Congress- one.... WOT-nothing

Senator: UAE firm to transfer port operations to U.S. company
Source: House, Senate leaders tell Bush deal appears dead
CNN Breaking News

Seeing the handwriting on the wall with Congressional blocks, DP World has acquiesced on the acquired US assets.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A United Arab Emirates-owned company has agreed to turn over all of its operations at U.S. ports to an American entity, Sen. John Warner said Thursday.

Reading a statement from DP World on the Senate floor, Warner, a Virginia Republican, said the reason is "to preserve" the strong relationship between the UAE and United States.

snip

"In politics ... sometimes the passions and the emotions can overwhelm any factual discussion," said John King, CNN's chief national correspondent. (King: Passions, emotions cloud ports debate)

continue reading at link above

Passions overwhelming. No shit, Sherlock. Congressional and media xenophobia, exposed by this sale, has ratcheted up the public's view of Arabs in general correspondingly. A new Washington Post-ABC news poll shows the "distrust of UAE" comments are reflected in an increase of negative perception of Islam and Muslims.

James J. Zogby, president of the Washington-based Arab American Institute, said he is not surprised by the poll's results. Politicians, authors and media commentators have demonized the Arab world since 2001, he said.

"The intensity has not abated and remains a vein that's very near the surface, ready to be tapped at any moment," Zogby said. "Members of Congress have been exploiting this over the ports issue. Radio commentators have been talking about it nonstop."

Congratulations to the party of "love the one you're with" and reactionary Republicans not wanting to appear lackadaisical about national security by comparison... you've both just managed to demonstrate to the world that the US does not welcome Arabs or Muslims to capitalism with open arms, and your hate and distrust spreads easily to Americans thru the media.

And just what kind of message will this send to the fledgling democracy in Iraq? That we encourage them to become part of the international economy, but don't count on US trust?

Preserve strong relationship, my eye. Gracious words on the part of DP World. The fact is, Congress has done more damage than good merely to save face for their stupidity in the operations of ports and the maritime world. Now all that remains to see is just how much damage is done in the aftermath.

UPDATE

Capt Ed over at Captain's Quarters puts a happier face on the DP World backout.

The new deal works for the President; he can maintain credibility with a strategic partner in the war on terror, and as more facts come out as the shouting subsides, his position will improve. Congressional Republicans get to claim their independence from the White House. Congressional Democrats get to brag about their insistence on ignoring their own call for a second security review and claim the result as a win. DP World gets to dump the worst part of the P&O deal onto an American company that will get to deal with the political fallout of the controversy.

The only losers appear to be Hillary Clinton and the state-owned foreign firms doing exactly what DP World wanted to do with these terminals.

AJ Strata at the Stratasphere laments the Chicken Hawk mob mentality taking over.

We failed. We were once the land of The Free and The Brave. Now it looks more like The Frightened and The Scared. How can anyone who backed the Iraq war look our troops in the eye now and say it was too hard for us to rub elbows with Arab businessmen? We just did not have the spine.

And Michelle Malkin declares victory with a simple headline, "Dubai Yields".