Posted on 02/20/2006 4:13:19 PM PST by Dane
A team from Dubai's DP World is expected to start meetings on Tuesday with groups which have expressed concerns about its takeover of P&O Ports' US operations as it seeks to head off political opposition to the deal.
The company, owned by the Emirate of Dubai's Ports, Customs and Freezones Authority, is set to meet representatives of some of the five US port authorities where P&O has operations, and national politicians who oppose the deal.
The team is thought to include some of the many US citizens who work for DP World, including Ted Bilkey, chief operating officer, who has been one of the main actors in Dubai's transformation into a major shipping hub.
They hope the meetings will erode support for efforts to reverse the approval already given for the deal by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, which approved the takeover in January. The efforts gained momentum last week when Senators Hillary Clinton and Robert Menendez introduced legislation which would prevent a company controlled by a foreign government from taking over a US port facility.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
That's the kind of language that drives me nuts (sorry). Foreign operations DO NOT run our ports. Our ports are run by local Port Authorities. When the ports were small (and some still are), the PA could handle all of the operations themselves. As they grew larger, and decided that they had to subcontract out some operations, there weren't many American companies interested in doing that. So they contracted with the most efficient cos. they could find.
And they did have to get approval from the DoT and Congress.
Which is either stupid or silly. We should be worrying about security and economic health, not which party prevails.
Produce just one example of terrorists trying to "buy or bully their way into port operations" anywhere in the world, and we'll agree that it's a problem.>/I>
We're talking about a Middle Eastern country, where many terrorist sympathizers reside attemping to take over port operations, it most certainly is about societal traits. If you can't see the obvious correlation between the two then nothing I or anyone else says is going to open your eyes.
Call it what you want but that's my whole point in referring to the way American politics works and why the deal is dead.
No, we're talking about a half-dozen container ports in the United States.
We're talking about a business.
We're talking about a change in ownership due to one company having purchased another company.
And, I'm talking about the demagogy of certain politicians in both parties who, along with right-wing radio commentators, would scotch a deal that, in a free society, is strictly between the ports involved and the contractor.
But then who said we still have a free society?
Even a free society has a right to put national security and the safety of its citizens over simple business transactions. You sound like another pure Free Trader and why that philosphy is going to eventually kill us off, and just not economically.
Are you seriously so cowed by the threat of terrorism that you would turn this once-free country into a clone of our former adversaries in Eastern Europe?
Maybe you'd like a little censorship to go along with the economic straightjacket you're sewing? Like it was in the good old days of World War I, World War II and -- dare I mention it so soon after the birthday of St. Abraham? -- the Civil War?
And make sure dissidents are confined until the war is over.
Yeah, that's the ticket. That ought to bring terrorism to our shores faster than even Bin Laden could hope for.
"Society" and, indeed, government itself has no rights.
Individuals have rights; governments have powers.
In the United States, those powers are limited by a piece of paper (that's GWB's term for it, at least) called the Constitution.
Can you find the power to declare a foreign business illegal? Look hard.
We're not talking about Pizza Hut are we? These are our ports and yes when it comes to sensitive installations there must be government oversight for obvious national security reasons. If that wasn't the case with this deal then why did it have to be pre-approved by CFIUS?
The rest of your post is hysterical ranting that doesn't warrant a response.
Good night and good luck.
DP World did not buy CSX RR.
DP World acquired CSX World Terminals which is the former international terminal business of CSX Corporation.
None of that operation is in the U.S..
Just to make the soap opera more intersting...
John Snow was the CEO of CSX and Bush appointed him to
Secretary of Treasury on Jan 13, 2003.
Sorry for the *wrong* kind of language.
"As they grew larger, and decided that they had to subcontract out some operations, there weren't many American companies interested in doing that."
It still seems amazing that there are/were few American companies doing this type of work. Seems like a profitable field.
This is an excellent link, containint by year UAE Milestones & Illegal transactions. Here area a few of them:
October 2003: Five containers of centrifuge components, sent by B.S.A. Tahir and shipped through Dubai, are seized en route to Libya. The items are part of four shipments made by Malaysia's Scomi Precision Engineering (SCOPE) between 2002 and 2003 to Dubai's Aryash Trading Company. One of the four consignments lists the addressee as Gulf Technical Industries, but is diverted to Desert Electrical Equipment Factory, also based in Dubai.
