In a press briefing today, Secretary Rumsfeld revealed that he was not consulted about the decision to transfer operations of six key U.S. ports to the United Arab Emirates, a country with troubling ties to international terrorism.

QUESTION: Are you confident that any problems with security — from what you know, are you confident that any problems with security would not be greater with a UAE company running this than an American company?

RUMSFELD: I am reluctant to make judgments based on the minimal amount of information I have because I just heard about this over the weekend.

Rumsfeld’s statement was particularly troubling because Dubai Ports World, owned and operated by the UAE government, will also take over a major contract managing the movement of military equipment for the U.S. Army. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Peter Pace, who was at the briefing, also said he found out about the deal over the weekend. The deal was approved on February 13.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan claimed the Defense Department was part of “a rigorous review…for national security concerns.” If so, why were two of the Department’s top officials not even informed, much less consulted?

UPDATE: Donald Rumsfeld, as Secretary of Defense, is a member of Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States. As such, he was one of the people who, according to the Treasury Department, unanimously approved the sale on February 13. How could do that when he didn’t even find out about the sale until last weekend?

Today, President Bush visited the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado where this month 32 employees were laid off due to a $28 million budget cut. Given the political embarrassment that would result from Bush’s trip to the lab, the Secretary of Energy announced just a day before Bush’s visit that all the jobs would be restored.

The NREL employees were fired seven days after Bush’s State of the Union address in which he stated that we need to break our oil addiction through technology. NREL, according to the Department of Energy, is the “premier laboratory for renewable energy research and development and a leading laboratory for energy efficiency R&D.” Given his flip-floppish actions, many were anxious to hear what Bush would tell the staffers at NREL. From the AP:

President Bush on Tuesday acknowledged that Washington has sent “mixed signals” to one of the nation’s premiere labs studying renewable energies “” by first laying off, then reinstating, 32 workers just before his visit.

Mixed signals? That’s exactly what Bush promised he wouldn’t do if he were re-elected.

I understand the consequence of sending mixed signals. [10/26/04]

Mixed signals are the wrong signals for the American President to send. [10/30/04]

Mixed signals have become the hallmark of this administration’s energy policy. After stating that he would cut our addiction to oil in the State of the Union, Bush then sent a budget to Congress that included cuts for research in fuel efficiency. After saying that he would replace more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East, the administration then said the President’s words should not be taken literally.