BY ISAAC JOHN, Chief Business Reporter, The Khaleej Times
There is no rest for the probably weary corporate types at P&O and DP World. Not dissimilar to Miami Eller's legal claim that P&O was required to seek their approval for the P&O sale to DPW, Chennai Port Trust (terminal service provider), and Gujarat Maritime Board (a port authorities in Gujarat) and are now whining that P&O, not seeking their blessings on the business union, violated the provisions of certain concession agreement clauses.
No doubt this will also go south, as did the Miami-Eller suit in London.
Previous Indian voices charging monopoly have taken a 2nd seat to the latest claims of concession violations. Probably because there was little to support the monopoly charge as competition experienced no ill-effects from the transfer of share.
Unlike American complaints, noteably absent from this India-UAE dispute are the accusations of "distrust" and "terror connections" bandied wildly about by US Congress. Despite the bad behavior of western lawmakers, DP World officials appear to harbor no ill will in media reports, and express future interest in acquiring US ports should legislation allow.
If true, Americans can count themselves lucky... with gracious thanks to DP World officials and their above-board tolerance, and none to a hysterical Congress motivated by election year antics.
6 comments:
It's just a shame that not one of these reporters endlessly repeating the lie that we are "selling our ports" bothered to look at the link to Eller &Co. which is at the heart of the whole fracas.
Chicken Hawk Express did a great series on this connection.
Bigger annoyance (to me, at least)is nobody induced this kind of uproar when Clinton sold off our West Coast ports to interests controlled by China (Cosco and Norinco, for example).
Whether we like to admit it or not, China is a bigger threat to us now than these Islamofascists.
Yes she did, Mike's America. Bookmarked her site and check in quite regularly.
However I do disagree with Robin, and perhaps you... Eller is too small of a potato in the scheme of things. They may have started screaming first, but screams will be ignored by Congress unless they see something in it for them.
At the heart of the ports nonsense is an election year, and Democrats who look intolerably weak on national defense. It was their opportunity to seize the lead on "protecting America" by misrepresenting the transaction and port operations tasks and responsibilities, and playing on UAE's checkered past.
TrekMed, my friend! How be ya...
If I remember rightly, you arent a supporter of the DP World acquisition. Doth thou change your mind?
Can't say as I'd move China in front of stealthy, well financed small operations of terrorists, TrekMed. China would pay mightily in the int'l world and economically by doing anything of that calibre as a State.
However stateless terrorists hide behind no flag, no color, no uniform. They live amongst us in the shadows. They seek third world conditions, and leave such conditions behind in the wake of their attacks. They are still far more dangerous because they have less to lose, and more to gain.
Mata, read Michael Scheuer's "Imperial Hubris".
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1574888498/qid=1143990687/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-0482395-9976126?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
Islamofascists don't want to take over the US, they simply want us the stop pushing Western values upon them.
As for China, they consume more fuel and raw supplies than we do and have the capability to collapse our economy, which, in their view, would open us to their style of government.
Both cases are, of course, mostly ideological, but nevertheless, China is bigger, more organized, and with a greater purpose behind their machinations.
And, NO!, I have changed my mind vis-a-vis DPW!
Different story, China is, TrekMed. They will, without a doubt, equal or supercede the US as an industrial and economic superpower in the future. Our path to this has been sealed by Congress since the 70s when they started including our base needs (i.e. steel, copper, energy, textiles, etc) in free trade and shutting down our domestic sources.
However as an economic superpower, China will eventually stand with us to fight Islamists... why? They have no market if fanatical Islam succeeds in their stated Islamic Caliphate. Hard to be an economic superpower when a huge portion of the world shuns products under 3rd world rule. Was Afghanistan a huge market under the Taliban? Of course not.
Fanatical Islam... which has no designs on the North American continent, yes... DOES have designs on all of lower Europe... from the seas off Spain to China. That's quite a chunk of real estate, and alot of citizens and states that do not wish to be ushered back to the 3rd world under Islamofascist rule. Are we to allow them to continue to slowly and steadily infiltrate and absorb that territory? I think not.
Should you doubt the stated Caliphate borders, which is common knowledge, you have only to return to Malbrunot (one of the French journalists kidnapped and held for months). Upon his release he described the map his captors drew from him of their stated goal for the Islamic Caliphate state.
The original story in the Int'l Herald Tribune no longer shows up for age. But you can go back to Sea2Sea's archives, and my post dated Jan 3, 2005. You'll have to scroll down near the bottom since I can't provide a direct link back to the archives.
I have quite a few posts about them in that era. And it was amazing how few wished to pass on the info on their real estate goals in the MSM. Quotes from the IHT article....
His jailers' references to bin Laden were frequent, he (Malbrunot) said. A guard insisted to Malbrunot that it was the Christians who were waging war against the Muslims. "Our objective," the jailer went on, sketching a European map of the future that squares with Al Qaeda's notions, "is to overthrow all the Arab rulers, and to return to the caliphate [Islamic rule] from Andalusia [Spain] to the border with China."
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"For them," Malbrunot wrote of his captors, "France is the West; it's a global vision - it's the infidel West against the Muslim world."
This alone will tell you how dangerous these guys are. They have their own "country/Caliphate" in mind and are creating pockets of hardcore Islam in every country, allowing it to grow and overwhelm. France is getting dangerously close. The Netherlands is now fighting back against Islam's attempted takeover.
They hate us because the US is getting in their way, spreading our culture of "stuff" and liberalism to a willing world who embraces the benefits of capitalism.
Here's the direct link to the Sea2Sea archive, TrekMed. Also have posts on that subject from 12/23/04 to 1/22/05.
As for the formerly Anonymous author, Michael Scheuer, his foreword you provided the link for sure reads strangely for a man who knows that Bin Laden feels justified in actively seeking to obtain and use a nuke weapon on our soil.
Also bizarre is his notion that Islam has a "love of their fellow Islam". Would that be the same "love" demonstrated by AQ attacks on Iraqi Muslims now? Or any Muslims that were present in the WTC? Perhaps their "love" and treatment of woman of Islam?
Totally bizarre scribblings. Can't account for his benevolent treatment of the man, and his persistence in wanting the blame the US policies and culture for 911 and Muslim hatred. As I see it, they hate any and all associated with our culture, and have no wish for it to infringe on their Caliphate territory. But that is not their decision to make... but those of other nation's citizens to embrace capitalistic lifestyles.
Here's a current article on his assessment of Bin Laden's strategy against the US. And frankly, what he says does nothing more than reinforce my statement that fanatical Islam is far more a dangerous enemy than China and their quest to supercede the US as the economic superpower in the world.
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