On February 24, 2006, it was reported that there are 22 U.S. ports in the deal, not just the six major ports mentioned in initial news stories and reports. According to the website of P&O Ports, the port-operations subsidiary of P&O, DPW would take over stevedore services at 12 East Coast ports including Portland, Maine; Boston, Massachusetts; Davisville, Rhode Island; New York City; Newark, New Jersey; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Camden, New Jersey; Wilmington, Delaware; Baltimore, Maryland; and Virginia locations at Newport News, Norfolk, and Portsmouth.
Additionally, DPW will take over P&O stevedoring operations at nine ports along the Gulf of Mexico including the Texas ports of Beaumont, Port Arthur, Galveston, Houston, Freeport, and Corpus Christi, plus the Louisiana ports of Lake Charles and New Orleans.
Former Senate Majority Leader and 1996 Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole hired by Dubai Ports World to lobby Congress on its behalf against bipartisan criticism of the deal. Mr. Dole is a special counsel in the Washington office of the law firm Alston & Bird. DP World hired the firm in 2005 to help shepherd its purchase of the British-based firm Peninsular and Oriental
On March 8, 2006 the House Panel voted 62–2 to block the deal, and senator Charles Schumer added amendments to a senate bill to block the deal, causing an uproar in the senate.
On March 9, 2006, Dubai Ports World released a statement saying they would turn over operation of U.S. ports to a U.S. "Entity". Later that same day, American Enterprise Institute scholar Norm Ornstein reported on PBS's "News Hour" that DP World was considering selling its U.S. operations to Halliburton.
Dubai Ports World eventually sold P&O's American operations to American International Group's asset management division, Global Investment Group for an undisclosed sum.
Bill Clinton helped Dubai on ports deal
By Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington
Published: March 1 2006
Bill Clinton, former US president, advised top officials from Dubai two weeks ago on how to address growing US concerns over the acquisition of five US container terminals by DP World.
It came even as his wife, Senator Hillary Clinton, was leading efforts to derail the deal.
Clinton, who this week called the United Arab Emirates a “good ally to America”, advised Dubai’s leaders to propose a 45-day delay to allow for an intensive investigation of the acquisition, according to his spokesman.
Ports backlash makes Arab investors wary
On Sunday, DP World agreed with the White House to undertake the lengthy review, a move which has assuaged some of the opposition from the US Congress.
However, Mrs Clinton remains a leading voice against the deal, and this week proposed legislation to block it, arguing that the US could not afford to “surrender our port operations to foreign governments”.
Tide of populist anger swells in US heartlands
Mr Clinton’s spokesman said: “President Clinton is the former president of the US and as such receives many calls from world leaders and leading figures every week. About two weeks ago, the Dubai leaders called him and he suggested that they submit to the full and regular scrutiny process and that they should put maximum safeguards and security into any port proposal.”
He added that Mr Clinton supported his wife’s position on the deal and that “ideally” state-owned companies would not own US port operations.
Mr Clinton’s contact with Dubai on the issue underscores the relationship he has developed with the United Arab Emirates since leaving office. In 2002, he was paid $300,000 (€252,000) to address a summit in Dubai.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/60414c4c-a95e-11da-a64b-0000779e2340.html?nclick_check=1Hillary Clinton 'unaware' of Bill's Dubai ties
By Stephanie Kirchgaessner
Updated: 3:12 a.m. ET March 4, 2006
Hillary Clinton, a leading opponent of DP World's takeover of some US port operations, was this week forced to admit that she did not know her husband had advised Dubai leaders on how to handle the growing dispute.
But former President Bill Clinton's ties to Dubai and the United Arab Emirates should not have come as a surprise to his New York senator wife.
http://us.ft.com/ftgateway/superpage.ft?news_id=fto030320061433099524&page=2Hillary Clinton 'unaware' of Bill's Dubai ties; but her senatorial financial disclosure says different!
Senator Hillary Clinton (d-NY) is a leading opponent of the UAE owned DP World's takeover of US port management at 21 different locations.
This week, she stated that she wasn't aware that her husband had advised Dubai leaders on how to handle the growing dispute.Hillary Clinton 'unaware' of Bill's Dubai ties - Financial Times - MSNBC.com
But former President Bill Clinton's ties to Dubai and the United Arab Emirates should not have come as a surprise to his US senator wife.
Mrs Clinton's own senatorial financial disclosure forms reveal that her husband earned $450,000 giving speeches in Dubai in 2002.
Officials from the UAE also donated between $500,000 and $1m to fund Mr Clinton's presidential library in Arkansas!
According to the Financial Times article, this was part of an effort by the emirates, said a person close to UAE officials, to forge a close relationship with a former US president who is influential and highly regarded in the region.
