Free Republic

Excerpt - Bomb squads are responding to Terminal 18 on Seattle's waterfront after a canine bomb team found possible explosives in a container, the Coast Guard said this afternoon. ~ snip ~

The Port of Lazaro Cardenas, on the lower west coast of Mexico, is aptly named after Lázaro Cárdenas del Río, 62nd president of Mexico from 1934 to 1940.Government and business representatives from Mexico and Laredo met Wednesday at the La Posada Hotel and Suites to discuss the immediate and future local economic impact of a burgeoning Mexican port. Cárdenas del Río became known for his progressive program of building roads and schools, promoting education, land reform, social security and equality among the population as well as the unusually strict honesty of his administration. The Port of Lazaro Cardenas and other...

Simon Group (SMON.L: Quote, Profile, Research) has recruited several former U.S. government officials as directors of a new venture considering a bid for the U.S. ports business being sold by Dubai Ports World, the Financial Times said on Monday. The ports operator is likely to be one of several bidders for the business to have recruited a board dominated by former U.S. military, security and government officials, the paper said, citing a person familiar with the sale process. State-owned Dubai Ports said in March it would relinquish control of six U.S. ports it acquired when it took over firm P&O...

Can the Port of Humboldt Bay be a participant in the new “Silk Road” as experts predict West Coast shipping trade traffic with China will triple by 2020? It could happen with the help of the Port of Oakland, which is setting the stage for a agreement with its northerly neighbor to begin an formal relationship in the upcoming months with the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District. But actual container shipping between Oakland and Humboldt's deep-water port couldn’t happen any sooner than 2011, according to Port of Oakland Maritime Director Wilson Lacy, who presented an overview of the...

The nation's defense against nuclear terrorism took a major step Friday, federal officials said, following the award of contracts worth $1.2 billion to install advanced sensors at U.S. ports of entry to screen for radioactive cargo. The Department of Homeland Security plans to install 1,400 advanced detection systems at 370 border crossings and ports under the program, which has been in development at federal laboratories for several years. The sensors, which cost $350,000 to $600,000 each, will allow inspectors to scan rail cars, trucks and shipping containers with greater accuracy and fewer false alarms, said Vayl S. Oxford, director of...

To understand the trade deficit, residents of Sandison Street do not need the help of world-class economists. They can just glance across the street at the mountain of faded brown cargo containers blocking the Wilmington sky. The equation is simple. As the deficit grows, the mountain gets higher. "It's getting taller; it's spreading out," said resident Maria Lopez, eyeing the pile that stretches for two blocks. Tens of thousands of containers sit empty today in Wilmington — stark testimony that America buys more from other countries than it sends overseas to sell. Millions of the 40-foot-long steel containers arrive in...

DUBAI — DP World, on target to achieve 40 per cent growth in four years, will spend up to $3 billion to boost container traffic at the 52 port terminals it currently operates around the globe. Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Chairman of the world's third largest port operator, said the new investments would be used to expand cargo handling facilities and new equipment at the existing ports spread across 30 countries —currently boasting a combined annual throughput of more than 50 million TEUs. Announcing the formal launch of Dubai World — the holding group comprising a collection of companies, including...

Truck, ship and cargo-handling equipment pollutants would be reduced 50 percent in five years under a clear air proposal for the Long Beach and Los Angeles harbors. Cleaner vehicles and shore-side electrical outlets so vessels can shut down diesel engines while dockside are key elements of the plan unveiled Wednesday. "This is an action plan, this is not a study. The days of yakkin' are coming to a screeching halt," harbor commission president S. David Freeman said. Proposals also include retrofitting and replacing cargo-handling equipment and locomotives. The plan, which now enters a 30-day public review period before approval by...

had always pictured my paternal grandfather as a desert warrior. He was a Bedouin sheik riding across the bronzed landscape atop a one-hump camel, his red and white headdress draping his scalp, a golden dagger tied to his waist with papyrus rope. Yes, this was my grandfather, of the Balqa region in Jordan, a Christian Bedouin who lived into his 90s but passed away before meeting the last of his grandchildren, with whom he could never communicate and who lived two continents away in America. Yet I knew my grandfather when I was a small boy. I saw him when...

