Scary Wheeling & Dealing

When I first heard of the sale of six ports to be run by the United Arab Emirates (UAE)I shrugged it off without giving it much thought. Bush vowing to veto anything which may stop the sale of the ports, the first time he would use his veto while in office mind you. Why did he feel so passionate about it? Why did he not feel the need to explain his reasons, and when questioned about the possible security risk it would pose he counters the question with “trust us…”

The same man who said that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. The same man who almost refuses to recognize that some of the terrorists on the planes on September 11, 2001 were from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Then I heard some crazy stuff about the affiliation he has with a little group called the Carlyle Group, and their ties with UAE.

For lengths sake, here is a link to information on the Carlyle Group (The Guardian)

Lou Dobbs, from CNN, took this matter head on and came up with a terrific piece which aired on February 22, 2006. I am going to paste parts of the transcripts; the link to the full transcript is at the end of this post. I found it amazing, mind boggling, horrifying, and most important informative.


DOBBS: McClellan went on to say that the Committee on Foreign Investments examined 65 deals a year on average, but as we reported here last night, and we would like to remind Mr. McClellan, that the committee has turned down only one deal out of 1,500 deals that it has reviewed.

President Bush has put forth a challenge tonight that I simply can't ignore. The president yesterday said he wanted those who are critical and questioning of this port deal to "step up and explain why all of a sudden a Middle Eastern company is held to a different standard than a Great British company."

Well, first of all, Mr. President, to equate any country to your principal partner in the coalition ignores that special relationship this country's enjoyed with the United Kingdom for decades and decades. This also is not just a British company and an Arab company, as I think you well know.

Peninsula and Oriental Steam Navigation is a British privately owned company. Dubai Ports World is a UAE government controlled and owned company. You see the difference, of course.

And furthermore, the money used to fund the 9/11 attacks, most of it, in fact, was sent to the hijackers through the UAE banking system. In fact, two of the hijackers were originally from the UAE.

The UAE stonewalled U.S. efforts to track al Qaeda bank accounts after 9/11. In addition, the Emirates does not recognize Israel as a sovereign state. And the UAE was a transfer point for shipments of nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya.

And if those aren't good enough reasons, I would just suggest I'm at a complete loss to offer what might be considered good reasons.

The oil-rich United Arab Emirates is a major investor in The Carlyle Group, the private equity investment firm where President Bush's father once served as senior adviser and is a who's who of former high-level government officials. Just last year, Dubai International Capital, a government-backed buyout firm, invested in an $8 billion Carlyle fund.

Another family connection, the president's brother, Neil Bush, has reportedly received funding for his educational software company from the UAE investors. A call to his company was not returned.

Then there is the cabinet connection. Treasury Secretary John Snow was chairman of railroad company CSX/. After he left the company for the White House, CSX sold its international port operations to Dubai Ports World for more than a billion dollars.

In Connecticut today, Snow told reporters he had no knowledge of that CSX sale. "I learned of this transaction probably the same way members of the Senate did, by reading about it in the newspapers."

Another administration connection, President Bush chose a Dubai Ports World executive to head the U.S. Maritime Administration. David Sanborn, the former director of Dubai Ports' European and Latin American operations, he was tapped just last month to lead the agency that oversees U.S. port operations.

CNN's Lou Dobbs Transcript

So, does this make Bu$h a terrorist?