That thud you heard coming from the White House today was the sound of Karl Rove’s invincibility hitting the floor.
The UAE was either asked or decided on their own to nix the ports deal thus heading off a certain veto override by Congress and embarrassing the President more than he and his Administration have already embarrassed themselves:
The United Arab Emirates company that was attempting to take over management operations at six U.S. ports announced today that it will divest itself of all American interests.The announcement appears to head off a major confrontation that was brewing between Congress and the Bush administration over the controversial deal.
Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) announced on the Senate floor shortly before 2 p.m. that Dubai Ports World would “transfer fully the operations of U.S. ports to a U.S. entity.” Warner, who had been trying to broker a compromise on the issue, said DP World would divest itself of U.S. interests “in an orderly fashion” so as not to suffer “economic loss.”
It was never about the security of the ports. It was never the fact that the UAE has a leader that has gone hunting with Bin Laden. It was never the fact that the UAE government has funded Wahabbist Madrasses all over the world to the tune of billions of dollars over the last 2 decades. It was never the fact that they don’t recognize Israel or that their banking system may be a financial way station for al Qaeda funds or that they were Muslims and I’m a bigoted fool.
It was always about the Bush Administration and their arrogant, cavalier attitude toward this deal and other aspects of homeland security including securing our borders. The committee set up to vet DPW was a bureaucratic rubber stamp made up of second and third tier assistant secretaries who didn’t even feel the need to brief the heads of their agencies about the deal. They never felt the need to brief the Joint Chiefs. The never felt the need to brief Congress.
Nervous nellies will argue that the House Republican “hotheads” should have waited for the 45-day review of the deal. But to many knowledgeable observers of the CFIUS process, the panel is the root of the problem—not the solution. As I made clear in my first post on this subject on Feb. 18 and consistently throughout the debate, we simply cannot afford the business-as-usual attitude of the rubber-stampers at CFIUS. And if that means the UAE retaliates by pulling out of business deals with Boeing, as it is threatening to do now, so be it.
You will recall that both DHS and the Coast Guard raised objections to the deal when it was first proposed. While both entities have come back and said their concerns were “addressed” what exactly does that mean? Were real concerns about security papered over with typical bureaucratic double-talk? Or were substantiative changes made to the deal that took into account the potential security problems pointed out by agencies whose job it is to protect us.
For that reason alone this deal needed to be examined. And I would still like to see hearings on other foreign owned companies who manage our ports and other transportation nexus. These are a particularly vulnerable part of our overall security profile and what this deal proved is that no one appears to be thinking very hard about them.
I sincerely hope that the UAE isn’t offended by the pressure that was put on them, although, when a country is owned by one man, it becomes very hard to separate the business from the personal. Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum may feel that he’s been double crossed but he shouldn’t blame the Congress or the American people. The blame is ultimately the Presidents’ to shoulder as are our other problems with border control and gaps in security at our airports.
If the killing of this deal has opened the eyes of the President and his people to the concerns of Congress and many conservatives, then it just may have a silver lining. They can go a long way toward proving that they’re listening by working with Congress on an immigration reform package that puts security over commerce and the safety of the American people over the wallets of the members of the Chambers of Commerce.
UPDATE
Michelle Malkin also has an excellent “first reaction” round up of media. Check back to her site often for more updates to come,
4:46 pm
BREAKING PORT NEWS: DUBAI YIELDS
***scroll for updates…230pm EST Dem Senators Schumer, Clinton, Reid scrambling to organize press conference…248pm EST. Harry Reid looks irked at being outmaneuvered: “We want an up-and-down vote…the devil is in the details.” Fox News cuts away …
4:57 pm
UAE firm to transfer port operations to “U.S. entity’
(See my recent related posts here and here.)Dubai Firm to Give Up Stake in U.S. Ports Dubai Firm Announces It Is Prepared to Transfer Rights to Operate U.S. Ports to American Entity WASHINGTON Mar 9, 2006 (AP)— Bowing to ferocious
5:02 pm
[...] Right Wing Nut House » DUBAI-BAI: IT’S ALL OVER BUT THE WHIMPERING That thud you heard coming from the White House today was the sound of Karl Rove’s invincibility hitting the floor.The UAE was either asked or decided on their own to nix the ports deal thus heading off a certain veto override by Congress and embarrassing the President more than he and his Administration have already embarrassed themselves: [...]
5:10 pm
I can’t seem to muster up as much sympathy for “the concerns of Congress and many conservatives” as you have, Rick. Probably because too much of it looks like political grandstanding with a slight tone of hysteria thrown in.
