"One of the many times I deservedly poked a stick in the eye of President George W. Bush (yeah the Republican one) was when his administration tried to put the United Arab Emirates in charge of major shipping operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.
You remember that?
It was 2006, just five years after the 9/11 terror attacks and in the midst of two wars being waged by the United States against two Islamic fundamentalist terror groups — al-Qaida and the Taliban.
Yet President Bush thought it was no problem to put Dubai Ports World of the United Arab Emirates in charge of our major East Coast ports.Fortunately, Congress said NO in thunder back in the days when Congress still hadn’t ceded all or most of its constitutional authority over to the presidential branch.
That, you would hope, would be the end of it, but Mideastern potentates are apparently as persistent as Midwestern liberals.
Just as health-care reform kept re-surfacing until it finally passed in President Obama’s first term, so too did the United Arab Emirates keep pressure on to gain control of a U.S. port.
And they did it.
A 35-year contract was quietly signed last year allowing United Arab Emirates-based Gulftainer to run an intermodal container terminal in Port Canaveral. Yeah, that Port Canaveral, the high security port that houses nuclear submarines, various military installations, defense contractors, and is within a figurative stone’s throw from Kennedy Space Center.
Oh yes, and did I mention that it is also a favorite location for cruise ships to dock?
...it’s already a done deal.
Apparently, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, a former Obama chief of staff, approved the Gulftainer deal without seeking approval of the Interagency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
...whether you own the terminal or you lease it, you still have a massive stake in the security interests of the United States..."
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