Eric Massa who is running for Congress in NY-29 is live blogging at kos. If you'd like to ask him questions about his "Dubai" post, you can do so here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/3/5/151024/8705Dubai Ports Deal: The Dark Underbelly Revealed
by Eric Massa
Sun Mar 05, 2006 at 01:10:24 PM PDT
Last week I wrote about problems with the Dubai Ports Deal here. I called it a "Shameless Sell Out of American National Security." This morning, on every Sunday morning news show, the firestorm over the Dubai Ports World issue continued to swirl unabated. As a result of this national debate, many Americans now know that some eighty percent of our ports are administrated by foreign-owned companies, and by the time we are done with this discussion, a much larger portion of the American people will come to know just how much of the United States has been sold off piece-by-piece to foreign interests.
First, I want to acknowledge the wisdom of my friend and former commander Wes Clark, as diaried by Maria Wells here. I made my own comments about his appearance here. General Clark rightly pointed out the lack of proper leadership by Republicans who are now making the decisions that will affect us on these matters.
Among the Republicans interviewed today were Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.). Congressman Hunter, the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, announced some shocking facts and figures that, in and of themselves, are a revelation, but when taken in the context of his subsequent statements become a light into the reality of the incompetence of this Administration and the Republican clones in Congress.
Congressman Hunter today stated that the government of the U.A.E., which owns Dubai Ports World, the company awaiting approval the embattled deal to buy out a UK-based company to control the shipping operations at some half dozen U.S. ports, knowingly allowed nuclear triggers and some seventy tons of nuclear heavy water to be transshipped through Dubai. This is a gross violation of many international treaties that are administrated by the United National Nuclear Regulator Agency and represents an exceptionally serious breech of American and international security. When Congressman Hunter was asked if the Administration was aware of this information, he indicated that they had not been, but that they were now being made aware.
So let me get this straight... Our Administration, after the expenditure of trillions of dollars in intelligence, Defense and Homeland security, was not aware of these exceptionally serious breeches in nuclear weapons technology movement, but Congressman Hunter was able to find this information and send it to them? Further, Congressman Hunter waited until today, the day of his Sunday morning press appearance, to inform the Administration of this information when the Administration has been clear that it desires to move ahead with the Dubai Ports World deal?
The Republicans in the Administration and Congress have proven time and again that they are playing politics with our security, refusing to properly lead. At best that means they are exceptionally incompetent and at worst exceptionally dangerous.
Senator Collins, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, stated during her interview that the review process for the Dubai Ports World deal was fundamentally a financial review based on the financial positives and negatives associated with this transaction.
The American government, controlled in all absolutes by the Republican Party, is so engaged in selling off our national assets that they are willing to bypass what should have been a mandatory security review. In fact, Senator Collins stated that the 45-day review was "clearly required by law." She also stated that the process that was conducted was focused towards the "investment sector."
Confronted with the reality that the President was engaged in a deal that Congressman Hunter was moving to block, the Congressman reached deep to find a partisan scapegoat by fingering former President Bill Clinton who Hunter said had advised the Emir of the U.A.E. on to whom he should speak with respect to moving this deal forward.
Again and again and again the only defense these career politicians have for the inexcusable incompetence of this Administration is to throw the hot potato back into play. It's like listening to school children caught on the play ground blaming the kid who stayed home sick. It's time to put the security of our nation above partisan politics and elect men and women for service in the U.S. Congress who can speak from a life of experience. It's time to replace the Republican leadership with men and women who are willing to lead the nation in a way that works for the common good and who are genuinely concerned about National Security.
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