"Does this pose a national security risk? I think that's pushing the envelope," said Stephen E. Flynn, who studies maritime security at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations. "It's not impossible to imagine one could develop an internal conspiracy, but I'd have to assign it a very low probability."Changing management over the U.S. ports "doesn't offer al-Qaida any opportunities it doesn't have now," said James Lewis, who worked with the U.S. committee at the State and Commerce departments. "It's in Dubai's interest to make sure this runs well. There is strong economic incentive to be sure these worries never materialize."
Flynn and others said even under foreign control, U.S. ports will continue to be run by unionized American employees. "You're not going have a bunch of UAE citizens working the docks," Flynn said. "They're longshoremen, vested in high-paying jobs. Most of them are Archie Bunker-kind of Americans."
Peninsular and Oriental and DP World set approval by the U.S. security committee as a condition for the sale. In regulatory papers, the companies said either the committee must agree not to formally investigate the purchase or Bush must not move to block the sale for national security purposes.
... But as the article notes appropriately, those who attacked us on 9/11 and the money that supported them passed through the UAE; the hijacker who piloted American Airlines flight 175 into the south tower of the World Trade Center was a UAE citizen. What would you have said if, on September 12, 2001, I told you that five years later Bin Laden would still be free, nuclear terrorism would be a top concern, and a panel of political appointees would approve the takeover of our port operations by a UAE company?As a sidenote, the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) meets in secret and is headed by Treasury Secretary John Snow. In 2004, DP World purchased part of the American company CSX for over $1 billion. Before he became Treasury Secretary, John Snow was Chairman and CEO of CSX.
The chairman of DP World is Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem. Since this man is about to play a role in protecting our borders from nuclear terrorism and other threats, it's probably worth getting to know him a bit. Here's the link to an interview in which he was asked to rate the corporate threats he faces on a scale of 1-10. His response, in descending order of importance:
- U.S. dollar decline
- Oil shocks
- Stagflation
- Over regulation
- Pandemics
- Terrorism
- Proliferation of weapons of mass destruction
- China
- Climate change
- Natural catastrophes
So the head of a corporation that's about to control the ports of New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia spends his day worrying about currency volatility, oil, stagflation and over-regulation. Terrorism and WMD's rate as only slightly more threatening than that menace we know as "climate change."
How's that for alignment of priorities?
http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=11246674&postID=113973532275057989
RUN what? Yea, "unionized Americans" will take care of it! (like GM and Ford?)
Too FReeeePeeee!
""Does this pose a national security risk? I think that's pushing the envelope," said Stephen E. Flynn, who studies maritime security at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations"
Yup, the CFR is real trustworthy. /major sarcasm