Port deal reaction is threat to economy, warns Chertoff

[sabra]

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/82d84c58-b235-11da-96ad-0000779e2340.html

Port deal reaction is threat to economy, warns Chertoff

The emotional response of American lawmakers to Dubai's acquisition of five US port terminals threatens to damage the country's economy, Michael Chertoff, homeland security secretary, has warned.

In his first interview since Congress forced DP World to dispose of the terminals, obtained through the acquisition of Britain's P&O, Mr Chertoff stressed that the administration had to focus on "intelligent security" in a way that "doesn't burn down the village in order to save it".

He added that Congress under-estimated the progress madeby the Bush administration in promoting port security.

"We do not want a regimein which we are so focused on risk to the exclusion of all else that we lock everything down and we destroy our country," he told the Financial Times.

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. I'm going to love to see how they talk their way of this one.

[Pirate Smile]

2. Is Chertoff supposed to be worrying about security or economics?

Is he now Treasury Secretary?

:eyes:

[Sydnie]

3. I guess they should have thought about that .. say ... three years ago!

"We do not want a regimein which we are so focused on risk to the exclusion of all else that we lock everything down and we destroy our country,"

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

4. So Chertoff is the Treasury Secretary now>?

No wonder he did not know about this deal ahead of time.

[unblock]

5. it was ONE FUCKING BUSINESS DEAL!

i've worked on wall street a long time, and i've seen MANY deals that never happened.

big fucking deal!

all of a sudden these idiots want to stop saying that our economy is booming and robust and start saying that it's hanging by such a thin thread that ONE unconsumated deal has a devastating effect????

:eyes:

[Skittles]

6. they're changing their stories again, just like they do with the Iraq war

and since when does Chertoff have expertise in the economy?

[sabra]

10. if you think about it, he's a lawyer so what qualifications did he

have for DHS?

[Skittles]

11. his qualification is that he is a bush whore

that's all you need to get any position with this misadministration

[PVK]

14. Exactly. As Maher said, we blow that in a week in Iraq. n/t

[Flabbergasted]

7. Now they can blame the citizens when the economy collapses! Foff Cher

[jwirr]

8. No it is a threat our national security and HIS economic welbeing.

[Cassandra]

9. This is their spin if the economy heads south...

because of the huge deficit; that it's all our fault.

[theshadow]

12. It's not the deficit. It's not the dollars going to the oil...

...producing countries. It's not the indebtedness to China and Saudi Arabia. Oh no, it's the port deal.

[belab13]

13. Here's what he's referring to..

http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2006/03/14/cnuae14.xml &menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2006/03/14/ixcity.html

This could snowball. If more countries start bailing on the dollar, we're in trouble.

[Nabia2004]

17. The collapse of the dollar - its only a matter of time

Seeing what the Bush administration has done with regard to the economy and our now run-away national debt, I'm not optimistic.

[brentspeak]

15. So, uh, Chertoff...who's the idiot who caused this Dubai mess

in the first place? Like, your boss, you shameless crony.

[Whoa_Nelly]

16. The ignoring of Katrina and its aftermath is a huge threat

to our nation's overall economic and emotional security.

Fuck off, Chertoff. You're an asswiper of the nth degree.

[cliss]

18. Mind you, this is the same guy

who only last week threatened us with: "If this deal falls through, then port security will evaporate".

That was a Direct Threat. It backfired, because the deal fell through anyway.

Crook, gangster, liar. That's what Chertoff is.

[rodeodance]

19. oh, go lock yourself out of your office again!

......."We do not want a regimein which we are so focused on risk to the exclusion of all else that we lock everything down and we destroy our country," he told the Financial Times.

[rman]

20. No - outsourcing and wealth-hoarding by capitalist elites is a threat

to the economy and the well-being of a significant part of the global population.

[niallmac]

21. Take away the word 'reaction' and I fully agree. n/t

Port deal was a gold standard S.O.P. example of this administrations incompetence.

[Jose Diablo]

22. Am I the only one that thinks Chertoff looks like Dr. Death

His face has no meat, just like a skull. He needs to be reburied, soon.

[schmuls]

23. Ha! A little makeup and he would look like Ming the Merciless.

[AzDar]

24. What . The. F*&k?? The flawed logic actually is making my head hurt