Chertoff unaware of ports deal until after OK

[sabra]

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060224-123748-3727r.htm

Chertoff unaware of ports deal until after OK

THE WASHINGTON TIMES


Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was not aware a Dubai-owned company was seeking to operate terminals in six U.S. ports and that his agency was leading the review until after the deal's approval, an administration official said yesterday.

Mr. Chertoff's spokesman, Russ Knocke, told The Washington Times the issue rose no higher than the department's assistant secretary for policy, Stewart Baker.
" was not briefed up to this until after this story started appearing in the newspapers," Mr. Knocke said.

Mr. Chertoff is the third Cabinet official to acknowledge he did not know his agency had signed off on the plan as a member of the interagency Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS). Both Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Treasury Secretary John W. Snow have publicly said they were unaware of the deal.

But Mr. Chertoff's exclusion is more noteworthy because his department headed the CFIUS review and is in charge of security at all U.S. ports.

[BootinUp]

1. They are so good at this lying.

They don't care if you know in your gut that they are doing it.

[Karenina]

34. 21

[radfringe]

59. last sentence is pretty telling....

"If the president were burdened in particular with what are frequent routine business matters, that would take ..." The official stopped and did not complete the sentence.

----

fill in the blank? "If the president were burdened in particular with what are frequent routine business matters, that would take ..."

-- attention away from war on terror?
-- focus away from planning next vacation?
-- a miracle?

[gratuitous]

2. Astonishing, no?

The way things work in this administration, some low-level, nameless, faceless functionary can, without oversight, review or comment, turn the nation's ports and their security over to another country. I'd think that such a momentous decision would at least require a sign-off by someone in charge. But no.

[xiamiam]

3. bullshit..

[Roland99]

4. Good grief! Does *anyone* in this admin know wtf is going on?!?!?

The President didn't know it was OKed.
The Secretary of Homeland Security didn't know it was OKed.
The Chairman of the Committee that OKed the deal (who happens to be the Secretary of the Treasury and former CEO of CSX which sold int'l operations to DP World) didn't know it was OKed.

[Cassandra]

7. But, but...

they're the responsibility party, right? Right?

[LibDemAlways]

24. This was the line vile repuke Peter King of NY was

using on Tweety the other night. The decision had been made by "underlings." Absolutely laughable. The Bush Crime family leaves their decision-making to "underlings" about as often as the Corleones actively sold olive oil.

[Critters2]

30. And why would that matter?

Someone is allowing these "underlings" to run things. Where the hell does the buck stop in this administration?

[Dulcinea]

37. So who exactly knew about this port deal?

Not the President, Homeland Security secretary, or Treasury secretary.

So who rubber-stamped it?

[Roland99]

39. Sanborn? I have no idea.

[wordpix]

47. certainly DeadEyeDick knows--a reporter should ask him

[brooklynite]

5. Perhaps we should ask an easier question...

who did know about this deal?

[tinfoilinfor2005]

36. Cheney knows everything.

But he ain't talking.

[UpInArms]

6. So WHEN does the SECRET GOVERNMENT get EXPOSED???

Since no one is in charge, who will ask the question:

WHO IN THE HELL IS IN CHARGE HERE??????

(we all know that it is the CHENEY and BFEE Cabal... but there are those that seem to be in the dark :eyes: )

[MrBenchley]

8. So who the fuck DID okay it?

It's funny how, if its such a double-plus good idea to let Bin Laden's pals ruiin the ports, nobody wants to step up and take responsibility for making the decision.

Not to mention, it shows what a fuck-up the White House is from top to bottom. Chimpy must have a sign on his desk that says "Who can guess where the buck will stop?"

[Cobalt Violet]

9. Cut the guy some slack!

He's too busy listening to our phone calls and reading our emails, and building consentration camps for Democrats to know whats going on out there in the homeland!

:sarcasm:

[UpInArms]

10. Calling Peggy Noonan!!!

http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=85000738

Friday, March 23, 2001 12:01 a.m. EST

Mr. Bush and his people are making a million mistakes, and in time we'll know of some of them. All new crews in the White House make a million mistakes. But these people seem not to be making big ones, not yet. It continues to look as if the adults are in charge, and Mr. Bush is looking like a young man who's up to it and maybe more than up to it. I continue to wait for him to do something stupid or cynical so I can loudly disapprove of him and prove my ability to be objective within a context of obvious political sympathies and beliefs. But nine weeks in, I'm still waiting.

Ms. Noonan is a contributing editor of The Wall Street Journal and author of "The Case Against Hillary Clinton" (Regan Books, 2000). Her column appears Fridays.

When will Peggy Noonan "loudly disapprove"?

:rofl:

[wordpix2]

13. even Ann Nutjob Coulter is against ports deal---she was whacking * on this

last night on one of the MSNBC shows (but I can't remember which one)

[wordpix2]

11. BushCo looking so transparently incompetent &/or hiding something major

I say they're BOTH:mad:

[xiamiam]

12. how about the slick way they approved thid deal...done before revealed..nt

[wordpix2]

15. & no one in *admin. knew about it or saw political/security implications!?

Yeah, right. WTF! With every *admin. "I didn't know," the American sheeple are moving closer to impeaching the bunch of them (on top of Katrina and War in Iraq spinning out of control).

These dangerous morons must GO!

[xiamiam]

19. yep..but its time to stop talking ...and make it happen...im ready..nt

[wordpix]

49. time to make IMPEACHMENT happen

[rodeodance]

14. CFIUS aim is to hurry along investments--

Mr. Chertoff is the third Cabinet official to acknowledge he did not know his agency had signed off on the plan as a member of the interagency Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS). Both Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Treasury Secretary John W. Snow have publicly said they were unaware of the deal.

