Dubious about Dubai?

If you are skeptical about the neat "resolution" to the Dubai Ports deal, you're not alone. And you're absolutely right to be.
The more we learn, the shadier things get and the more complicated and far reaching are the implications. All we can do is begin to follow the clues and see where they lead us.

So far, one dark road leads right to where you'd suspect: Mr. Diabolical himself, Dick Cheney and his personal ATM, Halliburton.

The Dubai Deal You Don't Know About -- Time.com

With midterm elections approaching, no politician wanted to go home and explain to voters why a company controlled by the government of Dubai was taking over operations at six US ports-without so much as a meow of protest from Congress. As it turns out, that won't be necessary. Dubai Ports World, the firm at the center of the controversy, announced today that it would give up its bid to manage US ports, agreeing to transfer the contracts to a "US entity."

Yet while one Dubai company may be giving up on U.S. ports, another one shows no signs of quitting the U.S.—or of giving up a contract with the Navy to provide shore services for vessels in the Middle East. The firm, Inchcape Shipping Services (ISS), is an old British company that last January was sold to a Dubai government investment vehicle for $285 million.

[...]

ISS may be asked to provide services for U.S. military training exercises and “contingency operations inland.” ISS’s partner for those services? None other than KBR, the division of Halliburton — Vice President Dick Cheney’s old firm — that has won billions of dollars in contracts for the Iraq war and reconstruction. Ironically, Halliburton's name has come up as a possible candidate to be the "U.S. entity" to take over the U.S. ports management from Dubai Ports World.

ISS, in fact, isn’t the only Dubai company that has won big business with the Pentagon. In December 2004, another such firm, Seven Seas Shipchandlers, won a $700 million contract to be the prime vendor for maintenance and repair operations for troops in the U.S. Central Command region, which includes the Middle East. Seven Seas has also provided food supplies to U.S. troops in Iraq. Another Dubai-based firm, MAC International, is under contract to deliver $67.2 million worth of police trucks to the Army. Those vehicles, however, will bear a stamp that should please any Washington pol: Made In Detroit. Read more.

Also see:

• TIME.com: Inside Dubai Inc.

• TIME.com: Speed Read: How the Ports Deal Died

• Truthdig - Reports - Dubai: Great Theater

• Ports of Profit: Dubai Does Brisk War Business

Every morning, from dawn till about noon, cargo and passenger flights to Iraq and Afghanistan make Dubai airport's Terminal Two possibly the busiest commercial terminal in the world for the "global war of terrorism." Conveniently located between the two countries, Dubai is the ideal hub for military contractors and a lucrative link in the commercial supply chain of goods and people between Afghanistan or Iraq and the rest of the world.

• Coast Guard Worries Reanimate Ports Debate

The US Coast Guard had raised concerns weeks ago that, because of US intelligence gaps, it could not determine whether the UAE company, DP World, might support terrorist operations.

• When Americans No Longer Own America

Thom Hartmann writes: The Dubai Ports World deal is waking Americans up to a painful reality: So-called "conservatives" and "flat world" globalists have bankrupted our nation for their own bag of silver, and in the process are selling off America.

Photo credit: US Navy ship Juneau is anchored at port. While Dubai Ports World bowed out of running six US port facilities to quell an outcry over security concerns, another Dubai-owned company has since January provided services in 12 US ports and to the US Navy (AFP)