WAYNE MADSEN REPORT
http://waynemadsenreport.com/

March 1, 2006 -- Dubai -- the emirate has the smoking gun evidence tying the Bush criminal cartel to arms trafficking, Viktor Bout, the Taliban, and Al Qaeda.

Internal documents from the UAE Central Bank in Dubai detail huge money laundering operations in the UAE according to financial industry insiders. Moreover, the Sharjah branch of HSBC Holdings PLC was tied to international arms trafficker Victor Bout, indicted in Belgium for money laundering and named in various UN reports as a chief embargo buster in Africa and Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

American citizen Iqbal Hakim, a native of India, was the chief examiner for the UAE Central Bank. Hakim, yet another whistleblower who has been ignored and mistreated by the Bush administration and threatened by Bush's Persian Gulf potentate friends, discovered a suspicious $343 million per year money flow through an HSBC personal account in Dubai. The transactions were investigated by the FBI and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement but no prosecutions resulted.

There are deep-seated ties between the Bush-Cheney criminal cartel, key GOP operatives, and the UAE. Significant questions about the oil industry’s ties to the U.S. military-intelligence complex were raised when Michael Trumpower, the owner of Prescott, Arizona-based company Matco, Inc. filed for bankruptcy shortly after George W. Bush's inauguration. In questionable financial moves similar to those of Enron, Matco traded on a lucrative oil concession it was granted for all offshore exploration off the Emirate of Fujairah for unsecured loans for equipment and services. Fujairah, one of the poorest of the emirates, is led by Sheik Hamad bin Mohammed al Sharqi, one of the more fundamentalist Wahhabi Muslims in the UAE leadership. Al Sharqi patronizes the Fujairah Islamic Call and Guidance Center, which has recruited a number of foreign adherents of Wahhabi Islam. These include Filipinos, British, Americans, Russians, and Sri Lankans. Moreover, all their native countries are targets of Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda. In addition, a number of Pakistani nationals who worked at the National Bank of Fujairah were known by international law enforcement to be sympathetic to the Taliban.

Trumpower’s close ties to Sheikh Hamad are only rivaled by his close ties to the CIA. Although he became strapped for cash after his company tanked, Trumpower, like Enron's Kenneth Lay, was a major contributor to the Bush campaign and those of other Republican candidates, including that of powerful House Rules Committee member, Representative Thomas Reynolds of New York. Reynolds was in a prime position to derail any House investigation of the GOP-CIA-oil industry ties.

In the mid-1980s, Trumpower was an associate of Iran-contra figure Oliver North. North claims Trumpower was instrumental in helping to free U.S. hostages in Lebanon. That affair was the heart of the Iran-contra scandal in which several current and former Bush administration officials took part. These include National Security Council Middle East adviser Elliot Abrams, former Defense Department Information Awareness Office chief Admiral (retired) John Poindexter, and Assistant Secretaries of State for Latin American Affairs Otto Reich and Roger Noriega. The old Iran-contra fraternity remains largely intact. In 2000, North and Trumpower jointly appeared at a Republican fundraising dinner in Arizona.

Trumpower was also close to the reigning Emir of Sharjah, who granted the shadowy ex-CIA agent of influence rights to drill in a strip of ocean bordering Fujairah. Sharjah was a major base of operations for Al Qaeda and the Taliban, which used the emirate to smuggle weapons and drugs using Ariana Afghan Airlines security credentials. Sharjah was a base of operations for Viktor Bout’s Air Cess operations, which was accused of running weapons to the Taliban and gun running activities in Africa, especially the Democratic Republic of Congo.

From his base in Sharjah in the Gulf, Bout was servicing Ariana Afghan Airline flights to Kandahar, Afghanistan. These flights were believed to be ferrying weapons and Al Qaeda and Taliban volunteers to Afghanistan and the Clinton National Security Council strongly believed Bout was aiding terrorism. Belgium issued an INTERPOL international arrest warrant for Bout for money laundering and diamond smuggling. Clinton White House counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke wanted an arrest warrant issued for Bout. Gayle Smith, Clinton’s National Security Council Africa bureau chief, along with CIA and British MI-6 agents, kept a wary eye on Bout’s activities in Africa’s conflicts.



At heart of Dubai scandal: Taliban and Al Qaeda weapons smuggler
and U.S. contractor Viktor Bout

After Bush was inaugurated in 2001, Sharjah police sent a special police unit to Sharjah airport to capture Bout and hand him over to U.S. authorities, but the White House declined. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told U.S. intelligence that when it came to Bout, "look but don’t touch.” After 911, Rice inexplicably called off all operations aimed at Bout. Law enforcement and intelligence agents considered such a move amazing, considering Bout’s direct links to smuggling arms to the Taliban and Al Qaeda, as well as to other areas of the world that were rife with Islamist terrorist groups.

Next door to Sharjah is Dubai, the center of CIA spying in the region, according to U.S. intelligence sources. Dubai’s Dolphin Energy Ltd. was a quarter-owned by Enron before the firm’s collapse. Dolphin’s CEO was UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahayan. Bout was reported by the UN to be using Flying Dolphin Airlines, which operated scheduled flights between Dubai and Kandahar between October 2000 and January 2001, to ship arms to the Taliban. Flying Dolphin was owned by Shaikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Saqr al Nahayan, a former UAE ambassador to the U.S. and a relative of the President of the UAE, who is also the ruler of Abu Dhabi. Flying Dolphin was registered in Bout’s favorite home base of Liberia although its main office was in Dubai.

In addition, Bout’s Texas-based Air Bas had rights to refuel at U.S. bases in Iraq. One of Bout’s airfreight companies, Airbus, was subcontracted through another firm called Falcon Express of Dubai, by Kellogg, Brown and Root, the subsidiary of Halliburton. Air Bas also had links to Falcon Express.

In July 2001, Osama bin Laden was reported to have received kidney treatment at the American Hospital in Dubai with the blessing of the Dubai and UAE governments. At the time of his hospitalization, Osama Bin Laden was reported by the French newspaper Le Figaro and Radio France International to have been visited on July 12, 2001, by Larry Mitchell, the CIA chief in Dubai who was said to have had close contacts with all the Gulf royal families. Mitchell was reportedly called back to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia on July 15, 2001. The Carlyle Group, with George H. W. Bush, James Baker III, and the Bin Laden family as major principals, bought a 42 percent stake (from a previous 4.9 percent stake) in Le Figaro after the paper on October 31, 2001, reported on the Bin Laden meeting with the CIA station chief in Dubai.



The Bush criminal cartel: fingerprints all over Dubai ports deal

One of Neil Bush’s best friends and advocates in the Middle East is the Emir of Dubai, Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, an individual who often crossed paths with the Taliban and Al Qaeda on his frequent hunting and falconing trips to eastern Afghanistan. In the wake of 911, Rashid, who was the Defense Minister of the United Arab Emirates and then Dubai Crown Prince, said the following, “The United States must not to act in haste, it must give diplomacy and legal means every opportunity before launching a military strike on Afghanistan, it must not rush to accuse people without hard evidence.” The UAE was only one of three countries to recognize the Taliban, which acquiesced to the financing of Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. In October 2001, while visiting Dubai just weeks after 911, Neil Bush praised the Shaikh Rashid as a man with “foresight and vision.” In the same speech, Neil Bush said something that should chill the bones of every American--he said the following about his learning-disabled son Pierce, “My father was the 41st president and my brother is 43rd. I think that if Pierce finishes high school, he’ll be the 50th president of the United States." Rashid also just so happened to be in charge of a project to put computers in UAE schools and Neil Bush was hawking the services of his Ignite! Inc., an e-learning educational software company.

Carlyle has its fingerprints on the Dubai Ports world deal to assume control of six major U.S. ports from Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O). After Treasury Secretary John Snow left CSX Corporation as its chairman, CSX Lines was sold to Carlyle, which renamed it Horizon Lines. David Sanborn, who was a CSX executive under Snow, became director of European and Latin American operations for Dubai Ports World and arranged to sell the Dubai state-owned firm CSX port operations in South America and Asia. Sanborn was then appointed Assistant Secretary of Transportation for Maritime Administration (MARAD), the oversight agency for U.S. shipping and ports. The Dubai Ports World deal to take over U.S. port operations was signed off by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), chaired by Sanborn's old CSX boss Snow. Perhaps not coincidental to the lucrative port deals, the Dubai Investment Corporation recently invested $100 million in The Carlyle Group. And Dubai Ports World's deal involves taking over operations at more than just six U.S. ports -- New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia/Camden, Baltimore, Miami, and New Orleans.

P&O's web site states the Dubai Ports World deal involves stevedore operations at 21 U.S. ports: Portland, ME; Boston, Davisville, RI; New York; Newark; Philadelphia; Camden, NJ; Wilmington, DE; Baltimore; Newport News, VA; Norfolk, VA; Portsmoth, VA; Lake Charles, LA, New Orleans; Beaumont, TX; Port Arthur, TX; Galveston, TX; Houston; Corpus Christi; and Freeport, TX.

The magazine In These Times reported yet another former CIA officer who had ties to the Gulf and who was heavily involved with the oil industry. He is Stephen “Satch” Baumgart of Reston, Virginia. He reportedly helped funnel arms to Sadaam Hussein in the 1980s with the approval of the CIA, which had, at the time, tilted to Baghdad in its war with Iran. Baumgart was linked to another Republican contributor and oil mogul, Pierre Falcone of Scottsdale, Arizona. Falcone was implicated in a complex guns-for-oil scandal involving Angola and Vice President Dick Cheney’s old company, Halliburton, a major player with the Luanda regime. Another player in that scandal was Russian-Israeli mobster Arkady Gaydamak, who is tied into an international network of smugglers connected to Marc Rich, Scooter Libby's one-time client. Falcone was also closely linked to Arizona Republican State Senator Scott Bundgaard, who ran for the House of Representatives’ Second District in Arizona.

There is also a connection between the scandal-plagued firm Custer Battles, which has been under investigation for fraud in Iraq security contracts, and Dubai. Custer Battles was formed in 2003 by Mike Battles, aged 33, a former U.S. Army and CIA officer and Scott Custer, also a former U.S. Army Ranger and employee of SAIC. Custer was Battles’s campaign assistant in a failed 2002 congressional race against Rhode Island Democratic Representative Patrick Kennedy. Custer Battles initial financing is sketchy but it is known that the company received $15 million in seed money from a Dubai venture capital firm. The venture capital firm hoped to raise an additional $100 million for Custer Battles ventures in Iraq. Battles refused to disclose the name of the Dubai firm.

A mercenary firm that supplies ex-South African counter-insurgency Koevoet commandos has links to Dubai. The firm, Erinys International, which established an Erinys Iraq branch, has its headquarters in London with offices in Johannesburg and Dubai.

Vice President Dick Cheney's old company, Halliburton, has some interesting partners in its work in occupied Iraq. On Dec. 11, WMR reported on links between Halliburton/Kellogg, Brown & Root and a Viktor Bout-owned airline based in Moldova, Aerocom/Air Mero. Bout's airlines have also reportedly been involved in flying low wage earners from East Asia to Dubai and on to Iraq where they work for paltry salaries in sub-standard living conditions. Halliburton/KBR has sub-contracted to a shadowy Dubai-based firm, Prime Projects International Trading LLC (PPI), which "trades" mainly in workers from Thailand, the Philippines, Nepal, India, Pakistan, and other poor Asian nations.

In 2004, after a Filipino PPI worker was killed in a mortar attack on Camp Anaconda in Iraq, the Philippines government of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered PPI, which is based at P.O. Box 42252, Dubai, UAE, to send overseas Filipino workers OFWs) home from Iraq and Kuwait and banned it from further recruiting in the Philippines. Some of PPI's recruiting included running ads on the Internet. In addition to the other south Asian employees, the Philippine workers were employed by PPI under a Pentagon sweetheart umbrella contract let to KBR under the LOGCAP (Logistics Civil Augmentation Program) III program.

Although little is known about PPI, it reportedly has been linked to Halliburton/KBR for a number of years and has been associated with Halliburton contracts in the Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the Balkans during the time when Dick Cheney headed the firm. PPI has also been involved in operations at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where Filipino workers were involved in building the prison housing suspected "Al Qaeda" prisoners.

Inside sources report that PPI has some high level financial partners, including the al Nahayan royal family of the United Arab Emirates and Vice President Cheney.

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/02/28/dpworld-boycotts-israel/

BREAKING: Dubai Ports World Boycotts Israel

From this morning’s Jerusalem Post:


The parent company of a Dubai-based firm at the center of a political storm in the US over the purchase of American ports participates in the Arab boycott against Israel, The Jerusalem Post has learned.


The Jerusalem Post notes that “US law bars firms from complying with such requests or cooperating with attempts by Arab governments to boycott Israel.” Once upon a time, opposing such boycotts was important to the Bush Administration. From the BBC, 5/11/02:


“The US government is strongly opposed to restrictive trade practices or boycotts targeted at Israel,” said Undersecretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Kenneth Juster.

“The Commerce Department is closely monitoring efforts that appear to be made to reinvigorate the Arab boycott of Israel and will use all of its resources to vigorously enforce US anti-boycott regulations.”

…The Department of Commerce has issued more than $26m in fines and turned down export licenses to those found violating the law.


The boycott against Israel is an important distinction between P&O, the British company that currently operates 21 U.S. ports, and Dubai Ports World.

Posted by Judd at 9:25 am

http://www.buzzflash.com/analysis/06/02/ana06011.html

Connecting Dubai Ports World, the Carlyle Group, CSX, John Snow, and David Sanborn

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS

by A BuzzFlash Reader

Dear Buzz,

Remember these two names: John Snow and David Sanborn. Then remember these three companies: Carlyle Group, CSX, and Dubai Ports World.

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PART OF CSX -- namely, CSX Lines -- was sold to ...drum roll, please.... The Carlyle Group, early in Feb. 2003, for $300 million.

One of the biggest customers of CSX Lines is the US military.

John Snow, the CEO of CSX, was appointed Treasury Secretary by Bush jr. on Feb. 7, 2003.

Read about this cozy deal at:

http://2002/mmp_news021219.html

and at: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0

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David Sanborn was an executive with CSX and, then, a senior Dubai Ports World executive whom Bush appointed last month to be the new administrator of the Maritime Administration of the Transportation Department. Sanborn worked as Dubai Ports World's director of operations for Europe and Latin America.

Gee, d'ya think Sanborn greased the skids for Dubai Ports World to get Bushite approval to run operations at six of our nation's ports?

D'ya think?

<>

Read more at: Yahoo News

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More about DAVID SANBORN and JOHN SNOW at: http://thinkprogress.org/2006/02/20/uae-military-equipment/

<< I am surprised that nobody here has mentioned the most obvious connections -- Treasury Secretary John Snow, and brand-spankin’-newbie-crony David Sanborn. John Snow was formerly CEO of CSX ... David Sanborn was an executive with CSX/Sea-Land division.

Then SANBORN left to become a director with Dubai Ports World and brokered a deal for Dubai Ports World to purchase the South American and Asia port operations from CSX. Now -- just two weeks ago -- Sanborn is introduced as the new Assistant Secretary of Transportation -- Marine Administration.

Then the quasi-secret "Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States" (CFIUS), which is chaired by John Snow, makes this ruling.>>

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/02/20/uae-military-equipment/

And I would bet that the law firm Baker Botts, of which James A. Baker III is a major partner, had a hand in this. James A. Baker III is also affiliated with the CARLYLE Group.

Why do we care about the Carlyle Group? I'll answer that by telling you who some of the investors are? Among the firm's multi-million-dollar investors were

-- members of the family of Osama bin Laden

-- George Bush Sr

-- former British prime minister John Major

-- Frank Carlucci - Ronald Reagan's defense secretary

-- James A. Baker III

Read more about The Carlyle Group at: www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0

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*MM&P-contracted CSX Lines Purchased by the CARLYLE GROUP*

Masters, Mates & Pilots Wheelhouse Weekly

Feb. 2006 (original date of this unknown, but it is around Feb. 2003)

<< MM&P-contracted CSX Lines, the US-flag container shipping subsidiary of CSX Inc., will be sold to the CARLYLE GROUP, a private equity firm based in Washington, DC for $300 MILLION. The acquisition will give CARLYLE control over the nation's largest Jones Act container fleet and will add to the company's growing transportation portfolio.

CSX Lines will be renamed Horizon Lines LLC, when the transaction is completed early next year pending regulatory approval. CSX Lines is the nation's largest ocean transport company, with 17 US-flag vessels and 22,000 containers, providing ocean transportation and logistics services to and from the US, Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, and Puerto Rico.

CARLYLE's other maritime holdings include Seabulk International, formerly Hvide Marine, which owns and operates 10 Jones Act tankers in the Gulf of Mexico. Through United Defense Industries, CARLYLE controls United States Marine Repair, the nation's largest non-nuclear ship repair and conversion company.

Carlyle Group is a politically-connected global private equity firm with reportedly more than $13.9 billion under management. The company's directors and advisors include former President George H.W. Bush, former British Prime Minister John Major, and former Secretary of State JAMES BAKER III. IBM Chairman Louis Gerstner is slated to become chairman of Carlyle on January 7, replacing former Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci.

John Snow, the CEO of CSX, was appointed Treasury Secretary by the younger President Bush last week. The current CSX Lines President and Chief Executive Charles Raymond and his management team will remain in place. Raymond will also serve as chairman of the board.>>

Read this at: http://www.bridgedeck.org/mmp_news_archive/2002/mmp_news021219.html

It just gets weirder and weirder.

After I learned the above about the Dubai Ports World deal... along with tidbits about CSX Lines and its purchase in Feb.. 2003 by The CARLYLE Group ... I came upon an article that asked WHY in the world The Carlyle Group would buy such a motley assortment of old boats.

Well, in one year, The Carlyle Group's purchase price of $300 million to buy the CSX lines, which it RENAMED Horizon Lines, was turned into a hefty PROFIT of ... drum roll, please ... $350 million.

Carlyle bought CSX LInes for $300 million in Feb, 2003, and sold it (as Horizon Lines) in March of 2004 for $650 million.

Nice profit.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

*HORIZON LINES [CSX Lines] FOR SALE AGAIN ALREADY*.

Comment On The Maritime News

by Tim Colton

March 5, 2004 [NOTE DATE]

<< The news that Horizon Lines [formerly CSX Lines] is for sale again, only 15 months after CSX sold it to CARLYLE GROUP, confirms what I've suspected all along, that Carlyle Group never understood what it was getting into. Due diligence is not, apparently, a concept with which Carlyle Group is familiar.

Here's what I wrote at the time:

- - - - - - - -

WHY WOULD CARLYLE WANT CSX LINES, ESPECIALLY AT THAT PRICE?

by Tim Colton

December 19, 2002

Why would anyone want to be a Jones Act operator? Why, in particular, would an investment group that's heavily involved in the defense industry, and doesn't have a CCF, want the collection of floating razor-blades that constitutes the bulk of the CSX Lines fleet (see below). A total of 16 ships, with an average age of 25 years. Only 3 of the 16 are under 20 years old: the other 13 have an average age of 28. And these 13 ships are not only old, they're also steam-powered: it's getting harder every year to find marine engineers who can remember what a steam plant looks like.

CARLYLE is paying $300 million for a company that had net earnings last year of $17 million on total revenues of $681 million, an unimpressive 2.5%. Its net cash flow was, wait for it, zero. The book value of its fixed assets at the end of last year was $167 million. The scrap value of the 13 old ships is around $30 to $35 million, total, and their replacement cost is over $1 billion.

So, if Carlyle didn't buy CSX Lines for its income, and it didn't buy it for its assets, and it can't have bought it for its cash flow, why did it buy it? Somebody please explain this deal to me.

- - - - - - - -

So, the big questions now are (a) who will buy it and (b) how much of a bath will Carlyle have to take? by Tim Colton, March 5, 2004.>>

[NOTE FROM ME: The ANSWER is below.]

Read this at: http://www.coltoncompany.com/comment/comment2004q1.htm

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*Company News; Horizon Lines Shipping Sold for $650 MILLION* http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A00E7DA143EF936A15756C0A9629C8B63

The New York Times

May 25, 2004

<< Castle Harlan, a New York private equity firm, said yesterday that it had agreed to buy Horizon Lines, a container shipping company, for $650 million from the Carlyle Group, another buyout firm.

Horizon, which owns 16 vessels and about 21,700 cargo containers, generated fiscal 2003 revenue of more than $830 million, Castle Harlan said.

Carlyle acquired Horizon from CSX in February 2003. The company handles more than a third of marine container shipments between the United States mainland and the ports of Alaska, Guam, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, the companies said. >>

Read this at: query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A00E7DA143EF936A15756C0A9629C8B63

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

READ ABOUT Castle Harlan, Inc. at: http://www.castleharlan.com/

Castle Harlan's holdings at: http://www.castleharlan.com/letter/default.html

The US military is one of the biggest customers of CSX Lines, which The Carlyle Group had RENAMED as Horizon Lines before selling it to Castle Harlanobserver.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0

Another part of Castle Harlan, Castle Harlan Partners II (CHPII), owns the Statia Terminals Group N.V., one of the world's largest independent Marine terminal companies.

<>

http://www.castleharlan.com/profiles/statia.html

My head is spinning.

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS

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MORE...

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http://www.counterpunch.org/rajiva02272006.html

February 27, 2006

Double Standards on Foreign Owners

Amdocs vs. DP World

By LILA RAJIVA

In December 2001, Fox TV broadcast a four part investigation on Israeli espionage by Carl Cameron, which the Israeli embassy in Washington, JINSA (Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs), and AIPAC (American Israeli Political Action Committee) immediately denied and attacked. (1)

One and a half days after its posting, all the material related to the investigation was taken off the Fox website. The facts stayed alive thereafter only on the Internet.

Forget the Israeli art student espionage story which Cameron unearthed and which has never been seriously investigated. Forget any of the other highly credible accounts of Israeli espionage before and during 9-11 which have been conveniently reclassified without investigation as urban legends.

Focus only on what Cameron reported on Amdocs, a company which has contracts with the twenty-five largest telephone companies in the US to handle all their directory assistance, calling records, and billing work. This gives Amdocs access to data on nearly every telephone call dialed in the country. According to Cameron, Amdocs has been investigated on several occasions for suspected ties to the Israeli mafia and for espionage.

Reportedly, in 1999 a Top Secret Sensitive Compartmentalized Information report (TS/SCI) warned that records of calls in the US were getting into foreign hands, Israeli in particular.

Yet this story garnered nary a peep from the mainstream media, so vocal in free-speech defense of race-baiting cartoons.

And it got not much more even in the alternative press, daintily leery of being branded anti-Semitic.

And it got nothing at all from grandstanding pols like Chuck Schumer, waxing indignant today about DP Worlds:

"America's busiest ports are vital to our economy and to the international economy, and that is why they remain top terrorist targets," quoth Schumer. "Just as we would not outsource military operations or law enforcement duties, we should be very careful before we outsource such sensitive homeland security duties." (2)

Indeed.

Of course, it could be argued that Israel is such a close ally that its ownership does not count as foreign ownership.

And it could be argued that numerous US government officials in the highest and most powerful positions in the land including--but not limited to--Michael Chertoff (Homeland Security chief), Paul Wolfowitz (former Deputy Defense Secretary), Richard Perle (former head of the Defense Policy Board), Douglas Feith (former Undersecretary for Defense) and Dov Zakheim (former Comptroller for Defense), (reportedly) hold both US and Israeli citizenship....... and what's wrong with that? (3)

Some of the dual citizens have even worked in both the Israeli and US government.

In fact, in both US and Israeli defense.

And it could be argued--what's wrong with that, either?

It could also, of course, be argued that the CIA and the Mossad are not really distinct at all and that Israeli interests are locked in impassioned coitus with US interests.

Those certainly are valid arguments.

But if so, aren't they arguments that someone ought to have made openly to the American public by now?

Or what's a first amendment for?

Lila Rajiva is a free-lance journalist and author of "The Language of Empire: Abu Ghraib and the American media," (Monthly Review Press). She can be reached at: lrajiva@hotmail.com

Notes

(1) Carl Cameron Investigates: Israel Is Spying In and On the US?" Parts 1-4, Carl Cameron, Fox News, December 12, 2001. Another company Cameron was investigating was Comverse Infosys, a subsidiary of an Israeli-run private telecom that works closely with the Israeli government and has offices all over the U.S. Comverse provides wiretapping equipment to law enforcement and under some programs, gets funded for its R&D by the Israeli Ministry of Industry and Trade. DEA, INS and FBI personnel all told Fox that to even imply Israeli spying through Comverse would end their careers. The pages removed from the Fox site can be viewed cached at www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7545.htm

(2) United Arab Emirates Firm May Oversee 6 U.S. Ports, Ted Bridis, Associated Press, February 12, 2006. I am indebted to CP-er Niranjan Ramakrishnan for pointing out Schumer's quote, njn-blogogram.blogspot.com/2006/02/starboard-side.html and also other Israeli communications firms in sensitive operations. Quote:

"Abramoff also allegedly convinced Congressman Robert Ney, House Administrative Committee chairman, to award a contract worth $3 million to a startup Israeli telecommunications firm called Foxcom Wireless. The contract was for the installation of antennas in House of Representatives buildings to improve cell-phone reception. Not surprisingly, such equipment can be designed to have what is known as a 'back door' to enable a third party, in this case Mossad, to listen in."

(3) On dual citizenship, "Accountability: Why Not Start at the Top?" Michael Scheuer, Antiwar, March 17, 2005. Scheuer points out the unconstitutionality of dual citizenship and claims that a conflict of interest in inevitable. That might be debated but where is the transparency needed for a debate?

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ALSO SEE...

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http://thinkprogress.org/2006/02/26/a-dishonest-proposal/
(Supporting Links at Source URL Above)

The Dubai Port ‘Compromise’: A Dishonest Proposal

Make no mistake about it, the “face-saving” deal on the Dubai port imbroglio was concocted by the White House. It’s being spun to the press as a “offer” by Dubai Ports World. But the AP reports that “senior U.S. officials and DP World executives have closely coordinated their efforts in recent weeks.”...(MORE)

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http://www.sploid.com/news/2006/02/so_thats_why_he.php
(Supporting Links at Source URL Above)

Port scam's dirty details

The outrageous Dubai Ports deal seems like political suicide for the White House, but handing over U.S. seaports to the United Arab Emirates is actually just more big-money cronyism for an administration that no longer cares what anybody thinks ... especially voters who fell for that whole War on Terror....(MORE)

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www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2006/280206mediabl ackout.htm
(Supporting Links at Source URL Above)

Media Treadmill Blackout On Key Issues Of Port Story

Sweetheart deals and government links swept under the rug...(MORE)

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http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/02/27.html#a7324
(Supporting Links at Source URL Above)

Lou Dobbs told to Shut up!

