Friday, April 28, 2006

Bush To Give Military Plants To Dubai Control

If Republicans got their panties in a twist over the DP World takeover of Fatherland Homeland ports, what do you think they will make of this?
President Bush is expected to announce today his approval of a deal under which a Dubai-owned company would take control of nine plants in the United States that manufacture parts for U.S. military vehicles and aircraft, say two administration officials familiar with the deal.
The reporters are Jim Rutenberg and David Sanger for the NY Times (the link above is to the free reprint in the Minn. Star-Tribune) - two reporters with close connections to the White House. They continue:
The officials, who were granted anonymity so they could speak freely about something the president had not yet announced, said that the final details had not yet been set and that Bush might put conditions on the transaction.
In other words, this is a planned White House leak with full White House authority behind it - presumably so that Bush's announcement can be altered to take account of any rightwing flaming of the proposal. Likewise, Bush is lining up the yes-men early this time:
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security and one of the foremost critics of the ports deal, said on Thursday that he would not necessarily have a problem this time around, in large part because the White House had given the deal a thorough review.
Raw Story has picked up the report too, so this one will be all over the place by morning.

Somehow I think it is going to be less of a problem than ports that the GOP then won't spend money on securing properly. After all, Republicans are already OK with Bush's inaction over the outsourcing of the manufacture of crucial missile components for the American military to supposed great would-be-superpower rival, China. Then again, I might be surprised - the wingnuts are already pissed at Dubya for favoring an amnesty for undocumented immigrants. This may just be another sign to them that their Beloved Leader has turned traitor.

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