# Dubai outbid by Singapore for P&O?



## AltinD

... and two of the other highjackers were arrested in Dubai and FBI asked UAE authorities to let them go.


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## malec

Check out this link on SSP:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=98665&highlight=dubai


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## smussuw

yay we won !!!


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## Dubai-Lover

P&O votes for DP World offer 
By Shakir Husain, Staff Reporter



Dubai: Shareholders of British port operator Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) on Monday voted overwhelmingly in favour of DP World's offer to acquire the firm for £3.9 billion ($6.8 billion).

"It is a vote of confidence in our ability to manage the company," DP World chairman Sultan Ahmad Bin Sulayem told Gulf News.

At the extraordinary general meeting of P&O in London, shareholders voted 99.52 per cent to back the offer that valued P&O stock at 520 pence per share, according to a company statement received by Gulf News.

"We are delighted that stockholders have voted to support our acquisition of P&O which brings to an end a period of uncertainty. 

P&O is an excellent company with a great heritage and we welcome them warmly to the DP World family. Together we are one of the world's top three ports operators. There can be no doubt about the compelling strategic fit the companies have together. This is very good news for our customers and our combined staff."

Dubai had to secure the support of more than 75 per cent of those attending the meeting.

With the acquisition of British ports and ferries group makes, DP World has sailed into third place from number seven among the world's top port operators.

The merged shipping behemoth will ensure DP World's presence in port operations around the globe and give a huge boost to the company's container handling capacity and earnings.

"We now have 50 ports in 30 countries," Bin Sulayem said.

He said DP World will remain busy over the coming months in integrating P&O's business to its own.

Bin Sulayem said there were no plans to sell off P&O's non-core European ferries business, which has been under pressure from low-cost airlines and the Eurostar train. 

"The company's is in good health. We are committed to the old business plan of P&O," he said.

Winning P&O will halt DP World's current hunt for overseas port assets in an era of rising international trade, which mostly relies on sea transport.

"For the coming few months we'll be busy integrating P&O assets. But we are always looking for assets," Bin Sulayem said.

On DP World's competition with PSA, he said both the companies were interested in developing their business.

DP World chief executive officer Mohammad Sharaf added that competition was always healthy for the industry.

"We respect PSA and are aware of the competition. We will continue to have competition. I think it is healthy for the industry," he said.

The 520 per share knockout Dubai offer came on January 26 after PSA made an offer of 470 per share, topping Dubai's original offer of 443 pence on November 29. 

Sharaf said in 2005 DP World container throughput was 13.6 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of which the share of its Dubai ports was 7.7 million TEUs. "We are expecting a double-digit growth," he added.


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## dubaiflo

malec the link does not work i don't want to register over at SSP , what does it say.


yeeees ,... we shit on you singapore 

:dance: that is great news.


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## BinDubai

CongratZ


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## DarkBlueBoss

WOOHOO we won 

next round on me 

:cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:


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## Face81

From todays papers:



> Anti-Arab backlash over P&O sale to DP World
> 
> By Shakir Husain, Staff Reporter
> 
> 
> Dubai: Perceived security concerns in the United States and patriotic passions of a few shareholders over the acquisition of British port operator Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) by Dubai Ports World were dismissed as baseless yesterday.
> 
> A top shipping industry analyst in London told Gulf News such concerns were also 'illogical and emotional."
> 
> During the extraordinary general meeting of P&O shareholders called to approve the $6.8 billion deal in London on Monday, one shareholder said: "Now I see every business in this country seems to have one object only - to sell out to Johnny Foreigner."
> 
> According to reports, glowering at P&O chairman Sir John Parker, the shareholder, identified as Captain David Hawker, said: "If the Arabs want to buy it, shouldn't you have thought maybe it's worth keeping. But a DP World spokesman said: "These were comments made by a tiny minority of P&O stockholders. But the vast majority of stockholders have voted to support our acquisition of P&O."
> 
> Parker responded by saying that P&O operated in 19 countries and made only eight per cent of its profits in Britain. By buying the 167-year-old P&O, which once helped the British empire to expand, DP World acquires the ports of New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia in the US.
> 
> This prompted some angry remarks by New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer on US-based Fox Television channel.
> 
> "I think there ought to be a full and public review before this company is allowed to control security up and down the East Coast," the senator said.
> 
> "We have to have hands-on control of things. And to have United Arab Emirates - I mean, they are a country that's allied with the US, but at the same time a whole bunch of the (11 September 2001) hijackers came from the United Arab Emirates," the senator said, overlooking the fact that most of those involved came from Saudi Arabia.
> 
> Calls made by Gulf News to Schumer's Washington office went unanswered.
> 
> The DP World spokes-man said: "Security is as high up our agenda as it is for P&O.
> 
> "All our terminals are ISPS certified. Security of assets and people has to be our top priority and we make it our business to maintain top global standards of security at all our operations." The P&O deal, which is to be finalised on March 2, creates the third largest global ports by container volume. It will have 51 container ports in 30 countries.
> 
> The security concerns are "emotional, illogical and completely without basis and bear no relation to any facts," said Neil Davidson, director of research at Drewry Shipping Consultants in London.
> 
> The P&O sale "is business? it is not about emotions," Davidson told Gulf News.
> 
> He asserted that DP World is a "highly respected port operator" and the deal "would not make any difference to US national security."
> 
> Davidson said similar concerns were raised when Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa, the world's number one port operator, acquired assets in Panama and Mexico.
> 
> "I hope common sense prevails [over the P&O deal]," he said.


Ridiculous comments made by that American senator! :bash: :rant: :rant: :rant:


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## DarkBlueBoss

americans being asses as usuall


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## AltinD

Nah, is just their Imperialist world dominator sick ego of seeing their country loosing control over another aspect of the business.

They lost manufacturing to Asia, services to India ...


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## Dubai-Lover

hno:

this is so typical

if they are so concerned about this, sorry to say that, BULLSHITm why didn't they dismiss dp world from the very beginning?

now we've won and have to listen to this senseless crap


actually it's good that we have acquired the ports of New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia
this shows people we want to be in the 1st league and we can achieve it!


it's funny somehow that we now own the port of new york city, isn't it?


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## scorpion

easy guys, "us" americans/californians--hello  don't see the world the way this ONE PERSON typifies it--

complain about Mr. Shakir Husain, Staff Reporter if needed


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## Face81

scorpion said:


> easy guys, "us" americans/californians--hello  don't see the world the way this ONE PERSON typifies it--
> 
> complain about Mr. Shakir Husain, Staff Reporter if needed


even though I have never been to California, its cos of people like you that I am 100% sure I would love it! 

New York Port is ours.


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## Dubai_Steve

scorpion said:


> easy guys, "us" americans/californians--hello  don't see the world the way this ONE PERSON typifies it--
> 
> complain about Mr. Shakir Husain, Staff Reporter if needed


Not only Shakir Husain - check out this american bullshit article!!! :bash: 


*Dubai Company's Control of Six Ports 'Boggles the Mind'*

By ALEC MAGNET - Staff Reporter of the Sun
February 15, 2006

Local lawmakers and terrorism specialists yesterday denounced the federal government's approval of a deal that would give operational control of six American sea ports - including one in New York City - to a company owned by the government of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, a country that has had ties to terrorism.

"*On its face, this looks like f- insanity to me*," the Republican minority leader of the City Council, *James Oddo*, told The New York Sun. *He said he was not aware of the specifics of the deal.*


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## Face81

Dubai_Steve said:


> Not only Shakir Husain - check out this american bullshit article!!! :bash:
> 
> 
> *Dubai Company's Control of Six Ports 'Boggles the Mind'*
> 
> By ALEC MAGNET - Staff Reporter of the Sun
> February 15, 2006
> 
> Local lawmakers and terrorism specialists yesterday denounced the federal government's approval of a deal that would give operational control of six American sea ports - including one in New York City - to a company owned by the government of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, a country that has had ties to terrorism.
> 
> "*On its face, this looks like f- insanity to me*," the Republican minority leader of the City Council, *James Oddo*, told The New York Sun. *He said he was not aware of the specifics of the deal.*



I think what gets them the most is that the control of THEIR ports is a decision that involves parties outside their country and has NOTHING to do with them.   

Some VERY ARROGANT comments being made by them.


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## DarkBlueBoss




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## AltinD

When Dubai became World's 10th biggest Port Operator, more then a year ago, I said to an merican forumer (can't remember if here or in another forum). "Don't be surprised is the Port of New York will be mamagged by Dubai, within the next deccade..." 

I certanly didn't dare to think that it might be within the next ... year!


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## dubaiflo

This is soo stupid, they just can't stand if an arab country or city or even company is somehow becoming to mighty.

i am so pissed off damn i hate this.


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## Face81

dubaiflo said:


> This is soo stupid, they just can't stand if an arab country or city or even company is somehow becoming to mighty.
> 
> i am so pissed off damn i hate this.


i know, its annoying.

Go look at the Metro updates. It will cheer u up


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## malec

Well, all I can say is tough shit to them!!


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## AltinD

These same guys love to indulge on the luxury of Four Seasons Hotels or keep their finances tied up to Citgroup, yet those are (Saudi) Arab owned.


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## Ben_Burj

Face81 said:


> even though I have never been to California, its cos of people like you that I am 100% sure I would love it!
> 
> New York Port is ours.


How about teasing the Americans in this forum by opening a thread about it in their section (with the tile we own new york now)?


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## TowerPower

Seems fair enough. We buy your oil, so you can buy our ports.

(and yes I realize that a miniscule amount of Dubai's economy is still based on fossil fuels so no one try and start that discussion for the zillionth time.)


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## Dubai_Steve

*HOMELAND SECURITY

Dubai deal on ports draws fireLawmakers are beginning to question the deal giving a United Arab Emirates company control of terminals at six ports, including Miami-Dade's, citing concerns about security.*

BY STEVE HARRISON AND LESLEY CLARK
[email protected]

Lawmakers are concerned that a recent sale giving a United Arab Emirates company control over terminals at six American ports, including the Port of Miami-Dade, will jeopardize national security.

Some U.S. lawmakers have called for the White House to reconsider approving the sale of venerable British firm P&O Ports to the government-owned Dubai Port World. P&O Ports owns 50 percent of the Port of Miami Terminal Operating Co., which handles half the cargo containers that come through the port.

The Treasury Department's Committee on Foreign Investment, which includes officials from the departments of Defense, Commerce and Homeland Security, reviewed the $6.8 billion deal for security risks and did not object.

U.S. Rep Mark Foley, R-West Palm Beach, called the committee ''secretive'' and took his concerns to the Bush Administration.

Foley asked Treasury Secretary John Snow, who chairs the committee, to explain the wisdom of allowing a Middle Eastern country control over parts of six American ports -- Miami, New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New Orleans.

''Six of our largest commercial ports are being handed over to a country that is seeking to be Iran's free trade partner and has been linked to the funding and planning of 9/11,'' Foley said. ``If our ports are the most vulnerable targets for terrorism and if we are at war, as the president says, we should be overly critical of handing over management of our ports to any foreign countries, post 9/11. Instead, this was done in the dead of night.''

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Miami Republican who chairs a subcommittee on the Middle East, called for a ''full investigation'' to ensure there are no security concerns.

The security of America's seaports is seen as critical to protecting the nation from a devastating terrorist attack.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection only screen about 5 percent of containerized cargo entering the country for weapons of mass destruction, though it says all containers are reviewed for their threat potential, with containers with unusual manifests being singled out for scrutiny.

The U.S. government considers the United Arab Emirates an ally in the war on terrorism, but some critics cite the country's history as an operational and financial base for some 9/11 hijackers.

This isn't Dubai Port World's first venture into U.S. business. The deep-pocketed firm's bought CSX World Terminals from Jacksonville-based CSX Corp. for $1.4 billion. That purchase gave the firm terminals worldwide, including a presence at ports in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
Questions about DPW's entry into U.S. ports were first raised by Eller & Co., a Miami stevedoring firm that owns a 25 percent share in POMTOC. Eller asked the U.S. government to stop the sale, approved by British shareholders Monday.

''Our big issue is: 95 percent of our cargo enters through our ports, and only 5 percent is inspected by Customs,'' said Miami attorney Michael Kreitzer, who represents Eller.

A DPW spokesman did not return telephone messages or e-mails from the Associated Press.

The Port of Miami-Dade would still handle overall port security, as would the governments at the five other impacted ports. But DPW would own and operate their terminals, which transfer cargo from ships to trucks or trains.
New York Republican Rep. Peter King, the chairman of the House Homeland Security committee, said he urged the White House on to review the case.
''Our ports are so vast, so complicated, they're going to be vulnerable in any event,'' King said. ``Then to have a company from Dubai managing the ports, it just raises a lot of red flags.''

King said he's concerned the review process for foreign companies was put in place ``pre-9/11.''

''I don't know if the Treasury Department


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## dubaiflo

:bash:

what the heck.. this makes me so angry...


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## Face81

rubbish. this journalist needs to get a few e-mails from me!  :bash:


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## Dubai_Steve

Opposition grows to Dubai port acquisition

New York Sun reports that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is considering raising obstacles to the takeover of their port, while members of Congress are also raising concerns.

Frank Gaffney earlier pointed out in the Washington Times that the man in charge of the government committee that apporved the sale used to work in a powerful position for the Dubai Ports company

Even the New York Times is aghast at the prospect of a United Arab Emirates company taking control of several of our major ports. I can’t be sure if they get their marching orders from Schumer or vice- versa, but in any event it is a good way to embarrass Bush.

Of course, a rejection at this stage will ignite further anti-Americanism in the Arab and Muslim worlds. But can we afford to let control of several of our principal ports fall into hands whose loyalties are not necessarily to our security?

Ed Lasky 2 16 06


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## Dubai_Steve

By TED BRIDIS

*White House defends port operations sale*

The Bush administration on Thursday rebuffed criticism about potential security risks of a $6.8 billion sale that gives a company in the United Arab Emirates control over significant operations at six major American ports.

Lawmakers asked the White House to reconsider the deal.

The sale to state-owned Dubai Ports World was "rigorously reviewed" by a U.S. committee that considers security threats when foreign companies seek to buy or invest in American industry, National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones said.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, run by the Treasury Department, took into account an assessment from U.S. intelligence agencies. The committee's 12 members agreed the sale did not present any problems, the department said.

The public defense of the secretive committee, which reviews hundreds of such deals each year, came in response to criticism about the purchase of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.

The world's fourth-largest ports company runs commercial operations at shipping terminals in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.

Four senators and three House members asked the administration on Thursday to reconsider its approval. The lawmakers contended the UAE is not consistent in its support of U.S. terrorism-fighting efforts.

"The potential threat to our country is not imagined, it is real," Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., said in a House speech.

DP World said it had received all regulatory approvals for its purchase and noted that the administration did not object.

"We intend to maintain and, where appropriate, enhance current security arrangements," the company said in a statement. "It is very much business as usual for the P&O terminals" in the United States.

Lawmakers said the UAE was an important transfer point for shipments of smuggled nuclear components sent to Iran, North Korea and Libya by a Pakistani scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan. They also said the UAE was one of only three countries to recognize the now-toppled Taliban as Afghanistan's legitimate government.

The State Department describes the UAE as a vital partner in the fight against terrorism. Dubai's own ports have participated since last year in U.S. efforts to detect illegal shipments of nuclear materials.

Rep. Vito Fossella, R-N.Y., urged congressional hearings on the deal.

"At a time when America is leading the world in the war on terrorism and spending billions of dollars to secure our homeland, we cannot cede control of strategic assets to foreign nations with spotty records on terrorism," Fossella said.

Critics also have cited the UAE's history as an operational and financial base for the hijackers who carried out the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"Outsourcing the operations of our largest ports to a country with a dubious record on terrorism is a homeland security and commerce accident waiting to happen," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. "The administration needs to take another look at this deal."

Separately, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said Thursday it will conduct its own review of the deal and urged the government to defend its decision.

In a letter to the Treasury Department, Port Authority chairman Anthony Coscia said the independent review by his agency was necessary "to protect its interests."

The lawmakers pressing the White House to reconsider included Sens. Schumer, Tom Coburn, R-Okla., Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Reps. Foley, Fossella and Chris Shays, R-Conn.


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## Face81

:bash: :bash: :bash: :bash: :bash: :bash: :bash:


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## THE DUBAI GUYS

:bash: :bash: :bash: :rant: :rant:  :mad2:


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## Face81

Ben_Burj said:


> How about teasing the Americans in this forum by opening a thread about it in their section (with the tile we own new york now)?


this seems like a good idea now! :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant:


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## Dubai_Steve

Now being reported on FOX TV News Channel ! :bash: :bash: 

Lawmakers Urge Greater Review of UAE Firm's Deal to Run Six U.S. Ports 
Thursday, February 16, 2006
By Sharon Kehnemui Liss 


WASHINGTON — Questioning the United Arab Emirates track record in the War on Terror, seven U.S. lawmakers said Thursday they want a committee led by Treasury Secretary John Snow to thoroughly review a deal that would let a UAE-based firm run six major U.S. ports. 