Lou Dobbs reported today that "Dubai Ports World" officials have tried to silence him and get CNN to suppress his reports.

Video-WMP Video-QT http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/02/27.html#a7324

Mark Dennis, spokesman for Dubai Ports World: " CNN won't shut up Lou Dobbs."

They are refusing to give any more interviews to CNN or allow them to video tape their operations overseas. To CNN's credit they have refused to comply with their demands.

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thinkprogress.org/2006/02/27/coast-guard-warnings-ports/
(Supporting Links at Source URL Above)

BREAKING: Coast Guard Sounded Alarms Over Dubai Ports Deal

At today’s White House press briefing, Scott McClellan sought to assure the American public that the UAE’s ties to terrorism had been addressed prior to the ports deal:

This was a transaction that was closely scrutinized by national security experts who are involved in these decisions and by our intelligence community.

The intelligence community provided an assessment. The Department of Homeland Security also worked to make sure any national security concerns were addressed, by entering into an agreement with the company and requiring some additional security assurances before it moved forward. But this was a consensus of all the relevant departments and agencies — there are some 12 altogether — that are part of that Committee on Foreign Investment.

But Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) today released an unclassified version of a document showing that the U.S. Coast Guard — located in the Department of Homeland Security — “cautioned the Bush administration that it was unable to determine whether a United Arab Emirates-owned company might support terrorist operations.” From the document:

There are many intelligence gaps, concerning the potential for DPW or P&O assets to support terrorist operations, that precludes an overall threat assessment of the potential merger. … The breadth of the intelligence gaps also infer potential unknown threats against a large number of potential vulnerabilities.

The Bush administration’s defense of the deal continues to unravel.

UPDATE: Here is the Coast Guard memo.

UPDATE: VIDEO

Watch it: thinkprogress.org/2006/02/27/coast-guard-warnings-ports/

CNN: Now when this report — part of the report was released, Chairwoman Susan Collins said she was very concerned about what it showed. Take a listen.

COLLINS: On the face of it, these unclassified questions and the use of the word “intelligence gaps” that proclude an overall threat assessment of the potential merger and that it involves “potential unknown threats against a large number of potential vulnerabilities.” That language is very troubling to me.

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ADDITIONAL COVERAGE ON COAST GUARD REPORT...

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news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060227/ap_on_go_ot/ports_security

Paper: Coast Guard Has Port Co. Intel Gaps

By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer Mon Feb 27, 6:47 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Citing broad gaps in U.S. intelligence, the Coast Guard cautioned the Bush administration weeks ago that it could not determine whether a United Arab Emirates-based company seeking a stake in some U.S. port operations might support terrorist operations...(MORE)

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12095.htm

"...Henry Kissinger summarized the current Iraq strategy when he offered his opinion on the Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s. Kissinger callously averred, “I hope they kill each other.”

The former National Security Chief’s axiom has now been elevated to the level of state-policy. The Iraq strategy replicates the Kissinger Doctrine; manipulating chauvinism and cruelty to advance the imperial agenda..."

The Smoking Gun

By Mike Whitney

02/27/06 "ICH" -- -- The AFP is reporting that the bombing of the Golden Domed Mosque “was the work of specialists” and that the “placing of explosives must have taken at least 12 hours.”

Construction Minister Jassem Mohammed Jaafar said, “Holes were dug into the mausoleum’s four main pillars and packed with explosives. Then charges were connected together and linked to another charge placed just under the dome. The wires were then linked to a detonator which was triggered at a distance.”

Clearly, the bombing was not carried out by rogue elements in the disparate Iraqi resistance. This is the work of highly-trained saboteurs and bomb-experts who were executing a precision-demolition to incite sectarian violence. The blast bears all the hallmarks of a covert Intelligence-agency operation.

Who benefits from such a vicious attack on the foundations of Islamic identity and culture?

The AFP’s report is consistent with earlier accounts provided by a Baghdad blogger who demonstrates that the destruction of the mosque was a “controlled demolition” which required considerable time and professional expertise. Yahoohttp://www.uruknet.info/?p=m20950. The photographs of the nearby, but untouched, minarets provide a shocking example of the bomber’s skill.

Eyewitness accounts have appeared on various web sites claiming that there were “unusual activities” taking place at the mosque the night before the bombing. One witness reported that he heard their “cars the whole night until the next morning”. Another witness who lives near to the mosque says that at 8:30 that evening he was told “to stay in your shop and don’t leave the area” while Iraqi National Guard and American troops “patrolled the area until the next morning”. At 6:30 AM the American troops left.

At 6:40 the first explosion went off.

Almost immediately, the western media swung into high-gear producing over 1,000 stories containing the word “civil war” in the first 24 hours. As always, the media reliably regurgitates the narrative that best serves the interests of management and their political benefactors. In this case, it’s clear that ‘civil war’ is being used to divert attacks from occupation forces and pit Iraqis against Iraqis.

But is this really the plan? After all, how does that make Iraq more governable?

By now, we should realize that the Bush administration has no plan to govern Iraq nor do they care a whit about the suffering of the Iraqi people. The only thing the matters is the extraction of petroleum from Iraqi oil-fields and its unobstructed transfer to the market. The rest is rubbish.

“We don’t do body counts”, boasted General Tommy Franks.

Franks could have added that we don’t do reconstruction, security or governance; all of which are sadly lacking in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The administration has no intention of rebuilding Iraq or establishing order. They’ll continue to operate as they have from the onset; blasting away erratically at the resistance while concealing the bloodshed behind an impenetrable wall of propaganda.

