangerous this deal was.
But what you seem to forget, Joe, is that the politician playing the American public with the terrorist fear card, was your man, G.W. Bush. As I say above, he got bit in the butt, by his own fear-mongering. I will say it again, I bet it smarts.
Um! There is a difference between leftist terroist that want to blow-up buildings and kill american, than Dubai, a friendly country, were 89% of the Population are foriegners, capitalist, and foriegners can own land free and clear. It was the most friendliest place in the Middle East. People like Micheal Jackson and even Tiger Woods makes their home there.
Cessna and Koch Industries even has a large office there, if you want to find local connections.
This has nothing to do with terrorism, but an excuse for justifiable racism. It’s pathetic.
Kick the Chinese out too, and install real security/inspection procedures in the ports. Or, are you Arab appeasers afraid China will cut out all commerece with the U.S. (I wish).
Steve! Wnat to have real security/inspection procedures. The best thing to do is kick out the unions. I’m not kidding.
Did you know that when the Department of Homeland Security came about, they wanted every dock worker, crane operator, just basically anybody that was on any terminal dock at any port to go through a background check, and if you had a felony on your record, you could not work on the docks.
Guess who fought that tooth and nail. The longshoreman’s union. They know that many of their workers have felony on their records (not surprising), so they lobby hard and strong to get that provision out of the Homeland Security Departments policy and they succeded.
So criminals still can work on the docks. The same ones that steal containers and are orgainized crimed controlled. Talk about a security threat. It’s the unions.
That any foreign country is operating any of our infrastructure is disturbing and shameful. Just more of the big corps playing ever to the bottom line. Hopefully the light brought by this terrible deal will make us begin to address that.
Awwww Dubai is mad at us? Dey’re gonna cancel orders for planes and not work on our ships. (delivered in a mocking baby voice) Fine! Let’s no longer guarantee their security.
Poor Joe.
His boy got his a.. handed to him. Now it’s everybody’s elses fault.
Bad dock workers! Bad unions! Bad Republicans….and Democrats…..and all 80% of the American people that dared to question fearless leader and his wisdom!
That any foreign country is operating any of our infrastructure is disturbing and shameful. Just more of the big corps playing ever to the bottom line. Hopefully the light brought by this terrible deal will make us begin to address that.
Awwww Dubai is mad at us? Dey’re gonna cancel orders for planes and not work on our ships. (delivered in a mocking baby voice) Fine! Let’s no longer guarantee their security.
Wow I don’t know how I did that. Wish I did …..sometimes stuff I say is worth double posting. Happy Accident
“Now that Americans want to be protectionist, Dubai has announce that they will suspend all activity and commerce with American companies.”
Fine. They just cut themselves off from the largest consumer economy in the world.
“That means no more Navy ships to dock on their ports”
That’s going to make it a little harder to persue an unjust and illegal war in Iraq. I don’t see the downside.
“Now watch our oil price go to the roof.”
As if it hasn’t already. It’s about time Americans woke up to the fact that we live with an Arab sword (oil) at our throats. Maybe that’s just the push this country needs to wean ourselves away from the ruinous foriegn oil habit. It’s going to happen sooner or later. Let it happen on the Bush watch.
Just think of all the fun the GOP will have whipping the voters into a frenzy of fear over this one.
Speculation now is that the american entity is HALIBURTON!!!!
“President Bush had sailed full steam ahead into a political iceberg in the shape of the bitter row over the management of US ports by a Dubai-owned company.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4791248.stm
And the band played on….
“Dubai has announce that they will suspend all activity and commerce with American companies.”–Joe Williams
Joe, where did you see this? Can you provide a cite?
Flike, I think he got it the same place he gets his farming information.
Right after my last post, I started looking fpr any information about what Joe said. I can’t find anything like that with a google search and they’ve said nothing about it on Fox or CNN. I’d think cable news would be all over a story like that.
Maybe Joe imagined it in a drug or alcohol induced stupor.
XXX,
They did mention something about the UAE retaliating by buying airbus planes instead of Boeing. This was on Lou Dobb’s program this evening.
V.L.R.B!!
“Dubai, a friendly country, were 89% of the Population are foriegners, capitalist, and foriegners can own land free and clear.”
Uh, maybe you don’t know what you’re talking about, Joe, or maybe just trying to mislead.
“The report said that at present there is no federal legislation for investors in the UAE, and foreign ownership of land and stocks is restricted”
http://uae-embassy.org/
Thanks for the update, Ian. I missed that. Did he say anything about Cancelling Boeing orders?