We have been treated to incessant claims of turning our ports over to “foreign ownership” and “foreign control” with this deal, none of which holds up.
The ports remain the property of the U.S. no matter who manages them.
Managing the port is not “control” of the port. They are running a terminal operation.
Security affairs would remain in the hands the the US Coast Guard and U. S. other agencies – exactly those who now deal with it.
The sudden hysteria about foreign control is at best misinformed (and that’s being charitable). The company that now has the management of the six terminals in question is British – i.e. foreign (though you woud never know that from listening to the media and the congressional sound-bites). And if you want foreign presence to worry about, several American ports operations are apparently run by companies from Communist China, and eleven (I think was the number) run by SAUDI owned companies. A lot more terrorist activity has come out of Saudi Arabia, and out of Britain than out of Dubai.
And none of this considers other matters related to Dubai. Money may funnel through the country to al Queda – the same can be said of Britain. For that matter, significant funds have, and probably still do get funneled to AQ from sources in the U.S. In this kind of war there truly is no front (or more accurately the front may be in your neighbor’s basement, or his checkbook).
The SecDef and General Pace had some interesting things to say on this matter to Congress today. It is worth reading their remarks very carefully while checking a map of the Persian Gulf.
This issues at least equals, and may surpass the Plame and NSA non-stories for the massive shoveling of pure bravo seirra by the media and parts of Congress.
5:15 pm
“UAE firm to transfer port operations to ‘U.S. entity’”
With due credit to Academic Elephant for the inspiration, I’m praying the “entity” is a Haliburton subsidiary!
I would so enjoy whatching the left have a meltdown over that one.
5:17 pm
Got to agree with Hawkeye on this. Demand that congress examine foreign ownership of all critical industries, as well as deals like Loral that saw military secrets traded for campaign cash.
Remember, though, that if we deny others the right to invest their U.S. dollars in the U.S., the dollar will fall in value.
5:18 pm
Hawk:
It may sound like I’m parsing to fine a point here but I have tried to place the entire controversy in a slightly different context than others.
The security concerns about foreign ownership are irrelevant to me. My opposition to the deal has always been based on a realization that this Administration has not gotten serious about a host of homeland security issues 4 years out from 9/11. Our airports are a seive. Our borders, worse. And we inspect 10% of the containers coming into the ports in this country.
This was poorly handled and it remains to be seen whether or not it was poorly vetted. Congressional hearings would focus attention on this subject which is what we need.
BTW - your second comment I agree with 100%. I’d love to see the moonbats heads explode over that one!
5:20 pm
DPW: A hand poorly played by EVERYONE
The DPW deal is dead.
Now, the DPW is saying it will hand over control of the ports to a US entity. If I remember right, this was the solution Big Lizard offered a while back.
Hmph. This is probably a smart move, but I cannot believe how poorly pl…
5:59 pm
“My opposition to the deal has always been based on a realization that this Administration has not gotten serious about a host of homeland security issues 4 years out from 9/11. Our airports are a seive. Our borders, worse. And we inspect 10% of the containers coming into the ports in this country.”
I don’t disagree with any of this. I find our southern border situation in particular very disturbing.
“This was poorly handled and it remains to be seen whether or not it was poorly vetted. Congressional hearings would focus attention on this subject which is what we need.”
And here we reach the core of the problem that generated my original comment. It will not happen, at least not as it should, because this has become another Plame/NSA. In other words, it has become a pure political football and all the palyers on both teams, or enough of them at least, have taken complete leave of all rationality for reasons base or foolish (that is for immediate cheap political gain, or because of intellectual laziness).
Congressional hearings can be very useful processes; they can also be worse than useless and actually harmful. At this point, with things as they are, I don’t see hearings producing anything of value, just more posturing and nonsense.
More unfortunate perhaps is that anything useful they could produce would not make it to the public except in a limited and twisted form because of our media. That is a large part of the problem now. Americans have been repeatedly told we are “selling our ports.” The message is inescapable, even Leno’s monologue last night.
We have reached the point where we might as well make national policy decisions by reading tea leaves. Hearings would simply provide a theater for more grandstanding with the media a enablers.
6:11 pm
The thud you heard was Rove hitting the floor laughing. There had to be a way to prove that the members of congress and the citizens really hate the Arab nuts. This was simply another rope-a-dope plan that worked to a ‘T’.
