Any Port in the Sea of Corruption

Nausicaä's true desire is to solve the mystery of the Sea of Corruption. - description of a story from a Japanese graphic novel

Whether the Dubai acquisition of the operation of six U.S. ports is a national secruity issue makes for great chatter, but that is not the point. The point is, how did this thing get greased through, and why.

• Treasury Secretary Snow's connection to DP World through CSX Corp is suspicious.

• The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States approved the deal, yet Donald Rumsfeld sits on that committee and never heard about the deal. That means, at best, only a few members of the committee reviewed the deal. Doubly suspicious.

• David Sanborn, as DP World's Director of Operations in Europe, was certainly involved in negotiations for the acquisition of the English company, P&O. He has been nominated by Bush to head the U. S. Maritime Administration. Triply suspicious.

• The secret agreement with DP World includes several sweetheart clauses such as allowing the company to keep business records outside the reach of US courts. I-can't-count-that-high suspicious.

• Bush threatening to veto legislation blocking the deal even before he was "aware" of the deal. Just plain weird, unless...

This is all about money. I don't know whether it is simple bribes and kickbacks or a more pervasive form of corruption. I do know this smells of money, pure and simple. This is how a kleptocracy functions. Get used to it.