The Dubai beach-sex couple weren’t just stupid, they were irresponsible
By Ross Clark (THE TIMES, 17/10/08):
Having taken the odd nocturnal stroll along Norfolk’s beaches, I am no stranger to the sound of rustling grasses and cries of delight in the sand dunes. And I can’t say that I’ve ever suffered a Mary Whitehouse moment and fired off a missive about moral decay to the council, the local newspaper or anyone else. So long as plein-airists choose a quiet spot away from children and don’t leave behind condoms or broken bottles, as far as I am concerned, they can carry on frolicking from Bognor to Blackpool.
But not in Dubai. The most shocking…
The Dangers of Ports (and Politicians)
By Robert J. Samuelson (THE WASHINGTON POST, 14/03/06):
The idea of letting an Arab-owned company, Dubai Ports World, run container terminals at some major U.S. ports struck many Americans as an absurdity. Why not just turn control over to al-Qaeda? In late February a CBS News poll found that 70 percent of respondents were against the deal and only 21 percent in favor. The company’s withdrawal last week can be seen as a triumph of public opinion. Or it can be acknowledged for what it is: a major defeat for the United States, driven by self-indulgent politicians of both parties who enthusiastically…
Midnight Train to a Debacle
By Eugene Robinson (THE WASHINGTON POST, 10/03/06):
For years now, the Republican leaders in Congress have been the Pips to George W. Bush’s Gladys Knight. He invades Iraq on shaky premises that ultimately fall apart and they sing “woo-woo” in perfect harmony. He subjects terror suspects to arbitrary, indefinite detention and interrogation by techniques most people would call torture and the congressional leadership twirls in graceful unison. He smothers the country with an unprecedented blanket of electronic surveillance and from Capitol Hill comes a sweet refrain: “You’re the best thing, you’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”
But this week the…
Burning Allies — and Ourselves
By David Ignatius (THE WASHINGTON POST, 10/03/06):
Officials here heard late Thursday that Karl Rove had decided to pull the plug. President Bush’s political adviser was said to have conveyed to a top manager of Dubai Ports World in Washington that the White House couldn’t hold out any longer against congressional pressure to kill the Arab company’s plan to acquire freight terminals at six U.S. ports. The initial response of one Dubai executive was: “Who’s Karl Rove?” But in the end, political leaders here recognized that it was time to fold a losing hand.
Until Rove’s decision, Dubai’s business leaders had insisted they…
Avoiding Another Dubai
By C. Fred Bergsten, director of the Institute for International Economics and a former assistant secretary of the Treasury for international affairs (1977-81) (THE WASHINGTON POST, 28/02/06):
Nearly all objective observers of the uproar over “selling American ports to the Arabs” agree on three key elements of the situation. First, the purchase of port management operations by Dubai Ports World from a British-owned company will have no operational impact on the national security of the United States. Port owners and managers are not responsible for port security. There are risks at our ports, but they stem from the fact that the American…
Bush, Speaking Up Against Bigotry
By Richard Cohen (THE WASHINGTON POST, 28/02/06):
There are times when George Bush sorely disappoints. Just when you might expect him to issue a malapropian explanation, pander to his base or simply not have a clue about what he is talking about, he does something so right, so honest and, yes, so commendable, that — as Arthur Miller put it in “Death of a Salesman” — “attention must be paid.” Pay attention to how he has refused to indulge anti-Arab sentiment over the Dubai ports deal.
Would that anyone could say the same about many of the deal’s critics. Whatever their concerns may…
A Port in the Storm Over Dubai
By STEPHEN E. FLYNN and JAMES M. LOY, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a retired Coast Guard officer and a former deputy secretary of homeland security and commandant of the Coast Guard, respectively (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 28/02/06):
The political firestorm surrounding the takeover of five American container terminals by Dubai Ports World, a United Arab Emirates company, is a political distraction, but in many ways a welcome one. Americans are finally taking port security seriously.
Ports are the on- and offramps to global markets, and they belong to a worldwide system operated by many different private and…
Stumbling Past The Good News
By Jim Hoagland (THE WASHINGTON POST, 26/02/06):
Laugh or cry? Hard to choose when it comes to the descent of the Bush White House into total incoherence over the Dubai Ports World contract. Once again we turn from weighty matters to ask: What did this president not know and when did he not know it?
From his vice president spraying a hunting buddy with birdshot to the negotiation of the politically charged ports contract, George W. Bush has had his spokesman fall back on his father’s lame defense in Iran-contra: Me? I was out of the loop.
That’s not a defense, Mr. President. That…
Pour les protectionnistes américains, la lutte antiterroriste a bon dos
Par Pierre-Yves Dugua, Correspondant du Figaro à Washington (LE FIGARO, 25/02/06):
Les pays qui commercent et investissent aux Etats-Unis ont des raisons de s’alarmer des signes de paranoïa manifestés ces derniers jours par le Congrès américain. En voulant, contre l’avis de George W. Bush, bloquer le transfert de la gestion de six ports américains à une firme de Dubai, Dubai Ports World, républicains et démocrates offrent un curieux spectacle.
L’Amérique peut-elle rester le grand pays d’accueil pour investissements étrangers si même les entreprises originaires de pays alliés des Etats-Unis, fussent-ils arabes, sont soupçonnées d’être infiltrées par des terroristes ? À Washington, le…
A Dubai finesse
By Charles Krauthammer (THE WASHINGTON POST, 24/02/06):
If only Churchill were alive today, none of this would be happening. The proud imperialist would have taken care that the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., chartered in 1840 by Victoria (”by the grace of God . . . Queen defender of the faith” on “this thirty first day of December in the fourth year of our reign”), would still be serving afternoon tea and crumpets on some immaculate Jewel-in-the-Crown cricket pitch in Ceylon.
The United Arab Emirates would still be a disunited bunch of subsistence Arab tribes grateful for the protection of the…
Taste of the Future
By David Ignatius (THE WASHINGTON POST, 24/02/06):
“Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.” The acidulous wisdom of Mark Twain speaks to us across the ages, and never more than this week during the great congressional mobilization to save America’s ports from the dreaded hand of Dubai.
The furor over Dubai is misplaced on so many levels, but let’s start with the supposed terrorist threat. Military and CIA officials will tell you privately that the United Arab Emirates is among the most effective intelligence partners the United States has today in the…
