Frist calls for halt to UAE Port deal

[mburbank]

So, are you positing

C.) This was a perfectly normal business transaction not unusual in any way. Its understandable that the low level buerocrats who conducted the deal never informed higher ups, or if they did the higher ups saw no reason the President needed to even know the deal was taking place. It's not a matter of stupidity or lack of forsight, it's just that this sale (Which violates the lease in the NYC case and lacks assurances required by other foreign companies involved in our port dealings) simply had no features at all that ditinguished it from any other sale our government is in a position to approve.



I guess it would be different if Iran or North Korea was buying the ports. But, if as W argues, the company (or in tis case, foreign country) getting the crates off the ships and doing the cutoms paperwork. But no, it would be different, because they are our enemies.

But what bout our staunch friend in the W.O.T, Pakistan? I personally would think that might be worth letting the Pres in on, what with their lax history of passing out Nuclear knowhow and them being a military dictatorship. I think similar concerns regarding a monarchy that was one of the few countries to ever officially recognize the Taliban.

And when it's the Bush admnistration offering the assurances that there's nothing to worry about, a pubic outcry for fourty five days just to see if maybe they might just be full of shit or perhaps totally incompetent doesn't seem so outlandish to me. Who knows, maybe the guy who made the decision without telling W is some guy who has no prior experience in Ports and used to, I don't know, be in charge of selecting and policing the Judges for Dog shows? Stranger things have happned.

I agree that anyone who thinks Dubai would be in charge of Port Security is a hysteric. But anyone who think that being in charge of offloading cargo and handling customs declarations about contents has nothing to do with security, and that the country owning that operation isn't a matter of significance... why one might almost argue they had a pre 9/11 mindset.