Google has about 2380 articles about the port story. That's a heck of a lot of noise. None of it makes much sense. There isn't enough there to justify all the fuss. Sure, US port security sucks. Sure this is an incredible sign of incompetence five years after 9/11. That's the fault of the GOP and the Bush administratiion, not the port management company. Dubai is as good an ally as the near-friendless US has these days. The friendless part is also the fault of the GOP and the Bush administration. Sure foreigners are buying up fundamental US assets, but that's because our governmental finances are a complete mess. That's also the fault of the GOP and the Bush administration.
No news here.
So what's really going on that so many Senators have their knickers in knot? It has to be something that no-one is ready to talk about. I have two suggestions:
1. Sure Dubai is an ally. So was Iran under the Shah. Dubai is not a democracy. Maybe security analysts suspect it's ripe for revolution. Maybe Senators know that. It's a rather impolitic thing to say. This is one way in which Duba is not the UK.
2. Follow the money. (This one comes via Emily.) No deal of any size is done in the US today without a kickback to the GOP. They got a percentage, somehow, womewhere. The deal was done pre-Abramoff, and now the GOP is afraid this one might get attention.
Or maybe the answer is #1 and #2 and something else. The one thing I'm betting on is that it isn't anything that's being talked about.
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