Company From United Arab Emirates Poised to Oversee Six American Ports Due to Sale

AP/YahooNews ^ | 2-11-06 | Ted Bridis

[STARWISE]

A company in the United Arab Emirates is poised to take over significant operations at six American ports as part of a corporate sale, leaving a country with ties to the Sept. 11 hijackers with influence over a maritime industry considered vulnerable to terrorism.

The Bush administration considers the UAE an important ally in the fight against terrorism since the suicide hijackings and is not objecting to Dubai Ports World's purchase of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.

The $6.8 billion sale is expected to be approved Monday. The British company is the fourth largest ports company in the world and its sale would affect commercial U.S. port operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.

DP World said it won approval from a secretive U.S. government panel that considers security risks of foreign companies buying or investing in American industry.

[fallujah-nuker]

A little history involving the UAE, our "war on terror". Be prepared to scroll down a little over halfway, I've excerpted the paragraphs that are of interest.

In early 1999, they followed bin Laden to a southern hunting camp where he was falcon hunting with a group of visiting Arab princes. The agents put up GPS devices, the Agency put up satellites and took pictures of the camp. It was a typical Persian Gulf camp, complete with generators, refrigerators and big tents, and there was even a C-130 on an airstrip nearby which the photographs allowed them to trace back to the United Arab Emirates.

This episode went on for about ten days or two weeks. Inside the National Security Cabinet, the question was, “Do we have enough information to shoot? And even if we do, can we risk killing unknown possible members of one of the United Arab Emirates’ royal families?” In the end Clinton chose not to shoot.

Many of the officers who were involved in running this operation felt very frustrated by the decision, because they had thought that this was about as good a look at him as they could get, but on the other hand, it’s easy to understand why you wouldn’t, in the middle of the Senate impeachment trial, risk destroying the royal family of the United Arab Emirates without any guarantee that you would get bin Laden; and even if you did get bin Laden while destroying half the royal family of the U.A.E., it’s not clear whether that would have been judged a success.

This seems to have gone down the memory hole like "Able Danger."

[Stellar Dendrite]

"Does this pose a national security risk? I think that's pushing the envelope," said Stephen E. Flynn, who studies maritime security at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations. "It's not impossible to imagine one could develop an internal conspiracy, but I'd have to assign it a very low probability.""


its always the CFR, eh?

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

The Treason Club.

[neutronsgalore]

"its always the CFR, eh?"

How much control would the company have over hiring anyone at the port? It's a lot easier to bypass security if you can control who is being hired in other positions there.

[pointsal]

Wow... has this been below the radar screen?

What the HELL is going back there?

[pointsal]

Why not hire Halliburton?

It sure looks like our very own government will sell out the citizens of this country for a BUCK....

Yep, just hire a lobbyist and its a done deal!

[Spandau]

History repeats itself but now the Republicans are selling us out.

I agree. The Republicans are now a crime syndicate.

[Stellar Dendrite]

bump

[jb6]

Well, for the record, the 911 funding originated from Saudi Arabia...from our "special" relationship with the Saudies...you know, like bombing Serbian Christians to support a Saudi project called the KLA. Of all the lands that more then deserves to be bombed to rediculous craters, it's those vipers in Saudi Arabia....but they spend well over $50 million each year on DC and nothing they do will get them in trouble.

[chasio649]

My general post so i don't have to repeat myself:

Don't do it...no matter what...if it makes Bush look bad, you MUST contort, bend and stretch yourself into supporting him and give a reason why any news like this is an attack by the MSM or any information like this is good for the country, free trade, Bush's ultimate plan etc....no matter what or you will be labeled a lib, commie, DUer, idiot, alarmist, protectionist..etc....

[Post-Neolithic]

P&O Ports in Philadelphia, PA & Camden, NJ

P&O Ports North America, Inc. is a 50% joint venture partner in Delaware River Stevedores (DRS), which provides stevedoring and terminal services in Philadelphia, PA, Camden, NJ, and Wilmington, DE.

stevedoring.. Dfn (tr. & intr.v. ste·ve·dored, ste·ve·dor·ing, ste·ve·dores)

To load or unload the cargo of (a ship) or to engage in the process of loading or unloading such a vessel.

[Don'tMessWithTexas]

There is nothing to prevent a Panamanian-registered ship, owned by a Middle Eastern shipping company, from sending a nuke into an American port right now.

[Don'tMessWithTexas]

How do we know that the Chicoms aren't putting nerve agents in all the containers they ship to Walmarts all around the country?

[BootsOfEscaping]

Oh yeah, this is a non-issue, no need to worry..just continue spending..nothing to see here. Riiight.

The president has the ultimate authority to stop the deal. And he should. Of course, he won't.

I feel for those of you that live near ports..as many experts have stated, the US getting nuked is not a matter of if but when.

I'm with the Washington Times:

"The root question is this: Why should the United States have to gamble its port security on whether a subsidiary of the government of the United Arab Emirates happens to remain an antiterrorism ally?

The Committee on Foreign Investment is the wrong place for this decision to be made; it appears to be little more than a rubber stamp.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, New York Democrat, among others, is asking tough questions about this deal. For once, we agree with him: President Bush should overrule the committee to reject this deal. If that doesn't happen, Congress should take action. The country's ports should not be owned by foreign governments; much less governments whose territories are favored by al Qaeda."

[sasha123]

Is it kickbacks? Back Scratching? Compromising the less of 2 evils? What is the other evil?

Something very intersting: A Hong Kong Company (OOIL) owns, yes owns the Port of New York, Port of New Jersey. This happend many moons ago:

http://www.global-terminal.com/t3/index.php?id=181

America has been outsourced!

[BigSkyFreeper]

What was your opinion when Clinton wanted to sell Long Beach Port to Chinese companies?

That was a sale and reuse of a closed Naval Base.

Some background information here: http://www.conservativeusa.org/longbch.htm

And this from the NY Times in 1997: http://users.aol.com/beachbt/cosco.txt

In the end, the 105th Congress prohibited the sale to Chinese state-owned shipping company COSCO.

[BigSkyFreeper]

So, conceivably, they could ship a nuke into a U.S. port?

Conceivably, if DHS was asleep at the switch or "out to lunch".

[BigSkyFreeper]

You must not have any idea how difficult port security is to accomplish safely.

Tell that to the Coast Guard and Port Authority, who are in charge of port security, not only in NY/NJ, but every port in this country.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Don't make me cuss right here near Sunday!

I'll save you the trouble. It's alarmist gobbledygook from the MSM. Schumer's never been interested in national security. What prompted him to become concerned all of a sudden?

I'd say there's a good chance he got snookered by the MSM and their penchant to leave out pertinent facts and details in their own reporting. Hell, they don't like Bush anyway, so what's stopping them from misrepresenting the true fact of the matter about this company buyout? Or the fact that DHS is in charge of securing our borders (which includes port of entry, be it by land or by sea).