But Mr. Chertoff's exclusion is more noteworthy because his department headed the CFIUS review and is in charge of security at all U.S. ports.

[xiamiam]

18. i think this is grounds to not delay but stop the transaction...how could

3 members of a 12 member panel plus the president makes 13 not even know about it...Stinks,...and anyone who buys this story is an idiot...

[rodeodance]

16. "Chertoff unaware"--and went to bed not know levies had broken.

[zann725]

17. Oh Bull-dust! Everyone in the "inner-circle" KNEW and PLANNED it...

years ago. At least before or shortly after '04 Election win.

[SammyWinstonJack]

20. Proabably before and that's why they needed to steal the election

well one of the reasons anyway.

[wordpix]

44. tend to agree but it's possible Carlyle Group-Poppy cronies handled it all

and left Chimp's admin. out of it so they couldn't be accused of conflict of interest---however, the story is unraveling along with *Admin.

[shugah]

21. someone should point out that 'plausible deniability'

is supposed to be 'plausible."

edit: spieling

[leesa]

22. So nobody knew about it...how was it OK'd??

Amazing that the BushBots swallow these lies!

[SillyGoose]

23. So nobody knows nothing. What the hell good are they if no one

knows anything. This is absurd. We are supposed to believe the head of DHS didn't know, the head of Treasury didn't know, the Defense secretary didn't know, the President didn't know, and the Congress didn't know.

Cue Sargeant Shultz....

[jn2375]

25. kick

[Secular Agent Man]

26. "You're doin' a heckava job too Cherty"

:sarcasm:

[apnu]

28. you beat me to the punch. Bravo!

[rodeodance]

31. big shots do not want their beatiful minds cluttered with lowly details.

[ljm2002]

27. Sooo...

...Chertoff, the man who was appointed by Bush to head our Department of Homeland Security, the agency with primary responsibility for ensuring our country's security, didn't happen to notice that a state-run company from the UAE was going to take over operation of 21 US ports, including 6 major ports?

Rumsfeld didn't know, even though it had to be approved by the Pentagon?

Bush didn't know until he read it in the newspaper?

WTF?

These are the people who we should trust with our security???

[Marie26]

29. LOL - they're three for three

Chertoff, Snow, Rumsfeld all deny knowing about this port deal. There's 12 members on the CFIUS committee - has anyone yet actually admitted to approving this? Still 9 members left to ask.

[gkhouston]

52. I'm beginning to think this deal was okayed by the janitor. n/t

[trogdor]

32. Dayum.

Nobody wants to own up to this thing, huh?

[Norquist Nemesis]

33. Going to have to check the MTP transcripts

or whatever show he was on talking about the importance of keeping the economy humming along...I think he failed to mention that he took a crash course on 'facts' before his appearance.

[Burried News]

35. Mike you sound more like Brownie every day, great job Mike.

Of course we should acknowledge that the major component of your job is to create INSECURITY.

[Javaman]

38. Heck of a job, chertie....

[Auntie Bush]

40. I think we at DU should make it our business to make hundreds

of phone calls to all those agencies next time we have an emergency...so they can't say they didn't know. We'll tell 'em!

And this is the group we are going to depend on in case of an emergency!
:scared: I think this whole unfit administration needs to be impeached/tried and put in those new detention centers we are building.
Now that puts a smile on my face. :)

[Vinca]

41. What exactly do top level Bush administration officials do all day?

They missed the 9/11 warning signs, weren't aware a hurricane had decimated a major city and now this.

[wordpix]

46. jog, clear brush, hunt, make deal$ with cronie$ to get richer, take trips

luxury style thanks to fat lobbyists, and so many more things in the "national interest."

[electropop]

50. That Katrina claim still makes me wonder how the hell they

thought anybody would believe it. After everybody in America watched Katrina destroy the Gulf Coast on TV, the people in charge of disasters never heard about it? Come on, you can lie better than that!

Howver, since the ports deal broke, I've finally concluded Bush is completely delusional, raving, insane. Not just stoopid, or criminal, but completely disconnected from the physical world, living inside his drug-addled, half-dissolved brain.

[karlrschneider]

42. WTF are we paying these bastards for then?

:grr: :grr: :grr:

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

43. So, who DID know about this?

Can we name one?

[wordpix]

45. here's a guess: Carlyle Group higher ups and Halliburton/KBR

[electropop]

48. So they have decided that they would rather look like incompetent

idiots, than criminal enemies of America? Sorry, I still believe the latter.

[PassingFair]

51. It's what they're good at! .... n/t

[antonialee839]

53. If a deal is made and nobody knows about it, is there really a deal?

[newspeak]

54. I've been having this nightmare

that Bush goes on all of the networks and with an evil smirky grin, proclaims to all of the viewers, we have your ports, the land, the resources and there's nothing you can do about it--we also control the nukes, so play along with me and my friends or we're going to destroy one city at a time. And, behind him is the House of Saud and these greedy fat CEOs, and they're faces all have evil smirky grins. Like the whole country is being held hostage. I kid you not, I'm having bad dreams!!!

[Thor_MN]

55. Haven't seen this many bubbles since Lawrence Welk...

Bubble-boy and his champagne admin apparently can't find their asses with both hands....

[stickdog]

56. Bush Administration Seeks To Distance Itself From Itself (nt)

[Earth_First]

57. So the question begs to be asked: Was this Cheney's pet project?

His office seems to be the only one that haven't washed their hands yet.

[BenDavid]

58. Well hell, no one knows

anything at this White House, but, if I am correct the White House late this afternoon did say that Bush was informed at least a week and two days before it was made public....and this notion that bush did not know before hand is another LIE.....

[opihimoimoi]

60. 2 expendable clerks have come forth admitting to signing off on the deal

[Ouabache]

61. Maybe Bush's dog ate the paperwork ?

nt