By ramming through the Dubai ports transfer, Bush has already ignored the law and threatened national security to curry favor with with his powerful corporate supporters. Now Congress must demand a real investigation and reserve the right to accept or reject the ports deal based on the results. Please sign our petition today:
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By ramming through the Dubai ports transfer, Bush has already ignored the law and threatened national security to curry favor with with his powerful corporate supporters. Now Congress must demand a real investigation and reserve the right to accept or reject the ports deal based on the results. Please sign our petition today:
Click Here
Dear MoveOn member,
Like us, you've probably watched the unfolding port security scandal and wondered how all the pieces fit together. Why would President Bush enrage Republicans and Democrats alike by secretly transferring control of 6 major US ports to a foreign government with recent ties to Al Qaeda and the Taliban without the national security review required by law?
Well, it turns out the answer is a familiar one: major corporations stand to make billions of dollars, and senior administration officials have a personal connection to the deal.
This isn't the first time Bush has helped his powerful supporters at the expense of national security, but this time he might not get away with it.
This week, Senator Chuck Schumer introduced an emergency bill requiring Bush to report on the national security implications of this ports deal and giving Congress the final say.1 Five Republicans have already signed on2almost enough to clinch victory and if we raise our voice now we can givet this bill the extra push it needs to pass.
We're aiming to collect a quarter million signatures this week. Can you help get us there?
http://www.moveon.org/pac/ports
The proposal to turn over port operations in New York, Newark, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Miami and New Orleans to the United Arab Emirates is problematic for a number of reasons. And let's be clear: the mere fact that UAE is an Arab country is not one of them.
Here are just a few of the concerns:
The UAE government repeatedly met with Osama Bin Laden after his attacks on United States embassies.3
The UAE government maintained relations with the Taliban even after 9/11.4
Last year, the Coast Guard investigated the proposed ports transfer and reported that massive intelligence gaps left open the possibility that the deal might "support terrorist operations."5
At the very least, the deal merits some real scrutiny. In fact, a 1992 law mandates that contracts like this one must receive a thorough 45 day review of potential threats to national security. But last month, when a secretive executive branch committee approved the deal, they ignored the law and refused to conduct the review.6
Why were they in such a hurry?
Well, it turns out the administration is also currently negotiating a Free Trade Agreement with the UAE7 and some of the largest American corporations stand to make a huge profit if the deal goes through. That's why the top lobbyists from the largest corporate associations, (like the American Manufacturers Association and the National Foreign Trade Council) have pushed hard publicly and privately for the port deal and why they're so concerned about upsetting the UAE emirs.8
And there's another twist: Bush's Treasury Secretary, John Snow, chairs the committee that waived the requirement for a security review.9 And Secretary Snow has deep professional and financial ties to the Dubai Ports World corporation.10
This week, public outrage forced Bush to agree to implement the required 45 day review but he wants to keep it secret, have John Snow run it, and make the final decision himself. And Snow has already publicly stated that he sees this review as a campaign to soothe Congress, not a real investigation.11
The only way out of this corrupt and dangerous mess is to require the administration to report to Congress, and ensure that Congress has the final say over whether the deal passes national security muster.
If we can deliver a quarter million signatures and comments to Congress this week, we can help push Schumer's bill over the top and show Bush that putting obedience to his corporate cronies over the law and the security of our nation just won't fly.
Please sign today:
http://www.moveon.org/pac/ports
Thanks for all that you do,
Ben, Matt, Marika, Joan and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
Wednesday, March 1st 2006
P.S. If you have any friends or family members who have expressed concern about this issue, please consider forwarding this alert along to them. Winning this fight will require their voice, too.
Sources:
1. "Review of Port Deal will Leave Decision to Bush," New York Times, February 26, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/27/politics/27ports.html
2. The Library of Congress records 5 Republicans as on record co-sponsoring S. 2333, the "Foreign Investment Security Improvement Act of 2006." They are Senators Coleman, Snowe, Coburn, Santorum, and Collins.
http://thomas.loc.gov/
3. "9-11 report detailed possible associations between UAE, bin Laden," Newsday, February 23, 2006
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj ports-binladen0223feb23,0,3688533.story
4. "U.S. agrees to review Arab deal over ports," Washington Post and Associated Press, February 27, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1496
5. "Coast Guard had Concerns About Ports Deal, Papers Show," The New York Times, February 28, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1500
6. "Ports and a Storm," Washington Post, February 24, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1501
7. "US, UAE to resume free trade talks in March," Reuters, February 24, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1502
8. "US groups fear ports uproar may hurt UAE trade deal," Reuters, February 22, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1503
9. "Treasury Secretary may be fall guy in port flap," US News and World Report, February 24, 2006
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060224/24snow.htm
10. "It's just yet another blurry line," San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, February 26, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1504
12. "Snow says he may tell Congress more about Investment Approvals," Bloomberg, February 24, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1505
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Submitter: Joan Brunwasser
Submitters Website: http://www.opednews.com/author/author79.html
Submitters Bio:
Joan Brunwasser is a co-founder of Citizens for Election Reform (CER) which since 2005 existed for the sole purpose of raising the public awareness of the critical need for election reform. Our goal: to restore fair, accurate, transparent, secure elections where votes are cast in private and counted in public. Because the problems with electronic (computerized) voting systems include a lack of transparency and the ability to accurately check and authenticate the vote cast, these systems can alter election results and therefore are simply antithetical to democratic principles and functioning.
Since the pivotal 2004 Presidential election, Joan has come to see the connection between a broken election system, a dysfunctional, corporate media and a total lack of campaign finance reform. This has led her to enlarge the parameters of her writing to include interviews with whistle-blowers and articulate others who give a view quite different from that presented by the mainstream media. She also turns the spotlight on activists and ordinary folks who are striving to make a difference, to clean up and improve their corner of the world. By focusing on these intrepid individuals, she gives hope and inspiration to those who might otherwise be turned off and alienated. She also interviews people in the arts in all their variations - authors, journalists, filmmakers, actors, playwrights, and artists. Why? The bottom line: without art and inspiration, we lose one of the best parts of ourselves. And we're all in this together. If Joan can keep even one of her fellow citizens going another day, she considers her job well done.
When Joan hit one million page views, OEN Managing Editor, Meryl Ann Butler interviewed her, turning interviewer briefly into interviewee. Read the interview here.
While the news is often quite depressing, Joan nevertheless strives to maintain her mantra: "Grab life now in an exuberant embrace!"
Joan has been Election Integrity Editor for OpEdNews since December, 2005. Her articles also appear at Huffington Post, RepublicMedia.TV and Scoop.co.nz.