"The poll found that nearly half of Americans -- 46 percent -- have a negative view of Islam.Not quite a majority.
"James J. Zogby, president of the Washington-based Arab American Institute, said he is not surprised by the poll's results. Politicians, authors and media commentators have demonized the Arab world since 2001, he said.posted by ericb at 3:21 PM on March 9, 2006
'The intensity has not abated and remains a vein that's very near the surface, ready to be tapped at any moment,' Zogby said. 'Members of Congress have been exploiting this over the ports issue. Radio commentators have been talking about it nonstop.'
...'You're getting a constant drumbeat of negative information about Islam,' [Ronald Stockton, a professor of political science at the University of Michigan at Dearborn] said.
Michael Franc, vice president of government relations for the conservative Heritage Foundation, said that the survey responses 'seems to me to be a real backlash against Islam' and that congressional leaders do not help the problem by sometimes using language that links all Muslims with extremists."
"...with his public approval ratings at record lows and his Republican party abandoning him, one of the US’s closest allies in the Arab world [the United Arab Emirates] concluded that [Bush] was no longer in control in Washington....Bush, who still has nearly three years to go in his second term, has become perilously weak.[Financial Times | March 09, 2006]
...More than four years after the September 11 attacks, [the port deal] brought together a toxic combination of anxieties over America’s place in the world. Traditional protectionists, worried by foreign acquisitions of US assets and the outsourcing of jobs to distant and little-understood countries, lined up alongside security hawks who warned that even a close Arab ally such as the UAE was vulnerable to terrorist infiltration."
"The Vietnam War experience can’t tell us anything about the war in Iraq – or so it is said. If you believe that, trying looking through this lens, and you may change your mind."posted by ericb at 6:32 PM on March 9, 2006
[Nieman Watchdog | March 08, 2008]
"If this is done now through the backdoor, where D.P. [Dubai Ports World] has any role at all, Congress is going to go ballistic, and it’s going to be a disaster, I think, for the administration.But, of course!
They have got a dilemma now, because there simply aren’t American companies that have the know-how and the breadth to do this. Interestingly, and perhaps ironically, what I had heard earlier in the day, as they were looking at those that have the — the kind of resources, Halliburton was a name that came up."
"Free trade talks between the United States and the United Arab Emirates were postponed Friday, a day after a Dubai company succumbed to pressure and backed out of a deal to take over operations at six major American ports."[Associated Press | March 10, 2006]
The White House asked Dubai Ports World, a company owned by the United Arab Emirates, to give up its management stake in U.S. ports, to save President Bush from the politically difficult position of vetoing a key piece of legislation to protect America's ports, ABC News has learned."[ABC News | March 10, 2006]
"CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante reports the announcement came about after the company's consultations with White House political strategist Karl Rove."posted by ericb at 9:56 AM on March 10, 2006
« Older Adieu, Abu Ghraib... | RFID is a known security/priva... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by keswick at 12:29 PM on March 9, 2006