4-month old agency reviewed Dubai ports deal

why, gosh and golly, it was only in the VERY LAST post that i was remarking on how increasingly bizarre the revelations about the dubai ports deal are and how each seems to top the previous one so, damn if now there isn't STILL ANOTHER one... at least with this particular bush-capade, the stories are coming thick and fast and not spread out over several years the way we've learned about the lies that took us into iraq...

A deal that allows an Arab-owned company in Dubai to manage six major U.S. ports was scrutinized for security risks by an obscure intelligence agency that has existed for only four months, American officials said on Wednesday.

The Intelligence Community Acquisition Risk Centre, or CARC, overseen by the office of intelligence chief John Negroponte, was asked by the government committee that vets foreign investments in the United States to look into the ports deal soon after it came to its attention in early November.

[...]

"The intelligence community did assessments to make sure that there was no national security threat," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters.

But intelligence officials said CARC, which has little to do with counterterrorism activities, was formed just last October as the agency mandated to assess security risks posed by companies that do business with the intelligence community.

Only a small part of the center's resources are devoted to vetting commercial deals, officials said.

CARC's first director, William Dawson, was appointed in January, more than a month after the centre had been asked to begin work on the Dubai Ports World acquisition.

uhhhh... uhhhh... mmmmmm... you GOTTA be shittin' me...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet