President Bush isn’t Budging
28 February 2006 3:13 pm by Taylor Marsh
President Bush isn't Budging
“…I can understand people's
consternation because the first thing they heard was that a foreign company
would be in charge of our port security, when in fact the Coast Guard and Customs
are in charge of our port security.” - President Bush
Someone needs to get our president a cheat sheet on the Dubai
deal, because it's obvious he doesn't know what he's talking about. Or maybe
he does and this is the Republican talking point being used to misinform the
public.
There's also a new development that just came over Lou Dobbs. Michael Jackson, deputy Homeland Security Secretary, when being questioned by Senator Bridge to Nowhere Stevens, said he hadn't even seen the Coast Guard document that showed reservations about the Dubai deal. Hadn't even seen the Coast Guard's reservation?
The Dubai deal is due to close this coming Thursday.
As usual with all things political, politicians love to split
the meaning of “is,” only now it's the meaning of “where,”
that is which point in the offloading of cargo are you talking about, which designates who has control over security.
If you're talking about the ship coming into the harbor, then
the security is indeed handled through the Coast Guard.
However, if you're talking about when the ship and its contents
are docked, that's when Customs comes in.
This is where Bush gets it wrong, either purposefully or he doesn't
know the distinction, take your bet.
Once the goods are offloaded and put on the port ground, off the
ship and out of water, the company managing the port handles all security, with
access to classified “secret” documents about larger port security.
I've done numerous posts on the details, if you need more.
I'm against this deal, period. But as if we didn't need more ammunition,
now comes this beauty from the Jerusalem Post. An
old Arab boycott of all Israeli goods is still enforced in Dubai.
“Yes, of course the boycott is still
in place and is still enforced,” Muhammad Rashid a-Din, a staff member
of the Dubai Customs Department's Office for the Boycott of Israel, told the
Post in a telephone interview.“If a product contained even some components
that were made in Israel, and you wanted to import it to Dubai, it would be
a problem,” he said.
Dubai
ports firm enforces Israel boycott
The President's Dubai deal, now being propped up by the Republicans
in Congress, gets worse by the minute. But will we be able to stop the deal by Thursday? Maybe lawsuits will stop it.
The president isn't budging. Republicans are miffed at his attitude. As for the American people, you'd have to have “expletive deleted” put in place of our gut level sentiments if anyone bothered to ask.
