Arab company & White house had secret deal by Yahoo (i knew it!)

[T_Matamoro]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060223/ap_on_go_pr_wh/ports_security

WASHINGTON - Under a secretive agreement with the Bush administration, a company in the United Arab Emirates promised to cooperate with U.S. investigations as a condition of its takeover of operations at six major American ports, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
The U.S. government chose not to impose other, routine restrictions.
In approving the $6.8 billion purchase, the administration chose not to require state-owned Dubai Ports World to keep copies of its business records on U.S. soil, where they would be subject to orders by American courts. It also did not require the company to designate an American citizen to accommodate requests by the government.

Outside legal experts said such obligations are routinely attached to U.S. approvals of foreign sales in other industries.

Dubai Ports agreed to give up records on demand about "foreign operational direction" of its business at the U.S. ports, according to the documents. Those records broadly include details about the design, maintenance or operation of ports and equipment. It also pledged to continue participating in programs to stop smuggling and detect illegal shipments of nuclear materials.

"They're not lax but they're not draconian," said James Lewis, a former U.S. official who worked on such agreements. If White House officials negotiating the deal had predicted the firestorm of criticism over it, "they might have made them sound harder."

The conditions over the sale of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. were detailed in U.S. documents marked "confidential." Such records are regularly guarded as trade secrets, and it is highly unusual for them to be made public.
The Republican head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, John Warner of Virginia, planned an oversight hearing Thursday. Warner has expressed support for the agreement, describing the UAE as an important ally against terrorism.

Rep. Peter King (news, bio, voting record) of New York, the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the conditions are evidence the Bush administration was concerned about security. "There is a very serious question as to why the records are not going to be maintained on American soil subject to American jurisdiction," King said.

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Welcome to DU, T_Matamoro!

Thanks for posting this!:hi:

[T_Matamoro]

3. will do!

Yeah i did as per what you said. WOHOOO I think that was the first time ever i got a news post up before anyone else on ANY BOARD EVER! ya gotta be quick! :D

ps- well not that quick now since it's 5:46 AM (est)!!!! :boring:

[Cooley Hurd]

4. Yep, DU is a fluid place...

...it keeps you on your toes!:hi:

[T_Matamoro]

2. just checking up

my first "solo post"! hope this aint a dupe! but i got it off Yahoo where it posted it less than one minute ago. I knew that jerk off was up to something sneaky! With both sides of the aisle condeming this and he stands by it?????? WTF?????
He really is in Bed with the Arab-Saudi Elites!

[leftchick]

5. you need to reduce the post to four paragraghs

per copyright rules here and you need the exact headline "Arab Company, White House Had Secret Deal" .

Welcome to DU TM!

:toast:

[Up2Late]

6. You should include the original headline and the authors "by line" in....

...your original post. It a copyright thing I think. Because this is NOT the Latest Breaking News forum, you don't have to change your headline, but you should include the original in your post.

Just open the top post, click the "edit" button, fix those things, and click "Update Message" and everything will be great.

Oh, and reduce it down to 4 Paragraphs, if it's important, folks will click through via the link.

[T_Matamoro]

7. done & done, hopefully.........

[T_Matamoro]

8. Now my political commentary! :)

whew! got that all squared away! (i hope) Now i'd like to say, I KNEW IT! With both left and right nipping at his heels and he goes out of his way to defend this deal?
What a crock, I knew something was rotten in the state of Demar........err i mean the US! Speaking of Denmark, i realise now that Bush is like Hamlet ONLY DUMBER! :dunce:
He really is in bed with the Saudi - arab elites! I wonder how this will play in the press tommorrow, will (what a)Rush! Limbaugh talk about it on his show? or ignore it?
To be stupid or not to be stupid, mr. president, THAT is the question!

[fasttense]

9. Great post T_Matamoro

Thanks for the link. I couldn't find it on my own. Wow, this certainly makes me wonder. I've got so many questions about this secret deal that it is hard to get them straight.

1. Since when does the AP do investigative journalism? Normally they just rehash the talking points with a little research thrown in. But even with this story they spin it to make bush look less irresponsible.

2. So bush sold off America's major seaports to get the UAE to cooperate in investigations? What kind of investigations? How much is considered cooperation?

3. Seems these are very lax conditions for opening up unhindered access to our country to a known supporter of terrorists. I mean the UAE has got to be in the middle of these terrorists or why else even make the deal. Where does this Lewis guy get off with these are not lax conditions?

