Jon Christian Ryter -- Port Deal: Overture in Deceit, Part 2

PORT DEAL: OVERTURE IN DECEIT
PART 2 of 2

By Jon Christian Ryter

March 1, 2006

NewsWithViews.com

Even as al Qaeda was issuing a fatwah on the UAE royal family, the UAE's Interior Minister, Sheikh Saif bin Zayed al-Nahayan�also a member of the royal family�voiced fears in London that "...[t]he danger poised by Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor is that it is unpredictable. Protection [for the region] is practically impossible. All kinds of [leakage] detection...from a distance would not help to protect against any kind of leakage from this reactor due to the high-speed movement of the radiation." Earlier, the UAE's Foreign Minister, Abdullah Rashid al-Nuaimi demanded guarantees and protection from the Iranian nuclear plant since, he said, "...we are in a region very close to the nuclear reactor in Brushehr We have no guarantees or protection against any leakage which is on the Persian Gulf Coast." The Foreign Minister was speaking at the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council Summit which concluded with a call for a nuclear-free region.

The Iranian nuclear facility at Brushehr, Iran was built jointly by Russia and Iran. The original plans called for a German-built reactor back in the 1970s when the construction began. The new reactor will be built to Russian specs even though the original reactor's exterior appearance will remain essentially the same. The Brushehr facility contains two reactors. One is in the advanced stage of completion. Work on the other stopped years ago and there appears to be no immediate plans to complete it. It's important to note that Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty even though it failed to ratify two additional protocols initiated by the International Atomic Energy Agency which were designed to prevent states that do not have nuclear weapons from covertly developing them. Iran insists that it did not ratify the protocols, and will not, because they have been denied civilian nuclear technology for Brushehr.

The head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Agency, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, reported on Sunday, Feb. 26 that Iran had agreed to establish a joint uranium enrichment project with Russia in order to prevent an international confrontation with the United States over Iran's nuclear ambition. The deal heads off possible sanctions from the UN Security Council during its March 6 meeting with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Now, the March 6 meeting will deal with the Iranian-Russian nuclear enrichment program. The deal is still not firm. The Iranians are seeking one major concession from the United States�that Bush will not attack Iran. If the deal goes through, Iran will cede control of a key element in the nuclear fuel cycle that would prevent it from secretly producing weapons-grade uranium.

The tentative agreement between Iran and Russia was backed by the United States and the European Union. When the IAEA voted earlier this month to report Iran to the Security Council for punitive sanctions, Iran resumed small-scale uranium enrichment after the vote. Russia, which has defended Iran before the UN and even though it was forced to report Iran, has refused to endorse sanctions against its Mideast ally. Russia demanded that Iran resume its enrichment moratorium, which they did.

The question that should be in everyone's mind is: was that the secret deal that got Dubai Ports World International the go-ahead to take over the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company? Was that what prompted the President to suggest that if Congress knew all the details they would not be questioning the decision to allow an Arab company take over the container and storage business in America's busiest ports? And what happens if Congress enacts veto-proof legislation that overrides the joint decision of the Committee on Foreign Investments and the White House�which had to sign off on the deal for it to happen? Clearly, the UAE can't take back their political "down payment" on the $6.8 billion deal if Congress kills the ports deal with a veto-proof piece of legislation.

The UAE port deal follows the attempt by the Chinese oil giant, CNOOC, to buy Unocal�a transaction vehemently opposed by just about every American citizen when the offer was made. The CNOOC offer was refused by the Committee on Foreign Investments. Chevron, which was the initial bidder, ultimately bought UNOCAL

When the Clinton Administration closed the Long Beach Naval Station in 1993, it cost the city of Long Beach 17,500 military and civilian jobs. Monetarily, it cost the Long Beach, California $52.5 million in retail sales and played a major role in tanking the economy of California. In 1995, the Secretary of the Navy, John Dalton, turned the $65 million property over to the city�free of charge�after the Port of Long Beach notified the White House it had entered into an agreement to lease the property to the China Ocean Shipping Co. [COSCO]. Clinton�who took illegal campaign contributions from the Chinese in 1992 and again 1994 and 1996�was so eager to push the deal through that he personally met with Long Beach officials twice. With Clinton's backing, the deal sailed through without the mandatory national security investigation by the Committee on Foreign Investments. The People's Republic of China secured a SIGINT (signals intelligence) listening post in the United States that would allow the Chinese military to eavesdrop on voice and data transmissions of American defense contractors.

