Criminal Dereliction of Duty

If these articles are not enough evidence to convince all Americans that Bush has sold American security down the river, nothing will:

In an interview at the start of the "Situation Room" with CNN's Ed Henry, Congressman Peter King, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, said that the Bush administration did not investigate whether the UAE company had ties to terror. King said there was "no investigation into terror whatsoever." According to Henry, King maintained that he had asked officials at Treasury and Homeland Security whether they had checked out whether the company had ties to Al Qaeda. The response to King was "You don't understand. We don't conduct a thorough investigation."

And even more damning is this article:

We are focusing today on one sentence in a two-page U.S. document officially known as number AFGP-2002-603856. It is a 2002 letter in which al Qaeda says that it has infiltrated United Arab Emirates security and other agencies.

It was a warning siren document that should have raised urgent concerns at the highest level of the U.S. government. President Bush and his entire team initially dozed through the alarm and apparently expected we all would, too. They rushed to approve a bid by Dubai Ports World (a United Arab Emirates company) to buy a British firm that runs six major U.S. ports without publicly addressing the obvious questions the document raises.

The document, a letter from the al Qaeda terrorist organization to the United Arab Emirates government, mainly warns UAE officials to stop arresting al Qaeda's "Mujahideen sympathizers." The second paragraph begins with a potentially chilling boast: "You are well aware that we have infiltrated your security, censorship, and monetary agencies along with other agencies that should not be mentioned."

Al Qaeda's boast that it had "infiltrated" the security and other agencies of the United Arab Emirates, raises all sorts of basic security questions: How can the United States be assured that al Qaeda has not infiltrated DP World or any UAE agency that oversees DP World? How many DP World officials enter ports DP World runs in other countries? Who would be in charge of security clearances for UAE personnel permitted to enter U.S. ports? If al Qaeda operatives have infiltrated DP World or the UAE, could they launch a terrorist attack from inside a U.S. Port?

Maybe America is worrying too much – after all frat boy Georgie told us we “don't have to worry about security.” Does anyone trust him? Not anyone sane.
Posted on The Human Stain