(Democratic) Senators Voice Concern Over Ports Deal

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON - Two Senate Armed Services Committee Democrats lashed out Thursday at permitting a state-owned company in the United Arab Emirates to take over half a dozen major U.S. seaports, suggesting that it could open a window of opportunity for a terrorist attack.

Brushing aside President Bush's assurances that security concerns have been addressed by his administration, Sen. Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record) of Michigan, the panel's ranking Democrat, said the UAE backed the Taliban and allowed financial support for al-Qaida.

Levin also charged that the UAE has an "uneven history" as "one of only a handful of countries in the world to recognize the Taliban regime in Afghanistan." He added that millions of dollars in al-Qaida funds went through UAE financial institutions.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., also was critical, calling the approval process "a failure of judgment" because officials "did not alert the president, the secretary of the treasury and the secretary of defense" that several of our critical ports would be turned over to a foreign country.

Earlier Thursday, Bush sought to calm the uproar over the ports deal, saying "people don't need to worry about security."

AP via Yahoo

[liberal N proud]

1. Democratic Senators and Congressmen should be in an Up Roar

not just voicing concern.
This is the one topic they can gain the ear of a vast majority of Americans.

They can finally be tough on Security while pointing out that bu$h and the republican congress has failed miserable.

Why do I say the republican congress has failed?, they have been a rubber stamp all along and this deal slipped past them as well.

[Rose Siding]

2. Some copy editor wrote that headline

"in an uproar" characterizes their reaction just as well, if not better.

[Betsy Ross]

3. Watching the hearings

is like watching a car accident, gruesome but you can't look away.

[rodeodance]

7. yes, i watched also:--but this was the WH briefing to Congress --not a

'hearing"

[rodeodance]

4. AP -Senator Challenges Ports Deal Procedure (should be plural!!)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060223/ap_on_go_co/ports_security&printer=1;_ylt=AohH2BSBYit2e57ABrCxGvmMwfIE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-
Senator Challenges Ports Deal Procedure

By TED BRIDIS, Associated Press Writer 16 minutes ago

The senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee angrily accused the Bush administration Thursday of ignoring the law by refusing to extend an investigation of a United Arab Emirates company's takeover of significant U.S. port operations.

(Bush comments omitted)

Clashing with a Treasury Department official on a mission to calm a political uproar, Sen. Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record) said the law has language specifically requiring a longer review than the one that an interagency committee conducted, if a business deal could affect national security.

"Is there not one agency in this government that believes this takeover could affect the national security of the United States?" the Michigan Democrat asked at a committee briefing. Chairman John Warner, R-Va., in a very unusual procedure on Capitol Hill, allowed reporters to question the administration witnesses.

The Treasury official, Deputy Secretary Robert Kimmitt, and officials from other agencies said a multiagency group spent three months reviewing the port deal and said that all concerns about security were satisfied.
.......

[rodeodance]

8. If you want the law changed, come to Congress and change it but don't igno

.....Levin insisted that the law that established the multiagency panel specifically said that any such review should be lengthened by 45 days if it could have an impact on national security.

Levin, raising his voice at the briefing, told Kimmitt, "If you want the law changed, come to Congress and change it but don't ignore it."

Kimmitt responded, "We didn't ignore the law. Concerns were raised. They were resolved."

Warner then jumped in to assure Levin that he would ask Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to prepare a memorandum on the administration's interpretation of the law.

[rodeodance]

5. The only Repug to show up was Warner (Chair)--and he took WH position

[rodeodance]

6. nominate