The present strategy reflects the growing desperation of the Pentagon planners and the civilian leadership. America is hopelessly mired in an “unwinnable” war. The choices for action have narrowed to either withdrawal or a stepped-up campaign of Black-ops designed to foment sectarian violence. The bombing of the Samarra Mosque fits perfectly into the latter category.

Henry Kissinger summarized the current Iraq strategy when he offered his opinion on the Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s. Kissinger callously averred, “I hope they kill each other.”

The former National Security Chief’s axiom has now been elevated to the level of state-policy. The Iraq strategy replicates the Kissinger Doctrine; manipulating chauvinism and cruelty to advance the imperial agenda.

The demolition of the sacred mosque was a deliberate assault on the foundations of Muslim identity. It was intended to undermine Iraqi tradition and culture and weaken confidence in the resistance.

Neocon Michael Ledeen might refer to this as “creative destruction” but, in fact, it is terrorism writ large; the calculated use of violence directed at civilians to achieve a political objective.


RELATED:(As posted here on 02/24/06)

http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=243

Askariya Mosque Bombing: Another Milestone on the Straussian Neocon Road to Total War

February 23rd 2006, 9:57 am

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, a darling of the Council on Foreign Relations, tells the corporate media the “insurgents are trying ‘everything’ to foment civil war as reprisal attacks followed yesterday’s bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, sacred to Shiite Muslims,” according to Bloomberg. “Anti-democratic forces have tried everything to push the country into a civil war and sectarian violence.” On the latter, Zebari is absolutely correct, although the “extremists” are not Saddam partisans but rather agents and operatives of the Straussian neocons.

Tariq al-Hashemi, leader of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, released a statement spelling out the obvious: Iraqis should not be “dragged [into] a civil war as nobody will win,” nobody that is except the Jabotinsky Zionists in Israel and the Straussian neocons in the United States who are determined to destroy Islamic and Arab society and culture. Unfortunately, both Sunni and Shia Iraqis are falling for the latest provocation, killing each other in numbers and fomenting warfare between religious sects, as Muslims in Europe and across the Middle East and Africa fell for the Jyllands-Posten cartoon provocation engineered by the Straussian neocons, thus convincing many Europeans and Americans that Muslims have a violent predisposition. As if one cue, James Jeffrey of the State Department blamed “al-Qaeda in Iraq” and its dead leader, Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, for the bombing, thus following the Straussian neocon script and putting the incident in a propaganda context the masses will understand.

It still remains unexplained why Sunni “insurgents” would bomb a sacred mosque containing the remains of Imam Ali al-Hadi, who died in 868 A.D., and his son Imam Hassan al-Askari, who died in 874 A.D, both descendants of the Prophet Muhammad. Obviously, this is a calculated attack on a Shia pilgrimage site, designed to enrage the Shia and pit them against the Sunni, a completely boneheaded move on the part of the Sunni resistance since it will create far more problems for them than it will solve. In fact, Shia mobs have already attacked Sunni mosques, murdered imams, and are likely in the process of slaughtering random Sunnis on Baghdad street corners. Logic in Bushzarro world dictates that in order to unite Iraq and eject the foreign invaders, the resistance must first enrage and alienate the majority of the people in the country, who are Shi’ites. Of course, in America and Europe, increasing numbers of people believe Arabs and Muslims are irrational and dangerously emotional and thus the unlikely prospect Sunni “insurgents” blew up the al-Askari Golden Mosque in Samarra is not only plausible for them, it is the only acceptable explanation.

As well, from a strategic perspective, a religious civil war in Iraq makes perfect sense as the Straussian neocons prepare to attack Iran. If the Sunnis and Shia are busy killing each other, it will be more difficult to rally them to fight against the Anglo-American forces in Iraq, especially after the planned shock and awe campaign against Iran, now considered inevitable. In fact, it is not unreasonable to consider the bombing of the Imam ‘Ali al-Hadi and Imam Hasan Al-’Askari mosque in Samarra as a milestone on the road to total war in the Muslim Middle East, a bellwether ominously indicating the decimation of Iran is on schedule, as the Straussian neocons, firmly in control of foreign policy, will not abandon their long held desire to foment a “clash of civilizations” and usher in decades of strife and misery and thus nudge the world a bit closer to the horrific prospect of nuclear Armageddon.

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_545.shtml

The world that Dick built

By Sheila Samples

Online Journal Contributing Writer

Feb 28, 2006, 01:18

This is the guy who pulled the trigger of the gun that fired the round that hit his friend that ruined the hunt and shed some light on the world that Dick built . . .

Four days after blasting 78-year-old hunting partner Harry Whittington in the face, neck and chest with birdshot, vice president Dick Cheney emerged from his fortified bunker to make a snarling, unapologetic taped announcement to Fox News' Brit Hume that basically amounted to what he did on his own time was his own business. Dick said shooting Harry the previous Saturday was one of the worst days of his life -- which is quite an admission considering the fate of those who have been in Dick's crosshairs over the years.

Harry, no longer Dick's friend but a mere "acquaintance," emerged from the hospital two days later to apologize to the media for the delay he had caused by having an operation, a heart attack and a shotgun pellet in his heart. Harry begged Dick and his family to forgive him for the trouble he and his family had caused them. "We all assume certain risks in whatever we do, whatever activities we pursue," Harry said. "And regardless of how experienced, careful and dedicated we are, accidents do and will happen -- and that's what happened last Friday. . ."