Issue Date: May 23-29, 2006, Posted On: 5/23/2006 Saudis driving UAE efforts to buy U.S. ports, military factories Congressional investigators have found evidence that Saudi Arabia was behind the takeover of major ports and defense facilities in the United States. Congressional sources said investigators who have examined the United Arab Emirates purchase of companies that operate U.S. major ports and a key subcontractor to the American military suspect that Saudi investors helped arrange financing for the multi-billion-dollar deals. The sources said Saudi princes have sought to invest in critical infrastructure and defense in the United States. "There is no smoking...

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee recently approved a major maritime security bill that would start the Department of Homeland Security down the road to 100 percent scanning of cargo containers. There have also been attempts in the House to add requirements for radiation scanning and the use of seals on all containers before they enter the United States. These approaches are misguided. These approaches are efforts to thwart a nuke-in-a-box scenario, but the nuke-in-a-box is an unlikely terrorist tactic. If an enemy wanted to smuggle a bomb into the United States, an oil or chemical tanker, roll-on/roll-off...

President Bush approved a deal to allow a company from Dubai, the country that was forced to withdraw from the Portgate deal, to take over American plants that make parts for jets and tanks for the United States. Dubai is part of the United Arab Emirates, a country that continues to pay money to the families of homicide bombers and to the Hamas terrorist group. It appears to have been protecting Osama bin Laden in the late 1990s for some period of time. America was unable to bomb Osama's hideout because he was meeting with officials of the government of...

Americans were rightly outraged over the possibility of an Arab nation with ties to terrorists taking control of six major American ports. Protests from across the nation helped to squelch the deal. However, the job’s not finished. The Communist Chinese still control ports at Long Beach. Congressman Charlie Norwood, (R-GA) made a strong case for getting the Chinese out of the port of Long Beach when he noted that while Dubai has been a reliable partner for America in the War on Terror, Red Chinese officials have threatened invasion of America’s ally on Taiwan and nuclear war against the United...

The Senate voted Wednesday to divert some of the money President Bush requested for the war in Iraq to instead increase patrols against illegal immigrants on the nation's borders and increase security at U.S. ports. An amendment cutting Bush's Iraq request by $1.3 billion to pay for new Border Patrol agents, aircraft some fencing at border crossings widely used by illegal immigrants was adopted on 59-39 vote. While the border security funds had sweeping support, Democrats and Republicans argued over whether the cuts to Pentagon war funds would harm troops on the ground in Iraq. The cuts, offered by Judd...

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. has developed a sophisticated system of nets to catch dangerous foreign cargo before it gets into the U.S. The problem, critics say, is that the nets are full of holes. Those holes allowed a cargo container holding 22 Chinese stowaways to land April 4 at the Port of Seattle, unloaded from the M/V Rotterdam. The container likely would have sat for several days before anyone inspected it, said Mike Milne, a Seattle spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the agency in charge of such inspections. Of course, long before that, in...

Cargo officials say developing a security plan could create a worker shortage by barring illegals and felons. ********** Cargo industry officials are worried that a federal ID system aimed at boosting security could cost many port workers in Los Angeles and elsewhere their jobs, something that would bottle up the flow of goods destined for virtually every U.S. community. Details of the program -- more than three years in the making -- are still being worked out. But according to industry officials who have discussed it with the Transportation Security Administration and the Coast Guard, illegal immigrants and people convicted...

