Has anyone considered the UAE port deal is a smokescreen?

[kitkat65]

These folks are the masters of illusion. You can't tell me the Administration didn't know there would be an outcry over this because it's such an obvious threat. So, I can't help but wonder if while we're watching this hand, the other hand is doing something far worse.

Who benefits from it? My first thought is that it's just a show to make the Republicans look tough on the Administration for the coming elections. As in, "see, we don't let the President get away with everything. And, we're still concerned about national security."

It's just so obvious. Waaaaaay too obvious.

[elehhhhna]

1. I think we're giving the BA way too much credit, here.

Face it: this Administration could f-up a biker picnic. I don't think this was anything more than idiotic, as usual.

[physioex]

7. Right....

I think him and his cronies made a trip out there and some sort of deal was struck. Maybe Poppy has a hand in this as well, Nothing personal just pure business.....

[A-Schwarzenegger]

19. Oh, No!

Don't you know that Karl Rove makes the planets spin
and the stars twirl?

[Sadie5]

26. Bush opens his big mouth

and who knows what will come out next. A few weeks ago it was the NSA spying he blurted out, then this past week it's the ports deal.

[madame defarge]

2. Of course it is...

along with everything else they do... "Nothing happening here...move on..."

Read this blog entry for news they *may* be trying to cover up...
http://www.democracycellproject.net/blog/archives/2006/02/hell_done_1.html
Hell is Now

[slor]

3. Quite a few people here...

but whatever it was supposed to conceal with "smoke", is now in a conflagration from the heat of this.

[XemaSab]

4. I've thought for a while

that a LOT of this stuff is a smokescreen, or a diversion.

Like this push to sell off public lands? It won't happen. There are too many parties fighting it for it to go through. But they put it forward either to distract us or to get us focused on too many issues.

And they've been doing it for 5 years.

[dysfunctional press]

5. that was my first thought as well.

it's like something right out of the poppy/rove playbook.

[BlueEyedSon]

6. Yes, i think they create scandal after scandal so that none are ever

fully investigated.

Where are Cheney's energy papers?

How about an investigation on the fabrication of prewar intel?

We can't catch up because it takes longer to investigate than to whip up a new outrage.....

[enid602]

8. Iran

Ask me that question again on March 27 or 28. I might have the answer by then.

[Greyhound]

9. Considered and accepted. It is obvious to me that that is exactly

what this is. I'm also pretty sure, with the "democrats" sitting on their hands and doing nothing, that they are going to get away with it. We'll make some headway in this election, but only a tiny fraction of what we should get.

[librechik]

10. I got a positive flash: what if this is a CIA operation?

using DPI as a front company, the CIA takes over our ports in order to REALLY control security, if you know what I mean--I mean I'm a MIHOPper all the way, this is a bad thing, and the next terror attack will be uh, soon.

However, that's a silly theory--it's TOO obvious this is just a vulgar corporate conjob designed to enrich Bush cronies while Bush sits in benign ignorance presiding over the looting. In a banana republic the sharks move in and feast.

[Mme. Defarge]

11. This administration conceals so much

that whenever one outrageous item gets attention, it naturally obscures others. If anything, IMO, the shooting incident was a smokescreen created by the Rove camp to impugn Cheney and draw our attention away from this secret port deal.

[skypilot]

12. kitkat65,

You and I were thinking very much alike on this one. I know it's all very tinfoil hat but I was thinking to myself that this whole thing is some kind of "gift" from Bush to the Republicans. Bush will be out of office soon but the other Repubs had to have something to make them look like heros, especially with all the ethics problems lately. Something like this whole port controversy makes it look as though they are going all out for national security, even butting heads with a stubborn, though unpopular, lameduck president who is trying to forge his "legacy".

There's probably some other explanation but I couldn't get this one out of my head and then I saw your post.:hi:

[Beelzebud]

13. Franky, I think that is giving them WAY too much credit.

I think we liberals have built Karl Rove into a fictional character. In reality he's a big dumb kid, that is lashing out for getting picked on in high-school.

[MadMaddie]

14. To bust the Union....

Union Busting...Big Money....

This * Cabal is anti-labor and anti-union....

[Radio_Guy]

15. Other way around

The port deal started going through before Cheney's misfiring. I think Cheney's hunting "accident" and subsequent cover-up was a smokescreen to draw attention away from the ports.

[EstimatedProphet]

16. Smokescreen? Maybe

As I said in another thread, I don't think Bush is an idiot. I think he's arrogant. I think maybe what thie port deal says is: we can do what we want, and we don't give a damn whether you like it or not. The administration puts together the port deal, and when people start to complain, they say STFU. I think that possibly they are looking to see how far they can push things; if people just go along with things, then fine, but if they don't and the public becomes too outraged to take it anymore, they can pull out martial law and go toward the dictatorship that Bush has said publically he wants.

