Port Authority: We're suing to stop sale to Dubai firm

Newsday.com ^ | 2/13/2006 | KAREN MATTHEWS

[FreeReign]

I want china out too. get it?

No you don't get it.

You interupted my exchange with another poster. That poster claimed that Isarael was selling planes to China and that poster claimed that China was a great ally of Israel. I counted by saying that Israel had stopped the practice of selling planes to China back in 2000 and that since then the Chinese have come out in support of Iran and various Palistinian terror groups.

You then come along and started arguing with me about the UAE while I argued against China. If you really want to see China out of our port terminals, then why change the subject when I make that argument.

Further,America should not allow a foreign nation run our ports...especially a nation that seeks the destruction of Israel. Get it?

Now, changing the subject to the UAE, identify the current active government official who wishes the destruction of Israel. Identify the current UAE government policy that supports the destruction of Israel.

[Left2Right]

That's a valid point. However, I believe the leaders of the UAE recognize that they will eventually have to change their position on Israel and are taking small steps to change. Consider that Bahrain only ended it's boycott of Israel in September of 2005. Bahrain's official reason was that it was done as one of the conditions for a free trade pact with the U.S. Unfortunately, progress is often measured in small steps that are not seen at the time.

[TheCrusader]

"start by going to the P&O website and jotting down the port resources they control...then go to each and every port authority in question and study the statistics on the number of berths and cranes and the capacity... Once you have done all that and post back here I will finish reading your post"

I've done all the research on the P & O that I need to do, genius, and your micro research 'requirement' is pure bushbot nonsense. What I've found from a fair amount of research is that most posters on FR are talking out of their arses on this issue, yourself included.

Some of the bushbots are claiming it's a mere 'licensing' issue for the UAE and there are no contractual issues that will effect the hiring of new workers, internal security personnel and general operations. Other's are claiming it's a simple change of ownership of shareholders and there won't be any changes at all. And of course the biggest bots are parroting the WH line that national security is a non-issue with this transfer of ownership. And they're all full of b.s.

As I predicted early yesterday, the UAE will soon be involved in hiring sub-contractors and subsidiary maritime companies to replace some of the current workers and operations, and they've begun the process today. (Apparently they are pretty cocky that the P & O port contracts will be renewed for them and it's a done deal). I hope otherwise.

I also learned from a Captain Kelley Sweeney, life-long Merchant Marine and author of the book "From the Bridge", (terrorism/piracy at sea), that the P & O and their subsidiaries will be doing the background checks on the foreignors they will be hiring to work at these ports. These particular ports are called "landlord" ports in the maritime world, and Newark, N.J. is one of them. According to Capt. Sweeney, the UAE could now very easily place spies/agents/terrorists (you call them what you want) into managerial level positions on ships or at the ports, where they would learn inside-out our Coast Guard security procedures, Customs procedures, container inspections procedures and a variety of other sensitive functions that al Qaeda will be very interested in learning.

So whether or not P & O will be controlling every single terminal within the six eastern seaports is utterly irrelevent to anyone but the new owners and the lawyers drawing up the transfer of ownership documents. What is important is the P & O will be operating at all six of these ports and doing 100% of the work the British firm had been doing, and according to all accounts the job is a massive one that only a few maritime companies in the world are large enough to handle. That's a lot of containers, genius.

So it's not necessary to micro-investigate this company's every task to understand that the transfer of ownership to an Islamic, State-owned corporation is a potential serious national security risk.

The kind of micro-research you spoke of is necessary only for accountants, lawyers, FBI agents and.... apparently.... bushbots who need smoke and mirrors to distract from this disastrous deal with an islamic government.

[CWOJackson]

"What is important is the P & O will be operating at all six of these ports..."

I thought you said you researched this issue. Do you understand the significant difference between the terms port operations and commercial port operations?

[Freedom is eternally right]

Here's one for you. This one has the financial statements including profit and loss by country. Warning, it is a pdf file that is 196 pages long. Financial info on ports starts at page 44. Info for Stockholders

[B4Ranch]

Watching these bots is like watching fish eat their own eggs.

[antaresequity]

What is important is the P & O will be operating at all six of these ports

Great research Einstein...its 5 ports not 6...

If you had extracted your head from your rectum long enough to actually go through each port authority website you would have realized that New York and New Jersey are in fact the same terminal facility...Newark-Elizabeth...

And if you had whipped the crap out of your eyes after extracting said cranium from said orifice...you would have also discovered that Arab countries already provide stevedoring services from Newark to Texas and have done so for several years...Further...you would have also discovered that CWX was absorbed by DWP some time ago...and this deal is nothing new...

Your flaming diatribe was conspicuously absent of linked sources...grow some hair and post a thread supporting your 'emotional' assertions...

Have a nice day tomorrow working for someone else...