The illegal invaders are threatening our Ports on May 1. Go here to read the transcript: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/12/ldt.01.html CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): They've already marched in the streets. Now supporters of unconditional amnesty for illegal aliens are taking their protests to a whole new level, trying to shut down the nation's ports and rail lines. ERNESTO NEVAREZ, L.A. PORT COLLECTIVE: It will come to a grinding halt, transportation, commerce. They are going to put a wall along the border with Mexico. We're going to put a wall between us and the ocean. And those containers ain't going to move....

CAIRO, Egypt - A confidential Treasury Department review of a United Arab Emirates firm's pending purchase of the British-based contractor that makes components for a tank used by the U.S. Army is expected to go to the White House as soon as this week, according to administration officials. The proposed $1.2 billion deal is almost identical to Dubai Ports World's takeover of the British firm that operated American ports from Miami to New York. But in this case, the proposed buyer, Dubai International Capital, would gain control of a British company, Doncasters Group Limited, that builds the specialized turbine fan...

Dubai: Dubai Ports World will invest Dh12.9 billion to develop and expand five ports in the next three years, a top company official said yesterday. They include London Gate, Guangdong in China and Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam as part of the P&O deal, besides Kochi in India and Yarimca in Turkey. Mohammad Sharaf, chief executive of DP World, told Gulf News his company had been selected by Pakistan to operate Gwa-dar port. Pakistani government, which said the DP World offer was the best, is studying the terms of the deal to give the green light, he said. Meanwhile, Deutsche...

There is a tale that George Bernard Shaw asked a lady, a doyenne of society, if he could bed her for a million pounds. When she replied “but of course” he offered her ten pounds. “Who do you think I am?” asked the enraged grande dame. Shaw retorted: We’ve established that and now we are just negotiating your fee.” This story is apposite as our former top officials troll for money among the Arab states. In the September 2004 Outpost I wrote about former diplomats and legislators who lobby for Saudi Arabia. This seedy group has recently been joined by...

SARASOTA, FL. (NS) - Just recently a neighbor and myself were talking at lunch about what the United States could do to make our Nation's Seaports SAFER... After about 15 minutes, the following idea emerged which I then sent on to the Department Of Homeland Security (DHS) in my capacity as an Operation Highway Watch CoOrdinator and Instructor... Here is OUR idea, at least a starting point from my meighbor and me, for our Nation's Seaports... To: The DHS Washington, DC Below is an idea for you to consider in keeping our Nation's Seaports safer for ALL of us... Freight...

WASHINGTON - New legislative proposals responding to the scandal over a Dubai-owned company's attempted takeover of major operations at some major U.S. ports, which touched off a political firestorm, are getting attention in Congress on Thursday. Measures coming before committees in the House and Senate aim to strengthen U.S. cargo security and port safety, and to bring the federal panel that approved the DP World ports deal under tighter oversight by Congress. The multiagency panel, called the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, would be required to investigate any proposed transaction that involved a foreign government or "critical...

WASHINGTON -- An executive with a Dubai-owned company withdrew his nomination as head of the agency that oversees ports in a letter to President Bush on Monday. ... Sanborn, a graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and a retired Naval officer, said in his letter that the day he was nominated was the proudest of his life. Former presidential candidate John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., put holds on Sanborn's nomination, saying they needed to know more about his role in the process that allowed DP World to purchase the port operations in the first place. "I...

HONG KONG -- Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. defended its plans to help scan U.S.-bound cargo for terror threats at a port in the Bahamas where no U.S. customs agents are present. The flagship company of Asia's wealthiest businessman, Li Ka-shing, added that it isn't feasible or practical for U.S. officials to work in ports across the globe. The best option for the U.S. is to rely on trusted agents using sophisticated inspection equipment to scan shipments at ports abroad, said John Meredith, group managing director for Hutchison Port Holdings, Hutchison's maritime subsidiary and the world's largest ports company. The Hong Kong...