[berni_mccoy]

17. Yes, I had the same thought here ---->

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x498747

[bloom]

18. It looked to me like the story was first carried in Forbes

and a bunch of mostly smaller right leaning newspapers. Not the big cheese media.


With Steve Forbes being a signer on of the PNAC - I thought it was suspicious from the get go.

http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm

The white house saying that Bush* didn't know anything about it is doubly suspicious.


Meanwhile - civil war is breaking out in Iraq - and what else? there is probably something. :shrug:

[berni_mccoy]

20. Here's another story that suggests this is a setup

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x499306

[dchill]

21. It's the Bush "pResidency"...

that's the smokescreen. The port deal is just something we were never supposed to hear about.

[verden]

22. Nah, these people don't give up ANY power!

The * administration has nothing but contempt for everyone, especially Congress. They have hoped to keep them happy by not vetoing any of their pork. This happened because they think everyone is a chump, and they won't get caught.

[newyawker99]

32. Hi verden!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[mtnester]

23. I personally do not think they can create enough fire to hide everything

they have fucked up, deliberately or otherwise.

The blinders are starting to come off the sheeple, methinks. Slow, but happening. Hell, even my grandparents are pissed and vocal about the port stuff, and they are from the generation that does not like to be political or criticize.

Funny how turning ports over to what some consider an aider and abettor to the enemy is what may end up being the straw that broke the monkey's back.

[BlueEyedSon]

24. This is a tempest in a teapot. They will get what they want, and keep

everyone's nose out of the other, impeachable scandals.

[Javaman]

25. I posted about this 2 days ago.

but you also have to remember, all they have is one smoke screen after smoke screen after smoke screen. They have no real substance other than lies.

[Avalux]

27. I think the deal has a lot to do with Iran.

We've agreed to a tradeoff with the UAE - we give them rights to our ports and in turn, our corporations and military get unrestrained access to their port in Dubai. If you look at a map, seems to me we'll need it when we attack Iran, which we will do for control in the ME (PNAC).

[Javaman]

28. Yup, you hit it right on the head...

all roads lead to oil with this group of thugs.

They can try to explain away all their bullshit with one excuse after another but in the end, it's all about oil.

Granted, our comerce is based upon oil, but the average American, with various ways of conservation along with various Alternative Energy sources, can get by and do with out it.

However, the people that are addicted to oil is our actual gov't and most of all our Military. The military uses more oil than the whole U.S. population. I don't see them in anyway, trying to even explore, let alone encorage the use of alt energy sources, instead of oil.

So, it's a never ending circular firing squad. They need oil to run the military. they are running out, so they need to get more, so they go to war to get it, but have to use it to fight that war and at the end of that war, they are that much more in need of it, because of the amount they wasted fighting the last war, so guess what? repeat and rinse. They go to war yet again.

[Avalux]

29. There's nothing we can do about it either.

I know this deal will go through, and these greedy, disgusting men will continue on with their plan. Rummy has some new toys he wants to use; lots of jets and bombs just sitting around not being used. When I think of the money - OUR money - that's been spent on Iraq alone, it makes me sick.

[Lorien]

30. Oh yes, and everyone has taken the bait

I've participated in quite a few NON-port deal related threads here in the past few days-and every one has sunk like a stone. The port deal has completely consumed DU, so I'm guessing that it's the top topic of the MSM (don't have cable, so I wouldn't know for certain).America and DU have overfocused type ADD; one topic at a time is all we can seem to manage, and as soon as that topic jumps the shark it's forgotten and the NEXT obsession begins. This works to BushCo's advantage because THEY are multi-tasking.

[muriel_volestrangler]

31. Do you think it was that obvious to Dubai and P&O?

And what about the Singaporeans? They've all been in a months long bidding war, and did not expect to get stopped on the small American part of the deal. Or are you saying that Bush controls all three companies?

No, I think they, and the Bush admin, didn't realise how frightened Americans now are of Arab countries that have appeared in the 9/11 story. To multinational companies and governments, the other parties are one of those two types - multinational companies or governments, and they're used to dealing with each other. To American citizens, if something happened in a country, then the government is responsible for it, and so they tie the Dubai government to 9/11. Strange that the Republicans who voted for Bush don't hold him responsible for things that happened in the USA in the same way, but maybe it's because they understand the USA better. Things that happen in another country are often just 'over there' in one lump.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

33. Not A Chance. Ulterior Motives, Yes (war on iran?). Smokescreen? No.