Thread: Haliburton Eyed for Dubai Ports Deal

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006 ... 3744.shtml
Saturday, March 4, 2006 10:36 a.m. EST

Halliburton Eyed for Dubai Ports Deal
Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

The Bush administration is working behind the scenes to defuse the Dubai Ports World controversy by having the UAE-based firm team up with an American company.

According to the New York Daily News, which first reported the new White House strategy on Saturday, "one snag may be that sources say the U.S. company best equipped to partner with DP World is Halliburton, once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney."

But a role for Halliburton may not be such a "snag" after all, since the controversial company's involvement has already been endorsed by leading ports security critic, Sen. Charles Schumer.

"I'd take Halliburton over U.A.E. at this point, if I had to take a choice right now," Schumer told the Fox News Channel on Feb. 2.

Schumer explained that Democats hate Halliburton not for any security reasons, but because "they made large amounts of profit" from what he said were no-bid contracts in the Iraq war.
But if the company "can do the best job and they get the [ports] contract on the merits," Schumer said, "I'd pat them on the back."

The News said that any revamped deal "would have to be something along the lines of the Marine One contract, where British-and Italian-owned AgustaWestland had to take on Maryland-based Lockheed Martin to win the contract to build the president's helicopter last year."

But a better example may be Port of Long Beach, where the state-run China Ocean Shipping Company [COSCO] was finally allowed to operate two large terminals at the California port after it teamed up with an American firm.

In 1998, Congress blocked COSCO's initial bid to run a terminal at Long Beach that was formerly operated by the U.S. Navy.

In 2001, however, COSCO entered into a joint venture with Stevedoring Services of America to form a new company, Pacific Maritime Services - which signed a 20 year lease to operate what will eventually be five terminals at the port.

The Long Beach deal allowed the Chinese government-owned company to retain a 51 percent controlling interest in PMS.

http://www.sierratimes.com/

http://www.sierratimes.com/cgi-bin/ikon ... topic=1014


The Dubai Debacle Continues





I have a great idea. Let's tell Dubya to make Jed Clampett Secretary of State. He always had to be the diplomat of the family. Let Ellie Mae play press secretary. She could bat her baby blues and convince the sheeple of ANYTHING! Put Jethro in as Secretary of Agriculture...he would personally test our food supply to make sure those nasty old 'terrists' hadn't sabotaged it. And Granny? Give her Michael Chertoff's job in Homeland Security. She'd put a load of buckshot in the terrists britches quicker than you could say 'Jack Robinson.' The Clampetts certainly could not do any worse than the rest of the Bush administration.

Just when you thought the Bush administration couldn't get anymore scandalous, you find out you were wrong, or at least I did. The Washington Post reported, "The Bush administration, stung by the public outcry over the Dubai port deal, has launched a national security investigation of another Dubai-owned company set to take over plants in Georgia and Connecticut that make precision components used in engines for military aircraft and tanks.

"The administration notified congressional committees this week that its secretive Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) is investigating the security implications of Dubai International Capital's $1.2 billion acquisition of London-based Doncasters Group Ltd., which has subsidiaries in the United States. It is also investigating an Israeli company's plans to buy the Maryland software security firm Sourcefire, which does business with Defense Department agencies."

It turns out the company trying to buy Sourcefire is none other than CheckPoint Systems. Remember the Israeli spy ring story? Evidently, there are a few sane heads in Washington that still do. It turns out the majority of the firewalls on US corporate and government computer systems are provided by just one company, CheckPoint Systems, which like Amdocs, Comverse Infosys, and Odigo, is headquartered in Israel.

Firewalls are not CheckPoint's only line. RFID solutions is another. Ah, did I just see a few light bulbs switch on? Checkpoint Systems is the RFID (radio frequency identification) systems integrator.

Then WorldNetDaily reported, "What does Dubai Ports World have in common with CSX, Treasury Secretary John Snow, and the Bush Family? The Carlyle Group is the answer currently gaining ground on the Internet."

WND's Jerome Corsi writes, "Widely discussed is that CSX – the rail and ocean carrier container company – was sold to DP World in 2004 after Treasury Secretary John Snow was no longer CSX's chief executive officer. What has received far less attention is the transaction announced in December 2002, in which the Carlyle Group acquired a majority stake in CSX for $300 million.

"John Snow was sworn-in as secretary of Treasury on Feb. 7, 2003. Then we see that David Sanborn, the U.S. Merchant Maritime Academy graduate who President Bush just nominated to be maritime administrator under Transportation Secretary Mineta was an executive with CSX before he served as DP World's director of Operations for Europe and Latin America.

"Then we find that Dubai International Capital, a private equity investment capital firm that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dubai Holdings commonly participates in co-investments with the Carlyle Group. Dubai Holdings, like DP World, ends up being owned by the United Arab Emirates government, with ultimate ties to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the successor currently at the head of Dubai's royal family."

At least two of the 19 hijackers were from the UAE. The UAE was one of only three countries in the world to recognize the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. UAE banks have also been found to be a source of terrorism financing – before 9-11 and after.

The oil boom of the last few years has been a money gusher for oil-rich Arab nations. That money has been invested in real estate and equity markets worldwide, which also have soared. Estimates of private wealth in the gulf alone have exceeded $1 trillion.

The Gulf emirate of Dubai covers a mere 1,500 square miles, but the royal family that rules it enjoys a growing global influence that some of the world's biggest companies would envy. To compare, tiny Rhode Island has only 1,545 square miles and a population of 1,080,632 with 1.029 million in Dubai.

In 1995 General Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum was appointed Crown Prince of Dubai, effectively the CEO of Dubai Inc. Dubai International Capital, LLC was launched on October 26, 2004. It is the newly formed investment arm of Dubai Holding, LLC, a subsidiary of Dubai Investment Group LLC (DIG).

Earlier this year Dubai Holding’s subsidiary luxury hospitality group Jumeirah International took over the management of the famous Essex House hotel in New York, rebranding it Jumeirah Essex House, following a $500 million buyout by Dubai Investment Group, also a subsidiary of Dubai Holding, from Strategic Hotel Capital in September last year.”

Last year Istithmar, another Dubai investment group, acquired one of New York’s most famous landmark buildings * 230 Park Avenue in Manhattan, also known as the Helmsley Building, a 34-storey gold-domed office block which sits at the top of Park Avenue, in a $705 million deal.

First you have UAE citizens blowing up prime real estate in Manhattan, then UAE-owned companies coming in and buying more of it. Nice...


The Israeli Spy Ring

Prior to 9/11, the FBI had discovered the presence of a massive spy ring inside the United States run by the government of Israel. Israel set up government subsidized telecommunications companies which operate here in the United States.

One of these companies is Amdocs, which provides billing and directory assistance for 90% of the phone companies in the USA. Amdocs' main computer center for billing is actually in Israel and allows those with access to do what intelligence agencies call "traffic analysis"; a picture of someone's activities based on a pattern of who they are calling and when.

Another Israeli telecom company is Comverse Infosys, which subcontracts the installation of the automatic tapping equipment now built into every phone system in America. Comverse maintains its own connections to all this phone tapping equipment, insisting that it is for maintenance purposes only. However, Converse has been named as the most likely source for leaked information regarding telephone calls by law enforcement that derailed several investigations into not only espionage, but drug running as well.

Yet another Israeli telecom company is Odigo, which provides the core message passing system for all the "Instant Message" services. Two hours before the attacks on the World Trade Towers, Odigo employees received a warning. Odigo has an office two blocks from the former location of the World Trade Towers.

The Ken Starr report on Whitewater described how Bill Clinton informed Monica Lewinsky that their phone sex conversations had been recorded.

That the information gleaned from these phone taps is being used to coerce the behavior of key individuals in the US Government and media is illustrated by the manner in which the government and the media have handled this scandal of the largest spy ring ever uncovered inside the United States, and of phone taps on all of our phones. They are downplaying it. Actually, burying it is a better word.

Fox News, alone of all the media, actually ran the story as a four part broadcast, and put the story up on its web site. Then, without explanation, Fox News erased the story from their web site and have never mentioned it again. CNN followed by "Orwellizing" their report of the two hour advance warning of the WTC attacks sent to Odigo employees. But far more telling is the admission made by a US official in part one of the Fox News report that hard evidence existed linking the events of 9/11 not to Arab Muslims, but to some of the more than 200 Israeli spies arrested both before and after 9/11, but that this evidence had been CLASSIFIED.

"Investigators within the DEA, INS and FBI have all told Fox News that to pursue or even suggest Israeli spying ... is considered career suicide." -- Carl Cameron, as quoted in The Spies Who Came In From The Art Sale

The story on Israeli spying inside the focused on three companies, Amdocs, which provides billing and directory assistance for most American phone companies, Comverse Infosys, which installs and mainstains telephone tapping equipment for US law enforcement, and Odigo, which provides services for the various "Instant Message" systems on your computer. All three companies are owned by Israel-based companies and have strong ties to the Israeli Defense Force.

Both Amdocs and Comverse Infosys were implicated in the sale of telephone data which compromised US investigations into drug running, and Comverse Infosys phone taps are suspected of being the means by which Bill Clinton's phone sex sessions were recorded, as reported in the Ken Starr report. Odigo, which had offices near the World Trade Towers, is the company which received a two hour advance warning of the attacks of 9-11.

Now, in a chilling real life version of the plotline from "The Net", it turns out that the majority of the firewalls on US corporate and government computer systems are provided by just one company, CheckPoint Systems, which like Amdocs, Comverse Infosys, and Odigo, is headquartered in Israel.