October 2003: According to B.S.A. Tahir, the BBC China, the ship carrying the seized centrifuge components, was also transporting an aluminum casting and dynamo for Libya's centrifuge workshop. The consignment was allegedly sent via Dubai by TUT Shipping on behalf of Gunas Jireh of Turkey.
October 2003: Two weeks after the seizure of the centrifuge components, B.S.A. Tahir arranges the transshipment to Libya, via Dubai, of an electrical cabinet and power supplier-voltage regulator on behalf of Selim Alguadis, an associate of A.Q. Khan.
December 2003: Hamid Fathaloloomy, principal of Dubai's Akeed Trading Company, allegedly attempts to export U.S. pressure sensors to Iran.
2004: Over 400 companies are operating in the Ras Al Khaimah Free Trade Zone, 38% of which are Indian.
2004: Dubai Ports Authority's capacity passes six million TEU.
April 2004: The U.A.E. freezes the accounts of SMB Computers as part of its investigation into B.S.A. Tahir, who is the Group Managing Director.
April 2004: Elmstone Service and Trading FZE is sanctioned for two years by the United States for transferring to Iran equipment and/or technology of proliferation significance since 1999.
June 2004: 1383 companies are operating in SAIF-Zone.
August 2004: The U.S. indicts Khalid Mahmood, of Dubai, for breaking the U.S. embargo to Iran. Mahmood allegedly attempted to arrange the sale of forklift radiators from the U.S. to Iran, by concealing the final destination in the sale.
September 2004: The I.S.G. lists 20 U.A.E. firms that are suspected of having acted as intermediaries or front companies for Saddam Hussein's Iraq, and says that the U.A.E. was a transit location for prohibited goods, with companies using deceptive trade practices. The I.S.G. also concludes that the U.A.E. and Iran were the most frequent destinations for Iraqi smuggled oil and owned the majority of smuggling vessels involved.
I wouldn't doubt that you would find such criminal activity in Asian, European, and North American ports.
geroge galloway(current member of the UK parliament) profited nicely from saddam's oil for food scam, richard reid, UK citizen, was the infamous shoe bomber. The UK company P&O currently runs these container facilities, using your logic, P&O should have it's contract revoked.
http://www.wisconsinproject.org/countries/dubai/transshipment-milestones.html
Sorry, I forget the website address, so you could view the rest.
I guess it could be alot worse, it could be better too. I don't have to spell it out. At this point, we all know the downfall of this transaction. Over a week ago, I was tapping my toes wondering when the MSM would get off the Cheney accident and start picking up on this. I'm glad it's getting some attention now. Now I can stop my Bi---ing and let the Officials duke it out..lol
Like the commie-fascist Chinese, successful attacks require good intelligence vectors if not tactical control over battle space. Bin-terror is coming back, but Islam's destruction of our econnomy is Qaeda's stated goal for OBL's declared Hundred Years War.
This is a critical election year for us, perhaps for belicose Islam, more critical than distant 2008. After 500 years of shameful slumber, the World Conquest by Islam shall continue until they vanquish us or are destroyed by us.
FREEPERS and lurkers, READ their "holy scriptures", aka their battle plans and rules of engagemeent.
We are The Minutement and defenders of our Ratified Constitutional Republic, against all enemies both foreign and domestic. Europeans willingly disarmed; most Americans never shall.
The criminal and terrorist invasion continues with our borders and posts nearly wide open. War is coming because too many Americans have yet to understand the acts of war against us.
Well since you are so happy about the media hysteria, please tell me your "solution". Is it a huge new govt. beauacracy with the union goons having another trough to gorge?
Please tell me, I would like to know since it is so easy to react, but kinda of hard to propose.
Me, DPWorld is a world leader and has recruited some of the best western and US talent, add a few more security measures and I would trust them running container facilities rather than a new govt. beaucracy that will be at the mercy of communist union goons.
FWIW, DP did buy the CSX terminal operations. Here
If the # 3 company is not good enough to do the job, who is? Consider the losing bidder on the transaction, PSA International. They are partially owned by Hutchinson-Wampoa. If there are security concerns with DP, there would also be security concerns with PSA/Hutchinson-Wampoa/ChiComs.
Strike them off the list too, who's next?
Not to hillary, she would be all for the chicomms.
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