I’ve always said if you’re an Arab or you practice Islam you are a terrorists in waiting. Now I have “98%” of the U.S. congress and a majority of the citizens agreeing with me, all Arab’s are terrorist or terrorists risks. I think it’s great, now it’s not a racist thing when 98% of the people hate the same people, and everyone in the world hates the Arabs. There is no longer any doubt, based on the past week it is a proven fact. I hate it when i’m so right on target about the simple minded, but PC (lying) Americans.
6:50 pm
I’m going to blame Karl Rove!
Interesting perspective from me. We now know the story of the Dubai Port thing. Right Wing Nut House sums up the story, although not quite the way I read it. For a few lines or less type read try Political Animal, although they get it w
7:46 pm
This is an extremely sad day for the America I love. This is a strategic defeat, possibly a fatal one in the Long War, Ver. 2.0. It reminds me of Soviet Lend/Lease which was the right decision. This decision is wrong and may be paid for in blood and treasure for decades to come.
Saudi Arabia and Dubai have operated marine and air terminals in the US for years. I have a hard time blaming Bush for the “tone deafness†of 3rd tier bureaucrats who obviously, given 15 to 20 years of similar deals, did not foresee the political firestorm. The only sane actor in this disaster has been Bush and a few informed bloggers.
A tactical win-win for xenophobes and the Libs; a potentially catastrophic strategic loss for America and the West.
Rick, I though you were smarter than this but it appears you’ve joined the sheeple charging over the cliff into the abyss. You’re sounding more like a Copperhead every day, at least regarding the Bush administration. The truth is this battle was lost by the 15th of February. The only thing the Pres. could do was stand by a critical ally. At least the UAE knows someone in this country is sane.
9:02 pm
DPW Deal On Horizon
Reaction to the DPW decision is going to come fast and furious. Just a day after the House voted overwhelmingly to restrict DPW from taking over operations at the ports, this deal heads off the showdown between Congress and the Administration.
10:53 pm
More Port “Absurdity” – VI - The Buckle
Well the uber right is dancing in the streets – as Dubai buckles on the proposed deal:
10:59 pm
[...] UPDATE: Malkin links approvingly to Rick Moran’s post, in which Moran writes: Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum may feel that he’s been double crossed but he shouldn’t blame the Congress or the American people. The blame is ultimately the Presidents’ to shoulder as are our other problems with border control and gaps in security at our airports. [...]
10:51 am
Dubai Ports, The Deal Is Dead
As I have said before, the President made a mistake, and should have been the one to rescind on the deal, instead of allowing the embarrassing humiliation of the Senate, and especially his own Republican Senators, doing it for him. Bush Administration …
1:12 pm
Wish to report what I have seen today.
Standing in line at bank. CNN on TVs.
Announce that subject of tonight’s Lou Dobbs is “DUBAI PORTS DEAL DEAD: BUSH PRESIDENCY SHIPWRECKED??????”
Should have known they would do this to us.
Suspicion of bias reinforced by commercial for forthcoming DVD edition of GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK.
2:39 pm
Dubai-bai – All Over But The Whimpering
The UAE was either asked or decided on their own to nix the ports deal thus heading off a certain veto override by Congress and embarrassing the President more than he and his Administration have already embarrassed themselves…
8:24 pm
[...] Rick Moran says “The committee set up to vet DPW was a bureaucratic rubber stamp made up of second and third tier assistant secretaries who didn’t even feel the need to brief the heads of their agencies about the deal. They never felt the need to brief the Joint Chiefs. The never felt the need to brief Congress.” WTF? Brief Congress? Again, I have to ask the question…do we want Congress reviewing business deals? We have specifically installed second and third tier assistant secretaries in these lumbering bureacricies to do just exactly what they did. It’s not a rubber stamp…it’s people doing their damn job. People in the Administration were not arrogant or cavalier, Rick, they were blindsided by the fact that apparently so few Americans don’t seem to understand how global free markets work, and that the global free market is our best freaking gift to the world, and it’s simply our greatest, most powerful tool in the Long Fight (to steal a phrase). I mean, the Marines are great, but they don’t fight very long on empty bellies, and you don’t feed a Marine with naive wishes of “Buy American!” in 2006. And Buy American! is the absolute end-game of what you and your buddies are pushing. Unless, you know, you think that you, along with the security-minded Congressmen and women you are cheering on, can somehow control the old Invisible Hand. Personally, I really doubt that you can, since no one since the dawn of time has been terribly successful at it. [...]
9:32 pm
Hi boys!c33b4a450714169bdd84ac55aaaabe18