First the VP can't hunt, and now the dog won't!  Hopefully a trend may have started??

We need to push for Progressive change, now more than ever.

Larry:  I have my very own canary in the mine. Her name is Thelma and she is 80 years old.  Has been a Rebuplican forever, attended Nixon's inaugrual.  She is dead set against outsourcing the security of our ports, particularly to an Arab nation.  What the hell is wrong with having our Coast Guard secure our ports.  I thought  that was what they were for.  Oh, wait, it will cost more money.  

We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home. ~Edward R. Murrow

no citizens are suspected of having "links" to "Al Qaeda?"

And remember please, Al Qaeda has, according to Washington itself, "morphed."

Gone are the days when the term referred merely to a gaggle of CIA sorta-assets helping defend Amrika's way of life during the 80s proxy war in Afghanistan - Osama's first Real Assignment.

Today, "Al Qaeda" means anyone who opposes or resists US policies. Which, naturally include invasion, occupation, kidnapping, torture, mass murder, single serving murder, maiming and sexual predation where applicable, which would of course, exclude Rhode Island. Amrika's way of life, you know. Gotta be defended.

And we must also bear in mind that a "link" can look as innocent as an ice dancer. For example, suppose you find out that someone in your neighborhood, or maybe a country you visited on vacation, has the same first name as an "Al Qaeda" member, or smokes the same cigarette, when everybody knows smoking is bad for Americans, or maybe the two visited the same mosque, or the same city, or are believed to have watched the same Hilary Duff movie, whether together or on separate occasions. You might be tempted to pass that by, but an expert would spot the danger in an eyeblink. All kinds of opportunities there, for coded messages. (Oh, Mom, you DIDN'T! wails Hilary, thus unknowingly communicating secret terrorist info regarding the 911 events to other cell members). A professional knows that there are just so many people in the world that could possibly be named Mohammed, and the likelihood of two of them being in the same mosque during the same fiscal year are, well, remote, if you get my drift, as in remote-controlled bomb? And I'd walk a mile for a camel? Well, we're getting a little obvious there, but if you see that phrase on anything, first TAKE COVER, then report the suspicious activity to your local Homeland Security office.

This is, after all, an enemy that lurks.

one man's conspiracy is another man's business plan
Blog updated as needed

Geez folks, I had hoped that you all had figured out gw by now.  He has ti instill fear for the only purpose he can.  Keep us all in line by keeping us all fearful...then he goes and starts something like this.  I think this is all telling of his real motive in all of what is going on.  Terrorism will always be around.  This administration has used terror since 911 to install fear in everyone.  This is his only way to get anywhere he wants to go in what he wants to do.  He is a great con man.  NOW look at this port security thing that is coming up on this with this statement of security...it is all about money!  the almighty $$$$$  that is what it has been about and will always be about.  He is not interested in anything else but that and keeping his wealthy memebership happy in his club.  The only thing I worry about is the anxiety he feels ans when will he use that anxiety to bomb some county with the big one.  It is coming you know...it is coming unless we stop him and his cronies.  it is coming.

ill be seen as selling out U.S. national security interests to a wealthy Arab buddy whose country has some ties to unsavory terrorists and criminals.

 

U.A.E. rulers have taken terrorism seriously since 9/11, but Washington has a half-dozen extradition requests that they refuse to honor.

This sounds very familiar. Isn't that what this country did with both Posadas Carriles and Orlando Bosh who we refused to extradite to Venezuela for blowing up a plane and murdering 73 people, after the CIA declassified documents in which they bragged about another terrorist attack in Washington DC?

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Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and UAE are the only three states that recognized the Taliban as a legitimate government in Afghanistan pre-911. Pakistan created the Taliban to provide a certain stability in the country and Islamist extremism in Pakistan provides the madarassas to further their cause.

Saudi Arabia is a natural ally of Osama Bin Laden due to the same roots, powerful and wealthy family and the funding and export of Wahabism.

The UAE is not a state, has no stable regime and has no justice  system with national judges. Dubai and Abu Dhabi are mostly known for its past history of contraband, money laundering and gateway of illegal (arms) deals. Not much has changed in the past decade of building an extravagant front for the super wealthy. Compare to the BCCI bank in the form of a state called UAE.

Hotel Burj al Arab - 321 meter

It's not about Arabs, I would have no major concern if the buyer was Egyptian, Moroccan or Persian (Iranian).

The neocons and Bush cabal should worry about democracy in UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The focus on Iraq to wage war was illegitimate and counterprocuctive and on Iran is shortsighted and foolish foreign policy. Similar to the position taken on Venezuela and the coup e'tat attempt. Has Bush-Rice "solved" the rogue state North-Korea yet?

You're on the ball Larry Johnson, as usual!

≈ Cross-posted from my diary -- Al Qaeda Buys Control Six US Port Facilities  Chertoff Hands Over the Keys ≈

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY

Move along, move along. It's just part of privatization. In a few years the Microsoft Supreme Court will rule that what the WalMart White House is proposing, was perfectly Monsanto Constitutional all along.

~ Power is never a good substitute for competence ~

I would like to see the following question answered:  If Al Qaeda has a nuclear weapon and wants to put it and a technician in a container bound from Karachi to NYC harbor, how does the impending change affect that? Could it potentially facilitate the attack?

  Isn't there someone you could call and tell them to talk sense into those people? Seriously, you must know lots of people in important places. Can't anyone get through to those folks?

This flurry of populist idiocy about port management is the most blatant unthinking knee-jerk xenophobic racism that beltway politicians have dreamed up for quite some time.

Please do some research on this before you all turn into a bunch of Republicans.

Well, what about allowing a Middle Eastern country, one where some citizens have links to Al Qaeda, to have free run of key US ports?

There are Americans with links to al Qaeda. A man with family business connections to the bin Laden family is President of the United States.

But yes, we'd probably be safer with Halliburton managing the ports, with fallback to FEMA in the event of an emergency.

---Cthulhu for President: Why vote for the lesser evil?