Dubai: a decent deal gone wrong

Last week may go down as one of the least proud moments of the United States of America, known for its tolerance.
Many are now describing the U.S. Congressional rejection of the Dubai Ports World lease on cargo handling in six U.S. seaports as a diplomatic blunder.
Dubai Ports World is owned by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the most important ally of the United States in the Middle East. UAE is a principal supporter of America’s war on terrorism in an area where friends are very few.
United Arab Emirates provides the U.S. Navy with port services where the port of Jebel Ali docked more than 500 Navy warships last year and played host to more than 70,000 American troops. The UAE provides use of its extensive airport to our Marine Corps and Air Force.
The problems over the port issue began when the dominant far-left media first reported the “sale” of six U.S. seaports to a country that supported terrorism.
The truth was, Dubai Ports World was purchasing from Britain’s P&O (Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.) assets such as cranes and other cargo-handling equipment and a contract that would involve the handling and offloading of container ships in six U.S. seaports. No U.S. property was being sold.
Alarmists identified the UAE as a supporter of Osama Bin Laden and a transfer point for Al Qaeda funding. Further, one of the 9/11 terrorists was born in UAE and another transited the UAE. It is true that UAE supported and helped finance the Afghan freedom fighters during the Russian-Afghanistan War during the 1980s. The United States did as well.
The story that Dubai Ports World was buying six U.S. seaports was a blatant lie, and worse yet, the far-left journalists had to know this.
Furthermore, all senior management jobs in DP World were held by American citizens in Dubai with the exception of one who is from Holland.
Port of Baltimore dock workers and senior management officers, when interviewed by Fox News, expressed dismay at all of the commotion.
DP World would take no part in managing port security. Port security is being handled by the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and CSI (Container Security Initiative). All these agencies approved of the transfer from Britain’s P&O to DP World.
At this point, DP World agreed to extend action on its contract with Britain’s P&O for a period of 45 days in order for U.S. officials, including members of Congress, to study all the ramifications involved in the agreement itself.
This grace period was ignored.
Rushing to conclusions, members of Congress such as New York Congressman Peter King, R-3rd, and Sen. Dick Schumer, D-N.Y., continued their stated opinions of defending the U.S. against “the onslaught of Arab terrorists.”
Sen. Schumer took the lead with the comment, “We now smell the scent of victory,” and within no time had control of the far-left Democrats and in the process frightened the Republican majority in both houses to such an extent they joined him in an open revolt against President George W. Bush.
As soon as the political heat began to rise over a created false and faked-up issue, the Republican majority, in an effort to protect their own political bottoms, fled, leaving President Bush exposed.
Usually reserved, Jim Michaels, former editor-in-chief of Forbes Magazine commented on Fox News on March 11, that this was the worst example of bigotry and racism that he had witnessed.
In addition to support for our war on terrorism in Iraq, UAE is also an important trading partner. As an example, Boeing has negotiated a $9 billion deal for its new “dream liner” as opposed to the New A-350 European aircraft.
The hypocrisy of all this activity is that the Democrats, in particular, never complained when the Clinton Administration turned the port operations of two West Coast ports to the Chinese Communists, a potential enemy, or when President Carter surrendered the Panama Canal, the most strategic waterway in the Western Hemisphere, with complete control at both ends going to the Chinese Communists.
The response of more than 75 percent of the American public to the fear of another Arab terrorist attack on American soil, especially after the reported “sale” of six American seaports to an Arab nation “with terrorist connections,” is understandable.
What is not understandable is the deliberate creation of this fear among U.S. citizens by America’s own dominant far-left media. Deliberate creation of fear for the political purpose of frightening a population is a form of terrorism itself.
Aren’t we fighting a war about this?