by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright February 22, 2006
All Rights Reserved.

cting like he's getting a commission, President George W. Bush can't figure out what's the big deal about approving the sale of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. to Dubai Ports Word, handing over commercial port operations in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans and Miami to the United Arab Emirates. Raising concerns about national security, Bush's port deal created strange bedfellows, drawing reservations from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), Republican governors, like NY Gov. George Pataki, and liberal NY senators Chuck Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton. “If there was any chance that this transaction would jeopardize the security of the United States, it would not go forward,” said Bush, allaying fears in a post Sept. 11 world, where the U.S. finds itself buried in Iraq and Afghanistan, fighting a multi-front war.

      Four-and-a-half years after 9/11, Osama bin Laden and his chief deputy Ayman Al Zawahiri still torment the headlines, making threats of new terror attacks against the United States. Bush has a hard time selling his war on terror, while, at the same time, handing over port operations to a Middle East-based company. “I want those who are question it to step up and explain why allow a Middle Eastern company is held to a higher standard that a Great Britain company,” said Bush, acting clueless about the current Islamic threat toward the U.S. and its allies. No one blamed the House of Saud for Sept. 11, but there's no question that hostile elements inside Saudi Arabia helped fund Al Qaeda and the Sept. 11 hijackers. Call it prejudice or call what it really is, reality, there's legitimate concerns about turning over port operations to any country with possible ties to Islamic extremism.

      Saudi Arabia was officially a friend and key trading-partner at the time of Sept. 11. No suggests that the royal family has direct ties to terrorism or the radical Islamic Waahabist sect to which Bin Laden and other radicals swear allegiance. Breaking with the White House, Frist said the pending sale raised “serious questions regarding the safety and security of our homeland,” signaling that the Senate won't rubber stamp Bush's proposed deal. Even ordinarily diehard Bush loyalist House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) asked the president for a moratorium, pending further review to avoid compromising national security and oversight by the federal government. Bush forgets that “the government” is made up of the executive, legislative and judicial branches. It's unrealistic to ask the Congress—or the American people—to take his word on the deal about national security.

      Threatening to veto any legislation to block the proposed sale, Bush took the unusal steps to summon reporters to his conference room on Air force One en route to Washington after speaking about his new energy plan in Colorado. It's beyond ironic that Bush seeks energy independence from the Mideast but, simultaneously, wants to turn U.S. ports over to the United Arab Emirates. In his energy independence stump speech, Bush talks about governments unfriendly to the U.S. Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich questioned the port deal, calling it an “overly secretive process at the federal level.” No one can quite figure out why Bush is so invested in closing the Dubai Ports World deal. Frist threatened to introduce legislation stopping the port sale, should Bush not give Congress more time. With Bin Laden threatening new attacks on U.S. soil, there's little Bush can do for reassurance.

      Bush talks about how much the government has done to vet the port deal, yet fails to mention that the United Arab Emirates served as a financial and operational hub to 9/11 hijackers, as well as a transfer point for smuggled nuclear materials from Pakistan's A.Q. Khan to Iran, North Korea and Libya. “They ought to listen to what I have to say about this,” said the president, trying to stem growing bipartisan opposition to his port deal. After hyping the terrorist threat since Sept. 11, it's hard to figure how the White House missed the firestorm of resistance to turning over management of the nation's most strategic ports to a Mideast company. If Bush so readily relinquishes port authority to Dubai Ports World, would he do the same for the nation's biggest airports? Since Sept. 11, Bush federalized 60,000 private airport security workers, creating the Transportation Safety Authority.

      After watching Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shoot his hunting buddy Harry Whittington last week, now it's Bush's turn to shoot himself in the foot. Even close political ally Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) was dumbfounded, calling Bush's port deal on Fox News Sunday with Brit Hume, “unbelievably tone deaf politically.” Either Bush's chief strategist Karl Rove was asleep at the switch or the White House needed a new controversy to divert attention away from Cheney and Rove's ongoing legal troubles in the Valerie Plame affair. In either case, it's inconceivable that Bush could show such bad judgment, handing Democrats more ammunition heading into this year's midyear elections. Whatever secretive panel from the departments of Treasury, Defense, Justice, Commerce, State and Homeland Security reviewed the port deal, they miscalculated fierce bipartisan opposition.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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