Posted on 02/22/2006 7:04:15 AM PST by new yorker 77
'We haven't done a good job of explaining how we work'
Just about any given time, it's possible to find a Greek-owned ship flying a Liberian flag, employing a Filipino crew and carrying cargo from China into a U.S. port terminal managed by a British company that hires American longshoremen.
This is how Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target and others get their socks and stereos for the U.S. consumer.
So, some in the shipping industry have been taken aback in the past week by growing criticism in Washington and in state capitals to a deal that would transfer control over some operations in several major U.S. ports from a British company to one owned by the government of Dubai.
"To be fair, we're on the edge of the world and we haven't done a good job explaining how we work, so people are confused by it," said Art Wong, a spokesman for the port of Long Beach, near Los Angeles.
.... skip to
In the major U.S. ports where Dubai Ports World would operate terminals - Baltimore, New York, New Jersey, Miami, New Orleans and Philadelphia - many of the shipping lines, the stevedores that load and unload ships and terminal operators have foreign owners.
The top 10 containership fleets are based in Denmark, Switzerland, Taiwan, China, Germany, France, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore, said Peter S. Shaerf, managing director of AMA Capital Partners LLC, a merchant banking firm that focuses on the maritime and transportation industries. All call on U.S. ports, and some of the shipping lines manage terminals.
Other terminal operators with U.S. operations are based in England, Denmark and Hong Kong.
....
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
this is no time for common sense. this is a political goldmine. /sarc
Evidently all logic has fled and hysterics and hyperbole rule.
There's a reason there is no U.S. company managing these ports and it's because no such company exists.
the ila controls the ports, don't you know...makes no difference whose names are on paper....
Agree with you there. I was afraid of a public stoning yesterday after I suggested Michelle Malkin was feeding the hysteria.
In New York, the ports are controlled by the Port Authority, called the 'PA'.
I guess that might make some consider them allied with the terrorists.....
Only if the PA workers arrive riding camels.
The loss prevention reports were VERY interesting! To say the least.
The dockworkers would be in the parking lot selling stuff right out of the purloined containers.
No can do.
I think if you're walking down the path of "knowing the totality," then you also need to consider Hutchinson, Maersk, PSA International (the other P&O bidder), and all of the other global port operators who have U.S. interests. That's a tall order, something fit for several years of reasearch by a Wall Street analyst. Good luck.
But where all this (impossible) effort brings you is right back to the beginning, the very simple question of "what difference to our security does it make who operates an American port terminal"?
And the answer is "none", since security is run by TSA and the Coast Guard.
By the way, the consensus we've seen so far from container/shipping experts and professionals, and from Wall Street analysts, is that this is a big yawn. Do you think they're all ignorant as to security considerations? I don't.
Sometimes I am stunned with how bad this administration is about PR. Of course, every time they try to get the word out the media attacks them so they're in sort of a catch 22 position.
HUH?!?! I think there's a fraction of us here on FR that understand that. Most of the hysteria is over "Arabs running our port security!"
Add to the "big yawn" group anyone who has worked in any form of government security/logistics.
I meant everyone who's surmounted the emotional issue of "Arabs running our ports", which I confess I held until I did just a little reading and thinking about it.
This is a red herring issue driven entirely by emotion.
Yep.
Perhaps it's just a ploy to create a government-owned company to do the job (as it's clear that the private sector doesn't want to do so.) Then there would be lots of potential political favors to be granted.
Acknowledged. Out.
Perhaps you'll have more success at convincing some others around here than this "cheerleading, Bushbot troll" did.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.