Port Whine II

I called this one in an earlier Port Whine post.
Didn't take too long.
Screaming rumors of Halliburton taking over the ports.
Evil and 'controversial' company, which was, as you all know, previously associated with Cheney.


Norm Ornstein: Dubai Ports World Is Considering Selling U.S. Operations To Halliburton
Today Dubai Ports World announced it would “transfer fully the U.S. operations…to a United States entity.” This evening on the PBS News Hour, AEI scholar Norm Ornstein said that DP World was considering selling its U.S. operations to Halliburton:

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.

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.

Very interesting.

UPDATE: Halliburton denies the rumors.
From today’s New York Daily News:
DP World did not say. And scratch Halliburton off the list.
Melissa Norcross, a spokeswoman for the controversial U.S. company once headed by Vice President Cheney, called suggestions circulating on the Hill that they might take over “false and baseless.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/03/09/dpworld-halliburton/

"False and Baseless", but makes for good Bush/Cheney bashing!
The best part of spreading this rumor is that it won't have to be officially corrected by the sources. Ever. No matter how many people read/hear about it and believe it's factual.