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Your information is well sourced and needs careful examination to figure out what is really going on (which I trust you will do, given time). This could be one of the most important stories, both ways, since 9/11.

I cite to it so I can find it again ;-) At any rate, after a bit of rooting around, I am of the opinion that the Dubai deal is more of the usual maneuvering by big money, and nothing more than that. Such maneuvering often involves government actors, as business and government actors are fairly well cut from the same close knit families.

I think the sale is a non-issue from a security standpoint. Dubai and the UAE are already major beneficiaries of US Customs programs, Secure Containers Initiative, and Megaports Initiative. See http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1581698/posts?page=80#80 for an introduction.

I would suggest that a thread be started ...

It'll be more fun for me to watch proliferation of threads on the subject, and resulting flame wars on the Dubai project. My posts today have been on a variety of threads, and many of them relate to the Dubai project. If anybody is interested to review my observations, cites and conclusions, read through my posting history from about here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/user-posts?id=18066;more=36790500

While poking around for a good "post number" to attach to that link, I ran into this old post of mine ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/620293/posts?page=49#49

I have learned that he (she?) is a very knowledgeable and resourceful advocate who is usually right and has the facts to back up any positions taken ...

Shucks. Thanks. I've been wrong plenty of times, trust me on that one.

It'll be more fun for me to watch proliferation of threads on the subject, and resulting flame wars on the Dubai project.

There's an old joke:

Two drunks are sitting at a bar on the top floor of a fancy old hotel in the middle of a big city. One is explaining to the other that the shape of the buildings surrounding the hotel funnel the wind up the sides in such a way that there's enough wind to keep someone airborne who simply opens one of the nearby windows and steps out. The second drunk says he doesn't believe it and challenges the first drunk to prove it. So drunk #1 steps over, opens the window and steps out, many floors above the street, and simply floats there.

Drunk #2 is amazed as the guy steps back in and sits down, declaring that he has to try that. He steps over to the still open window, steps out and promptly falls to the street many floors below.

The bartender looks at the guy still sitting at the bar and says "you're a mean drunk, Superman"