It's as if this administration is train out of control and we, the public, are prospective passengers reading newspapers in the terminal while the train blows through the depot without stopping. We seem to have become no more than spectators.
I read too much. I work myself into a one person frenzy - for what? Stated otherwise, how can we, as a public miss this? I thought, initially, that I had misread one of the headlines. Turns out, I had not. Six ports, to be managed by a Middle Eastern company, Dubai Ports World of the United Arab Emirates.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not an "isolationist", in fact I believe that there are a great many things wrong with our Foreign Policy that could benefit from objective openness - as opposed to taunting hardheadedness, but come on! The media is replete with stories of the poor job we are doing (have done) with Homeland Security - especially in regard to ports, and we are told once again simply to trust this administration.
Correct me if I am wrong, isn't this the same man, appointed by this administration, who was forced to admit that he had screwed up? Despite his efforts to share blame, wasn't that the crux of the findings of the hearings (by his own party)? And let me ask, rhetorically, does it make you feel any better that Homeland Security cannot disclose or discuss "the assurances", much less the details, because of national security concerns? It seems to me, then, that the natural implication is that the Middle Eastern company is aware of what "the assurances" are, as well as any restrictions which means that we have to have disclosed national security issues to them, but we can't be made aware of how we are being protected.
Lawmakers from both parties should be railing against the sale as a possible risk to national security, and I hope they will be questioned regarding every aspect.
"It's unbelievably tone deaf politically at this point in our history," Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., said on "Fox News Sunday."
"Most Americans are scratching their heads, wondering why this company from this region now," Graham said.
"Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Arab journalists in an interview Friday at the State Department, that it was "the considered opinion of the U.S. government that this can go forward." She pledged to work with Congress because "perhaps people will need better explanation and will need to understand some of the process that we have gone through."
Would someone mind checking with Secretary Rice to determine just who was involved in determining this "considered opinion"? Notably, I would like a better explanation of the process prior to creating an "approved" conduit to the contiguous United States borders, as opposed to the standard - "trust us". I wonder if the employees of Dubai Ports World of the United Arab Emirates are prohibited from carrying fingernail clippers....