I am not a bushbot...while your cranium is extracted from your rectum...do a thread search on me and you will find I routinely take Bush to task...over immigration, spending and other issues.

I do not expect you to either extract your head from your rectum, nor do substantiated research in support of your 'emotional' assertions...

Have a nice day..

[MissouriConservative]

I can't help it, facts tend to be my friend.....lol. If this was not a mid-term election year, we'd hear nothing about this at all.

[MissouriConservative]

I'd assume that the contracts would run their normal course and then when they were over, the Dubai company would renegotiate them at a lower rate, which seems to be their history in dealing with unions.

[MissouriConservative]

Unions have always been the enemy of capitalism, and I did mention UNIONS, not "taxpaying American workers".

Dubai may have extremists, but so do most countries. If the US NAVY uses the ports of Dubai more than any other country outside of the United States, they must think it's safe. The Dubai company, after the purchase of the British company, would be the third largest port operator in the world, so evidentally they know what they are doing.

If you're swallowing hook, line, and sinker the fact that the democrats are now hawks when it comes to the war on terror and national security, then you are a bigger fool than you think I am. If Chuckie Schumer and Hillary Clinton says it's true, then it must be true.

[MissouriConservative]

I agree. The Administration let this get out of hand too quickly and let Schumer and Clinton set the tone of the dance. Facts are missing from this debate when they ARE the debate.

Political grandstanding is dangerous when it comes to national security and the war on terror. But it is all the democrats have anymore.

[Luke21]

You called it. I've just been sitting here for a couple of days watching the Bots twist themselves into pretzels to follow their leader on this one. It's a lot of the same gang that thought Harriett Miers was a great pick.

It's gonna be so much fun watching this bunch of knee padders defend our open borders approach and the awful guest worker program in the coming days just because their president-god endorses them.

I voted for Bush twice, but I don't sing hymns about him like some of the Bot crowd do. What's he going to do next? Dedicate a monument in the middle of the national mall to the "religion of peace?" There would be people here defending it too.

[MissouriConservative]

Unions have outlived their usefullness, trust me, I was once a Teamster (talk about worthless bunch of democrat funding pieces of crap).

Unions are the ruination of many companies, for example GM. The phrase "living wage" is a wonderful democrat code phrase for screwing companies. Hell, why not have congress mandate what companies pay their employees? Why not have congress mandate that every job pay 100,000 dollars a year?...I'm sure people could "live" on that.

[CWOJackson]

I think the administration, just like anyone with real experience with port operations and port security, had no idea that the left could be so desperate as to manufacture a crisis from this...and that so many quick on the draw people would fall for it.

It's difficult to predict the ludicrous and equally difficult to defend against it once it's alleged. The administration did have people with first hand knowledge addressing the issue; it didn't do any good, no one listened to them. We've got people here on FR calling General Tommy Franks and Colonel Ollie North Arab appeasers over this issue. When those two are accused of knowing nothing about national defense, terrorism and the middle east, or of selling out to the President, who will they listen to.

[MissouriConservative]

How true. Politicians wouldn't know the truth if it bit them on their brains.

[Recovering_Democrat]

If George Bush had come out against this deal, Chuckie Schumer would be all over him, calling him an insensitive racist. Chuckie will take whatever side of a position he can best exploit for Chuckie.

Yup.

[Recovering_Democrat]

Yeah, it is good. The smackdown these folks will receive from the Courts will be illustrative of the fact that this deal is DONE.

I hope you're right. The panic is out of control. Chuck Schumer didn't think Iraq was a threat, but now he sees Al Qaeda all through Dubai Ports?? He's such a schmuck.

[MissouriConservative]

I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment. When what I thought were Conservative Republicans are taking sides with Schumer and Clinton, then something is wrong with the world.

As I've stated numerous times on this issue, if the US Navy uses the ports of Dubai more than any other ports outside the United States, then Dubai cannot be the monster that it is being made out to be. Dubai is an ally in the war on terror and passes on information gathered to the United States. They are an up and coming modern economy in an area that is not known for those, and we should encourage that direction as opposed to them slipping further into the middle ages with Islam.

[TheCrusader]

"Do you understand the significant difference between the terms port operations and commercial port operations?"

Ok, Cheif, you can trust in 'moderate' islam all you want. (Even though they've been burning down Western embassies and beating Christians to death in savage hatred and rage in "moderate" muslim countries like Jordan and Turkey).

In fact you can place your life in their hands if you so choose, but not mine, please. There are others of us who have learned from history, ancient and current, and wish to say, "no thanks, Mr. President, enough is enough; we are at war and our borders and ports are insecure enough as it is. No muslims controlling part of our shipping industry, please."

Below, we bring you a message from 'moderate' islam

[CWOJackson]

So you have no clue what the difference is between the terms port operations and commercial port operations. I thought so; your opinion isn't based on actual research just popular hysteria.