9/11 Commission Chair Speaks Out Against Port Deal

Republican Chairman of the 9/11 Commission, Thomas Kean*, spoke out today against the Republican plan to sell of six major U.S. ports to a foreign, state-owned corporation. The Associated Press:

Thomas Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey who led the bipartisan probe of the Sept. 11 attacks, said the deal was a big mistake because of past connections between the 2001 hijackers and the UAE.

"It shouldn't have happened, it never should have happened," Kean said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

The quicker the Bush administration can get out of the deal, the better, he said. "There's no question that two of the 9/11 hijackers came from there and money was laundered through there," Kean said.

Also of note in the article, President Bush says he refuses to reconsider the deal that places corporate interests ahead of national security ... again. The president has said before that he wasn't "all that concerned" with Osama bin Laden, but now it's becoming clear that he isn't all that concerned with national security in total. You might remember the last time the Chairman of the 9/11 Commission was forced to speak out on the president's national security creds. "It's not a priority for the government. A lot of things we need to do to prevent another 9/11 just simply aren't being done by the president or by the Congress." In fact, the commission found the president and his rubber stamp Republican Congress' were a collective failure in protecting the country -- giving them 1 A (and it was an A-), out of 41 categories in a post-9/11 progress report.

*Thomas Kean Sr. should not to be confused with Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in New Jersey, Thomas Kean Jr. (as much as Jr. would like you to)