Posted on 02/25/2006 4:21:24 PM PST by SwordofTruth
On Sunday, the Australian government issued the following alert to its citizens: "We advise you to exercise a high degree of caution in the United Arab Emirates because of the high threat of terrorist attack. We continue to receive reports that terrorists are planning attacks against Western interests in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Commercial and public areas frequented by foreigners are possible terrorist targets."
The United States has approved a business deal that would turn over the operation of six major American ports to a company that is owned by the UAE, the very country Australians are to be wary of visiting. The obvious question: If it is dangerous for an Australian to travel to the UAE because of terrorism, isn’t it even more dangerous for a company owned by the UAE to own the rights to American ports where terror might be directly, or indirectly, imported?
There have been some dumb decisions since the United States was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, including the "welcoming" of radical Muslim groups, mosques and schools that seek by their preaching and teaching to influence U.S. foreign policy and undermine the nation. But the decision to sell port operations in New York, Newark-Port Elizabeth, Baltimore, Miami, Philadelphia and New Orleans to a company owned by the UAE may be the dumbest of all.
Security experts repeatedly have said American ports are poorly protected. Each year, approximately 9 million cargo containers enter the United States through its ports. Repeated calls to improve port security have gone mostly unheeded.
In supporting the sale decision by a little-known interagency panel called the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the Bush administration dismissed security concerns. National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones said the sale of the ports for $6.8 billion to Dubai Ports World was "rigorously reviewed" by the committee, which, he said, considers security threats when foreign companies seek to buy or invest in American industry. Apparently, money talked louder than common sense.
In a rare display of bipartisanship, congressional Republicans and Democrats are forging an alliance to reverse the decision. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has announced plans for her Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs to hold hearings. Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Frank Lautenberg, DN.J., who are members of Collins’ committee, have raised concerns. New York’s Democratic senators, Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton have also objected to the sale. Clinton and Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., expect to offer a bill to ban companies owned or controlled by foreign governments from acquiring U.S. port operations.
In the House, Reps. Chris Shays, R-Conn.; Mark Foley, R-Fla.; and Vito Fossella, R-N.Y., are among those who want to know more about the sale. In a House speech, Foley said, "The potential threat to our country is not imagined; it is real."
The UAE was used as a financial and operational base by some of the 9/11 hijackers. A New York Times editorial said the sale takes the Bush administration’s "laxness to a new level."
Members of Congress may wish to consider that the UAE was an important transfer point for shipments of smuggled nuclear components bound for Iran, North Korea and Libya by a Pakistani scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan. The UAE was one of only three countries to recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate government before the U.S. invasion toppled it.
The Department of Homeland Security says it is legally impossible under Committee on Foreign Investment rules to reconsider approval of the sale without evidence the Dubai company gave false information or withheld details from U.S. officials. Congress should change that law.
Last year, Congress overwhelmingly recommended against the Bush administration granting permission to a Chinese company to purchase the U.S. oil services company UNOCAL. Six years ago, when a Chinese company took control of the Panama Canal from the United States, retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Thomas H. Moorer warned of a "nuclear Pearl Harbor."
Congress must stop this sale of American ports to foreign interests and, in an era of terrorism, prevent any more potential terrorist targets from falling into the hands of those who wish to destroy us.
Cal Thomas writes for Tribune Media Services.
cal@calthomas.com
Nicely put and exactly the way it should be.
You should print some of this stuff out and take it into work.
The idea of this forum is to edumakate everyone. If I am wrong give me reasonable answers to those questions. If I need to be on double secret probation, ping me.
I think I have articulated the points that many people are concerned about. If the Bush Admin is saying... "trust us" they have burned their bases good will too much in the last few years to ignore it. When the southern Boarder issue was ignored over and over, this just seems just too over the top to ignore.
This reaction should be a clue that there is something wrong with their relationship with their base.
So anyone who disagrees with CWOJackson has a political agenda? Is that's what's known as a different "debating style"? Wish I'd have received that memo before I butted my head against brick.
I just came across this, on another thread. It's written by Mike Rosen, but look at the quote:
Whittaker Chambers, a one-time member of the Communist Party USA who recovered from that perverted ideology, noted that in America
"the left can only take power through deception."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1585679/posts
I agree, unfortunately, the American people are being lied to and eating it up like candy. The vast majority of Americans have no clue how any of our ports are run and all they have to go on the media, which has yet to tell the truth about this deal.
Shouldn't they have a say in just who gets to operate the ports of their nation?
Yes and no, but first they should educate themselves so they can make an informed decision. Emotional decisions are bad for the country.
If Americans don't want this deal to go through, it shouldn’t go through, and if it does there will be a backlash.
Name one US Company that can handle taking over the terminals that P&O currently operate! If those terminals are left unattended, the backlash to the country will be greater then the backlash Bush gets.
Not for everyone, but fortunately the facts involving the fabricated non-crisis have been provided and the education appears to be having an impact. Look at how many people have already reversed their initial opinion once they examined the facts.
Great catch...and oh so true.
I'm wondering what the economic backlash will be if this takeover is defeated for this reason.
Stellar Dendrite has been banned, so you might want to discontinue pinging him.
You're back!! I thought you were banned!
What the foaming at the mouthers have been and still ARE doing, is emotionally posting lies, fallacies, and emotional tirades, based on their fears, propaganda fed to them by the MSM and others, who also don't know what they're talking about.
Where in post #124 did you say: "because he says something, it doesn't mean that it's true."
Many of my co-workers are lurkers and we laugh about this stuff at work.
Huge!
Hold on... your doing the... Everyone is changing their minds" thing.
It is an old east coast trick, and I have seen it used as far west as montana, and you did it pretty well, although I have seen it done better in places like the CBS news room.
Just answer the question that the cargo and the ship schedules will be secure and we I will dance to the tune they are playing. If not, I prefer to sit this one out.
I have a new admiration for those people.
I thought he was banned too. Maybe it was just a suspension? Welcome back Stellar!
Name dropping is interpretated as: "that just because he says something, it doesn't mean that it's true"? Seriously I never heard of that before.
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