Archive for February, 2006
Dubai Firm: “Let’s wait a few days, Americans forget pretty quickly…”
(CNN) — After an outcry from U.S. lawmakers over possible security risks, a company owned by the United Arab Emirates said Sunday it had asked for further review of its deal to buy management rights to terminals atmajor U.S. ports.
"We recognize that there are concerns regarding DP World’s acquisition of P&O’s U.S. terminal operations," Ted Bilkey, Dubai Ports World’s chief operating officer, said in a statement.
"Despite having already obtained approval by the federal government, we continue to take voluntary steps to assure people that the security of the U.S. will not be harmed as a result of this acquisition."
Take my ports, Please!
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The White House said Wednesday that critics of a deal that would let a United Arab Emirates company manage six U.S. seaports are "misinformed," but conceded it should have consulted Congress earlier.
The administration’s blessing of the purchase of Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation, which currently runs those ports, by the state-owned Dubai Ports World has sparked a firestorm of opposition on Capitol Hill.
President Bush has defended the deal and threatened to use the first veto of his presidency on any congressional attempt to block it.
A federal committee that oversees international investment approved the deal, and White House spokesman Scott McClellan repeated Bush’s reassurances that the security of those ports would remain in the hands of the U.S. government.
Shooting victim to Cheney: “I Apologize for you shooting me”
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (CNN) — Harry Whittington said Friday he was sorry for what Dick Cheney and his family have "had to go through" after the vice president shot him in a weekend hunting accident.
The 78-year-old Bush-Cheney campaign donor spoke briefly to reporters upon his release from a Corpus Christi hospital, but he took no questions.
Cheney sprayed Whittington with birdshot on his face and upper torso in Saturday’s hunting accident. Whittington suffered a mild heart attack Tuesday, doctors said, after a piece of birdshot in his body migrated to a heart muscle.
"We all assume certain risks in whatever we do," Whittington said. "Whatever activities we pursue and regardless of how experienced, careful and dedicated we are, accidents do and will happen."
This surprised someone?
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Four members of a "death squad" from Iraq’s Interior Ministry were arrested last month, a U.S. general in Baghdad said Thursday.
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, spokesman for Multi-National Force-Iraq, confirmed a Chicago Tribune report published Wednesday that said "the first evidence of a death squad" came when 22 men dressed in police uniforms were detained at an Iraqi army checkpoint in January.
Lynch said Thursday the 22 actually were Iraqi highway patrol officers employed by the Interior Ministry, and "four of those individuals were planning to conduct a kidnapping and murder" of a Sunni man.
The four members of the death squad were sent to Abu Ghraib prison, Lynch said. He said an investigation into the incident was ongoing.
Cheney wants Dean to go Quail hunting with him..
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean said Monday that Vice President Cheney should resign if he ordered a top aide to leak classified information to the media to defend the invasion of Iraq.
On CNN’s "American Morning" program, Dean repeated calls he first made Sunday, saying Cheney may have broken the law if he ordered his former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to share secret information with reporters in 2003.
"If Vice President Cheney has, in fact, ordered the leaking of political information — of intelligence information, that means he has to step aside," Dean said on CNN. "We don’t know if it’s true, but he has been accused of it. If it’s true, he has to step aside."
The importance of making your campaign cotributions on time
(CNN) — The White House is defending its delay in disclosing Vice President Dick Cheney’s weekend hunting accident, telling reporters Monday the focus was on making sure the man Cheney shot got medical attention.
Cheney was hunting quail at a friend’s South Texas ranch when he shot and wounded Harry Whittington, a 78-year-old attorney from Austin and Bush-Cheney campaign contributor, about 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
Whittington, who was hit with birdshot in the face, neck and upper torso, was being moved out of intensive care Monday at a hospital in Corpus Christi, officials at the facility said.
Have Badge, Will Smuggle
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Two federal air marshals are facing drug charges after allegedly agreeing to smuggle cocaine from a man who turned out to be a government witness, the U.S. attorney’s office in Houston, Texas, announced Monday.
Shawn Ray Nguyen, 38, and Burlie Sholar, 32, were arrested Thursday after allegedly receiving 15 kilograms of cocaine and $15,000 cash delivered to Nguyen’s home and agreeing to take the drugs on a plane, prosecutors said in court papers.
The U.S. attorney’s office accused the two men of agreeing to use their official positions as federal air marshals to bypass airport security and smuggle the cocaine on board a flight from Houston to Las Vegas, Nevada, in exchange for the money.
Bush Plan: Keep the poor dumb and sick.
MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (CNN) — President Bush on Wednesday talked up his budget on a trip to New Hampshire, hours before signing a bill he says is a major step toward cutting the nation’s deficit in half by 2009.
The president said his fiscal year 2007 budget will promote economic growth by keeping taxes low, will restrain government spending and will eliminate federal programs that don’t produce results.
"I look behind the numbers and see the quality-of-life issues," Bush told a gathering of the Business and Industry Association.
That “Hollow Superpower” quote’s gonna hurt them.
VIENNA, Austria (CNN) — The International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors ended their first session of talks on whether to delay reporting Iran to the U.N. Security Council amid threats by the Islamic state that it would start enriching uranium if its nuclear activities were sent to the council.
"There is a disagreement among board members whether to report the Iranian issue now to the Security Council or at a later stage," IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei said Thursday.
Getting an early start to tornado season?
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) — A possible tornado damaged parts of Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and surrounding businesses in pre-dawn hours Thursday in suburban New Orleans, said police in Kenner, west of the city.
Police also reported damage in New Orleans, particularly in the Lakeview area near the 17th Street Canal — among the places hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina. The city is still reeling from the devastating flooding the hurricane caused last fall.
Kenner authorities said they had no reports of injuries, but New Orleans police received a report of a man being transported to a hospital, said Sgt. Michael Brenckle. Brenckle said he didn’t know the extent of the man’s injuries.