"We're calling for the full six-week investigation. It's a serious investigation and the reason why this is critical is while maybe there's nothing wrong with this company, how do we know they're not infiltrated?" asked Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. "The United Arab Emirates has had people involved in terrorism. In fact, some of its financial institutions laundered the money for the (Sept, 11) terrorists. And to just blithely go ahead and treat this as another economic transaction is all wrong."

Currently, London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., the fourth largest port operator in the world, runs the six ports. But the $6.8 million sale of P&O to UAE-owned Dubai Ports World (DPW) would effectively turn over North American operations to the government-owned company in Dubai.

If the approval is unchallenged, Dubai Ports World would run the ports of New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.

On Monday, the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), chaired by Snow, approved the P&O sale. The committee conducted a 30-day review, according to lawmakers.

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan referred questions about CFIUS' decision to the Treasury Department, but added that security issues are rigorously reviewed by the committee.

"Clearly no responsibility of government is more important than protecting the national security," the Treasury Department said in a statement. Treasury runs the 12-member foreign investment committee that includes officials from the departments of Defense, Justice, Commerce, State and Homeland Security. The review also included an assessment from U.S. intelligence agencies, the department said.

"We wanted to look at this one quite closely because it relates to ports," Stewart Baker, an assistant secretary in the Homeland Security Department, told The Associated Press. "It is important to focus on this partner as opposed to just what part of the world they come from. We came to the conclusion that the transaction should not be halted."

According to documents, P&O and DPW said for the deal to go through, the committee must agree not to formally investigate the purchase or Bush must not move to block the sale for national security purposes.

But lawmakers, in a letter to Snow, requested that his committee conduct a full 45-day investigation of the transaction, saying it's essential for national security.

"Federal law requires the president or his designee investigate the impact on national security of a foreign acquisition if the acquisition 'could result in control of a person engaged in interstate commerce in the United States that could affect the national security of the United States,'” reads the letter signed by Sens. Schumer, Tom Coburn, R-Okla., Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Chris Dodd, D-Conn., as well as Reps. Chris Shays, R-Conn., Vito Fossella, R-N.Y., and Mark Foley, R-Fla.

Click here to read the letter lawmakers sent to Treasury Secretary John Snow.

The State Department calls the UAE, a loose federation of seven emirates on the Saudi peninsula, a vital partner in the War on Terror since the 2001 terror attacks, and DPW's former director of operations for Europe and Latin America, David C. Sanborn, was appointed by President Bush last month to be the new administrator of the Maritime Administration in the Transportation Department.

The lawmakers protesting the deal noted that the Arab nation had ties to the terrorists, and one terrorist, Marwan al-Shehhi, was born in that country.

In Dubai, the UAE's foreign minister described his country as an important U.S. ally but declined to respond directly to the concerns expressed in Washington.

"We have worked very closely with the United States on a number of issues relating to the combat of terrorism, prior to and post Sept. 11," Sheik Abdullah Bin Zayed al-Nahyan told The Associated Press.

Nonetheless, the FBI has also concluded that the UAE's banking system filtered much of the money used for the operational planning before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and many of the hijackers traveled to the United States through the UAE.

Saying that he hopes Bush will overrule the committee and disapprove the deal, Foley pointed out that the UAE on Wednesday moved to improve bilateral trade ties to Iran.

"When the international community is attempting to bring Iran's nuclear abilities to a halt, the United Arab Emirates are talking about expanded trade opportunities with Iran," he said, wondering aloud whose side the UAE would land on if tensions escalated between the United States and Iran.

"This is, after all, a country that still sees the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan and still fails to recognize Israel as a sovereign state," Foley said.

"For a country that recognized the Taliban, as one of only three, the last thing you want is a country like this to have control of ... our ports," added Shays.

DPW would not be responsible for cargo screening, which is performed by the Department of Homeland Security, but the port operator is responsible for securing cargo coming in and out of the port, the port facility itself and the hiring of security personnel.

"We can't be too casual about this, especially since we've learned what we have on 9/11. When we talk about Dubai, United Emirates, we have to remember what's taken place there," said Lautenberg, who served as commissioner of the Ports Authority for New York and New Jersey.

Lautenberg added that the UAE has been regarded as the place for materials used to make a nuclear weapon to be transferred among rogue hands.

"This port area is part of a two-mile stretch that the FBI has declared to be the choice target for terrorism in the country, The most vulnerable target in the country for an act of terrorists," he said. "We need control of our ports, we do not have control of our ports."

Lawmakers said that if CFIUS does not conduct a full review, congressional legislation may be in order. Members of the committee refuse to discuss the discussions the panel held.

Fossella said he has asked House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., to hold hearings on the transaction, and to get CFIUS' rationale for the decision.

"Today, it's more like a Star Chamber than a good legitimate decision-making process for the United States," Fossella said of the panel.

On Wednesday, King said he spoke to senior White House officials, whom he declined to identify, and urged them to review the purchase. King said he believed the White House took the issue "very seriously and will look into it."

Elsewhere, the chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said Thursday it will conduct its own review of the deal and urged the government to defend its decision.

An independent review by his agency was necessary "to protect its interests," Port Authority chairman Anthony Coscia said in a letter to the Treasury Department.


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## dubaiflo

OMG this is almost enought to cause another huge conflict.

idiots. all i can say. :bash: :bash: :rant:

this is pathetic.


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## malec

All I can say is tough ****!! Dubai ownz you now!!   

Seriously though, I hope the US doesn't end up putting enough pressure on then to refuse the deal or something. I seriously doubt this can happen though since it's just business afterall


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## TowerPower

Talk about ignorance! Most of these politicians have no clue what they are talking about. They see a mid east country so boom, terrorists must be involved!

One good point though is all the publicity Dubai will recieve in the conflict, especially from Americans who so far are rather oblivious to Dubai.


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## smussuw

The white house defended the UAE yesterday


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## Face81

pathetic, ignorant and ridiculous! :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant:

Nothing can stop Dubai. We own most of their Ports now, so, ha!


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## AltinD

If you knew that, the site of WTC is owned by New York Port Authority. DPI will operate the NY port so they will have some influence on NYPA decision. Donald Trump wanted to build the WTC on the site and he has an partnership with Nakheel that isn't much differnt organisation than DPI.

Imagine if WTC as it is now, isn't going to be build and TRUMP would finally has his way to build his own version. :nuts:


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## dubaiflo

TowerPower said:


> One good point though is all the publicity Dubai will recieve in the conflict, especially from Americans who so far are rather oblivious to Dubai.



but still the question remains whether this publicity will be rather negative or not...


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## Dubai_Steve

Britain's transport security arm said it had no concerns about the takeover by a Dubai company of terminal operations in the UK after U.S. lawmakers said the same $6.8 billion (3.9 billion-pound) deal posed a threat to security at U.S. ports.

A spokesman for the Department for Transport's security division, TRANSEC, said on Friday that Dubai Ports World's takeover of P&O's (PO.L: Quote, Profile, Research) terminals in Southampton and Tilbury would not compromise maritime security.

P&O shareholders this week voted in favour of the bid by Dubai Ports to take over P&O, ending 165 years of UK ownership to create the world's third-largest ports operator.

A number of U.S. lawmakers have urged the U.S. government to urgently review the security implications of the multi-billion dollar bid that would change control of six U.S. ports, citing terrorism concerns.

"It's immaterial who owns anything here as long as the ports themselves meet the security requirements. And if they don't meet them, then we have power to do something about it," the TRANSEC spokesman said.

He said there was no "issue of principle" involved in giving the United Arab Emirates-backed firm management control over important container terminals.

In an editorial on Thursday, the New York Times said that allowing control to pass to a UAE-backed firm "was a step in the wrong direction" by an administration that had already done far too little to protect the nation's ports.

The deal has already been given regulatory clearance on a number of fronts, including national security, by the White House.


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## Dubai_Steve

By Jeremy Pelofsky

WASHINGTON, Feb 17 (Reuters) - *Two U.S. Democratic senators said on Friday they would introduce legislation aimed at blocking Dubai Ports World from buying a company that operates several U.S. shipping ports because of security concerns.*

Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Hillary Clinton of New York said they would offer a measure to ban companies owned or controlled by foreign governments from acquiring U.S. port operations.

"We wouldn't turn the border patrol or the customs service over to a foreign government, and we can't afford to turn our ports over to one either," Menendez said in a statement.

P&O (PO.L: Quote, Profile, Research), the company Dubai Ports World plans to buy for $6.8 billion, is already foreign-owned but the concern is that the purchaser is backed by the United Arab Emirates government.

The UAE company would gain control over the management of major U.S. ports in New York and New Jersey, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Orleans and Miami, sparking national security concerns.

"I will be working with Senator Menendez to introduce legislation that will prohibit the sale of ports to foreign governments," Clinton said in a statement.

Officials with the United Arab Emirates Embassy in Washington could not be immediately reached for comment.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a U.S. inter-agency panel that reviews security implications of foreign takeovers of strategic assets, has already reviewed the transaction and did not object.

Despite that review, some Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Congress urged the Bush administration to conduct a more rigorous review. They expressed fears that the UAE was used as a conduit for parts used for nuclear proliferation and that the local banking system had been abused by financiers with possible links to terrorist organizations.

U.S. officials have said the UAE has been a solid and cooperative partner in the fight against terrorism, and have praised the UAE for steps to protect its booming financial sector against abuse by terrorism financiers.

Money for the Sept. 11 attacks was wired through the UAE's banking system, according to U.S. officials. Two of the Sept. 11 hijackers were UAE citizens.

U.S. seaports handle 2 billion tons of freight each year but only about 5 percent of containers entering the United States are examined on arrival.

Similar concerns were raised when a China state-controlled oil company tried to acquire the U.S. oil company Unocal. After pressure from American lawmakers, the foreign company eventually dropped out of the bidding. (Additional reporting by Caroline Drees.) 

Source:

http://today.reuters.com/investing/...7197464_RTRIDST_0_SECURITY-CONGRESS-PORTS.XML


----------



## Face81

more rubbish! :bash: :bash: :bash: :bash: :bash: :bash:


----------



## THE DUBAI GUYS

GAWD...dont we already own some of there ports through the purchase of CSX late last year!???? and we already own 1 bldg in NYC and run a hotel there and own 17000 apts across america...seeesh!!!

R


----------



## Dubai-Lover

it's time to boycott usa products don't you think

or stop the pipelines for a few days

again, why do they come up with this now? they knew dp world is participating with 1 single other company from singapore


and yes, we're buying all this to drop an atomic bomb in the acquired ports' cities


let me post my classic again: the shit is coming out of various holes in their bodies!


----------



## AltinD

I'm wandering that Hillary Clinton is flying high the flag. Maybe she's going after Bill for loving visiting Dubai at least once a year.


----------



## DUBAI

The bush admin wont budge, dubai has too many connections 

only problem is congress, especialy if it becomes an election issiue in 6 months time.


----------



## smussuw

someone needs to remind them about the 100 million after Katrina.


----------



## malec

Dubai-Lover said:


> let me post my classic again: the shit is coming out of various holes in their bodies!


:hahaha: 

Love this too much.


----------



## Dubai-Lover

DP World to borrow $6.5b to fund P&O acquisition 
By Arif Sharif, Staff Reporter

Dubai: State-owned Dubai Ports World will enter the market this week to borrow $6.5 billion to fund its takeover of the UK's Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co, the biggest term loan to come out of the Middle East, a banker said yesterday.

Faisal Mikou, a director at joint lead arrangers Barclays Capital, told Gulf News, the borrowing would include a $6.3 billion five year syndicated term loan and a $200 million revolving credit facility and was the largest loan from the Middle East.

Deutsche Bank is the joint lead arranger and bookrunner for the loan that will fund the purchase of the British ports and ferries group.

"The borrowing entity is Thunder FZE, the acquisition vehicle set up by DP World, although the term loan has a guarantee from PCFC (Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corp, DP World's holding company)," Mikou said.

The syndication will be launched in Dubai on February 23 at a bankers' meet and will be followed by another in London on February 27, with the fund-raising expected to be completed in the second half of March, Mikou said.

Some 30 banks to participate in the syndication.

The loan will be used to fund the $6.8 billion bid Dubai Ports made for P&O, as well as to refinance a $1.65 billion loan it raised last year.

Mikou declined to share pricing details but a wire report quoting DP World said the five-year facility pays a margin of around 125 bps over Libor. DP World's parent PCFC issued a two-year Islamic bond last month, the biggest Islamic bond in history, that raised $3.5 billion.


----------



## Dubai_Steve

Video on foxnews :toilet: about this today 

go to www.foxnews.com :toilet: then click on VIDEO at the top menu then click on POLITICS on the left menu then PORT SECURITY

:wallbash:


----------



## Dubai_Steve

THE Dubai Ports Authority signed an agreement yesterday to buy 42 cranes worth US$200 million from Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery Co Ltd, the world's biggest maker of container cranes. 

The deal includes 14 quayside container cranes and 28 rail-mounted gantry cranes, the crane maker said yesterday. 

The machines will be used at the Jebel Ali terminal. 

Guan Tongxian, general manager of Shanghai Zhenhua, said the 14 container cranes in the deal are the world's largest which are capable of lifting two 40-foot containers at one time. 

They are also the world's fastest as it can unload a record 110 TEUs of containers in an hour compared with 50 to 60 TEUs per hour for average cranes, he added. 

"Large container ships are becoming popular in the shipping industry," Guan said. "The demand for cranes to serve ships with capacity of more than 8,000 TEUs of containers is growing." 

The port authority officials of Dubai, the biggest container hub in the Middle East, said it expects to order more container cranes as its container ports have expanded rapidly in the past two years. 

The value of output of Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery is expected to grow by 50 percent this year to US$2.25 billion, led by the latest quayside container cranes, said Guan. 

The company manufactured 190 quayside container cranes and 380 rubber-tired gantry cranes last year, accounting for 66.6 percent of the global market.


----------



## Face81

Dubai_Steve said:


> Video on foxnews :toilet: about this today
> 
> go to www.foxnews.com :toilet: then click on VIDEO at the top menu then click on POLITICS on the left menu then PORT SECURITY
> 
> :wallbash:


DPW and backout?!!??!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! :weird: :weird: :weird: :weird: :weird: :weird: :crazy2: :crazy2: :crazy2: :crazy2: :crazy2: :blahblah: :blahblah: :blahblah: :blahblah: :blahblah: :blahblah: :blahblah: :blahblah: 


They know nothing. We own them now. So ha! :tongue: :tongue: :tongue: :tongue: :tongue: :bleep: :bleep: :bleep: :bleep:


----------



## docc

They are incognizant of the power and capabilities of the Dubai government. This takeover will however me a milestone that will change the American's outlook towards Dubai.


----------



## malec

At the end he says, public opposition might make Dubai Ports back out. 
Since when does public opposition ever stop Dubai from doing anything?


----------



## THE DUBAI GUYS

:bash: :bash: :bash: :bash: :bash: :bash: :bash: :bash: 
:weird: :weird: :gaah: :gaah: :gaah: :rant: :bleep: :bleep: :tongue: :tongue: :hammer: :hammer:   :mad2: :mad2: :wallbash: :wallbash: 

wat the heck is wrong with them!!!???!!!!! we never back out of anything...just because they dont like it well tough!!!


----------



## Dubai-Lover

this is the most hilarious comedy show i've ever seen

have a look, nobody can pronounce "united arab emirates" properly :hilarious

sorry, i have a flash now :rofl: :laugh: :hilarious :lol:


----------



## fahed

Dubai_Steve said:


> Video on foxnews :toilet: about this today
> 
> go to www.foxnews.com :toilet: then click on VIDEO at the top menu then click on POLITICS on the left menu then PORT SECURITY
> 
> :wallbash:



There is another video under BUSINESS--- "Money Mail"

FUNNY SHIT :hilarious


----------



## dubaiflo

:lol: this is so typical US...

just pathetic...


----------



## DUBAI

Americans are funny.

what will be even funnier is the turnaround which will occur when dp world buys P&O, and says, we will end your problem by closing the ports, selling off the land to developers!

US have an airbase in the UAE, why shouldnt the UAE buy a port or two?

on the otherhand i can see their concern. i wouldnt want a foreign government controlling my ports.

corps are one thing, govts another.


----------



## Dubai_Steve

*P&O partner sues over Dubai deal*
By Philip Aldrick (Filed: 20/02/2006)
(source http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/ma...d=242&sSheet=/money/2006/02/20/ixcitytop.html)

National security concerns in the US that have already prompted Hillary Clinton and two other senators to oppose Dubai's £3.92 billion purchase of P&O are now being cited in a lawsuit taken out against the global ports operator.

P&O's 50pc joint-venture partner in Miami, Eller & Company, has filed for $10m (£6m) in damages, claiming it was not consulted about the deal and will therefore become an involuntary partner with the state-owned Dubai Ports World.

In the suit, it says: "[Eller] takes seriously its responsibility to participate fully in national security... to prevent attacks on our homeland. As such, [Eller] objects to the transfer of ownership of P&O to Dubai and asks the court to prohibit the transaction."

P&O steamed into a political storm last week. First the Republican senator Richard Shelby and then Democrats Mrs Clinton and Robert Menendez raised national security fears because the company owns significant operations at ports in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia. Five of these feature on the list of 14 ports deemed strategic by the US Department of Defence.

"Our port security is too important to place in the hands of foreign governments," Mrs Clinton, the New York senator, said on Friday, announcing plans to launch legislation that would block the takeover. She was backed by New Jersey Senator Mr Menendez, who said: "Our ports are the front lines of the war against terrorism."

Since the September 11 attacks, cargo vessels and port facilities have become the focus of security concerns. As sea transport accounts for 90pc of the world's trade, according to the International Maritime Organisation, a terrorist attack could have severe implications for the global economy.

Objection to the deal with DPW has emerged very late. P&O shareholders voted it through last week and will receive their cash on March 16. P&O has also cleared all the correct regulatory channels, including the US Department of Homeland Security and the Committee on Foreign Investments in the US.

A P&O spokesman said: "Clearly, a change of control was a key focus for the due diligence process and we are confident all issues have been satisfactorily addressed."

Neither P&O nor DPW can see how the Eller suit will impact on the deal, which needs only rudimentary clearance through the UK courts. Eller accuses P&O of "predatory conduct", breaches of fiduciary duty", and "concealment of material facts" in the suit, filed late on Friday.


----------



## DUBAI

Oh, and not to mention US coverage of this little tennis tournement in dubai this week


----------



## dubaiflo

:lol:
that was so funny yesterday, CNN news and one guy was there, i think he was from the senat, and shouthing out 'oh you cannot sell your ports to a country (he said that :lol: ) which has connection to terrorists' , and , one minute later, CNN Sport reporting from Dubai's tennis tournament, you know, such a sun is shining bright coverage :blahblah: 

:rofl:


----------



## dubaiflo

*A Small Emirate With Big Ambitions*

*
Dubai's controversial ports deal is but one example of its rapid economic expansion.*


By Jeffrey Fleishman, Times Staff Writer
February 27 2006 

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The Dubai company that has raised security concerns in Washington with its deal to manage ports in six U.S. cities epitomizes the global economic ambitions of this small emirate, which seems to daily send another glittering bank or post-modern financial tower racing skyward.

Lacking the large oil reserves of many of its neighbors, the ruling Maktoum family began working three decades ago to turn Dubai into a crossroads of commerce and the economic power of the seven sheikdoms that form the United Arab Emirates.


Dubai's growing prominence as an investment capital has allowed state-owned Dubai Ports World to spend billions of dollars on building and acquiring terminals in more than 15 countries. The company's success mirrors Dubai's urge to become the best and build the highest. But alongside the emirate's quick ascent, there have been revelations that its loosely regulated markets and banks have attracted Al Qaeda militants, drug smugglers and nuclear black marketeers.

Government and business leaders here say such characterizations are exaggerated and note that the emirate is a proven ally in the U.S.-declared war on terrorism.

The Dubai Ports World controversy was sparked by its $6.8-billion deal to acquire Britain's Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co., which would give it control over port operations in six U.S. cities. Seeking to allay concerns, DP World formally requested Sunday that the U.S. committee that approved the deal in January conduct a more intensive, 45-day review. In addition, the company said that it would maintain the U.S. operations as a separate business unit until May 1 or the end of the review, whichever comes first.

"Security should not be an issue. I don't know of any other country cooperating more with Washington on terrorism more than the UAE," said Mustafa Alani, a senior security consultant at the Gulf Research Center, a regional think tank based in Dubai. "A lot of Arab money left the U.S. after Sept. 11 because people were scared for their investments. This was a way to turn a new page and reopen things. But now it's blocked for unjustified reasons."

Another analyst, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of government sensitivity, said the controversy was a reflection of Dubai's business style.

"This is not exactly an innocent place," the analyst said. "There are financial irregularities and no transparency. Once you step onto the world economy, the world has a right to ask questions about who you are."

Dubai and the other emirates emerged from British control in 1971. The ruling family sought prosperity through commerce. Dubai opened the Jebel Ali port, which is used by the U.S. Navy, and began reaching into regional markets.

The rise in oil prices brought billions of dollars into Dubai's financial centers, helping pave the way for DP World's rise. In late 2004, DP World paid more than $1 billion to acquire CSX World Terminals. The purchase widened the company's interests in Europe, Asia and Africa.

DP World outflanked other investors to clinch the deal for Peninsular & Oriental. P&O holdings included ports and terminals in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Miami and New Orleans. The deal would make DP World the globe's third largest ports operator. To many in Dubai, it is another indication that the emirate's international aspirations are being realized.

Dubai is a dizzying blueprint of man-made islands and sharp-angled high-rises with tinted glass that seem to billow along the coast. One of the most discussed ventures these days is Burj Dubai, a mixed-use tower that is expected to be more than 2,300 feet high, which would make it the tallest in the world.

Hotel lobbies are full of men in Western suits and Arab headdress, whispering over briefcases and thick binders. The language of commerce is English, but the accents come from across the world. About 80% of the residents are foreign-born.

"Was Dubai planned this way or were the organizers behind it even surprised?" Sulaiman al-Hattlan, editor-in-chief of Forbes Arabia, asked. "Traffic is getting worse by the day, but on the other hand look at the region around Dubai with its lack of reform on social and economic issues. You can look at Dubai as a serious improvement. It's a positive sign for globalization. Everyone comes to Dubai."

The emirate's loose financial regulations and lack of red tape mean projects like Business Bay, a plan for 230 commercial and residential towers, many hovering above water, can move along quickly. But that same lack of oversight attracted sinister investments too.

Al Qaeda and the former Taliban government in Afghanistan used Dubai for money laundering and arms trading. U.S. investigators found that more than $120,000 was funneled through UAE bank accounts to Mohamed Atta and other Sept. 11 hijackers.

In 2004, UAE authorities arrested Qari Saifullah Akhtar, a Pakistani suspected of training thousands of Al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan. The alleged plotter of the 2000 bombing of the U.S. destroyer Cole in Yemen, Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, a Saudi, was arrested here and turned over to the United States. A Yemen court sentenced him to death in 2004 for his role. A Dubai company has been linked to a secret group run by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan that supplied nuclear technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea.

A recent CIA assessment says that Dubai, like other emirates, "is a drug trans-shipment point for traffickers given its proximity to Asian drug-producing countries; the UAE's position as a major financial center makes it vulnerable to money laundering."

The agency noted that the country's anti-money-laundering controls were improving. Businesspeople and government officials say that financial regulators are quicker now to act against suspicious bank accounts or wire transfers. ID cards are required for many transactions, and the UAE has been cooperating with the United States on tracking terrorists' financial networks.

Last week, President Bush praised the UAE as a "valuable ally" in fighting global terrorism.

"There was great international pressure on the region after Sept. 11, and Dubai went through that pressure, and things are different than they were five years ago," said Al-Hattlan of Forbes Arabia. "There's more oversight. But still you hear perceptions that Dubai is a center for terrorism money going through the region and into Pakistan and other places."

Investment banker Ali Samir al Shihabi said suggestions today of widespread money laundering by terrorist and militant groups were unfounded. He and others here said the DP World case was an example of anti-Muslim sentiment threatening to segregate globalization.

Shihabi, who is chief executive of Rasmala Investments, said he moved here five years ago, attracted by what he described as Dubai's open society and "clear and simple business laws."

He said it was nearly impossible to track all transactions and that "one hundred thousand dollars or a million dollars" may occasionally be siphoned to an illicit destination. "But," he said, "you could say the same about New York or other financial centers."

Shihabi said high oil prices and Dubai's economic tenacity are drawing more investment and professionals to the emirate.

"Dubai is sucking in talent because of its relaxed lifestyle," he said. "Since 9/11, American Arabs and Iranians are feeling isolated in America. They're returning to the Middle East, and they're coming here. I recently recruited a guy from IBM Consulting in the U.S. I would have never been able to do that a few years ago.

"DP World is a big symbol because it's high profile. I don't see any Arab now going out to make a high-profile investment in the U.S. Why should he?"


----------



## Dubai-Lover

read this
:rofl:










DP World and P&O have voluntarily requested a 45-day US national security review of their deal. Above, ships unload at Port Elizabeth, New Jersey, one of the many facilities DP World is set to acquire. - Reuters

DP World highlights security record at opening of Djibouti terminal 
By Shakir Husain, Staff Reporter

Dubai: DP World yesterday trumpeted its security credentials at the opening of an oil terminal facility in Djibouti, where a US Navy vessel was its guest.

The company, which will take over management of container terminal facilities at six US ports under its $6.8 billion purchase of British port operator Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), said it will segregate its US assets. It has been a target of strident opposition from US lawmakers, who say the acquisition will compromise US national security. DP World and P&O have voluntarily requested a 45-day US national security review of their deal, the companies said.

A British court will approve the P&O deal today and DP World will become the new owner of P&O's assets in 19 countries from March 2.

Ted Bilkey, chief opperating officer, DP World, said, "We are confident the further review by CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) will confirm that DP World's acquisition of P&O's US operations does not pose any threat to America's safety and security. We hope that voluntarily agreeing to further scrutiny demonstrates our commitment to our longstanding relationship with the US."

In Djibouti, a reception aboard the US Navy vessel USS Vicksburg allowed DP World chairman Sultan Ahmad Bin Sulayem to highlight the security at the company's facilities and its cooperation with the navy. "The expansion was accelerated by the US Navy who have been key drivers of the project and close partners with DP World." 

APPROVAL
Potential operator of Gwadar Port

Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz yesterday approved a proposal to start negotiations with DP World as potential operator of Gwadar Port in the Pakistani province of Balochistan.

"Gwadar Port will be functional by the middle of this year after completion of additional dredging. This will make it the country's deepest port and the region's transshipment hub," a radio report quoted Aziz as saying.


----------



## Sydney-2006

Doesn’t seem that the deal will go through, the fact that the UAE is an absolute USA poppet didn’t help at all. Still there is a good lesson here for the UAE to learn, that is, to do what is in the best interest of the UAE and not the USA. UAE should not participate in (or facilitate) USA Plans and adventures in the region without considering the best interest of the UAE


----------



## DUBAI

Good point.

but baring Dubai PR intervention.... It will go through!


----------



## smussuw

Sydney-2006, I agree; however I do think the deal would go through and even if it didnt, we are only talking about 6 ports.

other ports are in our hands


----------



## luv2bebrown

Dubai has 45 days to convince the American population that it isnt a backward mud hut village with crazy bearded Taliban running around.

however, with Yahoo news showing a picture of the traditional dhow wharfage as "the port of Dubai," this might be a hard image to shake.

the American population has this crazy idea that we hate them and want to hurt them. we should show how diverse and cosmopolitan the Dubai population. And we really should encourage Americans living in Dubai to stick up for the city


----------



## smussuw

3200 articles have been written about this subject in the past 2 weeks


----------



## dubaiflo

luv2bebrown said:


> Dubai has 45 days to convince the American population that it isnt a* backward mud hut village with crazy bearded Taliban running around.*
> 
> however, with Yahoo news showing a picture of the traditional *dhow wharfage as "the port of Dubai,"* this might be a hard image to shake.
> 
> the American population has this crazy idea that we hate them and want to hurt them. we should show how diverse and cosmopolitan the Dubai population. And we really should encourage Americans living in Dubai to stick up for the city



sorry i can't stop laughing.

so funny and even though so true :rofl:


----------



## Face81

Does this guy even know where the United Arab Emirates is?????? :bash: :bash: :bash:


----------



## DUBAI

Maybe we should send him a map, and a letter explaining that its Dubai government owned company, not the UAE federal government running his precious ports.


----------



## Ben_Burj

> American ignorance of world history, geography and politics is an all-too-accurate cliché of our times. Not only Jay Leno but the National Geographic Society confirmed it last year with a study showing that among Americans aged 18 to 24, almost 30 percent could not identify the Pacific Ocean on a map. More than half could not locate India, and 85 percent could not find Iraq. The young people of America, the richest and most powerful country in the world, ranked next to last in the nine countries surveyed.



a better one 



> Rochester, MN -- In one of his trademark random interviews with young Americans, Jay Leno chatted recently on a Los Angeles street with a cheerful young man decked out in blue jeans and a head of frizzy blond hair.
> 
> "Who was the leader of Germany in World War II?" Leno asked.
> 
> "Hitler?" the young man ventured.
> 
> "What was his first name?"
> 
> "Just Hitler, wasn't it?"
> 
> "Hitler Hitler? He didn't have a first name? Was it Robert?"
> 
> "He was just known as Hitler. Like Cher."



i bet you tell an American you stupid dubai is not in the middle east  but an american city and he will believe you.

Dubai should make a campaign saying: dear US citizen contrary to false ideas Dubai is not a middle eastern city but a Canadian city :lol: :lol: :lol:


----------



## dubaiflo

:rofl:

good one.


----------



## dubaiflo

*Dubai port working hard to please Americans*
By Nicholas Kralev
The Washington Times 
Published February 28, 2006 



DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Executives at Jebel Ali Port, the largest in the Middle East, see no shame in admitting that one of their goals, in a region known for its hostility to the United States, is to please the Americans. 

Dubai-based U.S. customs officials have unfettered access to all cargo destined for the United States and are free to inspect any container whenever they please, a senior port executive said during a tour of Jebel Ali over the weekend. 



"We gave them offices in our port at no cost," he said, noting that the United Arab Emirates was the first Middle East country to participate in the Container Security Initiative, which the Bush administration started after September 11, 2001, to protect global trade from terrorism and other threats. 

The U.S. military also has access. Ships anchor in a designated area not far from the port's control tower, and no one can enter the facilities used to handle the vessels or get on board without the Americans' authorization, another port official said. 

There is even a separate floor in the control tower dedicated to the military's needs, the official said. The Americans use it when they have arriving or departing ships, or whenever they want, and it stays locked at other times and nobody can open it. 

It is hardly a secret that it is in the interest of Jebel Ali, located about 22 miles outside Dubai, and the state company that owns and operates it, DP World, that the Americans here receive the best treatment. 

One of the region's most prosperous cities, Dubai knows something about money and good customer service. But these days, it is particularly concerned about its image in the United States. 

DP World's successful $6.9 billion bid for the port operations of the British company Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., which include six U.S. ports, has ignited a political firestorm in Washington. 

Faced with worries about security, DP World, which is entirely owned by the emirate of Dubai, has agreed to delay its takeover of the management contracts of the ports in New York; Newark, N.J.; Baltimore; Philadelphia; New Orleans and Miami by 45 days to allow for a review by the U.S. government committee that approved the company's application. 

Asked whether there is anything the Americans have asked for and have not received, the senior executive replied with a quick "No." U.S. officials agree. 

"The United States military derives great benefit by having access to Port Jebel Ali's large, secure, deep-water port for its operations, logistics support and service members' R and R," said Col. Brian R. Kerins, defense and air attache at the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi, the UAE capital. 

"During my three-year tour in the UAE, the working relationship between the U.S. military and the Port of Jebel Ali, at every level, has been efficient, professional and top rate," he said. 

Another embassy official noted that the UAE Air Warfare Center is the leading fighter training facility in the Middle East. The U.S. military also uses the port in Fujairah and the Dhafra Air base. 

Jebel Ali, the world's largest man-made harbor, was completed in 1979. At 64 square miles, it is the bigger and truly international of Dubai's two ports, with Port Rashid handling mostly ships from the region, as well as cruise liners. 

About 500 vessels arrive in Jebel Ali every month. There were 85 there yesterday. The senior executive said no security incidents have occurred to date. 

He said that 12 percent of the almost 5,000 people working at Jebel Ali are UAE citizens. The rest come from around the world. It is typical for Persian Gulf countries to hire foreign workers, because most natives do not join the labor market. 

Despite the need for effective public relations, DP World's media strategy in Dubai was somewhat confusing. 

Sarah Lockie, the company's communications director, canceled an interview with the chairman, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, hours after it had been scheduled, saying in a midnight telephone call that the U.S. media is being handled by a "team" in Washington. 

She also did not allow executives and other workers at the port to speak on the record.

---------


they shouldn't do that.

we don't need the US.


----------



## smussuw

^ Actually I would prefer that to helping them invading other countries like we did before.


----------



## dubaiflo

^^ also true.

Here is some sense:



The US Would Be Lucky If Dubai Ran Its Ports 


Arab News - 28/02/2006	

Linda Heard

For most of us who live in this region and are familiar with the UAE, the brouhaha over the slated management of US ports by Dubai Ports World is nothing but an unhealthy mix of paranoia and bigotry. 

The UAE is one of the greatest success stories of all time thanks to a succession of wise and visionary rulers, who have brought prosperity, excellence and security to their people. What the UAE has achieved in just 30 years is nothing short of miraculous. I know. I observed its mind-boggling transformation from a series of fishing villages and desert oasis almost from the beginning.

I first visited Dubai in 1975 shortly after the opening of its very first five-star hotel, the Intercontinental. Then life centered along the Creek and its dhows that shipped in goods from India and Africa. There were markets, a few tarmac roads, hospitals, schools and beautiful stretches of white sandy beaches but little else.

I returned to Dubai in 1983 and honestly thought I had deplaned at the wrong stop when I saw so many new villas, shops, hotels and restaurants. But still, few in the outside world had ever even heard of the place. I was selfishly glad that it remained a best-kept secret.

Some 23 years on and Dubai has become a great and thriving metropolis. People from all over the world can't get there fast enough. Expatriates may groan about the rising rents, building sites and traffic jams but it is still one of the safest places to be, although few today would leave the doors to their homes and cars unlocked as we did in throughout the 1980s when serious crime was a rarity.

I miss the old men, who used to bake delicious round loaves, flavored with honey or sugar, on the Jumeirah Beach Road where arguably the world's most luxurious hotel stands, the Borj Al Arab. I miss the camels and the donkeys that sometimes wandered the streets, and this spanking new Dubai isn't really my Dubai, but this does not mean I am not in awe of what its government has achieved.

An article by Adam Nicolson published in the Guardian on Feb. 13 refers to Dubai as "the fastest growing city on earth". Nicholson asks, "Given the scale of its ambition, could it become the most important place on the planet?" He then goes on to highlight the $100 billion worth of projects either under way or planned.

Nicolson quotes Hamza Mustafa, who runs Greenland for the Nakheel development company, as saying: "...Dubai is trying to set an example of how Arabs should be represented. After 9/11, Arabs suffered from a lot of bad publicity. Dubai is trying to come back with the right kind of publicity. It will be a fully modern state. It will be setting the standards. It will be a place that people will look up to." 

Nicolson's article should be required reading for those senators, governors and mayors shrieking about the perceived threat to their nation's security that a company owned by Dubai might pose.

Getting Dubai on the map as an example of excellence is something the "Father of Dubai" Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum and his sons have always wanted. So one can only imagine how disappointed the Dubai government and its people must be at the American reaction to its takeover of P&O. This is a country that has played by the rules. Its takeover of P&O and the approvals it sought from a relevant US committee were properly done.

Yet despite the aspersions on the emirates' character, its officials have handled themselves graciously and with dignity. Dubai has gone far as to postpone its management of the ports in question and agreeing to an additional 45-day long Federal investigation, as a face-saving exercise for George W. Bush, who supports its bid. 

Again, for those of us who know Dubai and its ethos of perfection in all that it sets out to do, the idea that its government would ruin its reputation so as to open the doors to terrorist infiltrators out to damage the US would be laughable if it wasn't so contemptible.

And it is particularly contemptible because the views of Dubai's detractors over the deal are tinged with bigotry. I'm certainly not alone in this view. According to the New York Times, Bush has said "he suspected anti-Arab sentiment was the subtext of some of the objections to the Dubai Company taking over management of the port terminals from the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, which is British."

That view was reaffirmed by one of Bush's domestic security advisers Frances Fragos Townsend, who said: "...and to the extent that we're treating one company different than we would treat the British company, I think we have to be very honest, and ask ourselves 'Why is that?' Allies in the war on terror all need to be treated equally, no matter where they are from."

In the event that Dubai Ports World is barred from its management of US ports, then I believe the UAE and its regional allies should stand back and assess whom their friends really are.

The Gulf is generally awash with US military bases and the US is awash with Arab money and investments. So what message would the US rejection of Dubai Ports world send? 

Thanks for your cooperation in the war on terror and thanks for your cash but when it comes to reciprocating on hallowed US soil, then its thanks but no thanks.

Friendship cannot be a one-way street forever and it is surely about time that Arabs stood up for their own interests. Bigotry cannot be tolerated by decent people and if the US Senate is determined to show a bad example, then America should suffer the consequences where it hurts most: In its pockets.


----------



## dubaiflo

Angus Reid Global Scan : Polls & Research
Seven-in-Ten Americans Oppose Dubai Ports Deal
March 1, 2006


(Angus Reid Global Scan) – Many adults in the United States believe their federal government was wrong to allow a company from the United Arab Emirates to acquire port operating rights, according to a poll by the New York Times and CBS News. 70 per cent of respondents think the U.S. should not let Dubai Ports World operate six U.S. shipping ports.

Over the past few days, several Republican and Democratic lawmakers have voiced their opposition to a deal that would place the shipping operations of six major U.S. seaports under the supervision of Dubai Ports World—a state-owned company from the United Arab Emirates. On Feb. 23, the company volunteered to postpone its takeover.

Last month, U.S. president George W. Bush threatened to veto any attempts by the legislative branch to stop the deal from happening. In more than five years in office, Bush has not vetoed a single bill.

If the transaction—valued at $6.8 billion U.S.—takes place, Dubai Ports World would acquire the Britain-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. and its terminal operations at the Baltimore, Miami, Newark, New Orleans, New York and Philadelphia ports.

Yesterday, two members of the Bush administration defended the deal. Treasury secretary John Snow declared, "I think as Congress looks at this, they’re going to be convinced as we were, that this transaction is entirely consistent with the national security." National intelligence director John Negroponte said, "On the basis of our inquiry we assess that the threat to U.S. national security posed by DP World to be low. We didn’t see any red flags come up during the course of our inquiry."

Polling Data

As you may know, the Bush administration has agreed to let a company from the United Arab Emirates run six shipping ports in the U.S., including ports in New York and New Orleans, that are now being run by a British company. Critics of the plan say that allowing a company from an Arab country to operate U.S. shipping ports is dangerous to national security. The Bush administration says security will be protected by the U.S. and that the United Arab Emirates is a U.S. ally. Do you think the U.S. should or should not let a United Arab Emirates company operate U.S. shipping ports?

Should

21%

Should not

70%

Not sure

9%


----

idots.

and i am sure 9/10 people who were asked did not even know dubai exists before this whole ports thing .. :bash:


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## Dubai_Steve

Dubai is now infamous - but soon it will be famous once they see how well run the port are and everyone in the US learns about Dubai and where it is on the map.


----------



## Dubai-Lover

i've said that quite a few times now

maybe this is exactly what dubai needs which is to prove what it can achieve
it's always better to have a lot of critics in the beginning and then to prove them all wrong

the deal in general will also help to make the americans and the world in general to rethink their attitude and opinion about the middle east


btw - here in germany there was not even one news article in the papers or a news spot in the daily tv news of any channel!!!
but we get these "iraqi suicide bomber" shit all day long since a few years, same as for the american news

it actually is no surprise the majority of the western world is so narrow-minded when it comes to the middle east and islam!


i stronlgy condemn the media, their only concern is to get big headlines from suicide bombings. economically, oil prices is the only thing the western media is interested in!
all this resembles the people's opinion since the media is almighty and there is no way to get rid of it, those kind of "bad news" chase you everywhere


----------



## dubaiflo

^^ couldn't agree more dennis.

i have some really intelligent friends, they r not really narrow minded usuallly. but the the middle east and all those issues (cartoon riots) etc made them think oh those countries are all (, let me quote luv2bebrown: ) "a backward mud hut village with crazy bearded Taliban running around."

when i have first been to dubai they in fact asked me whether the UAE had internet or not.

i just couldn't believe all this.

they don't understand the things going on here, the opinions and issues etc.

and keep in mind those guys are definetly not the worst in germany.

they really need a huge campaign to show what the middle east is like.

actually CNN, even thought it is american has a good monthly report "inside the middle east" it is quite interesting, but i guess nobody is watching it.

---

edit:

thinking of it, they were rather right about the internet thing, you cannot really call etisalat an internet provider. :rofl:


----------



## DUBAI

> Should
> 
> 21%
> 
> Should not
> 
> 70%
> 
> Not sure
> 
> 9%
> 
> 
> ----
> 
> idots.
> 
> and i am sure 9/10 people who were asked did not even know dubai exists before this whole ports thing ..


POLL's mean nothing. I could poll any group of people. and get a majority behind anything.

its all about how you ask, and what you tell them.


----------



## dubaiflo

do you in fact think the whole american population would answer significantly different?


----------



## DUBAI

If someomne wanted to they could shape a poll and present the results to show that americans understand al-quidea's position, and would likey do the same.

polls are a very easy way to give the impression of public support on an issiue.

they look good for a cause.. they are not much good for anything else.


----------



## smussuw

*Dubai Embargo of Israel Fuels Ports Security Argument*

By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN - Staff Reporter of the Sun
March 1, 2006

The discovery that the Dubai firm at the center of the controversy about American ports security actively operates an embargo against Israeli goods in the United Arab Emirates reinforced objections from critics of the deal and elicited comments by Senator John Kerry.

Mr. Kerry was responding to a report that appeared in yesterday's Jerusalem Post saying that the Dubai government owned holding company imposes its embargo on goods to and from Israel through its subsidiary Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation which operates the Dubai Customs Department.

--------------------------------------
It isnt the full article because I have to register.

I see, so now the jewish lobby is in :bash:


----------



## DUBAI

What do you mean.

It was blatently them who started all this B/S


----------



## smussuw

^ u racist anti semitic


----------



## DUBAI

Well technicly they are too if they are anti-arab!


----------



## Dubai-Lover

UK supports DP World's acquisition 
By Mohammad Ezz Al Deen, Staff Reporter

Dubai: The British government strongly supports Dubai Ports World's (DP World) acquisition of British ports and ferry operator P&O, said a senior diplomat.

"The UK authorities have checked, agreed and confirmed the deal with Dubai Ports World, and we welcome investment from all over the world the US, Europe, Asia and the Middle East," John Hawkins, British Consul General, said yesterday.

Hawkins told a press conference that Dubai authorities have done everything to make Dubai an attractive hub for British business. 

Meanwhile, Dubai is now the UK's 10th largest export market, up from 17th in 2004, said the UK's Department of Trade and Industry.

UK exports to Dubai rose 134 per cent in 2005 to Dh30.9 billion. UK exports to the UAE as a whole increased by 106 per cent in 2005 to Dh36.2 billion. 

Trade with the Northern Emirates grew 36.5 per cent to Dh3.7 billion in 2005. Total trade between the UAE and the UK increased significantly last year to Dh45.4 billion from Dh24.7 billion in 2004. 

Hawkins said he was "delighted to see British business continuing to take advantage of the wonderful opportunities in Dubai and the whole of the UAE has to offer. "I am very pleased to see British business continue to do well. 

"Dubai is an open market and the competition is tough. But we know that British companies have more to offer and we at the Embassy will be working harder than ever this year to encourage more British companies, especially small- and medium-sized enterprises to invest in Dubai and to use Dubai as the base to target other regional markets," Hawkins said.

The British Business Group is experiencing steadily rising membership. It increased 14 per cent in the last 12 months to 743 companies, he said.

These trade figures however are one part of the picture as they only refer to trade in goods and do not reflect Britain's continuing strength in the service sector or the very strong bilateral investment relationship. 

"we have seen many important new British investments in Dubai over the past year, particularly into the DIFC and Dubai Healthcare City. 

"I am particularly pleased that we are also seeing more investment from Dubai in the UK. The UK is, like Dubai, an open market and welcomes investors from all over the world," Hawkins said.


----------



## XREX

*UK court clears Dubai port deal*
Thursday 02 March 2006, 16:31 GMT 

*Britain's High Court has approved the takeover of UK shipping icon Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co by state-owned Dubai Ports World, despite a last-minute objection by a US company.*


On Thursday, Justice Nicholas Warren dismissed the appeal from Miami-based Eller & Co as he gave the required go-ahead for the $6.8 billion deal. 

Warren said: "The objections of Eller do not persuade me that I should not sanction the scheme."

Eller had argued that US concerns about a United Arab Emirates company owning significant operations at six major US seaports could substantially harm its business. 

Eller Company, based in Miami, Florida, has a joint venture agreement with a subsidiary of P&0.

Eller had argued that a successful takeover by Dubai Ports World, which is controlled by the ruling Maktoum family in the United Arab Emirates, would harm its national interests. 


*Security concern*

Late last week, DPW said, it would postpone its takeover bid and subsequently agreed to a 45-day review of the deal in the United States, where security remains a real concern following the 11 September attacks in 2001. 

Eller has filed a similar lawsuit against the takeover in the United States, which would see new ownership for ports at Baltimore, Miami, New Jersey, New Orleans, New York and Philadelphia.

US lawmakers conceded on Wednesday that they are powerless to prevent the sale from going forward, and have placed their hope in an 11th-hour intervention by George Bush, the US President. 

Administration officials have said, contrary to public fears, the US Coast Guard and Customs Service would still be in charge of security when DP World takes over management of the terminals.


*Approval revoked*

Lawmakers - particularly opposition US Democrats - have kept up their assault, saying the plan reflected the administration's general languid approach to homeland security. 

In its London petition, Eller said there was a "real prospect" that US authorities, who had initially backed the transaction, would revoke their approval. 

Eller, which provides stevedoring services to 90% of cruise ships in the port of Miami, also argued that the deal would violate its joint venture agreement with P&O and jeopardise its business. 

Paul Downes, an attorney representing Eller, said the company feared the takeover would result in the loss of $150 million and could affect the job-status of 1500 workers at the port. 

But Martin Moore, representing P&0, has contended that the company's US operations, over which concerns have been expressed, accounted for only 6% of its worldwide operating profits.


----------



## Dubai_Steve

Check out this very offensive article by Mr. Swank errr :bash: 




> BILL CLINTON ADVISES MUSLIM DUBAI
> By J. Grant Swank, Jr.
> MichNews.com
> Mar 2, 2006
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Why would former US President Bill Clinton have such a close tie to Muslims like the Arab Company, Dubai?
> 
> Could the answer be that he gets a lot of money for cozying up to the Allah-worshipers over there in the UAE?
> 
> Probably so. After all, just alone for one speaking engagement he came off the platform with $300,000, according to FT.com’s Stephanie Kirchgaessner.
> 
> Therefore, just days ago Bill and the Dubai executives had a converse about what to do about all the fuss in America. The *hoopla centers on these Muslims moving in on, not 6, but 21 American ports. No Muslim should be within 100 miles of our ports. And no Dubai should have any contracts with the ports, not even to cleaning the toilets.*
> 
> *Muslims are the major threat to the planet * at the moment and *not a one of them can be trusted*. "Friend today, foe tomorrow," as one Congressman put it. Realism helps at times.
> 
> All the while that Bill is counseling the Muslims to give a 45-day breathing space so Americans can cool off, Ms. Hillary is protesting. She preaches that no foreign government whatsoever should have anything to do with our ports.
> 
> I never thought I would agree with Ms. H on anything. But on that I thoroughly agree. She’s so right on. And, as is a total surprise to me being a Bush Republican fanatic, Mr. Bush is so off center on that one.
> 
> Then I read that a specialist dealing with the US ports says that 80 percent of goings-on there are overseen by "foreigners." And that if the US concluded to put everything portage into US hands, it would be quite the undertaking.
> 
> Immediately I thought: We can put a man on the moon, can’t we? Then put US in charge of everything from soup to toilets at the ports. Everything. America says we can do anything. Then let’s do it at the ports.
> 
> It’s like Congress saying we can build a fence between the US and Mexico. Of course we can. Why haven’t we started yet? Every morning I wake up to wonder why the fence hasn’t started. I still say we should contract Ty Pennington of Extreme Makeover for he’d have it up in a week.
> 
> So put up the fence in a week. Put US in charge of everything at the ports within six months. Former President Ronald Reagan took care of matters in-depth when it came to the air controllers going on strike. Recall? And that was one mammoth change of wardrobe—but we did it. So go for the ports and quit complaining.
> 
> "Bill Clinton, former US president, advised top officials from Dubai two weeks ago on how to address growing US concerns over the acquisition of five US container terminals by DP World."
> 
> "Mr. Clinton’s spokesman said: ‘President Clinton is the former president of the US and as such receives many calls from world leaders and leading figures every week. About two weeks ago, the Dubai leaders called him and he suggested that they submit to the full and regular scrutiny process and that they should put maximum safeguards and security into any port proposal.’"
> 
> Then at the very close of the newsfeed came this little tidbit: Mr. Clinton has such a buddy-buddy love fest with the Muslims over there because they seem to love his speeches. That’s why he walked off with $300,000 for addressing a summit in Dubai.
> 
> Stay tuned.
> 
> Copyright © 2006 by J. Grant Swank, Jr.
> 
> Email: [email protected]


----------



## dubaiflo

this guys is a f***** asshole.

look , he cannot even afford his own url, has a yahoo email address... wth, and puts copyrights on his article.. :lol:


----------



## Fatty Melon

I thought the UAE was boycotting all dealings with Israel...



WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The chairman of Israel's largest shipping firm has strongly backed a deal that would give a United Arab Emirates-based shipping company control of several U.S. port terminals.

That endorsement came as Britain's Royal Court of Justice tentatively approved the $6.8 billion merger between DP World and Britain's P&O, the current operator of terminals at six key U.S. ports.

But pending an appeal by U.S.-based cargo handler Eller & Co., the judge has stayed that approval until 3 p.m. Friday. And DP World has agreed not to assume control of P&O's port operations until a 45-day security review can take place.

In a letter to Sen. Hillary Clinton obtained exclusively by CNN, Israel's Zim Integrated Shipping Services CEO Idon Ofer called state-owned DP World a strong business partner, despite the United Arab Emirates' boycott of Israel. (Read the letter -- PDF)

"During our long association with DP World, we have not experienced a single security issue in these ports or in any of the terminals operated by DP World," Ofer said in a letter written February 22. "We are proud to be associated with DP World and look forward to working with them into the future."

Clinton is a leading opponent of the proposed deal and has joined other senators, including Sen. Charles Schumer, another New York Democrat, in introducing legislation to ban companies owned by foreign governments from controlling U.S. port operations.

Ofer told CNN he plans to send a letter to Schumer, as well.

The Zim official "has to represent his shareholders," Schumer told CNN on Thursday. "We have to represent security in America. And so, it really doesn't matter to me what Zim says."

Jordan and Egypt are the only Arab countries with diplomatic ties to Israel. 

Despite that, products and technology from the Jewish state are widely available throughout the Arab world, though it is rare to find these products identified as made in Israel. 

Response from Clinton's office
A Dubai government official said no goods or containers enter UAE ports directly from Israel, but he did not rule out the possibility that Israeli-produced goods enter through a third party. (Watch Anti-Defamation League offer an opposing view -- 1:57)

Clinton's spokesman, Philippe Reines, said Ofer's letter is one of many received by her staff from supporters -- and opponents -- of the deal.

"In any event, we would prefer to learn about the security impact of this deal through the full 45-day investigation mandated by law," Reines told CNN via e-mail.

Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, also has become embroiled in the ports deal controversy after a London newspaper reported Wednesday that he advised the UAE government two weeks ago to ask for the 45-day delay. 

His spokesman, Jay Carson, confirmed that the former president received a call from UAE leaders two weeks ago but denied the Financial Times' report that Bill Clinton was advising DP World.

"He told them that he didn't know the details about the deal," Carson said. He added that Clinton made clear he "felt that any ports deal should be subject to the full scrutiny process and should also take steps to make ports safer, not maintain the status quo."

"Like Senator Clinton and many others, he is concerned about foreign state ownership of our ports, and, to this end, he is supportive of her legislation," Carson told CNN. 

Sen. Elizabeth Dole, a North Carolina Republican, has also raised questions about the Dubai-based company, while her husband, former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, assists a UAE delegation in Washington to lobby support for the deal.

According to a CNN/USA Today Gallup poll released Thursday, about two-thirds of Americans oppose allowing cargo operations at U.S. ports to be run by the Dubai-based company. 

The telephone poll, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, also showed the American public would oppose the sale if the company were based in China, France or another Arab country.

However, about 70 percent of the 1,020 Americans polled had no problem with British companies managing operations at U.S. ports.

Another company reviewed
Meanwhile, the Bush administration has launched a second review of another Dubai-owned company, The Washington Post first reported Thursday.

In a $1.2 billion deal, Dubai International Capital bought a British precision-engineering firm with plants in Georgia and Connecticut, The Post reported, adding that they make engine parts for military aircraft and tanks. 

In addition, a government panel is investigating plans by an Israeli software company, Check Point, buy a smaller U.S. rival, Sourcefire, the newspaper reported. The paper identified the Israeli billionaire behind Check Point as Gil Shwed, citing Forbes magazine's description of him as having served "in the electronic intelligence arm of the Israeli Defense Forces."

In DP World's case, a key Republican lawmaker told CNN that Homeland Security and Treasury department officials told him their 30-day review never probed for possible ties between the company and al Qaeda or other terrorists.

Rep. Peter King of New York, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said Wednesday that weeks ago officials told him: "We don't conduct a thorough investigation. We just ask the intel director if there is anything on file, and he said no." (Full story)

Earlier this week, DP World's chief operating officer, Ted Bilkey, told a Senate committee that criticism surrounding the deal was based on "myths." (Full story)

CNN's Paula Newton, Phil Hirschkorn and Ed Henry contributed to this report.


----------



## Dubai-Lover

no offense but if this whole israeli-arab conflict wasn't there at all people would have a completely different attitude towards the middle east and it would be a lot more peaceful

i hope a peaceful solution can be found but it's not to be solved by anybody else! they got to do it on their own

nobody is asking them to live in perfect harmony, at least i hope they learn to respect each other 


anyway, as a european i'm happy to read there also are such cooperations, it gives a little hope! 

just my 2 cents


----------



## smussuw

*Second Dubai firm in US probe*

The US government is investigating the acquisition of sensitive US facilities and technology by another United Arab Emirates-owned firm Dubai International Capital, The Washington Post reported yesterday.

Although a US official denied the probes responded to the outcry over Dubai Ports World's takeover of operations at six US ports, the investigation of the second UAE firm's deal began this week, at the height of the controversy.

Like the ports deal, security concerns have been raised over Dubai International Capital's $1.2 billion acquisition of London-based Doncasters Group Ltd, which in nine US locations manufactures precision parts for defence contractors such as Boeing, Honeywell and General Electric.

The deal was signed on December 14. Dubai International Capital is the international investment arm of Dubai Holding. It oversees many projects and acquisitions for the Dubai-based group.

“Dubai International Capital is pursuing all of the proper US regulatory approvals regarding its acquisition of Doncasters Group Limited as is customary for international business transactions of this nature.

It remains confident of obtaining those approvals and closing the transaction as originally envisioned,” DIC said. The news broke as a British court last night gave the go-ahead to the take over the the US ports by DP World.

It will still be subject to a 45-day review in the US. Also yesterday the Financial Times newspaper said former US President Bill Clinton has privately advised Dubai officials how to address US political concerns over a controversial ports deal, as his wife, Senator Hillary Clinton, publicly attacks the deal.

Hillary Clinton says it threatens US national security. But Bill Clinton, who it said was paid $300,000 in 2002 to address a summit in Dubai, has advised Dubai officials how to soothe US concerns over the deal.


----------



## smussuw

it is always about security isnt it? :rofl:


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## dubaiflo

i wonder when they realize what else Dubai owns,... some people will be very frightened


----------



## smussuw

Here is something that we haven't heard yet. Dubai's point of view: (posted by Slugbelch in SSP

Emirate Wakes Up Famous. Thank You, America.









Photo: Dubai was surprised by the ports hubbub, but also enthralled at the evidence that it had outdone its Arab neighbors.

By HASSAN M. FATTAH

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, — As United States senators turned Dubai into a household word last week, life in this desert city hardly changed: skiers swooshed down a man-made snow park in the region's largest shopping mall, workers put the finishing touches on man-made islands under construction and men like Rashad Bukhash continued planning for the day when this city of one million would grow to three million.

But hardly anyone spoke about the issue that has so consumed Washington: the management of terminals at six major American ports by DP World, a government-owned company here.

Indeed, the most surprising aspect of the ports controversy here was, in fact, the lack of reaction: no scathing editorials, no demonstrations and certainly no talk of a Jewish conspiracy. Surprised, in part, but also enthralled, many here saw the ports firestorm as a stark example of how this economically ambitious state has surpassed its Arab neighbors.

"People in Dubai are merchants," said Mr. Bukhash, who heads Dubai's planning department. "We know that when you pursue a deal, you can make a profit or you can lose. If you lose, you just move on. But at least now, when I say I am from Dubai, I know that people know where it is."

Nevertheless, beyond Dubai's zany construction projects, frenetic growth plans and near obsession with superlatives, the ports uproar underscores for city officials and others the hurdles this city will face in its quest for modernity. Even as Dubai has struggled to shield itself from the Arab world's problems, the outcry has proved that the city will long be burdened by them.

"It was an exercise you have to live with, win and then learn from," said Ghassan Tahboub, media manager at the executive office of Dubai's ruler, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the self-styled C.E.O. of the city. "This was America. There are lobbies, politics and interest groups, and Dubai found itself in the middle of a jungle. In the end I have to thank everybody there for this lesson."

Many here readily admit that as Dubai emerges as a power on the global economic stage, it has much to learn about the "soft" aspects of business, from politics to public relations.

"We don't have qualified people to speak," said Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a professor of political science at Emirates University, speaking of the government. "They don't have experts and commentators. There's no political discourse in this city, and it showed."

A prominent publicist who has been advising the government said the city needed to distinguish itself from other Arab cities and countries. "Dubai still has a big role in explaining who we are to the world," said the publicist, who requested anonymity because of the delicacy of implicitly criticizing other Arab countries. "Everybody knows who Dubai is in the region. But in America, Dubai is Arab, period."

With native Emirati citizens accounting for only about 15 percent of the population, Arab may be the last word that comes to mind in describing this city. Indeed, the average resident here is more likely to speak English than Arabic, and more likely to be Asian than Arab. Many Indians jokingly refer to Dubai as "the best-run Indian city."

Set across the Persian Gulf from Iran and just east of Saudi Arabia, Dubai is the financial capital of the United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven sheikdoms that won independence from Britain in 1971. But in stark contrast to many of its neighbors, Dubai more than two decades ago turned its back on oil and focused on diversifying its economy.

Today, the city derives less than 15 percent of its revenue from oil, but greets more than five million tourists a year, many of them from Europe, and is the Middle East headquarters for more than 800 American companies. Like Singapore, long a model for the city, Dubai has also become a regional trade hub and a magnet for Arab, Iranian and Asian investors.

"Dubai has been trying to prove to the rest of the Arab world that there is life after oil, and that in fact it's a better life," Mr. Abdulla said. "The good news is there is room for a second and a third Dubai, just like there was room for a second Singapore in Asia." The city is lucky in that its long-term strategy has come to fruition at a moment when other Arab states are flush with billions of oil dollars and seeking places to invest their newfound wealth.

"This is an Arab city living in a unique moment in history," said Mr. Abdulla, who likens Dubai's stature in the Arab world today to that of Beirut in the 1960's and Cairo in the 1950's — capitals that defined the political direction for much of the region. But whereas those cities focused on the Arab world, Dubai has looked outward and embraces globalization.

Other Arab states, particularly Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait, would like to emulate Dubai, but it is not clear they will succeed. Those states may not have Dubai's penchant for finding opportunity in misfortune, nor its openness to outsiders and dedication to unfettered business dealings.

In the 1980's it built strong relations with Iran by serving as a waypoint to the rest of the world and offering a lifeline during the Iran-Iraq war. In 1991, it became a haven for Kuwaitis who escaped Saddam Hussein's invading armies, then in 2003 it became a haven for Iraqis escaping the second gulf war. And in the years since, Dubai has gradually fashioned itself into a refuge for Iranians, Arabs and others who have eschewed the call to America or the West in exchange for a lifestyle that comes close, but is in keeping with Middle Eastern values.

Modernity, however, has not come easy. With 85 percent of the population made up of foreigners, many of them second and third generation, the city faces a simmering demographic and identity crisis.

Dubai is likely to confront numerous other questions as a 45-day investigation of its port management program gets under way, possibly illuminating the emirate's struggles with money laundering and other illicit activities. A spotty human rights record regarding foreign workers could also be a sticking point, along with its participation in a continuing Arab boycott of trade with Israel.

In the end, Dubai may be pummeled in the ports controversy, but it will also have gained a lot, some officials say.

"In the end, I think Dubai won," said Mr. Tahboub, the sheik's media manager. "We got a lot of publicity, and we deserve it, perhaps not in this manner, but we deserve the publicity."


----------



## Tractor

I like that article, very factual and unbiased. Indeed I wish Dubai and the UAE luck in differentiating itself from its less forward-thinking neighbours.


----------



## Ben_Burj

dubaiflo said:


> i wonder when they realize what else Dubai owns,... some people will be very frightened



What do they own?


----------



## dubaiflo

^^  http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=266601

in fact this article above is really interesting and should be given to everyone in the US.

especially the "regional HQ for 800 US companies" part.


It is true, Dubai has to introduce itself to the world, it has done so in Great Britain and the Middle East, it is on its way in Europe and Asia, but is just at the beginning in the US.


----------



## Dubai-Lover

Hillary Clinton remains a leading voice against DP World assuming control over US ports through its acquisition of P&O despite her husband former US President Bill Clinton supporting it. Reuters

Clinton helped Dubai on takeover
By Stephanie Kirchgaessner, Financial Times

Washington: Bill Clinton, former US president, advised top officials from Dubai two weeks ago on how to address growing US concerns over the acquisition of five US ports by DP World.

It came even as his wife, Senator Hillary Clinton, was leading efforts to derail the deal.

Clinton, who this week called the UAE a "good ally to America", advised Dubai's leaders to propose a 45-day delay to allow for an intensive investigation of the acquisition, according to his spokesman.

On Sunday, DP World agreed with the White House to undertake the lengthy review, a move which has assuaged some of the opposition from the US Congress.

However, Hillary Clinton remains a leading voice against the deal, and this week proposed legislation to block it, arguing that the US could not afford to "surrender our port operations to foreign governments".

Clinton's spokesman said, "President Clinton is the former president of the US and as such receives many calls from world leaders and leading figures every week. About two weeks ago the Dubai leaders called him and he suggested that they submit to the full and regular scrutiny process and that they should put maximum safeguards and security into any port proposal."

He added that Clinton supported his wife's position on the deal and that "ideally" state-owned companies would not own US port operations.

Clinton's contact with Dubai on the issue underscores the close relationship he has developed with the UAE since leaving office. In 2002, he was paid $300,000 to address a summit in Dubai. The backlash against Dubai's takeover of east coast ports has seen some lawmakers in Washington highlight the UAE's alleged role in helping to finance September 11.


----------



## Dubai-Lover

British High Court approves DP World deal 
By Leah Bower, Business Editor 

Dubai: Despite the ongoing controversy in the US and over the objections of a US company Britain's High Court approved Dubai Ports World's takeover of UK-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co (P&O) yesterday, the Associated Press reported.

Sultan Ahmad Bin Sulayem, chairman of DP World, said he was not surprised that Justice Nicholas Warren dismissed the appeal from Miami-based Eller & Co while approving the $6.8 billion acquisition. "This is really a routine thing," Sulayem told Gulf News shortly after the decision.

According to John Lawson, a shipping analyst with Investec Securities in London, DP World only has one more hurdle to clear in the UK. 

Eller, which argued that US concerns about a UAE company owning significant operations at six major US seaports could substantially harm its business, is asking the court above the High Court to grant an appeal.

"The High Court refused and the next court will probably say 'no' too," Lawson said, adding the decision should be made by 3pm in London today.

"Eller has not come up with enough evidence," he said. "There are not enough grounds to try and block the deal." 

The High Court judge said he took US concerns into account, however.

"I have been treated to a large amount of evidence on press releases and articles which were no doubt being spun to this direction or that," Warren said.

DP World, which has already received approval from the Committee for Foreign Investment in the US, known as CIFIUS, has tried to dampen some of the US outcry by volunteering to submit to a second 45-day investigation of the deal's potential security risks.

Paul Downes, Eller's lawyer, argued that it 

was irrelevant whether the US worries about DP World's takeover were justified. "The concern was that the UAE was a player, was involved, was associated with terrorist funding," Downes told the court. "It doesn't matter whether this is right or wrong, that is the mindset of the individuals that are concerned about this takeover."

Martin Moore, a lawyer for P&O, had told the High Court during a three-day hearing that Eller's case against the deal was "woefully thin."

US President George W. Bush has supported the deal and lawmakers initially opposed have appeared to soften slightly, tempering calls for an immediate vote to block the takeover.


----------



## Dubai_Steve

source: http://www.forbes.com/business/2006/03/02/dubai-DPWorld-Emmar_cx_daa_0302dubai.html



> *For years, Dubai Inc. has been quietly building a global empire.* From Wall Street to Shanghai, DP World, Dubai Holdings, Emaar Development and a host of other banks, developers and private equity firms gobbled up whole companies and grabbed big stakes in big names--all in the interest of building the world's most prosperous city-state.
> 
> *Two weeks ago, everyone noticed.*
> 
> First it was DP World and its efforts to buy Britain's P&O port operators that would put it in charge of America's East Coast ports. Then Thursday, it was Dubai International Capital, a unit of Dubai Holdings that was quietly trying to take over Britain's Doncasters Group, a big manufacturer of components for military aircraft.
> 
> In Pictures: Inside Dubai Inc.
> Both deals found their way to the inter-agency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States that must pass on all foreign acquisitions with national security implications. The committee had already cleared the DP World deal, but now it's hung up in a brawl that has more to do with election-year political posturing than making ports safe. As for the Doncasters deal, it's likely it will face an even tougher go.
> 
> So who's behind these companies the U.S. seems to be so afraid of, and why would they want so badly to go where they are not wanted?
> 
> Both DP World and Dubai Holdings are creatures of the government of Dubai and particularly the ruler of this tiny Persian Gulf emirate--Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Makhtoum, whose wealth began with the small quantities of oil beneath its sands and some judicious, though very private, investments.
> 
> When Dubai Inc.--in the broadest possible sense--was just a glimmer in the eyes of the sheikh's predecessors about six years ago, the ruling family chose several leading figures to take over what proved to be one of the most extraordinary success stories in global investment and development.
> 
> Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem was placed in charge of Dubai Ports in 1991 . Mohammed Al Gergawi took over Dubai Holdings when it was created officially in 2004, consolidating the various development projects he had been supervising since the early 1990s. And these two extraordinary individuals went to work.
> 
> Dubai Holdings was the biggest story. Under its capacious corporate umbrella, Al Gergawi spun out a host of individual companies that each became world-class leaders in their fields.
> 
> There was Jumeirah, which has built a host of hotels in Dubai, including the towering, all-suites Burj Al Arab, one of Forbes.com's 10 most expensive hotels in the world. Then Jumeirah began looking abroad, gobbling up the Essex House on West 59th Street in New York, London's Lowndes Hotel and last month contracted to build a colossal hotel complex in Shanghai.
> 
> At the same time, another Dubai Holdings unit was building an entire group of new cities within Dubai--Dubai Media City, Dubai Internet City, Dubai Healthcare City and Dubai Knowledge Village. Each attracted world-class companies like Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ), Siemens (nyse: SI - news - people ), Reuters and Time Warner's (nyse: TWX - news - people ) CNN unit.
> 
> The final piece in the investment jigsaw, Dubai International Capital, was designed to invest Dubai's fiscal tsunami in hot properties around the world. Some of the cash went into major private equity funds. KKR, Carlyle Group, JP Morgan and the Newbridge/Texas Pacific Group--all became beneficiaries of this largesse over the past two years.
> 
> And then there were the direct investments--$1 billion worth of DaimlerChrysler (nyse: DCX - news - people ) stock, making Dubai International Capital the auto-maker's third largest shareholder in January 2005. There was an investment joint venture with General Electric (nyse: GE - news - people ), Chairman Jeffrey Immelt photographed smiling next to Al Gergawi as the two signed the "memorandum of understanding" on Jan. 23, 2006.
> 
> Then there's China. In November 2004, barely a month after the announcement of the formation of Dubai International Capital, there was an announcement of an "investment cooperation agreement" with a government unit known as Sinosure--"covering a wide variety of activities that will assist the Chinese government in encouraging its top companies to expand and invest internationally and in particular in the Middle East region."
> 
> The fact is that Dubai Inc. does have other alternatives than the United States, if it becomes too difficult or if the solid-gold reputation it has quietly managed to build around the world becomes tarnished.
> 
> Indeed, Emaar, the largest property developer in the emirate, and whose mammoth construction boom has resulted in a third of all construction cranes operating in the world in Dubai, is looking not to the U.S., but to neighboring Saudi Arabia for its next big project--the $30 billion King Abdullah Economic City which is rising from the desert on the shores of the Red Sea.
> 
> "If they feel like they have to go through the whole political process in the United States to buy a company," says David Hamod, president and CEO of the National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce in Washington. "They're going to say the heck with it."


----------



## malec

^^ I like that


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## Alle

Edit: Doublepost


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## Alle

AltinD said:


> ... and two of the other highjackers were arrested in Dubai and FBI asked UAE authorities to let them go.



Lol and how much of "fundamentalists" some of them where to, eating pork and drinking alcohol... :runaway: 




> arguing that the US could not afford to "surrender our port operations to foreign governments".


HAHAHA, so much for a free-trade country isnt it, free trade on their conditions... first they force Japan to limit their car exports and now they are saying things like this. Isnt it America who advocates free trade :eek2: .

I think everyone benefits from free-trade if it REALLY is free-trade, on the environments conditions of course.


----------



## cyborg81

*Dubai sees future as ally, entrepôt and playground*

By William Wallis
Published: March 7 2006 20:06 | Last updated: March 7 2006 20:06


Inhabitants of rival Gulf states scent hubris in the way Dubai has risen from the desert and grabbed the world’s attention with its futuristic tourism developments, proliferating skyscrapers and liberal use of superlatives to market each project.

Some doubtless relish the hostile scrutiny to which the emirate’s ambitions are being subjected in the US and particularly on Capitol Hill. But confronted by an American populist backlash against the prospect of Dubai Ports World (DPW) running US container terminals as part of its $6.9bn (£4bn, €5.8bn) acquisition of the UK-based P&O, the more common sentiment among Arab businessmen and officials is indignation.

Suspicions of Islamophobia aside, seen from the Middle East it is as if Dubai is being treated as an upstart long after much of the world has acknowledged that the city is a phenomenon to be reckoned with.

Among officials of the United Arab Emirates who run foreign policy for the federation of which Dubai is a part, there is also a sense of betrayal. As they watch US politicians cite a past decision to recognise Afghanistan’s Taliban regime as one cause for mistrust, they recall how the Clinton administration encouraged them, for its own purposes, to develop just such relations.

More than any Gulf state, the city has promoted itself as a natural home to multinationals and pragmatic ally of the west capable, in its pursuit of global status, of shrugging off vexed issues that have turned other parts of the region into cauldrons of anti-western sentiment. At a time when tackling the Middle East’s volatile mix of oil, authoritarianism and religious extremism is a priority for western policymakers, the Dubai emirate has provided a compelling example of an Arab city embracing modernity.

In four decades it has gone from being a pearl fishing and trading outpost to a regional centre for commerce, transport, tourism – and increasingly finance. City officials like to compare Dubai today to New York a century ago – a melting pot of creative endeavour. 

The emirate has seen its economy double in size in real terms within the last 10 years while its population, which by some estimates has reached 1.5m, is being boosted by immigration. Dubai’s allure is founded on a paradoxical blend of laisser-faire and rigid authoritarianism. Thus the ruling Maktoum family has brooked no dissent when it comes to enforcing the central principle that has distinguished it from its peers: allowing people to get on with it in a region otherwise intensely regulated.

But the frantic pace of the city’s development – which has accelerated exponentially since 1993, when Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid al-Maktoum became de facto ruler – has exposed a host of other contradictions.

Dubai is one of seven emirates that, in a loose federation, make up the UAE. Brokered by the British at independence in 1971, the federation has been held together in large part by Abu Dhabi’s vast oil wealth. However, unlike the poorer emirates dependant on Abu Dhabi largesse, Dubai struck out early on its own path, playing the entrepreneur to Abu Dhabi’s oil baron, albeit with consent and substantial subsidies from its richer neighbour. Dubai’s own oil production now hovers somewhere below 200,000 barrels a day and, according to analysts, that will peter out after 2010.

Ever since Sheikh Rashid, the former emir, initiated plans in 1979 to build the world’s largest man-made harbour at Jebel Ali, the city has attracted sceptics. Yet city officials have developed a knack for generating substance from the hype. 

The Jebel Ali port, from which DP World originated, is itself at the heart of the greatest irony in Americans’ concern about a state-owned Dubai company running their container terminals. Security at Jebel Ali is state of the art – as you would expect for the port outside the US that is most often visited by the US Navy. 

In evidence to the Senate Armed Services Committee last month, Gordon England, deputy secretary of defence, noted that “the port at Jebel Ali is managed by Dubai Ports, so we rely on them, frankly, for the security of our forces there. There were 75 coalition partner ships there [last year].” 

The economic logic behind Dubai’s transformation into an icon of urban capitalism lies in its abundant land, cheap energy and location in a region full of frustrated capital and labour. It needed a raison d’être as well as a revenue stream for when its own oil runs out. From south Asia it has hauled in a mass of indentured labourers to do the grunt work. Meanwhile a growing army of young professionals in search of career breaks – from South Africa to Turkey and the Levant – are joining the trail.

City officials argue that none of this would have been possible without the rapid-fire decision-making process that comes with autocratic rule.

Dubai’s system of government is in many ways unique among the Gulf’s dynastic autocracies. While state and ruling-family assets are at least as much entangled as elsewhere in the region, the bureaucracy is leaner and in general businessmen say government is far more efficient.

“People refer to our crown prince as the chief executive officer of Dubai. It’s because genuinely he runs government as a private business,” Saeed al-Muntafiq, head of the Dubai Development and Investment Authority, said in an interview before Sheikh Mohamed became emir following his brother’s death last year.

Recognising that the overall business of “Dubai Inc” has become too big for any one man to manage, Sheikh Mohamed has endowed loyal lieutenants with land and, to varying degrees, capital and mandated them to realise a “vision” of which, he says, only 10 per cent has so far been achieved. 

The more publicity-grabbing and iconic real estate projects, and those that have established Dubai as a brand, have mostly been devised by his three most powerful subordinates. Their role has been to push – with state backing – the boundaries of what is possible, in turn encouraging the private sector to be more ambitious and competitive.

They have already built the world’s largest shopping mall, its most unlikely artificial ski resort (chilled under a glass dome in the desert) and – on artificial islands fashioned offshore into a map of the world – a playground for the super-rich. Now they plan to add the world’s tallest building.

In an interview last year, Mohamed Alabbar, who heads Emaar, the city’s biggest property developer, said the fate of big ventures is often determined by a mobile phone call among the big shots. “What matters is that you are equipped to participate with good decisions,” he said.

The Dubai phenomenon has proved infectious, stirring more cautious regimes in the neighbourhood to be more innovative. When Dubai announces a new project or adapts an old one to new tastes, others in the Gulf tend to feign scepticism, before finding a way to adapt and follow suit. Thus Bahrain, which never had much oil of its own, has had to promote its own more established financial sector with a new and flashy property development, while gas-rich Qatar has launched a rival to the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).

The DIFC and associated DIFX exchange were conceived to provide a global financial market to match those of Singapore or Hong Kong, bridging geographic and time zones between Europe and Asia.




As the projects have grown in ambition, so have the contrasts between conspicuous consumption and the grim conditions of the immigrant labourers who, for tiny wages and from miserable work camps out of sight in the baking desert, make it possible. As Dubai has developed aspirations to “world-class” status, so the cracks in the system have become more exposed.

To date, each time Sheikh Mohamed has run up against restrictive federal laws that conflict with Dubai’s international aspirations, his tactic has been to hive off a new free zone. The empty desert has provided a tabula rasa on which he has drawn a slew of these, for health, media, education, technology, flower markets and many other sectors. The free zones are designed as a ready-made circuit board into which multinationals can plug in their regional operations. But they also reveal a certain schizophrenic character to Dubai.

Bankers and businessmen acknowledge that insider trading is rife on the local stock exchange, that some money laundering is an unavoidable by- product of a tax-free system and that there are still no effective commercial arbitration methods in Dubai. International banks are nevertheless encouraged to trust that the same standards that regulate the London or Hong Kong stock exchanges will be rigorously applied in the DIFX.

When western visitors commend the city for its “liberal” attitudes, they are often talking about its striking tolerance of drinking, prostitution and bare midriffs in a region otherwise more obedient to Islam’s strictures. They are not referring to government attitudes to free speech.

Outside Media City, a district of air- conditioned offices with all services provided, where the regional press corps has been encouraged to make its base, journalists working for local newspapers are constrained by self- censorship and archaic federal laws. Surrounded as they are by an all- pervasive public relations machine, it is tough for journalists, and even to an extent investment banks, to provide the critical analysis that more developed international markets require.

Nor have UAE attempts at political reform matched even the timid efforts initiated in recent years by some other Gulf countries. Its response to outside pressure for change makes even Saudi Arabia’s limited experiment last year with municipal elections look progressive. In the UAE, royally enfranchised appointees will elect from among themselves members of an assembly with no real powers.

“There’s no one to say No. I think that is the principal Achilles heel of Dubai. These projects are so huge it could go wrong,” says a well-connected state employee.


At the same time, the Dubai leadership knows that if it invited more participation from the local population in decisions, many of the projects would not be happening at all. Dubai nationals are already feeling encroached on by so many immigrants.

Bankers believe that when the oil runs out and demands for more services grow, Dubai will begin to face budget deficits. With them, and the possible need for more conventional borrowing, demands for more transparent government and even eventually reconsideration of the city’s tax-free status may grow.

Such issues are beginning to come under greater international scrutiny as the city’s own companies, like DP World, expand aggressively around the globe.

But the concerns of the local Emirati population have remained barely audible. Many of the well-to-do are happy to wander among the many worlds on their doorstep. But others worry that their privileged place in a Dubai society that provides jobs, homes and welfare for life will eventually dissolve in the melting pot around them.

Emiratis now make up less than 10 per cent of Dubai’s population. At 110,000, there are now almost as many British. Local ambivalence is encapsulated by an Emirati university professor, who says: “There are few success stories in the Arab world and we are proud that Dubai is one of them. But many of us feel that success is coming at too high a price.”

When addressing a clientele outside the region, the city’s image launderers like to promote the idea that it has outgrown its turbulent neighbourhood and now lies somewhere beyond. Thus Dubai has doubled up as a Costa del Sol for the British package holidaymaker, a seven-star destination for the super-rich global jet set and a parachute for Iranians and Saudis hedging against future turmoil in their own countries.

The same facilities – the banks, trading and tax-free status – that make Dubai an obvious regional base for the global business executive also make it convenient for the Mumbai gangster, Russian oligarch, African smuggler and international terrorist.

In this context, the DP World saga has been a rude reminder for Dubai of how difficult it is to be all things to all people – and nowhere more so than in the charged atmosphere of the Middle East.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/20767dba-ae10-11da-8ffb-0000779e2340.html


----------



## Ben_Burj

Well if i am not wrong the USA has a military basis in the UAE so why don't the governemnt threat to close the Us base unless they get without problem the control over the 6 port, of course i vae the right to dream,


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## palindrome

BACSUE WE RUELS THE WORLDS!


----------



## Paul305

I just saw an interview on "The Closing Bell" on CNBC that pretty much summed up the issue. In the interview, Hussein Ibish from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, stated his opinion that DP World didn't want to get dragged through the gutter by populists anymore and that they withdrew as a result. I couldn't agree with him more. 

The fact is that most Americans know very little if anything about the UAE. Our views of Middle Eastern societies are as simple as the Bush Doctrine (if they harbor terrorists, they are terrorists). Our relationship should be more complex than that, but sadly it isn't. Now, to be fair we should boot out all of the foreign port operators (which operate 80% of our ports).

Part of the reason why the U.S. has such a bad relationship with the Middle East is because we impose double standards like this. We won't allow Iran to have nuclear weapons but allow Israel to have an arsenal. We do not allow them to operate our ports because of security concerns but then believe that we have the right to enforce security in their countries. In times like this, I am ashamed of being American. And for all of the Emirati reading this post, I assure you that there are other informed Americans which feel the same way I do.


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## smussuw

^ but we dont harbor terrorists.

Anyway just to note, the number of containers DPW handles in the UAE alone is more than those 6 american ports combined.

It was a good idea to get rid of those ports.

Ben_Burj, there is no american base in the UAE, they use Emirati bases. The fact remains though that pure racism is behind what happened and it do give USA a very bad image (as if it didnt have it before)


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## UAE_CONDOR

:cheers1: 
:dance:​


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## Towers

wow UAE condom whats with that?


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## smussuw

it is UAE_CONDOR :sleepy:


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## UAE_CONDOR

الإقتصاد> محلي 
02:01 آخــر تحديــــث 2006-03-10 


شركة أمريكية تدير الموانئ الستة إنجاز صفقة "بي.آند.أو" 




دبي - واشنطن - “الخليج”:

أكدت موانئ دبي العالمية، أمس، اكتمال عملية استحواذها لشركة “بي.آند.أو” البريطانية بعد انجاز جميع الشروط والاجراءات المتعلقة بالصفقة، وحل مشكلة الموانئ الأمريكية الستة، بتسليم ادارتها الى شركة امريكية، وذلك بتوجيهات صاحب السمو الشيخ محمد بن راشد آل مكتوم نائب رئيس الدولة رئيس مجلس الوزراء حاكم دبي. 

وجدد البيت الأبيض امس تهديده باستخدام حق النقض ضد أي تشريع يوقف الصفقة.

وجاء موقف البيت الأبيض بعد يوم واحد من موافقة لجنة مجلس النواب الأمريكي على منع تولي موانئ دبي العالمية لإدارة الموانئ الأمريكية.

وقال سكوت مكليلان المتحدث باسم البيت الأبيض ان موقف الرئيس مازال كما هو. 

وأضاف ان البيت الأبيض يؤيد اصلاح العملية التي يتم من خلالها الموافقة على مثل هذه الصفقات وانه يواصل العمل مع الكونجرس.

وقال: ان الإدارة لا تحبذ أي محاولة لمعالجة صفقة الموانئ في أي تشريع طارئ.

وأعلنت موانئ دبي العالمية، ليلاً، انها ستنقل إدارة ستة موانئ أمريكية الى شركة أمريكية، باسم الصداقة بين الإمارات العربية المتحدة والولايات المتحدة.

وورد الإعلان في بيان قرئ في مجلس الشيوخ الأمريكي.

وقال السيناتور الجمهوري جون وارنر لدى قراءة البيان الذي تسلمه من المدير العام لموانئ دبي العالمية ادوارد بيلكي انه “نظرا للعلاقات الوثيقة بين الإمارات العربية المتحدة والولايات المتحدة وبهدف الحفاظ عليها، قررت “دي دبي وورلد” نقل كامل عمليات شركة “بي اند او بورتس نورث امريكا”، في الولايات المتحدة الى شركة “امريكية”.


----------



## dubaiflo

*Goodbye, Dubai*
March, 10 2006

PROTECTIONISTS, REJOICE! The dastardly United Arab Emirates company that would have presumed to unload containers of underwear and toothpaste on U.S. soil has backed down, and it will now divest its U.S. port interests to an American entity. Rest assured, the nation is now safe from dangerous Middle Eastern accountants and port logistics specialists.

Dubai Ports World did what was necessary, if not necessarily fair, on Thursday by agreeing to give up the U.S. operations of its newly acquired British ports company. The House Appropriations Committee had voted 62 to 2 on Wednesday to block the deal; a similar bill was pending in the Senate.




Although President Bush rightly stood by the acquisition and vowed to veto any bill that stood in its way, he was fighting a losing battle that only deepened a growing rift in the Republican Party. Dubai Ports World officials wisely recognized that they had to put some distance between themselves and their new U.S. assets. The company probably will sell its U.S. assets or create a U.S. company with a separate board to run them.

Much as we wish it would go away, the fight may not be over yet.

For one, the terms of the divestiture remain unclear, and some members of Congress are demanding more details. Will it be enough for Dubai Ports World to create a U.S. subsidiary? Will it have to open headquarters in the United States? Pay its employees in dollars?

For another, the flurry of disastrous bills the deal has inspired may yet find their way into law. Besides efforts to block the U.S. portion of the Dubai Ports World transaction, these include bills that would damage trade relations even further by restricting other foreign companies from taking over port operations. This despite the facts that such operations are dominated by foreign companies, that the bulk of the workers who actually load and unload containers are American longshoremen and that these companies have nothing whatsoever to do with port security, which is handled by U.S. government agencies such as the Coast Guard and Customs.

One has to wonder where this will end. Should a Saudi-owned airline be denied landing rights in the United States because most of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudis? That's the logic used by opponents of the Dubai Ports World deal, who fret that two of the hijackers came from the UAE and that its government supported the Taliban before the invasion of Afghanistan. Never mind that the UAE is a key ally and a hub for U.S. military operations in the Middle East.

The Dubai Ports World fiasco is unfortunate and embarrassing on many levels. But the damage can be contained as long as Congress does not start treating every private transaction involving ports the way it treats any deal involving defense contractors. (Foreign companies often must create a U.S. subsidiary to get business from the Pentagon — which makes sense, given that they are directly involved in U.S. security in the way that port operators aren't.) 

It's true that keeping the United States secure in an increasingly globalized economy is a delicate balancing act. But members of Congress should realize that boosting trade with Middle Eastern countries is crucial to defusing tensions in the region and improving the U.S. image there. By that standard, this deal was a no-brainer — to go forward.



--------------

pathetic or sarcastic?


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## smussuw

pathetic suits better


----------



## dubaiflo

smussuw said:


> pathetic suits better


yeah.



New York Senators Remain Skeptical of Dubai Port Deal

New York senators remain skeptical of Dubai port deal 

NEW YORK, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Despite news that a United Arab Emirates-owned company has pulled out of the deal to take control of several U.S. ports, including two in the New York area, some local senators are still pushing for a complete shutdown of the deal. 

Some senators are still concerned that the announcement still leaves the door open for DP World to retain some sort of control over the ports. 

In a statement issued earlier this week, the Dubai-based DP World said it is giving up its management stake in the ports. The U.S. government was in the midst of conducting a 45-day safety review of the company before the deal could be finalized. 

Britain's High Court approved the takeover of British shipping company P&O by DP World last week, clearing the way for the company to seize control of the U.S. ports. 

Members of Congress had been pushing provisions to block the deal, even though the president had vowed to veto any legislative attempts to kill it. 

Lawmakers are eyeing the DP World's statement to make sure it addresses all their security concerns. Some local lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans, said the deal to hand over U.S. ports to foreign entities should be more tightly reviewed. 

"We cannot roll the dice when it comes to the security of our nation, and the way that this deal was approved initially, the secret nature by which the investigation occurred - casual, cursory - is simple not good enough," said Senator Charles Schumer. 

He said earlier there is a better way to ensure that U.S. ports remain free of foreign control. "Today's vote in the Senate on my amendment showed that there's overwhelming support in the Senate to just shut down this deal," said Schumer. 

While the details of the DP World offer are yet to be hammered out, Republican Rep. Peter King from Long Island, who is chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, said in a statement: "It would have to be an American company with no links to DP World, and that would be a tremendous victory and very gratifying."

DP World's announcement at first seemed to have headed off a potential battle between the president and Congress. But the president came out swinging again Friday, addressing the issue of the port deal for the first time since DP World back out. 

President George W. Bush said the United States is sending mixed messages to allies around the world with its resistance to the port deal, and especially to leaders in the Middle East. Bush said the UAE represents a moderate Arab country, and one with whom the U.S. needs to maintain good relations in order to win the war on terror. It is unclear what company would assume control of the ports in the place of DP World.

------------

pathetic.


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## malec

DPW are selling the 6 US ports. What the hell do those guys want now?


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## Dubai-Lover

these fucking buggers are pissing me off big time

all this is pure bullshit or to say it in other words... propaganda or ..... ELECTION CAMPAIGN

there is no better way to get people's votes than by doing this!!!!



all this is light years away from reality and the biggest embarassment the united states of america can do to itself

**** these ports and boycott all this US bullshit

let these buggers do what they want, uae, please pull out all your money of this ignorant biased country

i really have enough of this now, politicans over there are the dumbest people i ever read about in the news

i mean, what is this, how can such a bunch of brain-amputated jackasses.... NEVERMIND! hno:

how come the states agreed to start such a deal from the very beginning and once we have won, they simply reject it
there were ONLY two competitors, why didn't they say the us ports are out of the deal from the very beginning

NO, most of the government didn't even know about the deal! hno:



OH LAND OF THE FREE AND UNLIMITED OPPORTUNITIES
OH YOU DEMOCRATIC COUNTRY

united states of hypocrisy


i made a decision right now, i won't considering studying in the states, it's gonna be australia

i'm out before i get banned!


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## smussuw

yeah my friend :tongue2:

special forumers like u dont get banned :cheers:


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## Ben_Burj

Dubai-Lover said:


> i made a decision right now, i won't considering studying in the states, it's gonna be australia


How about studying in Belgium?


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## smussuw

We in the UAE have realized that they are one biased country way long time ago, the thing is the we never learn.


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## Alle

Agree DL

How come when...

- There are anti-american cartoons/cartoons making fun of america in Iran they end up in western schoolbooks and labelled propaganda. When at the same time American cartoons making fun of arabs/anti-arabian and painting them as men of violence it is labelled comedy?

- There is an attack supposedly carried on by muslims there is stir, whereas when foreigners are arrested in Iraq, dressed up as arabs and planning an attack there is no notice?

- People turn against Iran for suspicions on developing nuclear weapons but no one seems to care the slightest when Britain and Israel are developing nuclear weapons?

- The US promotes free-trade but at the same time they force Japan to restrict their car-exports?

- When someone criticizes Israel they get labelled "anti-semitists" by zionists but when people on the forums say like that they are glad when bad things happen to the UAE its ok?

- And last but no least they speak for peace but have one of the biggest, if not the biggest military expenses per capita in the world?


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## smussuw

*UAE a beacon of stability: Jersey Chief Minister*

*am I the only one who is smelling something*

Mar 12, 2006 - 03:38 -

Abu Dhabi, March 12, 2006 (WAM)--- Jersey is eager to draw on the UAE's impressive success in tourism, education, economic growth and political stability, according to the top official of the British Channel Island.

"We are extremely impressed with the way UAE is developing and we look upon it as a beacon of hope, confidence, business and political stability and a huge success story. We are down here both to attract new business and, as always, to learn from UAE experience," said Senator Frank Walker, Chief Minister of Jersey, who is leading a top-level delegation on a visit to the country.

Jersey, a self-governing dependency of the British crown, is a major international finance centre with at least 200 billion US Dollars under management, a substantial amount of which comes from the GCC countries, including the UAE.

Walker, who is on his fourth visit to the country, praised the warm welcome the delegation is receiving here and the growing level of cooperation between the UAE and Jersey.

"The UAE and the region as a whole is a very valued area for Jersey's finance industry. We have a considerable amount of business undertaken on behalf of private individuals and companies and corporate structure. In fact, the fact that we are now making our fourth visit in five years reflects how much importance we attach to that business and the region generally." Every time we come here, he continued, "we get a very warm welcome.

Now we are better known here. It has certainly become easier to talk business prospects, to conduct business and to develop new business all the time. There is a considerable amount of new business springing up and we are looking to develop that as far as we can." Referring to tourism as a key area of interest, Walker said he was particularly impressed by the development made in Abu Dhabi in that sector.

"We are very pleased with the relationship we have built here.

I would like to see us look more at cooperation in tourism. It is of great interest to us how Abu Dhabi is developing its tourism.

We in Jersey are looking to further develop our tourism industry and other light industries. This visit is an opportunity to learn more what is happening in UAE and the approach being adopted is very helpful to us." Already has six companies with offices in Dubai, Jersey's financial services industry is seriously considering representation in Abu Dhabi as well to tap into its fast-paced growth witnessed.

"The Jersey financial services industry is very keen to establish offices in Abu Dhabi. There are opportunities here both for Abu Dhabi citizens and companies and trusts to develop in Jersey.

The Abu Dhabi market is growing very quickly and we want Jersey's presence to grow with it, leading to a further flow of investments into the island." Walker identified education as another area of potential cooperation with the UAE.

"During my last visit, Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, took me on a very instructive visit to the Higher Colleges of Technology. We learned from that, because we have much to do in that regard in jersey.

It is all about identifying opportunities, learning and sharing." On what Jersey can offer to the UAE and GCC countries, Walker said that the island possesses 50 years of experience in financial services and a worldwide reputation for stability and good regulation.

"When you have been in business for that long, you build up a very strong level of experience, quality and ability in bankers, lawyers and fund managers. We can offer a great deal since there is very close understanding, cooperation and recognition that our laws are good. We learn from each other. There are many private individuals and companies in the UAE taking advantage of opportunities available there such as bank deposits, fund structure, trust structure while one of our companies has recently launched an innovative Islamic financing hedge funding financial structure." Jersey, says Walker, offers many interesting possibilities in corporate structures, particularly for oil and gas companies.

Senator Philip Ozouf, Jersey's Minister of Economic Development, including tourism, added that substantial investments by UAE citizens represented an important part of Jersey's economy.

" We are discussing with some UAE banks the possibility of building more physical presence in the island which is not only active in terms of trust but also banking. Jersey is a place that is open for business. We would welcome the arrival of more UAE banks.

I am sure that they will meet our touch regulatory criteria, one of which is that they have to be numbered among the world's top 500 banks." "We are tax neutral, obviously a clear advantage for taxation planning. There is also a high level of sophistication in terms of quality of services. We have a very well-established legal system and well-regulated financial service sector and we are very proud of that." He also said that Jersey was looking forward to become a centre for international business dispute settling.

Ozouf said the delegation members were impressed by the progress made by the UAE in tourism.

"Certainly we can learn from the UAE tourism experience. We are impressed by the quality of accommodation hotels and hospitality offerings here. We are seeing new investments in hotels. There are opportunities for UAE residents to come and visit us, which we would welcome very much." "Our tourism is evolving. Jersey is the preferred location for British visitors coming to spend summer holidays, but we want to develop new markets. Our small island is a microcosm of everything that one can see in a big place, be it green countryside, golden beaches, temperate climate and environment." "There are ten flights a day from London regional airports. It only takes 35 minutes. It is within UK passport areas. There are no further immigration requirements. There are also great places for conference facilities and conference hotels. It is a great place to hold meeting for executives. We would like to see more UAE citizens coming there. There are big investment opportunities in residential apartments. There are going to be between 600 hundred to 1,000 new apartments to be built just around waterfront alone which are available to international investors and that something we would also welcome," explained Ozouf.

The delegation met today (Sunday) with Sultan Nasser Al Suwaidi, Governor of the UAE Central Bank, to discuss areas of collaboration in the finance industry, and also met yesterday (Saturday) with Minister of Economy Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi. They leave tomorrow (Monday) for Dubai, on the final leg of their four-stop, three-country Gulf tour, which has also included visits to Bahrain and Qatar WAM-MYS 14 43 CCCCQQE


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## smussuw

*Congressional Delegation Praises UAE Leadership*

*Now they are in love with us, bastards. *

Mar 12, 2006 - 09:09 -

Dubai, March 12th, 2006 (WAM)- A U.S. congressional delegation praised the U.S.-UAE relations and expressed determination to maintain their partnership with the UAE.

The Congressional delegation from Georgia, composed of U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss, U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, U.S. Representative Phil Gingrey and U.S. Representative John Linder, visited the UAE on March 12th, and met with H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, and senior Port officials.

In Dubai, they met with Director of Dubai Customs Ahmed Butti, saw a demonstration of the Container Security Initiative operation at Port Rashid, and met with Executive Chairman Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation Sultan bin Suleyem.

After meeting H.H. Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid, Senator Chambliss said: "We had very positive meetings in the UAE with the government leadership as well as management of Dubai Ports World. We value the relationship between the UAE and the United States, and we have worked very closely together in fighting the global war on terror.

"It is critically important that we continue our partnership and work side by side in fighting terrorism and on the upcoming trade agreement." "On the particular transaction on the port situation, the Prime Minister showed tremendous leadership in urging Dubai Ports World to transfer the operation of the ports to a United States' owned entity. We now have the opportunity to move forward in our relationship and continue to work together as partners on our priorities." Senator Chambliss said the level of professionalism in Dubai "was just stunning".

Senator Isakson thanked the leadership "for understanding the sensitivity of the situation. In one day, he said, we received a college education about the UAE.

"The UAE is our partners in the war on terrorism, and we have a mutually beneficial and multi-faceted relationship. Because there was a firestorm of controversy concerning the ports deal, we decided to come to Dubai to learn the facts for ourselves", he added.

Referring to the Dubai Ports controversy, Congressman Linder said "This project was publicized in November and no one responded.

In March, it became a political issue, the Democrats trying to show they are strong on national security and the Republicans trying to respond." In the future, he said, these things should be measured on facts, not on emotions." On his part, Congressman Gingrey said the process certainly would have been better had Congress been informed. People are still fearful, but it is important for the American people to better understand the UAE. The UAE has been very helpful in the war on terror.

"This country is not part of the problem, rather it is part of the solution", he asserted.

WAM/AS 21 08 CCCCQQE


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## Alle

Doublepost, again


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## Alle

Personally i dont care about USA and their business and have no reason to be involved in that. But the problem is they "give themselves the right" to act as a world police. And their so called "war on terrorism". How stupid is that? You dont make peace with war, thats like fucking back your virginity (not to mention how they overdo the terrorism shit becouse the government benefits from it). And they ought to know that.

It was good for USA when they followed there declaration to stay out of other countries business, but that was some time ago...


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## dubaiflo

This is even more pathetic than the whole issue.

Seems like this has really more a political background than security.


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## Dubai_Steve

A group representing U.S. companies in the United Arab Emirates said it would invite Oprah Winfrey and other U.S. talk show hosts to the Gulf to try to alter American public opinion, which helped block Dubai's takeover of five U.S. ports.

The American Business Group of Abu Dhabi, which has more than 500 members including Boeing and Exxon Mobil, wants Winfrey to do her show from the Gulf sheikdom as it seeks to persuade Americans that the country is not a threat to national security, Kevin Massengill, a board member of the group said by telephone Saturday from Abu Dhabi.

"We want to reach out to the average guy in the U.S. and explain why the U.A.E. is important," said Massengill, a former adviser to the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi.

DP World, a ports company owned by the Maktoum family that rules Dubai, one of the seven sheikdoms in the United Arab Emirates, was forced to sell the U.S. port operations of Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation in the face of congressional opposition.

A CNN poll on March 2 showed that 75 percent of Americans believed that the Dubai takeover of ports posed a threat to U.S. security.


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## dubaiflo

this one is really interesting :


International
Whither Dubai?
Jessica Holzer, 03.13.06, 6:00 AM ET




WASHINGTON, D.C.--As DP World was hammering out the details of its purchase of London-based Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation and the rights to operate some U.S. ports last fall, a far smaller deal was moving steadily forward--for a New York company to own and run a Dubai marina.

Island Capital Group, a New York real estate investment company, announced in December that it would team up with a Dubai property developer to build and operate luxury marina facilities along the Dubai waterfront. Island Capital is controlled by Andrew Farkas, a member of a prominent New York Jewish family. As part of the deal, Island Global Yachting, an affiliate of Island Capital Group, opened an office in Dubai to oversee the design and construction of 40,000 slips for pleasure boats and manage the cleaning and operation of the docks.

The deal received blasé treatment in the Dubai press. No eyebrows were raised over its Jewish-American backer, despite widespread hostility in the Middle East toward Israel and that nation's treatment of Palestinians. Awash with foreign investment, the bustling United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is its most advanced member, has tried to avoid getting bogged down by that issue.

Elie Finegold, president of Island Global Yachting, summed up his impressions of Dubai from his frequent travels there in connection with the deal: "To go to Dubai is to walk into one of the most free and open business environments in the world."

How different must Dubai's perceptions be of the U.S. in the wake of the blowup of the ports deal. It is too early to gauge the full impact on American business ties with the region. But apart from stocks and bonds, Arab investment in the U.S. is a small slice of the total pie.

Of the $1.5 trillion in foreign direct investment in the U.S., only about $4 billion comes from Arab countries. Edward M. Graham, an economist at the Institute for International Economics in Washington, says Europe, Canada and Japan, the biggest sources of foreign direct investment in the U.S., may not be too discouraged by the ports flap because they will note the deal's special circumstances: It originated in the Middle East and was made in a sensitive industry.

Even so, the deal's blowup will sow a great deal of confusion. It is hard to find a precedent for such a furor in U.S. history. Back in the 1980s, there was a lot of concern over Japanese investment in the U.S., but nobody ever blocked a deal. Moreover, the hand-wringing over the Japanese was driven not so much by xenophobia as by bitterness over the lack of reciprocity. The Japanese market was sealed tighter than a drum, says Clyde Prestowitz Jr., a former Reagan Administration official and president of the Economic Strategy Institute. "It wasn't a two-way street," he notes.

Now, investors will be fuzzy over which deals are goers and which aren't. "It sets a standard, but it's hard to say what that standard is. What are the criteria going forward?" asks Dan Ickenson, a trade expert at the Cato Institute in Washington. He reckons that talks on a United Arab Emirates free-trade pact were postponed on Friday just after the DP World deal collapsed because negotiators were scratching their heads over what it meant for the trade agreement's investment provisions. 

This confusion is apparent simply from a snapshot of the Dubai government's presence in the U.S.

Istithmar, the venture capital arm of the Dubai government, recently bought the British company Inchcape Shipping Services, which restocks ships with food and oil in several U.S. ports and even has a contract with the U.S. Navy. Another arm of the state owns the Essex House on West 59th Street in New York.

Various attempts in Congress to erect barriers to foreign investment are reaping more uncertainty among investors.

Duncan Hunter, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, is proceeding with legislation to force foreign companies to drop ownership of facilities considered vital to U.S. national security. Implementing this bill will be a "nightmare," says Graham, because of the extent of foreign investment across a range of sectors that the Homeland Security Department deems critical.

Some 16% of U.S. manufacturing is under foreign ownership. A number of foreign oil companies like Shell and British Petroleum (nyse: BP - news - people ) own refineries. And as the Dubai ports furor revealed, more than half of U.S. ports are controlled by foreign companies. "Hunter has no idea what he's getting into," says Graham. 

But aside from sowing confusion among investors and, potentially, a raft of unworkable economic policies, the furor over the ports deal and its ultimate demise is most damaging to American credibility in the Middle East.

"We are compromising our ability to encourage moderate Arab states to remain moderate," Ikenson says. Prestowitz is blunter: "[Dubai is] the very model of where we want the Middle East to go, and we are kicking them in the teeth.


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## smussuw

some ultra racist comments here :shocked:

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/...itude_over_DP_World_hits_Americas_credibility


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## dubaiflo

what do you expect... 

they have no idea what they are talking about.. i seriously would love to punch everyone in the face, seriously.


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## Ben_Burj

smussuw said:


> some ultra racist comments here :shocked:
> 
> http://news.monstersandcritics.com/...itude_over_DP_World_hits_Americas_credibility



The USA is living on other nation’s generosity; they have a huge trade deficit and they finance it via foreign investments. But most of the Americans are too stupid to know this fact.

The UAE did a good move by changing 10% of their foreign currencies reserve from $ to €.

Now this does not surprise me from the USA what I want to see is the UAE government reaction why don’t they tell the USA that they can not use UAE military bases any more (like they should have been allowed in the first place). Why don’t we see dubai government cancel its order for Boeing and replace it with airbus.


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## dubaiflo

^^ i seriously think it would be a good move, even if more symbolic than anything different.

but well they try to get along with the US and their people and this wouldn't help either.


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## Naz UK

The truth of the matter is the US is on the way down. The new emerging economies of China, India (to a lesser extent the threat from the EU) and if the GCC leaders can for once get their heads together to form a unified M.E. economy, all will have a devastating impact on the US's global and federal plans.

They know that (not sure if its citizens are fully aware of this fact though, what with so much trashy Hollywood, American Idol and crappy manufactured pop music to watch on the tele, the "real" news sometimes gets left out im guessing) and panic pragmatic reactions like the DP Ports fiasco are total proof to this fact. The US is desperate to catch up with its trade deficit (which it missed in January and February to the tune of a few $billion dollars) and instead of appeasing foreign investors, its f**ked up big time by shitting itself and now probably scared others away!

If the US wasn't still the biggest economy in the world, I'd be really feeling sorry for the them right now (and probably doing what I can by raising charity money for them in my local town centre) but instead im laughing my head off!!!

I hate it when empires die...or worse still..show the first signs of illness. American's must be hoping its just a "cold"...and with a few paracetamols and plenty of fluids, it will all go away.

Lets continue this discussion about the USA in the year 2030, when China has just sworn in a new President, called Mr Chang Bush....... :eek2:


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## Krazy

This is getting rather boring now...

*Second Dubai-U.S. deal to be scrutinized*

WASHINGTON, March 22 (UPI) -- For the second time this year, Congress is showing suspicion of the acquisition of U.S. assets by a Dubai-based company, this time an aerospace manufacturer. 

Security concerns are growing over the $1.2 billion sale of Doncasters, a privately held British aerospace manufacturer that works on sensitive U.S. weapons programs, the Financial Times reported Wednesday. 

U.S. Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga., released a letter demanding a tour of Doncasters' Georgia facility. 

"It is reported that your facility produces turbine engine parts critical to tanks and military aircraft ... (so) one must assume (it) plays a necessary and substantial role in the nation's ongoing military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan," Barrow wrote. 

Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury has announced the deal is subject to a 45-day investigation, pushing back the completion to as late as May. 

Last month, Congress overruled President George Bush's support for the sale of management of five major U.S. seaports from London-based P&O to Dubai Ports World.


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## dubaiflo

^^ they should leave the US, it will work without them.

and i suggest cancelling the 777 and buy a340 instead.

+ don't allow the US to have a military base here, it could be a threat for security since terrorists might plan to attack Jebel Ali ports.


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## Dubai-Lover

it can no longer be ridiculous since all the potential of embarassing onself has already been wasted by the gov recently

i'm running out of words to describe this situation hno:

next thing to happen is that we have to resell the jumeirah essex house in manhattan since it could be a terrorist HQ


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## dubaiflo

^^ it IS a terrorist HQ, you forgot we sent ben burj there to kick some asses.


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## BinDubai

ignorance and stupidness that what this is all about  
and the relations between the the UAE and the US will never be as they used to be


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## smussuw

I wonder how would Sheikh Mohammed react, it is going to get funnier


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## Ben_Burj

dubaiflo said:


> ^^ it IS a terrorist HQ, you forgot we sent ben burj there to kick some asses.



ben_burj????????? what do i have to with this?


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## Ben_Burj

BinDubai said:


> and the relations between the the UAE and the US will never be as they used to be



oooh my friend trust me that the relation will continue as usual, already the minister of economy is scheduled to visit the USA


if the relation between arab leaders and the USA is built on a partnership or mutual respect what you say will be true. 

But the current situation unfortunately is that we kiss Americans ass but here is not the problem the problem is that while doing so we say: ooooh Ammmmmrica let me kiss again your ass while nothing is so sweet as kissing your ass. Oooh AAAAmerica please your mercy and forgiveness please we can not stand your anger we only care about your satisfaction you the lord of the black house;


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## Ben_Burj

smussuw said:


> I wonder how would Sheikh Mohammed react, it is going to get funnier



FYI the amount of arab investement in the USA is giving employement to 4 million americans directly and the triple this amount undirectly. in oter word arab investement is equivalent to 10% of the USA economy.

now would i expect the other to respect the arabs when they don't have respect for them self??


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## nomarandlee2

^ funny numbers


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## Dubai_Boy

I hear mohammed and a few other shiekhs will start harsh investigations


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## smussuw

shouldnt nomarandlee2 be banned again


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## nomarandlee2

I should be banned? Did I condone terrorism against innocent people? Did I say women who don't veil are whores? If that is not grounds for banning I am not sure what is.


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## dubaiflo

no because you re-registered after you were banned which is not allowed.


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## smussuw

lol


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## Ben_Burj

nomarandlee2 said:


> I should be banned?


yes beceause you are into frog play and this is a skyscraper forum and not a goat frog cow forum


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## Dubai_Steve

The Associated Press Thursday evening reported that Homeland Security Secretary Alan Chertoff feels the U.S. would have been safer had the Dubai Ports World deal gone through: “The U.S. missed an opportunity to make its shores safer when it drove away a Dubai-based company poised to operate cargo terminals at several American seaports, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday. In a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, Chertoff said the international shipping firm DP World could have helped implement stronger security at many ports where the U.S. now has limited influence.”

This represents quite a flip-flop for the esteemed wire service that is felt to have started the whole controversy with its February 11 article which began: “A company in the United Arab Emirates is poised to take over significant operations at six American ports as part of a corporate sale, leaving a country with ties to the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers with influence over a maritime industry considered vulnerable to terrorism.”

That February article also warned: “But the UAE, a loose federation of seven emirates on the Saudi peninsula, was an important operational and financial base for the hijackers who carried out the attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the FBI concluded.”

Yet, almost six weeks after having a hand in starting the firestorm that scuttled this deal, the AP is now singing a different tune: “‘We could (have) actually built in some additional assurances, which would have given us more security in the wake of the deal than we had before the deal,’ Chertoff said. ‘The oddity of this, the irony of this, is that had the deal gone forward, we would have had greater ability to impose a security regime worldwide on the company than we have now.’" 

Quite a switch, folks. Maybe if you had interviewed Chertoff on February 11 rather than Chuck Schumer (D-NY) – "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" – the deal would have gone through, and America would not only be potentially safer, but also would not have appeared xenophobic to its friends and enemies.


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## Naz UK

Normarandlee(2), why are you constantly bringing religion into this issue, or indeed this entire forum? It has nothing whatsoever to do with it. 

Stick to the topic. Is that too difficult, are you having deep-rooted problems with sticking to the issues at hand?

Its about politics, economics, foreign policy and international bullying, my friend, if indeed you possess the integrity and honesty to study the issue in-depth for your own benefit.

America's stance on the whole "Arab World" is totally wrong, yes, no one in their right minds will deny that. Every other country in the world (Yes including mine, the UK) thinks so. Most decent, law-abiding American citizens, if told the whole truth without the bullshit, would have also condoned the DPW deal, as it did NOT pose any greater threat to American port security than any other port operating company (British, Singaporian, Chinese, etc etc). And yes, its raised serious security concerns about your ports, but that has nothing to do with Dubai or DPW.

And finally, if you want to hear some honest truths about your favourite topic, Islamic terrorist, yes, these ppl have managed to hijack Islam and use it as a method of their selfish gains...We all know that and so do you.

Just like the hot-heads (without beards) in Capitol Hill and the Senate have hijacked the true spirit of freedom and democracy tg line their own pockets and for their own greed and selfish objectives.

Will you now agree with all the above and let the issue rest? Its as simple as that, matey.


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## nomarandlee2

*Naz UK]Normarandlee(2), why are you constantly bringing religion into this issue, or indeed this entire forum? It has nothing whatsoever to do with it. * 

When have I brought up religous theology into this topic? Please remind me. The only time when I have chimed in on the subject is when there was a discussion about it before me. I have never brought up the subject out of the blue.




> Its about politics, economics, foreign policy and international bullying, my friend, if indeed you possess the integrity and honesty to study the issue in-depth for your own benefit.


 Yea, I agree. When did I say otherwise? It is also about Emaritti arrogence who think they should be able to own anything they want in the world though even though they would show no reprocity if the roles were reversed.



> America's stance on the whole "Arab World" is totally wrong, yes, no one in their right minds will deny that.


 And Arabs nations policy to their own people and forigen policy is also often wrong. Point being?



> Every other country in the world (Yes including mine, the UK) thinks so. Most decent, law-abiding American citizens, if told the whole truth without the bullshit, would have also condoned the DPW deal, as it did NOT pose any greater threat to American port security than any other port operating company (British, Singaporian, Chinese, etc etc).


 Not true. 



> And yes, its raised serious security concerns about your ports, but that has nothing to do with Dubai or DPW.


 That was for the congrass to fogire out. Dubai pulled out of the deal before because they didn't want every ditry angle of their county exposed in the process (which often happens in all congrass oversight committtes)




> And finally, if you want to hear some honest truths about your favourite topic, Islamic terrorist, yes, these ppl have managed to hijack Islam and use it as a method of their selfish gains...We all know that and so do you.


 Great, and I people don't want the increased probablity of one having access to the ports. Point?




> Just like the hot-heads (without beards) in Capitol Hill and the Senate have hijacked the true spirit of freedom and democracy tg line their own pockets and for their own greed and selfish objectives.


 Sorry, I don't want national security assets owned by an Arab government knowing the general Arab hostility towards the U.S. right now. I don't want a UAE government controlled company running U.S. airports or making hi-teach weaponary for the U.S. either. Does a small minorty of extremist blow it for everybody? You bet it does.



> Will you now agree with all the above and let the issue rest? Its as simple as that, matey.


 What are you talking about? It is all the locals here that keep posting crap about it. Are your eyes that blind? It is dubaiflo, Ben_Burj, smussuw and others who keep talking about it. I have barely touched the subject the last few weeks.


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## DUBAI

just out of curiosity, where are you from nomarandlee?


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## AltinD

nomarandlee2 said:


> ... It is also about Emaritti arrogence who think they should be able to own anything they want in the world though even though they would show no reprocity if the roles were reversed.


Yeah, what about allowing UK, Germany, Italy, *UAE*, Qatar, Bahrain, Turkey, Japan, Djibuti, Philipines and a bunch of other countries using Military bases and Ports in the American soil? :bash:


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## AltinD

nomarandlee2 said:


> Dubai pulled out of the deal before because they didn't want every ditry angle of their county exposed in the process (which often happens in all congrass oversight committtes)


WRONG!!!

Dubai pulled out becouse US Goverment ASKED them to, fearing that a backlash with the Congress and the stupidity, ignorance, racism and xenophobia that would have forcully thrown upon Dubai and the rest of Muslim world in that review, would have coused DUbai to close the Jebel Ali port to US Navy and the Air base to US Air Force and CIA, which would have been a DISASTER for the US and their wars in Iraq and Afganistan.

Ofcourse you and the rest of the pack, are so closed-minded dumb ignorants to ever consider something that would need actually using the brain.


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## smussuw

DUBAI said:


> just out of curiosity, where are you from nomarandlee?


I'll volunteer 

He says that he is an American and his GF is muslim ....


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