Corporate concerns run country

With Iraq plunging into civil war and the Bush administration selling our national interests to a foreign government, I am beginning to wonder when it might be appropriate to say I told you so.

I’ll resist – at least for the moment – the temptation to do so. Instead, I’ll point out the political realities that are driving the bipartisan revolt against the administration’s plan to hand over operations of six major ports to a company owned by the United Arab Emirates.

As a rule, Republican congressmen do not oppose deals designed to make money, which is what this is, regardless of the national security implications. If there is one thing Republicans are more bullish on than national security, it’s corporations’ ability to make money.

During an election year, however, in which the Republicans have made national security the key issue on which they are stronger than Democrats, they cannot afford to allow the president to burden them with the PR fiasco this deal creates – a deal that, in the words of the secretary of Homeland Security, requires that we “balance the paramount urgency of security against the fact that we still want to have a robust global trading system.”

I could imagine a dozen or more cabinet officials or politicians from whose self-serving lips that sentence could have come, but the secretary of Homeland Security, whose job it is to put security first, should not be one of them.

Is it any wonder Republicans are as close to open revolt against their president as Iraq is to civil war? A better question, perhaps, is what should you know about the UAE that would make you oppose this deal?

For starters, you should know that the 9/11 Commission Report refers six times to the role that the United Arab Emirates played in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. You should also know that the Justice Department’s own indictment of Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker, lists over 20 counts that specifically implicate the UAE.

You should know that two of the 9/11 hijackers were from the UAE, and that not a single hijacker was from Iraq. You should know that banks in the UAE laundered money for the hijackers, and that UAE ports were used to smuggle nuclear components to Iran, North Korea and Libya. You should also know that the UAE was one of only three countries in the world that officially recognized the Taliban government in Afghanistan, which we spent billions of dollars deposing.

You should know that the current Treasury secretary, John Snow, who chaired the commission that approved the deal with Dubai Ports World, worked previously for a subsidiary of that company, and that the Bush administration named a former executive from Dubai Ports World to a high-level post in the transportation department.

You should know that President Bush says he didn’t actually know about the deal until after it was approved – yet we are asked to trust his judgment.

You should know that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the Unites States, in approving the deal, ignored a 1993 law that requires an extended review of any sale in which “the acquirer is controlled by or acting on behalf of a foreign government,” and the acquisition “could result in control of a person engaged in interstate commerce in the U.S. that could affect the national security of the U.S.”

You should know the deal does not require Dubai Ports World to keep copies of its business records on U.S. soil, where they would be subject to review by American courts.

Finally, you should know that the only piece of flotsam that the Bush administration has to cling to – besides its ridiculous claim that racism is the reason both Republicans and Democrats almost unanimously oppose this deal – is that there are “safeguards” in place to ensure that our national security will not be jeopardized.

Which safeguards are those? The ones that kept the administration from responding to a category five hurricane that it knew for six days was heading towards New Orleans? Or are they the safeguards that have allowed Iraq to descend into a civil war in which American soldiers have become sitting targets?

By now, it should be apparent to everyone – even to the most myopic or self-serving supporters of George W. Bush – that corporate profits are the guiding principle of this administration. And that anything – even national security – is for sale to the highest bidder.

And, yes, I told you so.

George Henson is a Spanish lecturer. He may be reached at [email protected].