Digby: Blackmail

Every converstation I've had with people about this port deal, on both the right and the left, has been one of complete befuddlement. Why on earth would Bush do something this politically obtuse? After all the fearmongering and the talk about "oceans don't protect us" for the last four years it's just inexplicable that they would go to the wall for a deal that looks so terrible.

Just now I sleepily clicked over to Atrios and read this, which just makes it even more unbelievable:

The Central Intelligence Agency did not target Al Qaeda chief Osama bin laden once as he had the royal family of the United Arab Emirates with him in Afghanistan, the agency's director, George Tenet, told the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the United States on Thursday.