BREAKING: Rumsfeld and Pace Not ConsultTransfer Of Port Operations To UAE

[kpete]

BREAKING: Rumsfeld and Pace Not Consulted On
Transfer Of Port Operations To UAE
In a press briefing today, Secretary Rumsfeld revealed that he was not consulted about the decision to transfer operations of six key U.S. ports to the United Arab Emirates, a country with troubling ties to international terrorism.

QUESTION: Are you confident that any problems with security — from what you know, are you confident that any problems with security would not be greater with a UAE company running this than an American company?

RUMSFELD: I am reluctant to make judgments based on the minimal amount of information I have because I just heard about this over the weekend.

Rumsfeld’s statement was particularly troubling because Dubai Ports World, owned and operated by the UAE government, will also take over a major contract managing the movement of military equipment for the U.S. Army. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Peter Pace, who was at the briefing, also said he found out about the deal over the weekend. The deal was approved on February 13.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan claimed the Defense Department was part of “a rigorous review…for national security concerns.” If so, why were two of the Department’s top officials not even informed, much less consulted.

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/02/21/rumsfeld-not-consulted/

[Roland99]

1. Rummy was...*gasp*...Out of the loop??

:rofl:

[FreedomAngel82]

14. LOL

Did they know what he knew what she knew what he didn't know? :crazy:

[liberal N proud]

2. I thought all decisions made in the bu$h regime went through him

as well as Duck Cheney and Wolfowitz

So did bu$h do this without consulting any of them?

[OldLeftieLawyer]

4. On Lou Dobbs last night,

I heard someone - was it Chertoff? - say that the White House "had no knowledge" of this plan to hand over control of our ports.

How about THAT?

[liberal N proud]

6. I would suspect that to be some sort of protection provided

to keep the white house from being suspect.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

7. Yeah, that surely got my attention

I suppose they prefer to be demonstrably ignorant and incompetent rather than the thieving thugs that they really are.

Such sleazeballs, all of them.

[hippiechick]

13. Wow, Homeland Security's on the ball with this one, eh ?

:eyes:

[OldLeftieLawyer]

16. You ever hear Chertoff?

I was doing other things when I heard this woman talking, and when I finally looked at the TV, it was Chertoff.

It's the strangest thing. I mean, it's not just high-pitched. It's a damn woman's voice!

When was our last Terror Alert?

Yeah, none since the 2004 election.

What a joke the whole "Homeland Security" thing is. Witness Katrina.

[FreedomAngel82]

15. Perhaps all except Rummy

[Lerkfish]

3. obviously someone(s) is lying and someone(s) is CYA

who is whom remains to be seen.

[JHB]

9. Lying, obfuscation, and CYA buck-passing from senior Bush officials!

What a novel and unexpected development. :sarcasm: :eyes:

[rodeodance]

5. looks like Scott is passing on lies again.

....White House spokesman Scott McClellan claimed the Defense Department was part of “a rigorous review…for national security concerns.” If so, why were two of the Department’s top officials not even informed, much less consulted.

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. Just heard about it over the weekend? JUST HEARD ABOUT IT OVER

THE WEEKEND? Did the Dubai Port Authority forget to send a check to Rumsfeld? What a collapse in protocol.

[Sydnie]

10. These are the people that SHOULD have been involved in the decision

Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy. In February 2003, the Department of Homeland Security was added to CFIUS. This brought the membership of CFIUS to twelve under the chairmanship of the Secretary of Treasury. The other members are the Secretaries of State, Defense, and Commerce, the Attorney General, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the U.S. Trade Representative, and the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.

http://www.treasury.gov/offices/international-affairs/exon-florio/

These are the members of CFIUS.

How could Rummy NOT know if they followed the rules?

I know, what rules?

[xiamiam]

11. thinking the same thing...now what does this really mean?

The CFIUS was incomplete.....yet did a thorough investigation?...not that I think Rumsfeld wouldnt have gone along witht them..but each day this is more strange...I have great respect for Jimmy Carter so that one is throwing me a bit....but something about this and the way its been handled is not right...

[cliss]

12. I can only refer to a small quote

in Time magazine, about 5 years ago. The article was about the New Occupants of the White House; Bush and Cheney. It reviewed Cheney's energy meetings and lots of other things going on.

One staffer casually mentioned, "No matter what you think is going on, we will always be 10 steps ahead of you".

Ominous words, and how true they have turned out to be. Time probably just innocently included the words, not knowing how sinister that quote was. OF COURSE, that's what they're doing. They're creating chaos much faster than we can deal with it.

You better believe that while we're trying to cope with this latest crisis, they have already made 10 deals that we don't even know about. And they're all bad for the American public.

[Peace Patriot]

17. Well, not that I would trust Rumsfeld any farther than I could throw him

(and though I'm small, I could throw him pretty far, let me tell you), but this is the weirdest yet, on this colossal scandal. Either he's lying (quite likely), or somebody's out to get him (also possible). The Sec of Defense NOT being involved in such a decision, and not even knowing about it, is simply not believable, without something very untoward going on. You know, I've often wondered about that plane or missile or whatever it was that hit the Pentagon with Rumsfeld inside (supposedly)--in a meeting, he said, all during the critical hour between the planes hitting the WTC and then more off-course planes heading for DC. Well, I didn't much believe that anyway (that he was in a meeting). I mean, Rumsfeld drew all NORAD decision-making power into his own hands just three months before 9/11, and then was AWOL while our capitol stood unprotected for an hour, with one of the planes (or whatever it was) just sailing on in to the side of the Pentagon? Air Force stood down. NORAD stood down. WTF? And Cheney's off in a bunker somewhere. I was thinking maybe Cheney was trying to off Rumsfeld, in some last minute dirty twist to the grandest dirty trick of all time. (I also wondered that about Bush, who was kept at a widely publicized location--the school--long, long after the prez should have been there, in such a circumstance. Put the kids in danger, too.)

Oh, well, who knows about these people? Really, who could ever have imagined that we would have such fears and consider them actually believable, even quite possible. But I guess the least we know from this latest Rumsfeld rune is that we have a house divided, which is probably good, but, really, who knows? And widdle 'ol Bush, their puppet and plaything, with his lo-o-o-ong wooden nose and his finger on the twigger, caught between puppet masters. Yikes.

-------------------

Speaking of the Secret Service, I still want to know what the hell they were doing while an old fart with a shotgun in his hand wandered off from the V-P's hunting party, disappeared to an unseen location, and then returned some one hundred yards and "surprised" Cheney. Were they drunk, too?