There has been noise about cancelling Boeing orders. Also the Royalty over there is really ticked off. Even a little noise about our ships docking there.
My response is; So what?
They don’t want our sailors going on leave there and spending their money? Not that money is in short supply there but hey they wanna take the hit ok. Then too. we PAY to getour ships serviced there. (Whatever happened to the military doing its own maintenance) guess they don’t need that cash either.
Of course, it might be unwise for them to get too cranky. The UAE is a rather small land of a collection of rich emirs (United Arab Emirates) They have virtually no defense…….save us.
I really do not get you unswerving followers of Bush. He invaded Iraq on phony reasons thumbing his nose at world opinion in doing so.
But now we have “offended” a small incredibly wealthy nation because we had doubts about putting some of our security in their hands and it is the end of the world as we know it!
XXX,
I recall that they mentioned the potential cancellation of an order of fifty or so Boeing aircraft.
Also on the Dobb’s program, that idiot gneral Abizaid was whining about anti-muslim, anti-arab racism in America! As a veteran I was disgusted by that. If that clown wants to run off at the mouth he should remove his uniform and do so as a private citizen.
V.L.R.B!!
I caught Dobbs tonight, too. There was _speculation_ that when Dubai’s state-owned airline next bought airliners that Airbus would get the job over Boeing.
Speculation only. Nothing concrete, nothing decided. In fact, Rep. King of NY said something like “this is merely an announcement by DPW, I’ll wait to count my chickens until they actually go through with it.”
To paraphrase Peter King and Duncan Hunter on Dobbs tonight: if Dubai chooses to rataliate, then the blame lies with President Bush’s FUBARed management of this and port security in general, not those wascally weftists.
XXX. Want to finish that sentence? Or are you going to pick and choose a part of a sentence.
although these sectors are beginning to open up.
The whole paragraph: The report said that at present there is no federal legislation for investors in the UAE, and foreign ownership of land and stocks is restricted, although these sectors are beginning to open up.The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) reports that foreign investment in the UAE was US$840 million in 2004.
I was watching CNBC last week and they had a whole segement about American investors owning land in Dubai, free and clear. They were one of the first to do it and they suspect many more will be coming soon, since Dubai is a virtual hotspot of business.
I’m trying to find the link to it, but it’s being drowned out by the port story, so it’s buried deep.
But let me give you a US Government source: http://www.state.gov/e/eb/ifd/2005/42194.htm
“Up until recently, only Emiratis and other GCC nationals were permitted to own land in the UAE, while foreigners, who comprise 80-85% of the population, had been restricted to renting. In May 2002, the Emirate of Dubai announced that it would permit so-called “free hold” real estate ownership for non-GCC nationals”
That is 4 years ago. Things have change for the better.
Joe, That’s why I provide links. I didn’t quote your whole sentence, either (not that it’s easy to get a usable sentence).
“At present, the regulatory and legal framework favors local over foreign investors. There is no national treatment for investors in the UAE, and foreign ownership of land and stocks is restricted.”
That’s from the link you provided, Joe. Note the part about “at present”.
I am back and forth between here and the archives. LOL Hilarious stuff back there.
Ahh yes..let’s get all paranoid about UAE because they are an Arabian country, and some Arabians have blown things up in the country. Means all Arabs are the same, yes?
Am I remembering incorrectly, or did two AMERICANS blow up the federal building in Oklahoma City? In that case, we certainly cannot let AMERICANS control the ports, either…
Same logic…
raptor, you’re not paying attention. Remember the cartoons? The Muhammed cartoons drawn in Denmark that within a week had Islamist anger whipped to such levels that embassies half a world away were burned? Remember the Arabs who danced in the streets of Fallujah while burned and mutilated bodies hung from a bridge? Who danced in the streets on 9/11?
The concern over “some Arabs” working in American ports is compounded by what we’ve all seen: that “some Arabs” can be whipped into acts of violent kookery by their leaders.
If you don’t get this, then in the famous neo-conservative vernacular, “please do whatever you want but let us adults direct affairs” of national security, ok?
;)
Kookery is coo-coo-ry, as in they’re coo-coo for cocoa puffs.
By the way, Joe, no links this morning?
In that case, it’s kinda difficult to read your fearmongering accusations of others’ fearmongering with a straight face.
XXX! Again off the same report by the State Department that you missed.
“So far, Dubai is the only emirate engaged in large-scale property sales to foreigners”
It’s off the source you provided.
With the bill to force foreign countries out of the port business, the Arabs will have no cause to claim prejudice.