"Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini.
DETROIT -- Il Duce knew what he was talking about and the Italian dictator would have fit in just fine in the Bush administration. I can hear it now: "Benny, you're doing a heck of a job. I'm going to make you my secretary of commerce." Corporate power, in sinister collusion with the state, thrives in President George W. Bush's America.
The furor over the administration's approval of a sweetheart deal to allow a company owned by the United Arab Emirates to take over operations at six major ports along the East Coast gives some hope that people may finally be catching on to Bush's schemes to protect private gain and corporate interests at all costs, even if that means compromising our national security.
"It would be a terrible signal to friends and allies not to let this transaction go through," Bush warned. He was so petulant when questions were raised about the deal and members of Congress started howling that he quickly threatened to veto any federal legislation aimed at preventing Dubai Ports World from taking over major shipping operations in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans and Miami.
Governors in the states involved are demanding a review of the deal and, in some cases, using state authority and legal action to prevent it. Except down in Florida, where the governor -- what's his name? -- didn't make a peep. Gov. Jeb Bush says he trusts his brother on such security issues.
If President Bush told me he had twin daughters, I'd demand an independent count. Trust him? Hell, no. Trusting Bush is the exclusive domain of blind partisans and fools. As serious and important a matter as the ports deal is, the White House says Bush was unaware his minions had OK'd the move until he heard about it from news reports.
In his world, the narrow needs of crony capitalism always trump broader public interests. Uncommon greed supplants the common good. Members of the Bush family, the Carlyle Group, military contractors and other White House-friendly corporations and business are entwined with the interests of the UAE. It's all about money, folks. The Bush family business -- now into its fourth generation -- is weaving the fibers of politics, power, influence and money into a seamless garment of greed. They use power to build wealth, and use that wealth to get more power to build more wealth.
Their "friends" are not defined by nationality or ideology. All relationships are based on money. It's fine to deal with the devil, if Beelzebub will help further enrich the Bush dynasty.
Kevin Phillips did a marvelous job exploring this theme in his book, "American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush." Phillips demonstrates in rich detail how the Bush family used oil, crony capitalism, catering to economic interests and loyalty to the military-industrial establishment to gain and maintain its power.
That's why the port deal is so important for the Bushes. They want to keep their business pals happy and that means protecting the UAE sheiks and U.S. corporate and family interests in the region.
The Bush administration is hell-bent to get a free trade accord with the UAE and expand it into the broader Middle East. David Sirota, a fellow at the Center for American Progress, says assuring that trade talks continue is the real reason Bush is willing to risk so much on the port deal.
"Rejecting this port security deal might have set back that trade pact," Sirota wrote at WorkingforChange.com. "Accepting the port security deal -- regardless of the security consequences -- likely greases the wheels for the pact. That's probably why, instead of backing off the deal, President Bush -- supposedly Mr. Tough on National Security -- took the extraordinary step of threatening to use the first veto of his entire presidency to protect the UAE's interest. Because he knows protecting those interests -- regardless of the security implications for America -- is integral to the 'free' trade agenda all his corporate supporters are demanding."
Sirota points us to an Inter Press Service story that highlights how much the whole issue pivots on trade. Daniel T. Griswold, the director of the Center for Trade Policy at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, told the news service, "The United States' trade relationship with the UAE is the third largest in the Middle East, after Israel and Saudi Arabia. The two nations are engaged in bilateral free trade talks that would liberalize trade between the two countries and would, in theory at least, allow companies to own and operate businesses in both nations. There are legitimate security questions to be asked but it would be a mistake and really an insult to one of our leading trading partners in that region to reject this commercial transaction out of hand."
Military contractors just love the UAE, especially Lockheed-Martin, which landed an $8.4 billion contract to deliver 80 F-16 fighter jets to the sheiks. The port in Dubai is vital for Halliburton's equipment logistics, and the airport there shuffles personnel from Vice President Dick Cheney's former corporation to no-bid, cost-plus U.S. military contracts throughout the region. The country is dripping in oil money, with the third largest petroleum reserves on earth and the fifth largest gas reserves.
The Carlyle Group, one of the most successful private equity groups in the world, is deeply involved in business deals with the UAE. Carlyle includes the military contractor United Defense in its portfolio, along with a number of projects and interests in the Middle East.
George H.W. Bush is a senior adviser for Carlyle. James A. Baker, the elder Bush's secretary of state and family valet, serves as a senior counsel for Carlyle, and his law firm, Baker Botts, maintains an office in Dubai. Bush, Baker and the UAE sheiks are thick as ... well, I'll just leave it at that.
Here's where things start getting entangled. Back in 2003, Carlyle bought CSX World Terminals, a port management outfit, for $300 million. At the time, Jack Snow, now the secretary of the Treasury and the man responsible for reviewing the Dubai Ports World deal, was chairman of CSX.
Just two years later, Carlyle sold World Terminals to the company that became Dubai Ports World for a cool $1.2 billion, turning a 400 percent profit. How could the value of the company grow so dramatically and so fast? You don't suppose someone might have whispered into the sheiks' ears that they could look forward to expanding their port business into the United States with no problems?
Dubai Ports World then bought out the long-established British company, Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation, for $6.8 billion, and gained control of its U.S. ports operations.
Quite a few "friends and allies" made big money on these deals, among them George H.W. Bush and James Baker, both known to have a little influence in the White House.
The approval of the deal for Dubai Ports World was put on the fast track. Federal law requires that the 12- member Committee for Foreign Investment in the United States, chaired by the secretary of the Treasury, review the transaction. If the deal could affect national security, the review period should be extended by 45 days and the president is required to make the decision. That did not happen because the skids had been greased for Dubai Ports World.
The Associated Press reports the company did not even encounter the routine restrictions on a foreign company seeking approval for U.S. operations.
"The administration did not require Dubai Ports to keep copies of business records on U.S. soil, where they would be subject to court orders. It also did not require the company to accommodate U.S. government requests. Outside legal experts said such obligations are routinely attached to U.S. approvals of foreign sales in other industries," AP reports.
My concerns are not hinged on the UAE being an Arab country, but because the nation supported the Taliban government in Afghanistan, has been cozy with Osama bin Laden and has helped launder and funnel money to terrorists and Islamist hate groups.
I believe in redemption and conversion, but the Dubai government is far from embracing democratic institutions and has a disturbing track record. The Busheviks have long ignored port security, and putting those operations in the hands of a foreign state-owned corporation is just plain dangerous.
Mike Scheur, former head of the CIA's Osama bin Laden unit, told the AP, "The fact that you are putting a company in place that could already be al-Qaeda is a silly thing do to." Try suicidal.
"It shouldn't have happened, it never should have happened," says Thomas Kean, the former Republican governor of New Jersey and chairman of the bipartisan 9/11 Commission. "There is no question that two of the 9/11 hijackers came from there and money was laundered through there."
The port deal is on hold for a while, but Bush will ram it through eventually. Too much is riding on this -- corporatism -- and the most cherished of all Bush family values, money.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Feb. 28 2006 |