[YOUGOTIT]

Good! The company that has the contract now is not American either and the company that has won this contract already has multi contracts around the world in port management. And NASA buys its rocket fuel from a French company so what is the big deal. A lot of spineless idiots are raising hell about something that is not a problem.. The problem is the leaking of classified information to the enemy and the idiots in the congress who want to stop the foreign listening program.

At least it is not like WW II and the mafia or the Communist are not in charge of the ports.

[dirtboy]

A lot of spineless idiots are raising hell about something that is not a problem..

Using that "logic," I guess you also think it was OK for Carter to give away the Panama Canal.

[Hildy]

Excuse me, but maybe it's because the English and the French are our ALLIES.

[July 4th]

I agree. Two points.

1) It's not as if the Dubai-based company is going to come in and replace all of the workers with Arabs. First off, they can't, for various immigration reasons. Plus, it's not like the employees who are there now are going to be replaced. About all that changes in a transaction like this is the name on the door.

2) As an economic policy, it doesn't bode well when the government starts sticking its nose into places where it shouldn't be stuck. For each government intervention in our free market economy, it makes it just a tad harder to attract foreign investment. Foreign investors do their research and say "why bother?" These are the same kinds of foreign investors who provide millions of Americans with jobs.

The fact is, these ports were already foreign-run, and regardless of how DPW spends their money, they must still run the ports under the American laws governing port operations. Frankly, I'd trust DPW more than P&O, only because DPW has the money to comply with the stringent DHS guidelines on security. Furthermore:

DP World, owned by the Dubai government, said it planned to keep P&O's headquarters in London and chief executive Robert Woods would continue to head the business. There are unlikely to be any job cuts as P&O will be run as a separate business, DP World says, as there is very little overlap between the operations of the two companies. Link

...Which only further demonstrates the "non-issue" that this port sale truly is.

[Sybeck1]

They could let that big American company that does port management do it. You know the one..hmm?? Its name kinda slipped my mind.

[markedman]

You obviously are unfamiliar with the genesis of this deal. Go to michellemalkin.com for a quick overview.

Re: "A lot of spineless idiots are raising hell about something that is not a problem."

You must be from the heartland, because you know very little about life on and around the docks.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Bump for approval.

[TheCrusader]

"The company that has the contract now is not American either and the company that has won this contract already has multi contracts around the world in port management. And NASA buys its rocket fuel from a French company so what is the big deal."

We are not at war with the French, but we are at war with Arab muslim terrorists, whom the government of Dubai openly and proudly support. And the company that has the contract now is from GB, America's greatest and closest ally on earth.

I think if you look into this thing a little more deeply you'll be appalled too. The company that gets this job will be working hand-in-hand with the U.S. Coast Guard security operations, and hence will be aware of our national port security procedures. They will be responsible for the hiring of civilian port security personnel and dock workers. This is not good.

[ChinaThreat]

At least they didn't sell it to the People's Republic of Massachusets.

[Gaffer]

I tend to agree with you and am not jumping on the chance to "jump on the 'Bushbots'." If the ports are anything like the aircraft manufacturing plants, etc. for Lockheed, General Dynamics and the rest, they are owned by the US Government and are 'leased' to the operators and manufacturers. For example, the Lockheed Plant in Georgia is Air Force Plant 6 leased by LH for umpteen years. I'm thinking this is something similar.

If the Government is still going to inspect the cargo and the employees are mostly American, I don't see a problem. Many people on this thread are confusing Saudi with UAE which is really talking about different things and using it as an excuse to complain about Bush...

[TalBlack]

"At least it is not like WW II and the mafia or the Communist are not in charge of the ports."

what would be the difference? If Whabbis managing the ports during the War On Terror is, under the rules, innocuous (as some are saying) then it should have been perfectly fine for the KGB to manage the ports 35 years ago.

The world is either going crazy or getting stupid.

There isn't a terrorist alive that wouldn't be rubbing his palms in glee at the prospect of arabs managing the ports.