Hunter (R-CA): "Dubai Cannot Be Trusted"

[JABBS]

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said during a hearing yesterday that "Dubai cannot be trusted” to manage U.S. ports.

Hunter vowed to scuttle Dubai Ports World planned acquisition of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. and its management operations at six U.S. ports.

“They are an international player who can’t be ignored because of their size, money and strategic location," Hunter said. "(But) those are people you do not want close to the security apparatus.”

He also said he would push legislation to block a second Dubai company’s efforts to acquire two U.S. plants that manufacture precision components for military aircraft and tank engines. That deal involves Dubai International Capital's $1.2 billion acquisition of the London-based precision manufacturer Doncasters Group Ltd.

Ignoring administration officials who suggested that the two deals do not pose a national security risk, Hunter called the United Arab Emirates “accommodators.”

Hunter said that in 2003, UAE customs officials allowed 66 American high-speed electrical switches, which are ideal for detonating nuclear weapons, to be sent to a Pakistani businessman with longstanding ties to the Pakistani military. That same year, over U.S. protests, 70 tons of heavy water, a component for nuclear reactors, was sent from China to Dubai. The shipping labels were then changed to mask the transaction, and 60 tons of the heavy water was forwarded to India, where it enabled the government to use its energy-producing reactors to create plutonium for its atomic weapons program, Hunter charged. And two containers of gas centrifuge parts from Pakistan's A.Q. Khan were shipped through Dubai to Iran for about $3 million worth of UAE. currency, Hunter added.

Hunter's comments came one day after Rep. Peter King (R-NY), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and a vocal critic of the planned port transfer, told CNN yesterday that officials from the Homeland Security and Treasury departments told him weeks ago that their 30-day review of the deal did not look into the question of links between Dubai Ports World and Al Qaeda.

"There was no real investigation conducted during the 30-day period," said King. "I can't emphasize this enough."

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This item first appeared at JABBS.

[peacetalksforall]

1. This is hilarious if you consider that these may have been Cheney -

Khan business dealings that have been written about many times on many days in many ways.

Hunter, why don't you investigate our own people?

"Hunter said that in 2003, UAE customs officials allowed 66 American high-speed electrical switches, which are ideal for detonating nuclear weapons, to be sent to a Pakistani businessman with longstanding ties to the Pakistani military. That same year, over U.S. protests, 70 tons of heavy water, a component for nuclear reactors, was sent from China to Dubai. The shipping labels were then changed to mask the transaction, and 60 tons of the heavy water was forwarded to India, where it enabled the government to use its energy-producing reactors to create plutonium for its atomic weapons program, Hunter charged. And two containers of gas centrifuge parts from Pakistan's A.Q. Khan were shipped through Dubai to Iran for about $3 million worth of UAE. currency, Hunter added."