Category Archive

UPI story here How thorough could the security investigation have been if our government spokesmen have been mistating how many ports are involved?

The Nation: [S]enior administration officials from the Departments of Defence, State, Treasury and Homeland Security trooped up to Capitol Hill to brief the Senate Armed Services Committee about the plan to let Dubai Ports World, a firm owned by the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in charge of ports up and down the east coast. Noting a particularly … Read More

Regarding the Dubai Ports deal, Bush said this morning: The management of some ports, which, heretofore, has been managed by a foreign company will be managed by another company from a foreign land. And so people don’t need to worry about security. This deal wouldn’t go forward if we were concerned about the security for the United States of America. … Read More

It looks like Osama’s days are numbered: In his latest adventure, Batman will dispense with his old enemies, the Riddler and the Joker, and take on Osama bin Laden instead. In Holy Terror, Batman!, a new graphic novel by the Batman writer Frank Miller, the Caped Crusader will take on al-Qa’eda when his home town, Gotham City, which is based … Read More

It’s not who is conducting the stevedoring operations, and not really whether they are an American company, a Great British company, or a Dubai company. The real problem from a national security standpoint is, and always has been, this: Only 4 percent or 5 percent of those containers are inspected. There is virtually no standard for how containers are sealed, … Read More

CNN is apparently reporting that Bob Dole has been hired by the Dubai company to lobby for the company’s interest and hopefully do some PR damage control. Let the jokes begin. We’re too busy to make up our own jokes, but we offer the following punchline: "Port?!?  I thought you said ‘pork’!"

Incredible.  He’s never vetoed anything in his 6 years, and now he’s threatening to veto Congress if it blocks the UAE deal, even though it has less support than Harriet Miers. Libertarian Glenn Reynolds: Either this deal is somehow a lot more important than it seems (a quid pro quo for, well, something . . . ) or Bush is … Read More

Scotty McLellan, 2/16/05: "Well, my understanding, Les, is that this went through the national security review process under CFIUS, at the Department of Treasury. That is the agency that is responsible for overseeing such matters. And this includes a number of national security agencies — the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the Justice, among others, and there … Read More

The Carpetbagger Report has noticed the slow upward tick in conservative interest about the UAE-port story, and calls it "the biggest GOP revolt since Harriet Miers". Kevin Drum adds: What it shows is that Bush still doesn’t understand how much influence he’s recently lost with his conservative base. In the brave new post-Harriet, post-Katrina world, outrage over the port deal … Read More

The Bush Administration’s penchant for secrecy goes into hyperdrive: In a seven-year-old secret program at the National Archives, intelligence agencies have been removing from public access thousands of historical documents that were available for years, including some already published by the State Department and others photocopied years ago by private historians. The restoration of classified status to more than 55,000 … Read More

I was a few days ahead of the curve (for a change) when I blogged last week about a UAE company is going to handle homeland security at American ports.  But the blogosphere and politicians are on top of it now and it seems that everyone, from the right to the left, is asking the same "What The Fuck?" question.  … Read More