Myths About American Ports

• February 23, 2006

Dick Meyer identifies and debunks several of the “myths” surrounding the ports deal causing such a stir of late:

Myth #1: An Arab company is trying to buy six American ports.
No, the company is buying up a British company that leases terminals in American ports; the ports are U.S.-owned. To lease a terminal at a U.S. port means running some business operations there — contracting with shipping lines, loading and unloading cargo and hiring local labor. Dubai Ports World is not buying the ports.
Several companies will lease terminals at a single port. In New Orleans, for example, the company Dubai Ports World is trying to buy (P&O Ports) is just one of eight companies that lease and operate terminals.
P&O Ports does business in 18 other countries. None of them are in righteous lathers about the sale of the business to a company owned by the United Arab Emirates. Dubai Ports World already operates port facilities all over the world, including such security-slacker states as China, Australia, Korea and Germany
Myth #3: American ports should be American.
Well, it’s too late, baby. According to James Jay Carafano of the Heritage Foundation (a place really known for its Arab-loving, soft-on-terror approach), “Foreign companies already own most of the maritime infrastructure that sustains American trade…” Thirty per cent of the countries port terminals are operated by companies that are, um, unAmerican.
At the port of Los Angeles, 80 per cent of the terminals are operated by foreign companies. Chinese companies operate more than half the terminals. So why is this suddenly a threat?
[...]
Myth #4: The United Arab Emirates has “very serious” al Qaeda connections…
Politicians have been quick to point out that two of the 9/11 hijackers were from UAE. And we’re turning over our ports to them? Well, by that logic, we shouldn’t let Lufthansa land in our airports or have military bases in Germany, because that country housed a bunch of the 9/11 hijackers as they were plotting….

Read the whole thing.
This is all beginning to sound like much ado about nothing.

Tags: Dennis Walaker, Domestic Issues, Red River Flood

http://www.freerepublicans.com/ FreeRepublicans.com

Why should America’s security be a matter of business expiedience?

Why should America’s security be influenced by the bottom line?

Why should Foreign Corporations have any part in America’s security?

Why should Any Corporation be responsible for America’s security?

 

This Port’s deal make Harriet Meirs look like a good idea. 
http://sayanythingblog.com/ likwidshoe

Why should America’s security be a matter of business expiedience?
Why should America’s security be influenced by the bottom line?

Why should Foreign Corporations have any part in America’s security?

Why should Any Corporation be responsible for America’s security?

It is obvious that you didn’t read the source.

Myth #2: The U.S. is turning over security at crucial ports to an Arab company.
No, security at U.S. ports is controlled by U.S. federal agencies led by the Coast Guard and the U.S. Customs and Border Control Agency, which are part of the Homeland Security department. Local jurisdictions also provide police and security personnel.
Marty

These kind of compaies are great cover for foreign operatives.  I’d much rather suspect that they were infiltrated with CIA agents than Al Quaeda agents…

They’re going to be infiltrated, one way or another.  All global corporations are. 
http://www.freerepublicans.com/ FreeRepublicans.com

The defense of the matter doesn’t matter.

Its just a bad idea that should not have gotten this far.

If this is not the end of Bush’s agenda I would not be surprised.

 

This is no different than Clinton allowing Loral Space to sell nuke technology to the Chinese. 
Dave

Likwid: That’s what I thought, and that’s why I sounded so confused about this when it first hit. (http://sayanythingblog.com/2006/02/20/911_dad_bush_has_gone_insane/#comments)
Jim

Why should America control these ports?  Do I not recall that several 9/11 hijackers took flight training in Florida?
Bat One

"Mutant Chickens Grow Teeth…" says the headline at the Drudge Report, a reference to a story at the LiveScience.com website which details research at the University of Manchester and reported in the journal Current Biology.

<blockquote>"What we discovered were teeth similar to those of crocodiles…" said researcher Mark Ferguson.  By making a few changes to the expression of certain molecules in the (genetic) pathway, the researchers were able to induce tooth growth in normal developing chickens…

This is all good news for hockey players. A direct application of this research, Ferguson said, could be re-growing teeth in people who have lost them through accident or disease.</blockquote>

It occurs to me that although the biological research is fairly recent, it may still explain another recent phenomenon, namely the fact that Democrats are criticizing the administration’s plan to allow the sale of the company tasked with operational oversight of certain US ports to a company based in the UAE, and doing so on the basis of (Gasp!) national security concerns.  Finally, the Democrats are discovering this country’s need to be secure.

See!  Chicken can grow teeth after all!
MikeAdamson

I agree that the reaction has been overblown as it’s not like the company is responsible for port security or anything. The UAE has been very generous to the US in allowing naval and other military facilities in their country so this could well be a gesture of appreciation to them. The optics are bad as usual…so many members of the Administration that should know what’s going on apparently found out about the deal after the fact…even those who were supposed to be part of the approval process. Nothing new in that of course but there are bigger fish to fry for sure.
Dave

It appears to be overblown as well, but I’d rather err on the side of caution in national security issues.
http://www.WILLisms.com/ Will Franklin

This entire brouhaha is just embarrassing for everyone who is getting so riled up against this deal.

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