WHY, WHY DUBAI?

 

 

 

Phyllis Spivey
March 26, 2006
NewsWithViews.com

Bye- bye Dubai. The ports deal didn’t fly. Congress killed it, Democrats and Republicans. It was all about security, they said: "American seaports need American management." Not everyone agreed.

President Bush was troubled, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce worried; former Congressman, now Council on Foreign Relations spokesman Jack Kemp was angry; talk show host Rush Limbaugh was embarrassed, then ashamed; angry citizens were pacified. But Americans with memories looked on with cynicism, noting that most of the lawmakers leading the revolt had consistently supported the very policies that produced the Dubai deal.

What were those policies and what made these particular Arab interests, with their proven links to terrorist elements, so important? And why, with public anger mounting, would President Bush and former President Clinton both work to salvage the transaction?

Some would say it was all about military and political considerations; others would cite private deals and personal greed, but think trade. For when it comes to setting U.S. policy, regardless of the party in power, nothing trumps trade – not national sovereignty, not U.S. jobs, and certainly not homeland security.

Dubai is one of the largest of seven principalities comprising the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE is a U.S. trading partner – the third largest trading partner of the U.S. in the Middle East – having joined the World Trade Organization in 1996.

According to a U.S. State Department press release dated February 23 – just 10 days after the Dubai ports deal was approved -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Arab leaders in the UAE.

"...the discussion included the on-going Free Trade Agreement negotiations where the two countries reiterated their desire to achieve a comprehensive agreement. The FTA would further enhance the current U.S.-UAE trade relationship, boost foreign investment and create job opportunities for citizens of both countries."

No wonder the ports deal was rushed through a flawed approval process, and no wonder it sailed through with the presumption it wouldn’t face challenge. For in the world of modern trade agreements, challenges to trade agendas equal trade barriers – a serious "no-no" – as is "discrimination" against trading partners, their products, services, and suppliers.

The Dubai-UAE deal was simply business as usual. Global elitists have long "invested" in the U.S., but the trade agreements of the nineties put American assets on an international auction block, providing cover for the transfer of publicly owned infrastructure to foreign control. A provision in the Government Procurement section of the globalist Uruguay Round Agreement (GATT-WTO) spells it out:

"This Agreement applies to procurement by any contractual means, including through such methods as purchase or as lease, rental or hire purchase, with or without an option to buy, including any combination of products and services." (Article 1, Page 1736)

Similar provisions covering general services, products and suppliers punctuate the GATT, North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and subsequent trade accords. Together with many cross-border mandates, they ensure that what isn’t sold, leased or rented will undergo massive transformation through demographic restructuring. Is it any wonder foreign interests, including governments, businesses, and populations, have moved in and taken possession?

We live with the results – the rapid internationalization of virtually every aspect of American life, including U.S. land and sea borders, business, labor, infrastructure, education, health care, language and culture

Western Hemispheric accords, e.g., NAFTA, the Security and Prosperity Partnership and the Central American Free Trade Agreement, mandate the eventual erasure of U.S. land borders, north and south. Similarly, GATT-WTO renders sea borders meaningless. Border security is a political talking point, not a serious objective for either major political party.

Already, the pacts have restructured the U.S. labor market, ensuring that middle class jobs not outsourced to other countries will increasingly be filled by imported foreigners holding H-1B visas, anything for cheaper labor. In the global economy, hourly workers as well as highly skilled professionals are simply the "human capital" of corporations and governments, meant to be used, moved or discarded at will. Like other assets, America’s human capital, augmented by millions of third world illegals, has been internationalized.

But U.S. infrastructure has also gone global, including road-building, maintenance, and management, enabled in part by just-in-time-for-NAFTA federal legislation. Spanish, French, and Australian firms holding long term leases will be collecting tolls from drivers in California, Texas, Illinois, Michigan, and Virginia for 50 to 99 years.

Indiana citizens are fighting a similar fate. Republican Governor Mitch Daniels is pushing a 75-year toll road deal with an Australian-Spanish consortium, which he says is being eyed by a number of other states considering similar deals.

But leave it to California Republicrat Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to outsleeze the outsourcers. According to his secretary of transportation, the Governor’s January trip to China included talks on investing in California’s freeways and rail lines, and: "They were very interested in the fact that we were open to having investment partners."

Look around you, fellow citizens. America, with its unique heritage, values, and unparalleled prosperity is being stolen from you, piece by piece. And Congress, by abdicating its constitutional role in matters of trade and commerce, has been complicit in the theft.

Consider: The U.S. Constitution gives the Congress – not the president – "All legislative powers"(Article I, Section 1) and bestows upon it the power to "regulate commerce with foreign nations" (Article I, Section 8-3). The Constitution also vests in the Congress – not the president – the "power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States." (Article IV, Section3-2.)

Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter, one of the few U.S. lawmakers who can speak credibly about trade and security issues has unveiled legislation mandating that over time all ports and other critical infrastructure now owned by foreign entities be sold back to Americans.

Good timing. Saudi Arabia joined the WTO in December 2005 and might soon come shopping in your neighborhood.

© 2006 Phyllis Spivey - All Rights Reserved