Is that another way of saying `let's bribe us an ex-President and hire hime as a lobbyist?'. I think so. Mr. Bill joins an impressive list of UAE paid lobbyists hammering congress on their behalf,including ex Senate majority Leader Tom Daschele, Clinton's ex-Secretary of State Madeline Albright and ex Republican Senate Minority Leader and presidential candidate Bob Dole.
None of these people work cheap, which leads me to question why the UAE is willing to spread this kind of money around on this deal to get it through.
Mrs Clinton is widely regarded as the leading Democratic candidate for the 2008 presidential elections, and she has used her opposition to the ports deal to attack the Bush administration on national security, an issue that has been a weak point for Democrats.
Some would regard this as classic Clinton-having it both ways.
Needless to say, Mrs. Clinton's selective amnesia may cause some of her proponents to think twice about whether they really want Mrs. Clinton and her husband back in the White House.
http://joshuapundit.blogspot.com/2006/03/hillary-clinton-unaware-of-bills-dubai.htmlMrs Clinton's own senatorial financial disclosure forms reveal that her husband earned $450,000 giving speeches in Dubai in 2002.
Officials from the UAE also donated between $500,000 and $1m to fund Mr Clinton's presidential library in Arkansas.
Mr Clinton's admiration for the UAE was last on display in November, when the former president made his fourth visit to the American University in Dubai and met students who have benefited from the Clinton scholarship programme.
The UAE has also contributed to an issue close to the hearts of both the Clinton and Bush families, having donated $100m to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.
Mrs Clinton's tough stance has given UAE officials some consternation, a person familiar with the deal said. The woman regarded as the leading Democratic candidate for the 2008 presidential elections has used the transaction, which polls show is unpopular with a majority of Americans, to attack the Bush administration on an issue that is considered a weak point for Democrats: national security.
Although Mrs Clinton has been careful not to criticise the UAE directly, her stance has put her in the same camp as legislators who openly accuse Dubai of helping to finance the September 11 terrorist attacks and deem the UAE to be untrustworthy.
Privately, some Democrats see revelations about Mr Clinton's ties to the UAE as a classic Clinton dilemma. Although both Hillary and Bill Clinton say the former president stands behind his wife on the issue, his relationship to the UAE has complicated her position.
The UAE has sought to quell concerns over the deal by hiring a handful of former Clinton officials and other Democrats to lobby on Dubai's behalf. One Democratic lobbyist approached Joe Lockhart, the former press secretary for Mr Clinton, though he turned down the request.
It was part of an effort by the emirates, said a person close to UAE officials, to forge a close relationship with a former US president who is influential and highly regarded in the region.
An Unlikely Criminal Crossroads
From Egypt to Afghanistan, when terrorists and gangsters need a place to meet, to relax, maybe to invest, they head to Dubai, a bustling city-state on the Persian Gulf. The Middle East's unquestioned financial capital, Dubai is the showcase of the United Arab Emirates, an oil-rich federation of sheikdoms. Forty years ago, Dubai was a backwater; today, it hosts dozens of banks and one of the world's busiest ports; its free-trade zones are crammed with thousands of companies. Construction is everywhere--skyscrapers, malls, hotels, and, soon, the world's tallest building.
A godfather's lethal mix of business and politics
But Dubai also serves as the region's criminal crossroads, a hub for smuggling, money laundering, and underground banking. There are Russian and Indian mobsters, Iranian arms traffickers, and Arab jihadists. Funds for the 9/11 hijackers and African embassy bombers were transferred through the city. It was the heart of Pakistani scientist A. Q. Khan's black market in nuclear technology and other proliferation cases. Half of all applications to buy U.S. military equipment from Dubai are from bogus front companies, officials say. "Iran," adds one U.S. official, "is building a bomb through Dubai." Last year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents thwarted the shipment of 3,000 U.S. military night-vision goggles by an Iranian pair based in Dubai. Moving goods undetected is not hard. Dhows--rickety wooden boats that have plowed the Arabian Sea for centuries--move along the city center, uninspected, down the aptly named Smuggler's Creek.
U.A.E. rulers have taken terrorism seriously since 9/11, but Washington has a half-dozen extradition requests that they refuse to honor. The list includes people accused of rape, murder, and arms trafficking, and the last fugitive of the BCCI banking scandal. The country has put money laundering controls on the books but has made few cases. Interior Minister Sheik Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan told U.S. News the U.A.E. has made great strides in cracking down, but he insists that the real problems lie elsewhere. "We are a neutral country, like Switzerland," he says. "Give us the evidence, and we will do something about it. Don't blame others." Not everyone agrees. "All roads lead to Dubai," says former treasury agent John Cassara, author of Hide and Seek, a forthcoming book on terrorism finance. Cassara tried explaining U.S. concerns about Dubai to a local businessman but got only a puzzled look: "Mr. John, money laundering? But that's what we do. "
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/051205/5terror.b1.htm