Dubai CEO says port deal will succeed despite US opposition

[sabra]

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world_business/view/196369/1/.html

Dubai CEO says port deal will succeed despite US opposition

WASHINGTON : The head of a Dubai company facing a US political firestorm over its multi-billion dollar bid to takeover the operations of six major American ports voiced optimism the deal would succeed.

In an with CNN television, Dubai Ports World chief executive officer Mohammed Sharaf said: "As far as we're concerned the deal is going to go through."

...

Republican representative Duncan Hunter, the chairman of the powerful House Armed Services Committee, is seeking to sink the deal.

Hunter alleges Dubai operates as a "bazaar for terrorist nations" and cannot be trusted to safeguard American national security interests.

[GrumpyGreg]

1. Isn't that just ducky !!!

[buddysmellgood]

2. Well the CEO should know. He owns the U.S. government now.

[fearnobush]

3. Dubai CEO says port deal will succeed despite US opposition

We are so fucked people.

[ellenfl]

4. that's what i thought i heard him say. no one

will be able to stop this. it's a done deal by the people who run this country . . . and i don't mean congress. dubai and dubya are hoping we will forget about it . . . because that's what we do . . . and it will quietly become a reality. actually i hope that happens. it could be the final nail in the neocon coffin.

ellen fl

[silverweb]

5. It's official now.

The United States of America is no longer a representative democratic republic.

Its only legislative body, Congress, is powerless and multinational corporations now get whatever they want despite the will of The People or the censure of Congress.

Any pretense at "spreading democracy" and any claim of the U.S. being a "democracy" _Bushco makes are now objectively proven to be lies.

The spread of fascism is now official American policy.

:cry:

On edit: K&R -- because it's very, very important for everyone to digest and really understand the full implications of this.

[0007]

10. 'Tis sad but true - we're so screwed!

The spread of fascism is now official American policy.

[dmr]

26. Threat of serious financial consequences

Sharaf also noted that the British government had approved the deal and he warned of serious financial consequences for investors if US lawmakers derail the deal.

[radfringe]

41. they flipped us the bird

just like bush* does

[SOS]

46. The US should abolish the current Congress

and assign the seats to the CEOs of the top 535 transnational corporations.
That would be a more honest arrangement and we wouldn't have to waste our time voting.

[CoffeeCat]

6. What nerve...

Seriously...why did this guy have to go on the most-watched American news program--and proclaim that he will get exactly what he wants--despite what 80 percent of Americans want?

Holy Crikey!

I can understand the lies and manipulation in the background. I assumed they would try to surreptitiously glide this deal through under the radar. We all know BushCo and Dubai want this. That's not shocking.

What is shocking is that this jerk thinks he can blast to all of us--on our turf--that we will take it up the nose and we have nothing to say about it!

I'm absolutely appalled. Damn straight he did this with the blessing of Junior. It's as if they need to power up on us--to make us feel helpless and powerless to stop anything they want to do.

The medium is the message--in this case--that's for damn sure.

Positively revolting!!! We should not stand for this!!

Where are the massive protests?

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. Does anybody see this as an act of war? A hostile takeover that

is againt our political will as a country?

[silverweb]

8. Yes.

And I think we ought to swamp our representatives to make sure they regard it as an act of war, too.

[ixion]

12. It sounded like a threat to me

so, yeah. :grr:

[Horse with no Name]

19. Certainly an act of aggression

Another great instance of "whatcha gonna do about it".
:shaking head:

[High Plains]

37. No. n/t

[lovuian]

9. Dubai CEo dictates to US Americans what they don't like

doesn't freakin matter... Bush is our boy and he rules... Shut up.......

[OneTwentyoNine]

11. And....lets see how long it takes Chimp to hit a 20% approval rating...

NO ONE wants this to go through. Even the most mindless,Pillboy,Freak Republic loving idiots know this is a batshit crazy idea.

[silverweb]

13. CALL TO ACTION!

(1) Send this article and your comments to your state and federal representatives -- with a demand that they stand up and fight this hostile takeover.

