Posted on 02/21/2006 11:08:07 AM PST by Reaganwuzthebest
CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- Gov. Jeb Bush said he has faith in his brother's administration over its decision to allow an Arab-owned company to operate major U.S. ports, including in Miami.
Dubai Ports World, a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates, is expected to take over a British company that has been running six U.S. ports.
Several South Florida Congress members and politicians believe the deal should be closely examined.
U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said she has no specific concerns about the company, although the fact that UAE was where a number of the Sept. 11 hijackers were being harbored warrants further examination.
However, a former security director said there is little cause for concern.
"Being regulated by the federal government and by the state government puts a very high threshold of security standard for any operator at the Port of Miami," Nelson Oramas said.
Florida's governor, who attended a breakfast meeting at the Biltmore Hotel on Tuesday promoting the Central American Free Trade Agreement, said he thinks criticism by some Congress members is unwarranted because his brother, President George W. Bush, could press for more details by the time the sale is supposed to go through on March 2.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has said that the company went through a "very extensive" review process.
Nevertheless, the Republican governors of New York and Maryland said they might try to cancel lease arrangements at ports in their states.
Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Robert Menendez are planning to introduce legislation that would prevent the sale of port operations to foreign governments.
"Frist is so lacking in judgement I cannot imagine him as my physician."
From my 25 year VERY personal experience with the Medical profession, nearly all good doctors do only one thing well - doctoring.
I consider that a good thing.
The first priority would be to find American companies to do this work. I can't believe in a country of 300 million people there's nobody available. Did they even try to look for any?
Having an FBI, FAA, and CIA in charge of national airline security didn't do a damn thing to prevent 9/11.
Who is "they" in this case?
Executive thinking - there may be a dust-up with the Hildebest.
Remember gang they are not buying ports, they are buying long term leases on land and equipment to operate terminals within the Ports. The port of Los Angeles has most of it's terminals run by the Chicoms. Will they have to give up their leases?
Maybe the first step in this whole imbroglio would be to cut regulation for American business.
Thus, a decrease of socialism at the ports might be the answer, rather than the increase in socialism which many here are calling for.
Whoever sold the company is free to let the highest bidder buy them up but that doesn't mean the CFIUS had to go along with the deal. They could have actively sought out American companies to run the ports instead but chose to rubber stamp allowing this Arab country to take over operations.
THINK! Ok, dont you think that it would be most difficult to roll in on an operation that has been run by somone else...what about sabotage? THINK!
It's agreed nobody's buying the ports, to my knowledge it comes down to managing them. I think the argument is would it be safe to allow someone from the Middle East do it and imo the answer's no, it's too risky given what happened on 9/11.
It comes down to managing terminals within the port. Governments manage ports.
"Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Robert Menendez are planning to introduce legislation that would prevent the sale of port operations to foreign governments."
Curious. The two of them have been planning to introduce legislation for a week already. Anyone have a clue when they are going to do it?
The UAE company bought a right to the British assets, which include the port.
Are you going to force the British company to take any American company's offer (assuming there even is one)?
In a fashion..I was joking.
Here's why.....The DemoSocialistMarxistLeftistLyingLibs...are continually screaming that we cannot "profile"...we cannot "lump all Muslims" in with the "insurgents"...
And Islam is a "religion of peace"...we must respect them...Blah,blah,blah...
BUT....here's Hillary and some equally idiotic Senator...basically "doing" what they supposedly abhor....
Make any sense?
No they can sell their company to whoever they want. That doesn't mean however the CFIUS had to go along with allowing the new owners to carry on operations within the country. They could have instead opened up bidding to allow American companies to do it but chose not to.
It's looking more and more like political posturing coming from them. I'm waiting for the Republicans in the House to do something, yesterday it was reported they planned on it.
As I said...THINK. Do ya really think this means that the ports are going to be overrun by turban wearing a-rabs with AK's bent on killing innocent American citizens? This is a business deal. It's designed to MAKE MONEY. They're not taking over ownership of the ports, they're not going to be allowed to take over the security of the ports. And here's a clue...no matter who has the contracts, most of the containers entering the USA will still pass through this company.
Actually, they do have to go along with it unless credible evidence is presented to show the company has ties to terrorist organizations. The CONTRACT for port operations came with the company they purchased. You really think we're going to get cooperation from the UAE or any other country if we set a rule saying no "filty arabs" are allowed to have any business dealings with America? Yeah, that's a great way to gain cooperation.
There is evidence out there of this Arab country's ties to terrorist organizations, it's being reported all over the place. And I suspect when all is said and done there's going to be a lot more of it in the coming few weeks.
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