Signs of Intelligence (OK, that was just to get your attention)

Via the Canadian Cynic, George W Bush is reported not to have known the details of a Dubai company taking over some of the operations of US port facilities.

Bush was unaware of the deal until he heard reports of the congressional uproar, presidential adviser Dan Bartlett said.

The whole mess is as a result of Dubai Ports World buying Peninsular & Orient Steamship Lines. The deal comes with terminals and port facilities all over the world. There is some misconception that Dubai is taking over the entire port of, say, New York - and it isn't. It's taking over the P&O terminals including a cargo terminal and the P&O cruise ship terminal.

However, the offer to P&O shareholders by the Dubai Ports World corportation, a company in the private hands of Sultan Bin Sulayem of Dubai, was posted on December 20th, 2005. Surely the US Department of Homeland Security was advised in some small way that things were changing. Well, maybe not.

OK. Well then, how about when Bush announced the appointment of David C. Sanborn as Director of the US Maritime Administration. That should have twigged somebody. After all, the Maritime Administration is heavily involved in port security and manages the US strategic reserve fleet. That happened on January 23rd, 2006.

Why is that important? Well, David Sanborn would have to be fully checked out. He would also have to be security cleared. So, the Bush administration would have a good idea about what he was doing and who he presently works for.

Sanborn's present employer: Dubai Ports World. Oh yes, Sanborn is the Director of Operations for DPW's European and Latin American operations, so he was directly involved in both the takeover of P&O facilities and the transfer of management.

Yet, Bush says he didn't know anything about it until the congressional uproar.

Even I didn't think Bush was that stupid.