(2) Send this article and your comments to everyone you know, liberal and conservative, Democrat and Republican, nonreligious and devout, patriotic and apathetic -- and tell them to pass it on.

This is an Act of War by the corporofascists (which includes the Bush Administration) against the People and the Constitution of the United States. If we don't resist now, it may be decades before we get another chance... if we ever do.

[salin]

14. Guess they were already given assurances

that the legislative branch and oversight powers of said branch are no longer functional in this country.

[LynnTheDem]

15. So FUCK YOU, we the people!

Why not? bush has been fucking we the people since 2000 and continues to do so.

[MetaTrope]

16. Here's an interesting article that speaks directly to Dubai-Bin Laden team

http://www.frontpagemag.com/articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=21467

The U.S.-based executives of Dubai Ports World report to the emir of Dubai, who owns controlling interest in the Dubai-based company. His name is Gen. Sheik Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum. It just so happens that Sheik Maktoum also owns the deed to CAIR's headquarters located practically in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol. As I first reported in my book, "Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington," CAIR's deed is recorded in the name of his foundation, the Al-Maktoum Foundation. It put up more than $978,000 for the property and holds the rights to sell it, manage it and collect rents from other tenants in the multistory red-brick building on the CAIR property, located at 453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E., in Washington. (You can view the relevant pages of the documents on the book's companion website, sperryfiles.com.)

CAIR's landlord, Sheik Maktoum, doubles as UAE defense minister. Before 9/11, he provided UAE military C-130 cargo planes to supply al-Qaida hunting camps in Afghanistan with all the amenities they needed when he and other high-level UAE officials and princes took hunting trips there. On one trip
in 1999, roughly half the UAE royal family was the guest of Osama bin laden at his camp near Kandahar. They flew in on an official UAE aircraft, according to a recently declassified CIA memo dated Feb. 19, 1999, and titled, "Recent High Level UAE Visits to Afghanistan." The memo also determined that Dubai officials had lied to U.S. officials about visiting the camps. And they were believed to have even tipped off bin Laden about a coming strike on his camps. Mind you, this was just months after bin Laden blew up the two U.S. embassies in Africa (a plot which was financed in part through Dubai banks), so they knew they were in bad company. Just like CAIR knows it's in bad company.

...Making matters worse, the CEO who answers directly to Maktoum at his Dubai Ports operation -- Mohammed Sharaf -- studied in Arizona in the early 1990s at the same time al-Qaida was setting up an American beachhead there. Several prominent al-Qaida leaders emerged from the Arizona university
system. In addition, one of the 9/11 pilots, Hani Hanjour, studied English there in 1990, and later took flying lessons in the Phoenix area.

This is a red flag the Treasury group that supposedly vetted the port deal more than likely overlooked. If officials really didn't rubber-stamp the deal, they would have called the FBI agent who wrote the famously prescient "Phoenix memo" before 9/11. I'm sure he could fill them in on any troubling connections Sharaf may have in Arizona.

[High Plains]

38. Ah, Frontpagemag.com. There's a progressive source for you.

This is right-wing claptrap.

[MetaTrope]

45. Please point out the factual errors then?

:eyes:

[kurth]

17. FUCK YOU, Mohammed Sharaf!

[Megahurtz]

44. I second that! n/t

[VegasWolf]

18. Sure, they have their hands on the oil faucet supplying Exxon and

Halliburton via their Saudi buddies. They will tell Bush to jump and he will ask how high.

[Colorado Blue]

20. Another interesting point: the poor British investors. We

need to think about them, according to the CEO: they're expecting to get their money already.

[Hekate]

21. Gee whiz, * doesn't see any problem with it! It's just about money...

The Dubai thing is a corporate business transaction, approved by all the money-men in our government. The money-men think it's a sound business deal, and they can't imagine what our problem with it could be. They saw no need to run it by anyone with national security experience, like maybe the CIA.

