After two days of behind-the-scenes negotiations with the Bush administration and Congress, the Dubai company seeking to manage terminals at six American ports is expected to announce by Monday a deal inviting the government to conduct a broad new review of security concerns, senior administration officials and a company adviser say.
If an agreement is completed, the state-owned company, Dubai Ports World, will "voluntarily" ask the Bush administration to pursue the lengthier, deeper investigation that Democrats and Republicans in Congress have been demanding since controversy over the transaction erupted at the beginning of the week.
The White House plans to portray the action as the company's own decision, giving administration officials a face-saving way of backing away from President Bush's repeated declarations in recent days that there is no security risk in having the port terminals operated by a company controlled by the emir of Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates.
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Take a look at United Arab Emirates
President Bush asserts that we cannot refuse to allow the United Arab Emirates government controlled company to operate our ports, because we allow a British based company to currently control port operations.
Let's compare the two countries.
The UAE was one of three countries in the world that recognized the Taliban. The UAE has acted as a transfer point for illegal shipments of nuclear components to Iran, North Korea and Libya. The FBI confirms that money was transferred to the 9/11 hijackers through the UAE banking systems. The Treasury Department reported that the UAE was not cooperating with efforts to track down Osama Bin Laden's bank accounts following the 9/11 attacks.
Harvard returned a $2.5 million gift from Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Nahayan, the leader of the UAE, because of the activities of the Zayed International Center for Coordination and Follow-up -- a think tank that among other things asserts that the Holocaust was caused by Zionists and not Nazis and the 9/11 attacks were carried out by the United States military.
The British, on the other hand, have been, and continue to be our greatest ally in the war on terrorism. It boggles the mind that our president cannot see the differences between these two countries. Maybe there is more here than meets the eye. I hope the Congress will continue to dig deeper into this ongoing story. I know I will.
JOHN CAMP...
Following the spirit of the law isn't enough.
There is too much 'let's move on' coming from the Bush administration.
There is too much 'let's move on' coming from the Bush administration.
