| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"maff" |
| Date: |
24 Feb 2006 04:40:52 PM |
| Object: |
OT: Lesson on the Perils of Secrecy |
Lesson on the Perils of Secrecy
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/23/AR2006022301453.html
http://forums.delphiforums.com/atheistrefuge/messages?msg=1791.8002
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Friday, February 24, 2006; Page A15
Americans owe a debt to Dubai Ports World for the storm the company has
created with its pending takeover of operations at six U.S. seaports.
Let us count the hypocrisies and the inconsistencies, the blind spots
and the oversights that this controversy has revealed.
Outrage in Samarra
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/24/opinion/24fri2.html
http://forums.delphiforums.com/atheistrefuge/messages?msg=1786.10241
Before things spiral further in the wrong direction, responsible Iraqi
leaders from all religious groups and communities need to exert a
calming influence.
The Road to Riches
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.atheism/msg/5ba95f4634dec9cd
and thread
The Road to Riches
http://tinyurl.com/55nzo
A Blueprint for the Future
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.atheism/msg/a8545c8e949926bc
.
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: OT: Lesson on the Perils of Secrecy |
26 Feb 2006 09:29:13 AM |
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On 24 Feb 2006 14:40:52 -0800, "maff" <maff91@yahoo.com> wrote in
alt.atheism
Lesson on the Perils of Secrecy
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/23/AR2006022301453.html
http://forums.delphiforums.com/atheistrefuge/messages?msg=1791.8002
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Friday, February 24, 2006; Page A15
Americans owe a debt to Dubai Ports World for the storm the company has
created with its pending takeover of operations at six U.S. seaports.
Let us count the hypocrisies and the inconsistencies, the blind spots
and the oversights that this controversy has revealed.
Until this fight broke out about a week ago, it was impossible to get
anyone but the experts to pay attention to the huge holes in the
security of our ports. Suddenly, everyone cares.
Most Americans had no idea that our government's process of approving
foreign takeovers of American companies through the Committee on Foreign
Investments in the United States was entirely secret. When Rep. John
Sweeney (R-N.Y.) asked Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff
about the Dubai Ports deal at a hearing on Feb. 15, Chertoff declined to
answer because the committee's work was "classified." Treasury Secretary
John Snow told another congressional committee that he was not permitted
to discuss specific transactions considered by the foreign investment
panel.
Why shouldn't the public have a right to know about the deliberations of
this interagency committee? Hasn't the secrecy surrounding this decision
aggravated the uproar it has caused?
Republicans and conservatives would be aghast at the idea of our
government owning a company that operated so many of our ports. That
would be -- just imagine! -- socialism. But Dubai Ports World is, well,
a socialist operation, a state-owned company in the United Arab
Emirates. Why is it bad for the federal government to own our port
operations, but okay for a foreign government?
And how many of us knew before this week that foreign companies -- from
China, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Denmark -- were major operators in
15 American ports? This may be just fine the way the world works these
days. But we've never really talked about it, have we?
President Bush was his tough, swaggering self on Tuesday when he
threatened to veto any bill that would scuttle the port company
takeover. "They ought to look at the facts and understand the
consequences of what they're going to do," Bush said.
But 24 hours later, as opposition to the deal built, White House
spokesman Scott McClellan -- boy, I don't envy him his job these days --
said a president whose main calling card is his devotion to keeping our
nation secure hadn't paid any attention to this issue until the past
"several days." In other words, a subject Bush displayed such passion
about the day before was also a subject he had just learned about. Does
this happen often?
It was helpful to see an administration that often treats Congress as a
mere nuisance finally concede that Bush should have taken legislators
more seriously. "We probably should have briefed members of Congress
sooner, " McClellan said. That McClellan was forced to speak those words
is something of a miracle.
Are some opponents of this deal motivated by xenophobia? Of course, and
xenophobia is both wrong and dangerous. But it's also wrong to dismiss
every Democrat and every Republican who has raised questions about this
deal -- i.e., most members of both parties -- as either a bigot or an
opportunist.
On the contrary, a process carried out in such secrecy and with so
little accountability deserves to be the subject of controversy. It is
not irrational for legislators and governors to ask questions about what
this deal means to security at six of our most important ports. What's
irrational is that the administration failed to anticipate how many
questions this deal would provoke.
What needs to happen now is obvious. The high-powered lobbyists working
for Dubai Ports World should persuade the company to offer a
postponement of the takeover. Everything about the process through which
this deal was approved should then be made public. If the administration
claims that revealing certain details would hurt national security, it
should be required to brief Congress, including the strongest opponents
of the deal, on those aspects of the deliberations.
Then, let's have a full-scale debate not only about this deal but about
the larger flaws in our system of port security. That's the way to show
the world that Americans take this issue seriously and are not engaged
in an episode of Arab-bashing.
Yesterday, Bush insisted that the deal would leave our ports safe.
"People don't need to worry about security," he said. But many people in
both parties are worried because they no longer take the
administration's claims at face value. That, too, is progress.
postchat@aol.com
/end
--
Fundies and trolls are cordially invited to
shove a wooden cross up their arses and rotate
at a high rate of speed. I trust you'll
be 'blessed' with a cornucopia of splinters.
.
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