HONG KONG — Qatar Airways has backed off from a commitment to order 20 Boeing 777 aircraft and now says it might instead buy A340 jetliners from the Chicago supplier's European rival, Airbus. Qatar Airways Chief Executive Akbar Al-Baker gave no explanation for the change in plan but said his company was actively assessing the twin-aisle A340 as a possible alternative to the widebody Boeing 777. Mr. Baker's comments are a reminder that commitments to buy aircraft, and even firm orders for planes, can sometimes fall apart in the fierce battle for sales between Boeing Co. and Airbus. The two...

Overlooked during America's preoccupation with the Dubai ports deal is a much more imminent threat - China's methodical campaign to gain control of global ports that are strategically positioned to support military or economic actions against the United States - a move that has gone virtually unnoticed. The powerful Chinese-owned Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. is now the world's biggest cargo terminal operator, according to London-based Drewry Shipping Consultants. It also is the world's largest port owner. Hutchison Port Holdings has assumed control of scores of potential economic choke points, including 169 berths at 41 ports worldwide. These facilities control about 15...

The real reason the Dubai ports deal created such an uproar across America was the much larger issue of border security. If only Congress would show as much concern for our border security as they did about the port deal. Another matter Congress should concern itself with is China's growing reach over global ports - including ones close to the United States. Many Americans already feel neglected by their government over illegal immigration and vulnerable to terrorism due to lax border security. In my mind, it is still baffling to me that after Sept. 11, even after the U.S. government...

   Idiom(t?)s March 23, 2006 The now eviscerated DPW (Dubai Ports World) deal brings to mind some good idioms for the idiots in Congress who: (1) should shut their mouths and open their eyes; (2) can't see beyond the end of their noses and (3) cut off their noses to spite their faces.  The first being an insurmountable challenge for Chuck Schumer.  It’s absolutely amazing that the entire political population of Washington, D.C can’t stop talking long enough to just open their eyes and look at a map.  I would suggest a map of the Strait of Hormuz. If you really...

Asian construction workers in Dubai angered by low wages and alleged mistreatment smashed cars and offices in a riot that caused an estimated $1 million in damage and interrupted work around what is meant to be the world's tallest skyscraper. About 2,500 workers on developments surrounding the Burj Dubai tower beat security officers Tuesday, then smashed computers and files, witnesses said. They said about two dozen cars and construction machines were wrecked. The laborers, mostly from South Asia and China, demanded better pay and employment conditions and refused to return to work. Skilled carpenters earn $7.60 a day, and laborers...

Now that the Dubai Ports deal is apparently down the drain because of irate protests from the public and Congress, the United Arab Emirates company is taking a new tack. The San Francisco Examiner recently carried a column by P.J. Corkery that told how the UAE ,through its government-controlled Dubai Investment Group, is trying to buy the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain after failing to acquire the Albertson’s grocery chain. Corkery outlined who is the front man in this deal, and who is doing the lobbying and buying for Dubai. This is what he wrote: “The Yank partner of the Dubai Investment...

A forward looking must-read about the potentially irreversible consequences of blending foreign investment and radical ideology So they've cancelled the Dubai Ports World deal. Feel better now? Safer? I don't. Because the problem is not just Dubai Ports World. It isn't even the recent reports that indicate the National Guard has been stretched too thin by the loss of both manpower and equipment to Iraq, or the upcoming release of two "Virginia Jihad" members, or the enrolment at Yale University of a former Taliban spokesman. It isn't the recent relaxation of security rules on airplanes (knives, scissors and knitting needles...

Arab and US officials are growing nervous at the prospect of a second congressional uprising against the acquisition of American assets by a Middle Eastern-controlled company in the wake of the Dubai Ports World debacle. Snip ...

This whole situation with P & O, DP World and Eller & Co is just so bizarre. More twists and turns than a pretzel factory... Found this article, "Dubai accused of lying on ports", buried deep in Internet search land. Remember the email that was "leaked" to the media that implied that DP World was not going to sell its US assets? Guess who the leaker was? (no it wasn't Sen. Rockefeller)... None other than Eller & Co's own lawyer, Michael Kreitzer. Kreitzer said "we're making this public because we think Congress should do what it planned last week -...

Not only did Sen. Chuck Schumer stir up the political firestorm against DP World at the behest of Eller & Co, but Schumer’s staff sent reporters on a wild goose chase for experts to back up his claims. According to “Dubai or Not Dubai: Chuck on Killed Deal”, by Ben Smith and published by the New York Observer, Joe Muldoon III, a lobbyist for Eller & Co, “put together a white paper arguing that the deal could compromise US security”. In LATE JANUARY, a copy of the white paper was given to Schumer aide, Josh Vlasto. When Ted Bridis from...

WASHINGTON - The furor over efforts by an Arab company to buy U.S. port operations has focused attention on a little noticed economic fact of life: America increasingly is foreign-owned. From the ritzy Essex House hotel in Manhattan, owned by the Dubai Investment Group, to the nationwide chains of Caribou Coffee and Church's Chicken, owned by another company serving Arab investors, foreigners are buying bigger and bigger chunks of the country. The U.S. must borrow more than $2 billion per day from foreigners to finance its huge trade deficits. In 2005, for example, there was a record deficit of $805...

The U.S. Coast Guard and Customs Services truly are wonderful in safeguarding the country from hazardous materials that could be smuggled into our ports in shipping containers. They have a program that not only protects us but also speeds up the inspection process. Among those anxious to help this process are two people with very little in common. One is Hu Haifeng, a Red princeling, a business executive who lives and works in Beijing. He's the son of Hu Jintao, the president of China. The other is Sandy Berger, who was Bill Clinton's national security adviser for four years.[snip] Berger...

How's that Dubai ports deal going? You remember, the one where Dubai Ports World agreed to sell its U.S. port operations to an American company?

Three years into the war billed as the "liberation" of Iraq, the country teeters on the verge of Lebanonisation. Meanwhile, the six-syllable word the invasion was supposed to deliver, "democratisation" has offered glimmers of hope but, in its infancy, cannot overcome long-festering sectarian tensions. It turns out that Washington's neoconservatives were wrong about the dominoes. They expected regional despots to meet the same fate as Saddam. Instead, inadequate post-war planning and a bungled occupation resulted in ordinary Iraqis losing their lives. An entirely different and devastatingly tragic game of dominoes. The rationale for the war was to counter a "grave...

Both sides in our nation's latest exercise in political posturing succeeded. Democrats who were anxious to make Republicans look bad and Republicans who increasingly find a need to distance themselves from a president with plummeting poll numbers jumped aboard the Dubai ports controversy and now claim victory. Only about a month after the announcement that Dubai Ports World (DPW) — a firm controlled by one of the governments that make up what is known as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — would purchase the rights to manage operations [at terminals](edited by Cannoneer No. 4) at six major U.S. ports, the...

How’s that Dubai ports deal going? You remember, the one where Dubai Ports World agreed to sell its U.S. port operations to an American company? [snip] If I were Dubai Ports World, I’d sell the U.S. operations to Cosco, the Chinese Commies who run port operations in California, just for the fun of watching congressional heads explode. Or does Washington’s new fun xenophobia stop at the (Pacific) water’s edge? Congress’ demand that DPW sell their U.S. operations to someone even if there’s no someone to sell them to is almost a parody of the Democrats’ (and naysaying Republicans’) approach to...

“Now, in this emergency bill, is the time to address our most critical port security gaps,” Sabo said. “The American people expect us to do more than talk about inadequate port security and disaster preparedness. They demand that we back up our talk with action.”

Journal Editorial Report (Paul Gigot) - FNC show page Meme: Fissures in the GOP - immigration Topics: "Are Republicans headed for a political meltdown over immigration?" (as per Opinion Journal web site)"Immigration reform controversy: We'll examine policies under consideration" (as per FNC show page)"Plus, what a hard line on immigration means for this year's midterm elections" (as per FNC show page) Guests Colorado Governor Bill Owens I have a plan, just like the plan that's failing the President Ramesh Ponnuru, National Review illegal immigration isn't really a problem, really Stephen Moore, Walls Street JournalJason Riley, Walls Street JournalPaul Gigot, Walls...

This is a partial transcript of "Special Report With Brit Hume" from March 10, 2006, that has been edited for clarity. JIM ANGLE, GUEST HOST: Different people draw different lessons from the two-week debate over port security and whether to let a company from the United Arab Emirates own the unloading operations at six U.S. ports. Several experts repeatedly tried to tell Congress that it was focusing on the wrong thing. One of them is John Carafano of the Heritage Foundation and author of "Winning The Long War." He argues that the U.S. is less safe without the deal than...

While the news media and politicians in the United States continue their focus on the Dubai Ports World deal or censuring President George W. Bush or Hillary Clinton, there are enormous changes occurring in communist China. For the most part, the news media and pundits have ignored events in China for over a decade. Even when President Bill Clinton allowed dual-purpose technology transfers to the Chinese, few realized the significance of those transfers, and little was reported in the US media. Some of that US technology helped the Chinese government in perfecting the accuracy of their Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs)....

At last we have a genuine bipartisan consensus. A Congress whose members cannot work together to prevent the coming Social Security crisis, to keep the nation out of debt or to fix the health care system has finally agreed on something: Foreigners shouldn't be allowed to own or manage our critical infrastructure. Amazingly, this consensus has even outlived the Dubai ports deal that created it. U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said he's still looking to pass a bill forbidding foreign-owned companies from possessing or operating any "asset that is included on the...

Political Betrayal of Allies ..... A combination of Republicans and Democrats have been able to do what the terrorists could not do; they have convinced many of our allies, especially a strong one in the Middle East, that America cannot be trusted to work closely with them. Our friends have learned that elected members of Congress will betray an ally anytime a poll indicates that people want this to happen whether or not the public actually knows or even understands the true situation. Mob rule is back again. Can our own Bastille Day be far behind? Vive le guillotine!.... And...

The recent uproar over the Bush administration's plan to allow a Dubai company to run terminal operations at some major U.S. ports was an eye-opener for many Americans: It was the first time they learned just how few U.S. companies are involved in running ports and shipping lines. It wasn't the first — and likely won't be the last — time Congress has revolted against the idea of allowing a foreign government-owned firm take over parts of America's infrastructure that could make the country more vulnerable to a terrorist attack. Some lawmakers now are offering legislation that puts stronger restrictions...

WASHINGTON // A Democratic senator said Thursday that he'll prevent an executive with a Dubai-owned company from being appointed head of the agency that oversees ports until he's sure the company is selling all its U.S. port operations to an American buyer. President Bush in January nominated David Sanborn, DP World's director of operations for Europe and Latin America, to head the Maritime Administration. Shortly after the nomination, DP World's planned purchase of a company that runs six major U.S. port facilities became the center of a roiling political controversy. DP World did complete its purchase of London-based Peninsular and...

The 9/11 paranoia, relentless Arab and UAE bashing, in addition to a weak president and a hysterical Congress have all pulled together to abort a sound business transaction by the DP World that would have been a key element in building a stronger US-UAE relationship. Now that the ports deal has been scuttled, it is time to take stock of some of the possible negative effects. No one should pretend that it is business as usual, at least not here in the UAE. People, businesses as well as the government in the UAE are deeply offended as a result of...

WASHINGTON - The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll might sound like a broken record, but the tune grows louder as congressional midterm elections get closer and closer: President Bush is once again facing the lowest job approval rating of his presidency, the lowest percentage of Americans who believe the country is headed in the right direction, and an electorate that greatly prefers a Democratic-controlled Congress over a Republican-controlled one. Yet the poll also shows something else that goes beyond the November midterm elections: A strong majority believes Bush is experiencing a long-term setback from which he’s unlikely to recover....