4. Rep. Peter King of New York, the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the conditions are evidence the Bush administration was concerned about security. "There is a very serious question as to why the records are not going to be maintained on American soil subject to American jurisdiction." Evidence of concern for security? Shows to me an utter disregard for security considering their turning over seaports to a nation that is dealing regularly with terrorists. But King has given an excuse for the repukes to roll over on this and approve of the sell out of America. You just hide and watch, congress is going to do nothing about this deal.

My head is just spinning on this. Can't wait to see what others post.

[Disturbed]

12. So the Silverspoon Sociopath is caught in another lie.

It seems that the Bushbots are even upset about this sale but don't give a damn how many times they are lied to. When it was stated that he and Rummy didn't know about this deal until a few days ago I knew that they were lying. Something this important would never not be known to these criminals.

[alphafemale]

10. Recommended

[HereSince1628]

11. How does reversing yourself twice in 24 hours help damage control?

Bluster in support of the agreement acting like you know what the hell your doing and, then turn around and claim ignorance. Well, this had possibilities of being the truth because of course everyone knows Bush is a bag of hot air, has a knee jerk reaction to loyalty, and is no odoubt dumber than a dead armadillo lying in the Texas sun at the side of the Old Spanish Road.

But then we witness a sharp about face and the WH leaks a secretive agreement which clearly will force Bush to run away from that defense and rather clear seems to indict his soddy self for lying about the previous claim of no foreknowledge of the deal.

Is this truth or lie? Could it all be true, because Bush is ignorant, incompetent, and is kept out of the loop while a secretive clique operates the levers of government?

[magellan]

13. Woah, this secret deal BushCo cut with DP World is OUTRAGEOUS

In approving the $6.8 billion purchase, the administration chose not to require state-owned Dubai Ports World to keep copies of its business records on U.S. soil, where they would be subject to orders by American courts. It also did not require the company to designate an American citizen to accommodate requests by the government."

This sounds to me like a brazen deal granting DP World ZERO ACCOUNTABILITY for anything bad that happens under their auspices at 6 US ports. No wonder it was a secret agreement!!

Wait till it dawns on the Freeps.

[T_Matamoro]

14. I have afeeling this is gonna get good!

[magellan]

15. I think you're right!

And it SHOULD. Every American regardless of political persuasion should be up in arms over this blatant end-run around US law by the administration (not the first, mind you)...AND people should also be asking themselves why BushCo are favoring DP World with these particular arrangements, made in secret no less!

If there's nothing to them, why were they made in secret??

Oh yeah, let me step down off my fiery soapbox for a moment to welcome you to the DU, T_Matamoro. Wonderful entrance! :)

[unhappycamper]

16. T_Matamoro:

Please be aware that DU copyright rules require that excerpts of copyrighted material be limited to four paragraphs and must include a link to the original source.

In the future, please insure your posts adhere to this standard.

TIA,

unhappycamper
DU Moderator

[T_Matamoro]

19. ok will do

I got told above about the 4 paragraph rule so i cut the article down as much as i could but my Grammer rules aint that sharp. I did'nt know if a single sentance followed by a new paragraph qualified as a whole paragraph on it's own.

[Tin Man]

17. So in fact, the Whitehouse KNEW ALL ABOUT the deal beforehand !!!

from the article:

-snip-

In approving the $6.8 billion purchase, the administration chose not to require state-owned Dubai Ports World to keep copies of its business records on U.S. soil, where they would be subject to orders by American courts. It also did not require the company to designate an American citizen to accommodate requests by the government.

-snip-

Uhhhh, this indicates the Whitehouse wasn't "caught by surprise" about the deal - in fact they knew about it, had a hand in negotiating it, and ultimately approved it.

[T_Matamoro]

20. YEP!

I kinda noticed my "headline" is a little confusing, looks like it might not have anything to do with the "UAE port deal" but it does. too late to edit the title though.
I think once people wake up today (hey what am i talking about, it's almost lunch) and hear this story people are going to go ballistic!

[ClayZ]

18. WOW!

:popcorn: This should be interesting. Good find!


Welcome to DU, T_Matamoro.

[T_Matamoro]

21. EVEN MORE STRANGE, the original article is no longer on yahoo front page

probably the biggest news article of the day and it dissappears ?????!!!!!
i guess it got bumped by the article about the ice skater who dropped out of an event.:eyes: that's MUCH more important news. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...............


ETA: the link i provided above now links to an "re-edited" version of the original story. It seems to downplay the Secret agreement they had BEFORE the news about the ports even broke. this is disturbing! i wonder if the original article is posted here in breaking news??