[Dean's World] Aziz P: hearts and minds

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by Aziz P:
hearts and minds
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1142176292.shtml


   [1]Editorial in the Gulf News on the whole Dubai Ports World affair:

     Nevertheless, the whole affair served as a lesson for other Arab
     companies who may have thought of investing in what has proved to
     be a hostile US atmosphere. All the free trade talk proved to be
     just empty rhetoric. Another irony is that the Democrats, the
     supporters of globalisation, were the key opponents of the deal.
     There must have been something else behind the sudden change of
     heart.

     It was definitely not the concern for national security, as they
     fully know the Bush administration had run a meticulous review of
     the deal, which established it was not a threat. Was it the
     "Israeli element" as some have suggested? Maybe. Otherwise, why
     would some Congress members bombard the

     DP World executive, during last week's hearing, with questions
     about the Arab boycott of Israel? Did they want to force the UAE to
     end the pan-Arab boycott of Israel in order approve the deal?

     These questions need to be investigated. But the fact remains it
     was an ugly scene in Washington. Other foreign-owned companies run
     US ports but they were not Arab. That is the message.

     And we got it.

   Meanwhile, Chinese [2]government-owned companies control terminals in
   Los Angeles and other West Coast cities, and both ends of the Panama
   Canal.

   Had the present Administation been taking port security seriously for
   the past five years, this whole afair would have been rendered moot.
   Instead we have this fiasco.

References

   1. http://www.gulfnews.com/opinion/editorial_opinion/nation/10024757.html
   2. http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20060225/cm_huffpost/016325;_ylt=A86.I0ctSgFEzWABxhL9wxIF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--