I want the 1600 Crew to publish the detailed report and analysis of port security that was undertaken before authorisation of the sale. Oh, they didn't do that? Silly me.

And why does the White House insist on claiming 6 ports in this deal when there is actually 8?

British Shipping newspaper Lloyd's List reported (Feb. 20) that 2 more ports are up for grabs in the deal which are actually major U.S. MILITARY shipping ports, apparently granting Dubai agents access to MILITARY SHIPPING MANIFESTS.

Their contract with the United States Surface Deployment and Distribution Command would provide stevedoring [loading and unloading] of military equipment at the Texan ports of Beaumont and Corpus Christi through 2010.

According to the journal Army Logistician "Almost 40 percent of the Army cargo deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom flows through these two ports."

White House spokesman, Scotty, LIED TODAY IN HIS LENGTHY PRESS CONFERENCE . . . .AND ALSO failed to state the $708 million allotted for maritime security over the past four years amounted to only one-fifth of what the port authorities had identified as needed to properly secure the ports. At least according to that the president of the American Association of Port Authorities.

The Congress members who are not protesting this issue are the very ones that are pushing the "trade agreement" with UAE quid pro quo.

The Inter Press Service highlights exactly what's at stake, quoting a conservative activists who admits that this is all about trade:
"The United States' trade relationship with the UAE is the third largest in the Middle East, after Israel and Saudi Arabia. The two nations are engaged in bilateral free talks that would liberalise trade between the two countries and would, in theory at least, allow companies to own and operate businesses in both nations. 'There are legitimate security questions to be asked but it would be a mistake and really an insult to one of our leading trading partners in that region to reject this commercial transaction out of hand,' said Daniel T. Griswold, who directs the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, a Washington-based libertarian think tank."

Just last year, Congress approved a U.S. taxpayer-funded loan by the Bush administration to a British company to help build nuclear technology in Communist China. Despite major security concerns raised - and a legislative effort to block the loan - Congress's "free traders" (many of whom talk so tough on security) made sure the loan went through so as to preserve the U.S.-China free trade relationship that is allowing lawmakers' corporate campaign contributors export so many U.S. jobs.

There is no better proof that our government takes its orders from corporate interests than these kinds of moves.

That's what this UAE deal is all about - the mixture of the right-wing's goal of privatizing all government services (even post 9/11 port security!) with the political Establishment's desire to make sure Tom-Friedman-style "free" trade orthodoxy supersedes everything.

This is where the culture of corruption meets national security policy - and, more specifically, where the unbridled corruption of on-the-take politicians are weakening America's security.

BTW, did you notice that slight alteration to "[British] company"? The original line was:

I want those who are questioning it to step up and explain why all of a sudden a Middle Eastern company is held to a different standard than Great British company.

British Shipping newspaper Lloyd's List reported (Feb. 20) that 2 more ports are up for grabs in the deal which are actually major U.S. MILITARY shipping ports, apparently granting Dubai agents access to MILITARY SHIPPING MANIFESTS.

Their contract with the United States Surface Deployment and Distribution Command would provide stevedoring [loading and unloading] of military equipment at the Texan ports of Beaumont and Corpus Christi.

According to the journal Army Logistician "Almost 40 percent of the Army cargo deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom flows through these two ports."

1. Timely
   
2. Strategery
   
3. Webb wins
   
4. Huh?
   
5. Bunnypants in Bagdad
   
6. Outage
   
7. Filthy Lucre Watch
   
8. Playing the numbers
   
9. My letter to Countdown
   
10. Jefferson's Nigerian Scams