COSCO also smuggled Russian AK-47s into the United States. The automatic weapons�which gun ban advocates like Sarah Brady and TV talk show host and comic Rosie O'Donnell suggested were being sold to rightwing wackos by licensed gun dealers�were actually being sold by agents of the Chinese government to criminal elements in Oakland, California who, in turn, sold the automatic weapons to street gangs throughout California.

In 1992 COSCO was fined $400 thousand for bribing port officials to avoid tariffs on imports into the United States. As they are now threatening to do with the UAE, Congress swiftly enacted legislation that forbade any taxpayer money to be used by any State, county or community to enter into or renew a contract with any company owned, or partially owned, by the People's Republic of China or the People's Liberation Army. The legislation successfully blocked the Port of Long Beach from selling the former Navy base to the Chinese. But, in an end run around the legislation, the City of Long Beach moved American lease tenets from existing property adjoining the base onto the newly renovated Naval base, and then made a deal with the Chinese to assume the newly vacated buildings just outside the former base that were not covered by the ban. As this was going on, Dalton assured Congress that COSCO did not pose a threat to the United States.

The Bush-UAE deal threatens the national security as much as the Long Beach COSCO lease. The American people have no idea how many illegal aliens from America's deadliest enemy have entered this country through an open door, in the dead of night, provided to China by the Clinton Administration and the greedy city fathers of Long Beach, California. Civilian intelligence and security experts, like scores of intelligence and security officials employed by the federal government know, when you are fighting a theological war with an enemy who is determined to destroy you by any means possible�even if it means killing themselves in the process�the nation is at risk. Because it is, it does not make sense to hire the fox to guard the henhouse.

Perhaps we really can't blame the President of the United States for wanting to gain a much needed quid pro quo from the United Arab Emirates in exchange for approving their buyout of P&O�and taking over P&O's contracts with the ports of Baltimore, Miami, New Jersey, New Orleans, New York, and Philadelphia. After all, stupid is as stupid does. It isn't like Bush carved out a new niche on the stupid nook. Bill Clinton gave China the keys to the henhouse as well. But, that doesn't make either deal�or thirty-seven other deals�okay. We're either going to protect all of the ports of entry into our country and keep our enemies�even those posing as our friends�on the outside, or we're going to end up fighting our next door neighbors or some guy down the street when the War on Terrorism moves out of the battle scarred Mideast and erupts in your neighborhood, or at a Mall on the other of town, the State or the country.

Bush just doesn't get it�whether we are talking about sealing our porous northern and southern borders from the infiltration of terrorists into the United States from Mexico or Canada or talking about eliminating foreign entities�not just the United Arab Emirates�from controlling our ports. China�America's most dangerous enemy�controls the movement of contraband in 12 of our ports. The United States government knows that China is using Long Beach as a listening post to intercept the transmission of data from defense contractors in California. What are they listening to in New York, Baltimore (the Washington, DC metro area), abd Norfolk? How many illegal automatic weapons are coming into the 36 ports under the control of foreign entities?

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Let's face it, America will not be secure until Americans secure all of our borders and all of our ports of entry. We can't let our political enemies, under the guise of political correctness, assume the role of keeper of the keys to the gateway of America. To do so is stupid. Since September 11, 2001, this nation can no longer afford to be Forrest Gump. Stupid is as stupid does leads down only one path�the path of destruction. For part 1 click below.

Click here for part -----> 1