[Vicomte13]

"Bull!!!!
Get you head out of the sand and take a look around."

Explain to me, very specifically, where the THREAT TO SECURITY is in having a foreign owner of a port unloading facility in the US.

He does not own the Coast Guard or police, and cannot restrict their operations in any way. We are long, long past the day when a private owner has any power to block national security and police actions on his own private property. Some people have mythical beliefs in what property rights OUGHT to be, but the reality is that the Coast Guard and various port authority police and inspectors are going to continue to operate at will in these ports no matter who owns them. "Ownership" of a port unloading facility or a lease gives diddly-squat power in America to stop the authorities from their security mission.

So, the same security officials will be there.

The owner of the company does not own the workers. He doesn't control the immigration or labor laws of the United States. Business people in America have no liberty at all anymore to "import their own" workers or anything like that, even if they wanted to. The owner of this company has to use unionized workers. The same people unloading the ships NOW will be doing it then. No owner of anything can change that. This is a heavily unionized industry. Owners do not have power over labor. They cannot replace the American stevedores with foreign imports.

Having an Arab boss is not going to in any way make an Irish-American dockworker or a Polish-American Teamster more likely to assist in terrorism.

So, WHERE IS THE THREAT?
Americans are still going to be doing all the loading or unloading. All that changes is the upstream cash flow. Now it goes to Britain. Then it will go to Dubai. No difference on the ground.

You tell me to get my head out of the sand. It is. I'm looking at the sand crabs, and looking straight and hard at how a port works. Spent a long time at sea and in ports around the world, and years in American ports. You tell me, specifically WHERE the SECURITY risk is.

I think you can't, because there ISN'T one.
You just don't like the IDEA of an Arab owning something that has something to do with a port. While I understand the concern, in the abstract, if you're going to get down to the point of telling me to get MY head out of the sand, I must retort: EXPLAIN WHERE THE THREAT IS. Concretely.
What will change? Will the Irish stevedores be corrupted? Will Teamsters start carrying bombs? Will the unions collapse and get off the docks because some Arab somewhere wants to ship in foreign Arabs to unload ships? How the hell is THAT going to happen without a massive strike and intervention by the immigration authorities?

There is no threat here.
The problem is purely optical.
You say otherwise. So walk me through the scenario, of how having an ultimate upstream Arab owner makes it more likely that a bomb is going to get into an American port.

[commonerX]

Simple and if I can come up with it, I am sure the terrorist will have more ideas 10 fold.

All of these people working at the port will not be Americans. The parent Company will send people over to oversee operations and run management jobs. No foreign company is going to invest all that money with out having some of its own people there.

I don't know how many it would be but lets say it is just a dozen or so per port.

These people will have family back home. The terrorist know this. They can and have taken their own people hostage to blackmail them into doing their bidding and getting information about how the security and port operations here in the USA work will be one of them. They will inform them on areas of weaknesses, laxness, and schedules with regard to security. Let them know of any holes in security or workers. They will be there everyday with access to observe these operations unlike someone just stopping nearby to spy on the port which anyone can do now. After that it may be no long in the hands of the port worker. The terrorist cell will take over operations based on the information from the worker. And of course they still have his family so they can demand him to do more. Most people would be more than willing to sacrifice their lives and wouldn't care about the company he works for if his family is being threatened. This is not a far fetched scenario and is rather simple. I am sure the terrorist can come up with much better one.

It wouldn't be the company doing the terrorist attack. it would most likely be a handful of employees that came over with the parent company. The dock workers will no nothing of this until it's too late.

Why do want this deal to go through so much? What is in it for you?
There is nothing good here but to raise the risk of another terrorist attack. Giving them access to a vital avenue to our country.

Why can't you see this?