Security is not an issue with Bush unless, of course, Karl Rove is ginning up another propaganda offensive. The fact that Rove/Bush have been whooping the alarm ever since 9-11 seems to have come back to bite them in the ass -- the average American having absorbed the "Arabs are a threat" message.
:popcorn:
We'll see what develops.

Hekate

[autorank]

22. Pull his f*#king passport. What arrogance.

"We're all Quail to the Bush Administration."

This guy should be named "persona non grata."

[cassiepriam]

23. The takeover is now official. We are owned lock stock and barrel

by China and the Mideast.

[Disturbed]

24. It is strange to be on the same side with Duncan Hunter

on an issue. This deal cannot stand. This may be the one issue that Americans will get outraged about.

[cassiepriam]

27. That remains to be seen, nothing else has enraged them.

[sattahipdeep]

29. Hunter Didn't Get the Memo

QUESTION: Was the State Department involved in discussions over the UAE taking over
management of six ports -- six U.S. ports?

MR. MCCORMACK: The State Department is part of an interagency process which is led
by the Department of Treasury. We did participate in it. This interagency process did a
thorough review of all aspects of this proposed sale. And the bottom line finding was that
there was no basis on -- no national security basis on which to block the sale going
forward.

http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2006&m=February&x=20060217172404xjsnommis0.3468439&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html

[leesa]

51. Duncan must be in more legal trouble with his side deals than we know

about....either that or he didn't get his cut of the payola. This should be right up his alley...selling out our security for a buck.

[AndyA]

25. I think this is going to really hurt Bush

This is something that people can understand. They will resent having this shoved down their throats, in spite of the majority of the people being against it. If this goes through, it will be the end of Bush and the Republicans.

This issue already has taken Bush from the low 40s in the polls to the mid-30s. Look for mid-20s now.

The Democrats need to be all over this:

AMERICA: WHAT YOU WANT DOESN'T MATTER ANYMORE.

AMERICA IS BUSH COUNTRY - LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT!

[crowcalling]

28. So then should the country have a new name?

Notice I didn't say "our" country. It isn't "ours" anymore folks.

The United States of Global Corporations.

Should we look into a new flag??? Or should we forego the flag and just decide on a logo?

[Frank Cannon]

30. The flag's already been made

[Canuckistanian]

31. You WILL be assimilated. Resistance is futile.

Interesting to see what will happen to Rep. Hunter. He's meddling with the primal forces of nature here.

[Spazito]

32. Wow, is this a fine FU to congress and the American public

but I am sure bush will handle this arrogance appropriately and say "You're doing a heck of a job, Sharafie".

[Name removed]

33. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[sattahipdeep]

34. How does someone become an ex-terrorist?

Ex-Taliban envoy released from Guantanamo Bay

Date: Sep 14, 2005 - 08:35 PM
Former Taliban ambassador in Islamabad, Abdul Salam Zaeef has been
released from the infamous Guantanamo Bay detention centre by the
US government and reached Kabul on Sunday evening.

Taliban foreign minister Maulvi Wakil Ahmad
Mutawakil did not announce the much-talked
about support to the present regime in Kabul and
rather he (Mutawakil) in his press conference defended the Taliban.

http://www.afghania.com/printarticle7080.html

Q Did you get a -- did you get any information on the visa
for Mr. Rahmatullah?

MR. ERELI: I did. I thought we shared it with you. The
information is that he applied for a visa, and -- he applied for a
visa. We looked at the reasons for his wanting to come here, his
eligibility, determined he was eligible, and issued him a visa.

Q A question yesterday was also how does someone become an
ex-terrorist, if you will, member of the Taliban?

MR. ERELI: Well, I guess -- all I can tell you about that is
that at the time he applied, for the purposes for which he wished the

United -- to come to the United States, and based on a review of his
activity in the past, it was determined that there was no basis for
ineligibility.

