I put Middle Earth Journal in hiatus in May of 2008 and moved to Newshoggers.
I temporarily reopened Middle Earth Journal when Newshoggers shut it's doors but I was invited to Participate at The Moderate Voice so Middle Earth Journal is once again in hiatus.

Sunday, February 26, 2006

A deal on the Dubai Ports World deal?

Let's make one thing clear up front, I think that Dubai Port World taking over US ports is a security threat but not for the reasons most often given. The security threat comes from the fact that the US trade deficit is so great and we are borrowing so much money overseas that we are being forced to sell off the country a piece at a time. So now let's get back to the current brouhaha, the Dubai Ports World deal.
Time Magazine reports that a face-saving Dubai deal may be in the works.
Moving toward a deal that could allow President Bush and congressional GOP leaders to save face and avert a prolonged confrontation, GOP officials said today that they were discussing the idea of having Dubai Ports World seek a new review of its acquisition of a British company's operation that runs several key U.S. ports.

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, confirmed in a phone interview early Saturday afternoon to TIME that officials were close to a deal involving the Congressional leadership, the White House and the Dubai company. The agreement would call for a 45-day “CFIUS-plus investigation,” King said, referring to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a Treasury Department-run interagency panel that probes proposed acquisitions in the U.S.
There are a couple of problems with this the first of which is there is no way Bush can back down and save face after his initial my way or the highway comments. Backing down at this point would diminish he and Cheney's vision of an imperial presidency. The second problem is the deal was put together by the politically inept Bill Frist who as Joe Gandelman points out
"hasn't been a terrific strategist for the White House in the past"

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