So, there’s a lot going on around the internets about the now notorious sale of the P&O company to Dubai Ports World company, which is owned by the government of the United Arab Emirates.

Many of you know about P&O – the once-famous British shipping company that handled transportation from Great Britain (or “England” as it was commonly referred to during the Victorian era) out to India. The quality were housed in staterooms and cabins on the port side outward bound to India and on the starboard side when homeward bound. That’s how the English language got the term “posh.” Acronym.

The Peninsular and Orient Steam Navigation Company knew its priorities back then. Always make sure the elite get treated best. And of course, the tradition lives on. John Snow sells his CSX holdings before the rail company collapses into penny stocks, and the CSH rail terminals get picked up by P&O. John Snow gets himself a seat on the Board. This is a Secretary of the Treasury, mind you. A cabinet official. David Sanborn, the former director of DPW’s Europe and Latin America operations get selected by Mr Bush to chair the US Maritime Administration. They’re the folks designated to oversee all US port operations.

Oh! I forgot. The UAE, the United Arab Emirates, a grouping of once-small grease spots on the Persian Gulf merged into one governmental entity on February 12, 1971 The former independent emirates of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Amjan, Umm Al-Qaiwain, Ras Al-Khaimah, and Fujairah become one great big commercial investment company.

And, floating on oil and the sale and transportation payments the oil creates, they have invested in just about everything except my mortgage. Why, just last year, the Dubai International Capital, which is owned by the government of the UAE, bought an interest in the Carlyle Group with an $8 Billion-with-a-B investment.

When I hear “Carlyle Group” the first thing I think is “George H W Bush," who’s earned a few million dollars fronting for them. But that’s not the only Bush connection to the UAE. Neil Bush, who has some venereal disease for which there is no cure, allegedly sells some phoney-baloney education software, with a nice bit of start-up capital from the UAE.

Now, when the furore started a couple of days ago about DPW taking over operations of some of our ports, we were told many things. It’s only six ports; it’s just management of the shipping areas; the UAE is our bestest friend in the whole wide world; Mr Bush never knew about the sale until the news broke but he wholeheartedly endorses the sale;

Well, I know this will be a big surprise to everyone, but all of that was a misstatement incorrect inaccurate like everything Mr Bush says, a lie as cheap as a Persian rug in an Algerian bordello.

It’s 21 ports, including two Gulf ports through which just about all of our overseas military traffic is transported. It’s not just management; the lessee is legally required to maintain security control of the port area. The UAE was the starting point for most financial support of the 9/11 suicide attackers. Additionally, 2 of the 9/11 attackers were UAE citizens. The UAE royal family has a documented history of close personal and social relationships with not just the bin Laden family, because billionaires are all brothers under the skin, regardless of nationality. They also have a documented history of close personal and social relationships with the alleged black sheep of the family, Osama. They’ve been reported to go hawking with Osama in Afghanistan and Pakistan. After 9/11, the US requested the UAE to make their banking records available for examination in order to trace the accounts of the 9/11 attackers, in order to discover the original paymaster, and we were refused access. It’s also documented that the USS Cole bombers received their financing through UAE banking organs.

Mr Bush, who is never responsible for anything that happens on his watch, has claimed he never knew about the sale of P&O to DPW until it was finalized. He says this, despite the fact that such sales are required by US law to be investigated by a little known US Intelligence organ – the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States. This committee apparently never studied the sale. Mr Snow, who is chairman of the Committee, says he never knew of the sale until it was announced publicly. Imagine that: the committee approved the sale without ever meeting. That cover story lasted about two hours. Then we were told that the deal was approved by some low-level assistants to the committee. More bad apples making the Bu$h maladministration look bad! Just like at Abu Ghraib!

So, we have Mr Bush’s specious guarantee that the people who helped transfer the funds that were used to murder over 3,000 Americans, is considered perfectly safe to protect 21 vital American ports. Mr Bush guarantees that the people who refused to help us track down the financiers who bankrolled 9/11 are trustworthy to handle our inbound and outbound ocean freight. Perfectly safe. They’ve been investigated.

I’m satisfied, aren’t you?