I don't see this diaried yet. If it is a duplicate, please let me know and I will delete.
AP is just reporting that the Bush White House and the Dubai government had a deal which involved information cooperation in exchange for the approval of the takeover of our port operations.
Below...
The Bush administration secretly required a company in the United Arab Emirates to cooperate with future U.S. investigations before approving its takeover of operations at six American ports, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. It chose not to impose other, routine restrictions.
As part of the $6.8 billion purchase, state-owned Dubai Ports World agreed to reveal records on demand about "foreign operational direction" of its business at U.S. ports, the documents said. Those records broadly include details about the design, maintenance or operation of ports and equipment.
Also, it seems that the the administration went to great lengths to make this easy on the Dubai government.
(They) did not require Dubai Ports to keep copies of business records on U.S. soil, where they would be subject to court orders. It also did not require the company to designate an American citizen to accommodate U.S. government requests. Outside legal experts said such obligations are routinely attached to U.S. approvals of foreign sales in other industries.
We know how close the Bush family is to UAE, that is no surprise. What this article reveals is the fact that these negotiations were underway while the president was "unaware" of the deal. Bush is either lying or thinks we are not paying attention.
One telling quote from the article is as follows:
"They're not lax but they're not draconian," said James Lewis, a former U.S. official who worked on such agreements. If officials had predicted the firestorm of criticism over the deal, Lewis said, "they might have made them sound harder."