Text 17940, 75 rader
Skriven 2006-02-21 18:30:06 av BOB SAKOWSKI (1:123/140)
Ärende: More Corruption & Ignorance
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Just when you thought the Bush Maladministration couldn't be more clueless
or corrupt.

New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
W aides' biz ties to Arab firm
BY MICHAEL McAULIFF
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Tuesday, February 21st, 2006

Breaking news update: Bush shrugs off objections to port deal

WASHINGTON - The Dubai firm that won Bush administration backing to run six
U.S. ports has at least two ties to the White House.

One is Treasury Secretary John Snow, whose agency heads the federal panel
that signed off on the $6.8 billion sale of an English company to
government-owned Dubai Ports World - giving it control of Manhattan's
cruise ship terminal and Newark's container port.

Snow was chairman of the CSX rail firm that sold its own international port
operations to DP World for $1.15 billion in 2004, the year after Snow left
for President Bush's cabinet.

The other connection is David Sanborn, who runs DP World's European and
Latin American operations and was tapped by Bush last month to head the U.S.
Maritime Administration.

The ties raised more concerns about the decision to give port control to a
company owned by a nation linked to the 9/11 hijackers.

"The more you look at this deal, the more the deal is called into
question," said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who said the deal was
rubber-stamped in advance - even before DP World formally agreed to buy
London's P&O port company.

Besides operations in New York and Jersey, Dubai would also run port
facilities in Philadelphia, New Orleans, Baltimore and Miami.

The political fallout over the deal only grows.

"It's particularly troubling that the United States would turn over its
port security not only to a foreign company, but a state-owned one," said
western New York's Rep. Tom Reynolds, chairman of the National Republican
Campaign Committee. Reynolds is responsible for helping Republicans keep
their majority in the House.

Snow's Treasury Department runs the Committee on Foreign Investment in the
U.S., which includes 11 other agencies.

"It always raises flags" when administration officials have ties to a firm,
Rep. Vito Fossella (R-S.I.) said, but insisted that stopping the deal was
more important.

The Daily News has learned that lawmakers also want to know if a detailed
45-day probe should have been conducted instead of one that lasted no more
than 25 days.

According to a 1993 congressional measure, the longer review is mandated
when the company is owned by a foreign government and the purchase "could
result in control of a person engaged in interstate commerce in the U.S.
that could affect the national security of the U.S."

Congressional sources said the President has until March 2 to trigger that
harder look.

"The most important thing is for someone to explain how this is consistent
with our national security," Fossella said. 
[end]

The most corrupt, inept administration headed by the worst preznit EVER.

Corruption & Incompetence Central, aka the Bush White House.

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