Put in simple English, I think what you can conclude from that is
-- well, if -- I don't know that if -- if he was indeed a member of
the Taliban, being a member of the Taliban, in and of itself, is not
-- was not necessarily and is not -- was not necessarily at the time,
given what he was doing and what -- he wanted to come to the United
States, a grounds for ineligibility.

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/-state-department-regular-briefing-briefer-adam-ereli-deputy-/2006/03/01/1421259.htm

QUESTION: Was the State Department involved in discussions over the UAE taking over
management of six ports -- six U.S. ports?

MR. MCCORMACK: The State Department is part of an interagency process which is led
by the Department of Treasury. We did participate in it. This interagency process did a
thorough review of all aspects of this proposed sale. And the bottom line finding was that
there was no basis on -- no national security basis on which to block the sale going
forward.

http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2006&m=February&x=20060217172404xjsnommis0.3468439&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/magazine/26taliban.html?pagewanted=10

[tabasco]

35. And if he wants your liver, he will get that too !!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2143771


I hope the people are waking up to see who is really in charge.

[kurth]

40. Ahh. Springtime romance for the Chimp

walking hand-in-hand with his love through a field of wildflowers...

[sattahipdeep]

42. And he never sees the writing on the walls

But without him how would Hitler have
condemned him at Dachau
Without him Caesar would have stood alone
He's the one who gives his body
as a weapon to a war
and without him all this killing can't go on

And he's fighting for Democracy
and fighting for the Reds
He says it's for the peace of all
He's the one who must decide
who's to live and who's to die
and he never sees the writing on the walls

He's a Catholic, a Hindu, an atheist, a Jain,
a Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew
and he knows he shouldn't kill
and he knows he always will
kill you for me my friend and me for you

And he's fighting for Canada,
he's fighting for France,
he's fighting for the USA,
and he's fighting for the Russians
and he's fighting for Japan,
and he thinks we'll put an end to war this way

He's the universal soldier and he
really is to blame
His orders come from far away no more
They come from him, and you, and me
and brothers can't you see
this is not the way we put an end to war.

[UpInArms]

36. Related: British Court of Appeal OKs Dubai Ports takeover of P&O - AP

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B267D4473%2DC2CE%2D4228%2DB156%2D9B16CEF2C749%7D&dateid=38782%2E5275851157%2D863003450&siteid=mktw&dist=newsfinder

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Britain's Court of Appeal on Monday allowed Dubai's state-owned Dubai Ports World to proceed with its takeover of ports and shipping company Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. (UK:PO 517.75, +0.25, +0.0% ) , the Associated Press reported.

...bitty blurb...

[pinniped]

39. Translation: you people are fucked and the deal was set in stone....

before you ever heard about it.

[symbolman]

43. I hope when they take over that

a bunch of Mafia guys literally beat the shit out of anyone that will work for them, and grind ALL imports to a screeching HALT.

Hey Dockworkers, you gonna let the guys that killed your families be YOUR BOSSES?

Kick the crap outta them, send them packing from THIS COUNTRY.

WHO'S PORTS?

OUR PORTS.

There should be a Constitutional amendment that our Ports cannot be owned by anyone but the USA.

Period.

Watch for the Drug cartel (including BUSH and CO) flooding our country with Afghanistan heroin. I'm willing to bet money on it.

[VegasWolf]

47. George Dubai Bush agrees with him. nt

[threadkillaz]

48. Hi USA.

Nice to own to you.

Yours Truly.




Mohammed Sharaf

http://www.kbtv4.tv/news/default.asp?mode=shownews&id=10691

[sattahipdeep]

50. Mohammed Ereli

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/-state-department-regular-briefing-briefer-adam-ereli-deputy-/2006/03/01/1421259.htm

[truthisfreedom]

49. something about this really really stinks. why does bushco absolutely

need this? what behind-the-scenes deal is contingent on Dubai gaining control of our ports?

you know bushco gets what bushco wants... Duncan had better stay out of small planes.

[Javaman]

52. nice knowing that the fix is in. I feel much better now...

:sarcasm: