John Negroponte, the national director of intelligence and the latest Bush Administration official to reveal his membership in the oil cartel running the American government, has announced, "We didn't see any red flags come up in course of our inquiry" into DP World's purchase of P&O, the British-based cargo unloading company active in at least six of America's major ports. Besides what this astonishingly bold statement says about Negroponte's vision problems and the concerns it raises about having yet another Bush shill in charge of a major national office, anyone still rational would have to ask how come he missed the biggest red flag of all - the public reaction?
Bush and Co. tried to sneak this little $6.8 billion deal past an adoring public like he has done with just about everything else, but he keeps getting caught with his fingers, his tie, his toes, his dog's nose, and his wiring instructions in the cookie jar. These stealth bombers are about as stealthy as a rogue elephant in a paper mache shop.
$6.8 billion. And that's just their funny money. Wait 'til the important stuff gets rolled out and put on the auction block. You're gonna to see some big zeroes then when they get bought.
The American public is supposed to sleep well at night knowing that the Coast Guard and U.S. Customs will handle this whole thing on the security side, and there is nothing to worry about. I mean really, folks! You really have nothing to worry about! Did you hear me? Nothing to worry about!!! Nothing!!! So, shut up, already.
This is like FEMA saying we are going to stop that little pesky Katrina tidal surge with a pile of mattresses.
What really gives me the willies is not that the Dubai boys may be in cahoots with every criminal on the planet. It's that we have been treated to the spectacle of one our own government agencies after another go down the pipeline drain. All the agency heads seem to just have bit parts in the chorus of this Greek tragedy called the Bush administration. There was a time when it was rumored that organized crime ran the docks. The crime going on now is not just organized, it's choreographed, programmed, funded, licensed, contracted, and tenured. They don't have to cut corners. They design the corners.
On one level this ports deal is just an old fashioned, hard-core, bottom line business deal. You have a buyer with enough cash to get a seller to come sniffing to the closing table. It's as old as the hills. To a bunch of businessmen just looking for the next deal of their own all this would seem to be nothing but business as usual. The truth is that the intelligence and security people have no way of knowing what we are really getting into or of offering anything like guaranteed security. We could be getting set up. We may have already been set up. The terrorists did their secretive razzle-dazzle thing on 9/11. Maybe they've come to realize they don't have to take that messy route any more. If you have enough chips, you get to sit at the table and get dealt a hand. You get to order drinks. You get the best room in the hotel. You can put the escort service on your credit card.
Negroponte has joined the ranks of the other officials who have chosen to display their loyalties, and it is not with the American people. Why is an intelligence chief, someone who is supposed to play behind the scenes, coming forward like this? He is supposed to sell the Bush administration line, that's why. The public, being played for suckers, is supposed to say, "Oh, if the intelligence chief says it's all right, then it must be all right. He's the intelligence chief after all." Wait a short forty-five days, cook a little shrimp, check out the wine collection, close later. What's the rush? A deal's a deal.
I hope the next casualty to this lunacy will be able to say, "Just before I went down, I suddenly realized I had been played, and I didn't feel too good about it."
George Bush, for his part, has said he "understands" now why people might have a problem with what's happening, but that won't change anything. "I understand" and "I take full responsibility" have become the favorite profanities of the Bush administration. Watch how they get used again and again by the whole club. They sound so caring, so understanding, so responsible. The irony is they are anything but.