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.
I suppose the perception is that some low-level Al Queda type has a better chance of getting a job with the Dubai company than a British one and can then sneak a suitcase nuke on to a container.
Or something like that.
"This reminds me of the "Japan" is buying up all of the USA" hysteria we saw years ago."
Me too. I had heard it said many times that when I got older, I would have a Japanese boss and work for a Japanese company because they were buying everything. Pffft.
The PLA/ChiComs own the Long Beach port and the Panama Canal.
Too bad the sheeple were led by the media.
We have a long way to go. Pity!
...which would still have to clear Customs, which falls under Homeland Security.
If Savage isn't screaming, he isn't breathing.
This is a winner for the socialists(dems).
Jeb is cutting off his brothers escape route.
The press can slant this discussion either way and they will pick the side against Bush. The Repubs better get onboard with the dems and stop this. If it goes through, the Repubs will spend the next few years explaining why this was allowed to happen.
The press can pull people onto the front pages month after month to show how bad a decision the Bushies and Repubs made. The press can exaggerate situations to scare the American people.
It has to be congress, and the American people against the Bushies,and not the Dems and the American people against the Bushies and Repubs. - Tom
"...which would still have to clear Customs, which falls under Homeland Security."
Only about 5% of containers are inspected. The other 95% is charged duties based on the manifests. Don't deceive yourself into thinking that container security has no holes. It has plenty of holes.
The point was that it's the conservatives who began making a stink over this deal to begin with. I don't doubt for a moment the liberal media sees a chance at splitting conservatives and are taking advantage of it but the fact remains those originally drawing attention to it all were not them.
Of course, they're all on vacation this week....AGAIN!
They can be replaced easily. I imagine the line of people waiting for their jobs is rather long.
Holes which were there before this deal, and holes which will remain whether or not this deal is cancelled. They're irrelevant to the argument (although of course not to our nation's security).
Now, I really feel sick. Yikes.
Okay, I can see your point. But unless I see more convincing arguments from Savage or others who led this charge, I'll say they're as ill-informed as most others on this deal.
The next idiot that says the Ports are OWNED by anyone or are being SOLD should be shut dow. The deal is a pretty straight merger where the acquiring company gets the rights to the operating agreements. The only solution to this is to force the Ports to run themselves. LOL.
Look at post #7. Gulp. We're so not in control, it's pathetic.
I get it.. We're suppososed to turn to the DEMOCRATS on issues of national security, fiscal responsibility and border control...
WOrse -- the contract that no american company bid for was let back in 2000. These leases have been out there for years.
The leases are not expiring, and there is nothing really involving the U.S government here. Stockholders of the British Company O&P, which won the leases in 2000, have decided they want to sell their company. They put it on the market, there were two interested parties but in the end only one company even put in a bid, that was DP World, a company owned by the UAE (as so many companies are in this business -- Israel owns it's port companies for example).
Since the O&P company owned U.S. leases, the government had obligation by law to evaluate the sale for security issues. Note we are not selling anything, the administration didn't ASK for this, they had nothing to do with who is selling, or who is buying. They simply had to make a legal evaluation of the security issues. There are several, one involving an independent agency and one with the Homeland Security department.
All evaluations came up clean. Now people are saying Bush should have ignored the law and rigged the evaluations. Congress is pushing to make new laws to make this transfer illegal (not the ownership by O&P, but the sale to a company owned by a government).
That is their perogative, but they can't fault Bush for not blocking the sale since no current law allows it.
I think such a law should be carefully considered, as it has many negatives as regards free trade. It shouldn't be adopted in a knee-jerk reaction to this sale, based on political opportunism.
Frist needs to be reigned in on this. He's using it for political gain when he knows damned well that port security is the ball he and his fellow congressmen dropped.
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