Its a Joke, get it?

I return after a long comedy of errors involving my computer to run head first into the UAE Port-Gate.

Now let me see if I am understanding this fully.

:ast week it is revealed that the brits would no longer be providing security to 6 of the major american ports. Instead a new contract would be signed with Dubai Ports, which is a company owned directly by the UAE. The UAE have been accused more than once of being on both sides of the War on Terror. A firestorm begins.

Both parties start questioning the deal. Bush gives a speech earlier this week where he said judging the UAE would be the same as racism and stated if there was a resolution or law passed to prevent the sale, he would use his veto powers for the first time in his six years in office.

A few days pass and then it is revealed that even though Bush defended the deal, he didn't know that the deal existed until AFTER it had already began to get questioned.

Now the deal would have had to been approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment which is chaired by Snow. It is revelaed that Sec of Def Rumsfeld didn't know about the deal (nor was he consulted about the deal) but even later it was revealed that Rumsfeld is a memeber of the CFI and had to approve the deal. Snow later says that he wasn't even aware of the deal. Because his staffers didn't bring it to his attention.

It has also been brought to light that the deal wasn't investigated for the legally mandated 45 days. And that the deal had a 'secret' part that would allow the UAE to escape legal scrutiny.

In today's cabinet meeting bush is quoted as saying: "This deal wouldn't go forward if we were concerned about the security for the United States of America."

And last night on CBS news Richard Perle says this on the CFI

"BORGER: Here's one explanation. The president and his senior staff couldn't brief Congress because they didn't know. That's because the panel that makes these calls, the Committee on Foreign Investments, is not run by the high-level Cabinet members listed on its Web site. Those guys usually rubber-stamp decisions made by staffers. Richard Perle is a Bush ally who sat on the panel during the Reagan years.
Mr. RICHARD PERLE (Former Assistant Secretary of Defense): The committee almost never met. And when it deliberated, which it did from time to time, it was usually at a pretty low bureaucratic level.
BORGER: So, is it a joke?
Mr. PERLE: I think it's a bit of a joke if we were serious about scrutinizing foreign ownership and foreign control, particularly since 9/11."


Please tell me it is one huge joke on us All.