Schumer Urges Bush to Block Ports Deal

[cal04]

Sen. Charles Schumer joined some family members of Sept. 11 victims Sunday to urge President Bush to personally intervene to block a port security contract with a Persian Gulf state. "This is a deal that was approved in the dark of night and needs to see the light of day," Schumer told a news conference on a Manhattan pier on New York Harbor. The president "should override the agreement and conduct a special investigation into the matter," Schumer said.

The senator also called for a 90-day inquiry into all port contracts involving foreign governments.
"In a post 9-11 world we can't be too careful. We cannot slide into complacency," said Schumer, who has contended for years that U.S. cargo ports remain the nation's most vulnerable targets for terrorism.

He said the Committee on Foreign Investment, which approved the $6.8 billion agreement allowing Dubai Ports World to oversee operations at six U.S. ports including New York and New Jersey, had "proven itself unreliable" on issues of national security. Currently only 5 percent of cargo containers entering U.S. ports are subjected to security inspection, Schumer said. Earlier Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff defended the agreement, saying the United Arab Emirates company had met "assurances" that it was "appropriate from a national security standpoint."

Schumer noted that banks in Dubai had laundered terrorist money and that the country had links to two Sept. 11 hijackers. Peter Gadiel, of Kent, Conn., whose son, James, was killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center attack, said he was deeply disturbed by the ports deal. "I'm a lifelong Republican and I think the President's gone insane," said Gadiel, director of a group called 9/11 Families for a Secure America.
http://1010wins.com/topstories/local_story_050220139.html

[NanceGreggs]

1. Sounds like BushCO and his cronies ...

... are living with that PRE-9/11 MINDSET we've heard so much about.

[smtpgirl]

2. this is so much bullshit

we have been selling our country out little, by little, why aren't the RW recognizing that.

It that what makes us DEMS!!


I say no to Dubai buying our ports, what next?

[bluestateguy]

3. If the Clinton Administration did this

I can only imagine the blood curdling rage we'd hear from the Right. It would be deafening.

[spindrifter]

8. You are correct! It is a non-partisan

conclusion that this is total crap.

[smtpgirl]

4. this link will tell you how the ME wants to make of our ports

Palm tree islands


http://realestate.theemiratesnetwork.com/developments/dubai/palm_islands.php

[Bobbieo]

6. Dubai Port Deal

This is the most blatant example of greed and duplicity since Dubya declared war on Iraq. Our sea coasts are even less protected than our borders. Homeland Security is going to keep terrorists from entering our seaports like they protected New Orleans from flooding during Katrina. BFD!!!!

[spindrifter]

9. The palm islands are

kind of kooky, but what's with the one in the shape of the world?

[smtpgirl]

5. If you can't buy

you can't sell?

http://realestate.theemiratesnetwork.com/developments/dubai/palm_islands.php


WAKE UP AMERICA

[Bobbieo]

7. The Palm Islands - Indeed

Have you seen the photos of their Alpine Ski Slopes in the middle of their desert? It's an enginerring masterpiece.

[Triana]

10. The bu$h Family and the Saudis - go back a long way...

...they've been business partners for decades - bu$hit would sell his own mother for a buck. Does ANYONE really think bu$hit will forego a sweet deal with the Sauds ($$$$) just for some national security?

I don't.

[scot]

11. Is ANYONE defending Bush on this assinine plan?

From what I've seen, the right has abandoned him on this one.

[BenDavid]

12. Here again is another

free gift for the Dems to take all the way to the bank, so to speak. They need to be the ones out front on this issue, and even though it is the Dems that intoroduced the bill, they should be the ones on the tv talking about the bad that could come from this sell.... Oh Dems take off your pink tutu's......Take the air from the repugs on this issue...because I can just hear all the networks saying, Republicans in Congress force Bush to rethink the port sale.....