UPDATE: "The Dubai firm that won Bush administration backing to run six U.S. ports has at least two ties to the White House. One is Treasury Secretary John Snow, whose agency heads the federal panel that signed off on the $6.8 billion sale of an English company to government-owned Dubai Ports World - giving it control of Manhattan's cruise ship terminal and Newark's container port. Snow was chairman of the CSX rail firm that sold its own international port operations to DP World for $1.15 billion in 2004, the year after Snow left for President Bush's cabinet.
The other connection is David Sanborn, who runs DP World's European and Latin American operations and was tapped by Bush last month to head the U.S. Maritime Administration. The ties raised more concerns about the decision to give port control to a company owned by a nation linked to the 9/11 hijackers. The political fallout over the deal only grows."
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Think Progress has the terrorism record of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) -- the country that OWNS the company that Bush thinks should control six of our largest ports.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Bushie has some cronys in this deal.
Think Progress:
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.
Even rubber stamp Bill Frist opposes Bush's latest lunacy. For once in their lives, Democrats and Republicans are united against disaster-prone Bush and say they'll introduce legislation to stop Bush.
Our dear leader responds -- Freedom's on the march, I'm the boss, I'm doing a heckuva job, it's my presidential prerogative, yada yada yada -- or:
"They ought to listen to what I have to say about this. They'll look at the facts and understand the consequences of what they're going to do. But if they pass a law, I'll deal with it with a veto."
This from a pResident who has never used the veto. The higher-ups at Homeland Security are not happy: "Department of Homeland Security administrators rubber-stamped [the deal], senior analysts at the agency were never told, and they don't like it now."
This is yet another instance of Bush presenting a grave danger to our nation and our world. I'm not normally given to conspiracy theories, but with the wealth of resources at the pResident's disposal (such as other people's brains), it's getting harder and harder to believe that anyone can screw up this much unintentionally. Maybe Bush isn't a fool, maybe he's Osama's brother. Or maybe he really is working to bring on the End Times. Outrageous thoughts, but so's the behavior of the disaster-prone pResident.
Lou Dobbs is pissed, he used the "I" word.
Bush King George Impeach Bush Empire United Arab Emirates Imperial Presidency Ports
