and much more - like purchasing a major US defense contractor!!! House vote scheduled Thursday and is expected to be much closer than the Senate vote. Lot of bought-off or intimidated Congressional voters - much pressure is needed NOW. The Senate ALREADY PASSED IT LAST MONTH.
David Sirota reports:
http://www.workingforchange.com/blog/index.cfm?mode=entry&entry=849F046D-E0C3-F08F-991D793F942625E67.18.06
REPORT: Oman Trade Pact Permits Foreign Ownership of U.S. Nat’l Security Assets
In an explosive report tonight, top House Democrats discovered provisions in the controversial Oman Free Trade Agreement that would permit foreign ownership of U.S. ports and other key national security assets (
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/18/AR2006071801195_pf.html). Three Democrats and one Republican held an emergency press conference today to expose the provisions just before the House is scheduled to vote on the Oman pact on Thursday. As Reuters reports,
"Rep. John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat who serves on the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee, said the pact would allow companies such as Dubai Ports World to acquire U.S. port operations by establishing a shell company in Oman." Those provisions might also allow foreign ownership of other key national security assets, considering just after the recent Dubai Ports controversy, that country went ahead with plans to purchase a major U.S. defense contractor (http://www.nysun.com/article/30831?access=816628).Last month, lawmakers from both parties in the U.S. Senate (
http://www.workingforchange.com/blog/index.cfm?mode=entry&entry=21D4166F-E0C3-F084-D1864860F8C87BCA) joined hands to pass the Oman Free Trade Agreement - which is being pushed aggressively by the Bush administration and its largest corporate donors. Lawmakers ignored major labor, human rights and environmental objections to the pact put forward by more than 400 union, religious and consumer groups. Among those voting for the pact in the Senate were Mike DeWine (R-OH) and Joe Lieberman (D-CT), two Senators facing tough re-election bids who could face renewed criticism in their home states that they have sold out their constituents.
The House vote is expected to be much closer than the Senate vote, and the explosive news tonight puts a new level of pressure on congressional lawmakers of both parties not to sell out. To date, a number of Democratic lawmakers have yet to say how they will vote on the Oman pact. Corporate lobbyists are aggressively targeting the 15 Democrats (
http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/110905/news3.html) who last year capitulated to Big Money's demands and backed the corporate-written Central American Free Trade Agreement. They are also targeting members of the New Democratic Coalition - the group of Democrats most closely affiliated with the Democratic Leadership Council.
This vote is going to be extremely close - and bought-off lawmakers are scrambling to hide and/or obscure the details of these national security provisions. But as Reuters notes, even the Bush adminstration's trade representative acknowleges that the national security provisions create an exploitable security hole. That means that regardless of the propaganda efforts, the upcoming vote will put House members on record not only on economic issues, but on national security issues. Are these lawmakers going to sell out America's national security? Or are they going to stand up to Big Money interests and say this trade deal and others like it are unacceptable? Contact your House Member immediately and tell them you expect them to put America's national security first.
(snip - David Sirota has added updates and may add more)
David Sirota points out in an update that the story was originally broken by Lou Dobbs and Democratic Rep Sherrod Brown. (Brown and Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota spoke against this dangerous and craven bill on Lou Dobbs -
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/28/ldt.01.html)
Transcript from Lou Dobbs' June 29 show including this urgent topic:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/29/ldt.01.htmlRep. Sherrod Brown's June 30 post on this at Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-sherrod-brown/trading-away-our-security_b_24105.htmlTrading Away Our Security
Rep. Sherrod Brown, June 30 2006
After the public outcry over the Dubai ports deal, you'd think Republicans in Washington would think twice before proposing another trade deal that could threaten our national and economic security.
Think again.
Yesterday, Senator Mike DeWine voted for a free trade agreement with Oman (
http://sherrodbrown.com/press/releases/287) which then passed the Republican-controlled Senate.
A troubling provision in the agreement permits corporations from Oman and subsidiaries based there to operate U.S. ports.
(snip)
The House vote on this is coming up very soon, possibly tomorrow, according to David Sirota's report. It's already passed the Senate and is strongly backed by the White House (of course). Strong pressure is being put on representatives to pass this terrible bill, which would put the security of our country into the hands of whatever powers wanted to set up a shell country in Oman. And there has been mostly DEAFENING SILENCE. Heat up those fax machines, people!!!! Write your representatives!!!
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