Last Friday? Now -- if you're a reporter, wouldn't you be a teeny bit interested in whether the shooting occurred on Friday rather than Saturday? Wouldn't you wonder why it took three hours to get Harry to a hospital 20 minutes away when Dick's ambulance was on the scene, why it took four days -- perhaps five -- for Dick to go public? Perhaps it would even cross your mind that Dick might be waiting to see which story he should peddle. If Harry died, he could send ranch owner Katharine Armstrong out to say she had seen it all and it was poor, dead Harry's fault. If he survived, Dick would suck it in and somberly tell a sympathetic Hume -- "Ultimately I'm the guy who pulled the trigger that fired the round that hit Harry . . ."

But even then, Dick and Katharine couldn't keep their stories straight. Katharine first said she was sitting in a car and wasn't aware of an accident until she saw the Secret Service guys running toward the group. Then she remembered she was right there at Dick's elbow and saw the whole thing, a bonafide eye-witness and the only one qualified to deal with the media. According to Katharine, there was "zero, zippo" drinking that day, but then she remembered there might have been a "few" beers consumed, and even Dick admitted he "popped a top" at the pre-hunt barbeque.

Members of the press corps might wonder why Dick chose to return to the house and fix himself a cocktail rather than accompany his victim to the hospital. They might also be interested in comments made by Dick's Secret Service agents who say Dick was "clearly inebriated" when he bagged Harry. Capitol Hill Blue's Doug Thompson reports, "According to those who have talked with the agents and others present at the outing, Cheney was drunk when he gunned down his friend and the day-and-a-half delay in allowing Texas law enforcement officials on the ranch where the shooting occurred gave all members of the hunting party time to sober up."

Thompson says the agents reported that members of the hunting party, including Dick, consumed alcohol "before and during the hunting expedition," and their report also noted that "Cheney exhibited 'visible signs' of impairment, including slurred speech and erratic actions."

But reporters don't ask such questions in Dick's world. Those who are not housebroken are, at a minimum, paper-trained. They don't ask questions in the house or even close to the house for fear of tracking the resulting mess in on the rug. Their yapping and barking on-camera at White House press secretary Scott McClellan concerned just one issue -- they should have been told first. "We have cell phones," they wailed. "We have Blackberries! We're the press corps -- we should have been given the story before a local newspaper!"

There's a big difference between being "given" a script to copy and hitting the investigative trail to dig up what really happened. Apparently, no one in the mainstream media dared question Dick's final taped account. Not one questioned the 14-hour delay in the Kenedy County Sheriff's Department getting access to Dick nor wondered why the Sheriff would send a deputy to dutifully jot down Dick's account and take depositions from other parties without asking pertinent questions about alcohol consumption, or why Dick can't get it straight whether he "turned right," as he said several times, or "counter-clockwise" as he is saying now.

While reporters were frenziedly chasing their tails, Internet reporter Joseph Ehrlich wrote an excellent piece wherein he addressed both questions and answers in this tangled affair. Ehrlich meticuously laid out the timeline, the elaborate behind-the-scenes machinations, and Dick and Katharine's ridiculous efforts to cover up what actually occurred, to include having the Secret Service bump the time of the shooting to 5:50 PM to put the sun in Dick's eyes when he pulled the trigger. Ehrlich even quotes Harry's daughter who, in a strange revelation, said that after her father was shot, he lay there for such a long time "he was unsure whether he was being taken to the hospital or the morgue."

Such a ghoulish remark is more than passing strange, yet the media failed to pick up on it. Little attention has been given to poor Harry other than he is a 78-year-old Austin attorney, and the victim of yet another Dick Cheney "accident."

In truth, Harry, like those with whom he cavorts, is a multi-millionaire, and a major Republican player and donor. Bush appointed Harry to chair the Texas regulatory Funeral Service Commission in 1999, just in time to force the commission to settle a whistleblower lawsuit shortly before the 2000 election. Harry managed to keep Bush out of the courts and out of jail in the burgeoning Funeralgate scandal that theatened to engulf not only Bush but Robert Waltrip, owner of Service Corporation International (SCI), the largest funeral corporation in North America; Joe Albaugh, Bush crony, campaign manager and former FEMA director; Texas Attorney General (now Senator) John Cornyn; and, of course, Bush counsel (now U.S. Attorney General) Alberto Gonzales.

Dick's world is an incestuous world whose core is Texas power and money -- lots of it. As Sydney Blumenthal writes in Salon, both Dick and Karl Rove literally owe their present positions to Katharine and her family. "Anne Armstrong, Katharine's mother, was on the board of Halliburton that made Dick Cheney its chief executive officer," Blumenthal said. "Tobin Armstrong, Katharine's father, financed Karl Rove & Co., Rove's political consulting firm." Blumenthal says Katharine is a lobbyist for Houston law firm Baker Botts, founded in the 19th Century by the family of James A. Baker III, former secretary of state, Poppy Bush's buddy and the architect of the 2000 presidential coup d`etat that gave the presidency to Bush and Dick.

The people who inhabit Dick's world possess such power they can silence an entire White House press corps in mid-yelp -- such arrogance they can turn away law enforcement officers and delay an investigation until a more convenient time, even though a man has been shot in the face. Bill Moyers, formerly of PBS, now President of the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy, very succinctly sums them up:

"It is a Dick Cheney world out there," Moyers writes, "--a world where politicians and lobbyists hunt together, dine together, drink together, play together, pray together and prey together, all the while carving up the world according to their own interests."

Sheila Samples is an Oklahoma writer and a former civilian US Army Public Information Officer. She is a regular contributor to a variety of Internet sites. Contact her at: rsamples@sirinet.net.

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