A company in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is poised to take over operations at six American ports as part of a corporate sale, leaving a country with ties to the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackers with influence over a maritime industry considered vulnerable to terrorism.The Bush administration considers the UAE an important ally in the fight against terrorism since the suicide hijackings and is not objecting to Dubai Ports World's purchase of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.
The $6.8 billion sale would affect commercial port operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.
NEW JERSEY? OK, now i'm pissed!
So why is this not being blocked by Bush? The UAE has ties to Saudi Arabia which has ties to both the 9/11 hijackers and the Carlyle Group. The Carlyle Group investors, which includes George's daddy, watched the World Trade towers go down, and the group's prospects go up. It's own marketing literature calls itself "a vast, interlocking, global network of businesses and investment professionals". We must consider the fact that U.S. president George W. Bush is in a position to make budgetary decisions that could pad his father's bank account. The group has amassed $14 billion in funds under management.
CSX Lines, the U.S. container shipping subsidiary of CSX Inc., will be sold to the Carlyle Group for $300 million. The acquisition will give Carlyle control over the nation's largest container fleet and will add to the company's growing transportation portfolio. Through United Defense Industries, Carlyle also controls United States Marine Repair, the nation's largest non-nuclear ship repair and conversion company.
John Snow, the CEO of CSX, was appointed Treasury Secretary by the younger President Bush last week.
The State Department describes the UAE as a vital partner in the fight against terrorism. But the UAE, a loose federation of seven emirates on the Saudi peninsula, was an important operational and financial base for the hijackers who carried out the attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the FBI concluded.
By the way, George obviously thinks it's all right to allow terrorists to control the port of New Orleans while at the same time ignoring the plight of the people there.
Oh, but it's bigger than New Jersey.
ReplyDeleteWhat the media aren't saying is that P&O also manages SEVEN facilities in Texas. See my analysis for details. P&O is the largest independent stevedore and terminal operator on the US East and Gulf coasts with operations in most ports from Maine to Texas.
Not to mention, the NY passenger terminal is within five minutes of Times Square.
This is spooky -- both the scale of the sale and the lack of reporting on the scale.
Raise hell!
I urge everyone to read Kathy's article.
ReplyDelete"It's madhouse... a madhouse".