Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Bush Sticks to his Guns on Port Deal

Whoa, Dubyah is threatening to veto any legislation delaying or preventing the taking over of U.S. Commercial Port operations by Dubai Ports of the UAE. Somebody must be making LOTS of money on this deal.

Dubyah’s claim that we need to build strategic partners in the Middle East and the Pentagon’s claim that the UAE has been a dependable ally are sort of irrelevant. Joe Biden hit the nail on the head when he said that the opposition demonstrated “a lack of confidence in the administration.”

Yeah, that sounds about right. I wouldn’t trust these guys to change a light bulb never mind insure that having an Arab company responsible for port operations isn’t going to make our security nightmare even worse.

While I’m sure that neither the UAE nor Dubai Ports is planning any terrorist operations, there is the issue of sleepers. If we know anything we know that Al-Qaeda is pretty good at covert operations and it would be a very large mistake to underestimate them. An Arab owned and run company that manages sea ports would be a pretty darn good place to insert a sleeper or two and wait for an opportunity.

If Al-Qaeda only consisted of blue collar working stiffs this wouldn’t be too much of an issue. Low level workers are not likely to be shipped around that much. But we know that the organization also has its share of middle class, well educated members that might very well have worked their way into management positions by now who might be in line for a promotion and transfer to a new operation.

I’m sorry boys, but I’m not convinced you did an adequate job. Why should I be? You haven’t done anything else right since you’ve been in office!

No comments: