Arab Company, White House Had Secret Deal

[Jon8503]

By TED BRIDIS, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Under a secretive agreement with the Bush administration, a company in the United Arab Emirates promised to cooperate with U.S. investigations as a condition of its takeover of operations at six major American ports, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

The U.S. government chose not to impose other, routine restrictions.

In approving the $6.8 billion purchase, the administration chose not to require state-owned Dubai Ports World to keep copies of its business records on U.S. soil, where they would be subject to orders by American courts. It also did not require the company to designate an American citizen to accommodate requests by the government.

Outside legal experts said such obligations are routinely attached to U.S. approvals of foreign sales in other industries.

Dubai Ports agreed to give up records on demand about "foreign operational direction" of its business at the U.S. ports, according to the documents. Those records broadly include details about the design, maintenance or operation of ports and equipment. It also pledged to continue participating in programs to stop smuggling and detect illegal shipments of nuclear materials.

"They're not lax but they're not draconian," said James Lewis, a former U.S. official who worked on such agreements. If White House officials negotiating the deal had predicted the firestorm of criticism over it, "they might have made them sound harder."

(rest of article @ link below)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060223/ap_on_go_pr_wh/ports_security

[NJCher]

1. this article is absolutely amazing

Astonishing. More and more comes out.

I loved this name:

Dubai Port's top American executive, chief operating officer Edward H. Bilkey ,




Cher

[Chipper Chat]

2. And bush claims he knew nothing about it?.

He's built the biggest Ivory Tower ever.

[liberal N proud]

4. It is an easy defense for him.

Remember the monkeys, see no evil, hear no evil, do no evil.
Bu$h wants us to believe that is him.

[Clark2008]

7. Yep - and can grow no hair to pull the prince up and get him out.

eom

[Hubert Flottz]

3. Bush has been making deals with people who supported the

bad guys since before 9/11. Bush has Flip Flopped on our National Security for a buck!

[Kahuna]

5. But..but.. Jr. had no way of knowing....

:sarcasm:

[slor]

6. And to think that there people here...

that say this is a bad issue for Dems to jump on. I should point out that many of those people have low post numbers. This is not to start trouble, but clearly, this is bad for bush, and bush alone.

[w8liftinglady]

8. how do you do a screen capture again?

I worry this may change in a few hours

[Octafish]

9. Mushroom Cloud can't be traced back to port of origin.

Gee. What is it about this deal that Bushler likes so much?

In approving the purchase, the administration chose not to require Dubai Ports to keep copies of its business records on U.S. soil, where they would be subject to orders by American courts. It also did not require the company to designate an American citizen to accommodate requests by the government.

Outside legal experts said such obligations are routinely attached to U.S. approvals of foreign sales in other industries.

No muss. No fuss. Ka-blooie and it's four more years of martial law.