http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48991
22 ports in Arab deal,
not just 6 as reported
Scope of Dubai firm to stretch from Maine to Gulf of Mexico
Posted: February 24, 2006
3:00 p.m. Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D.
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
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Dubai Ports World is scheduled to take over operations at 22 U.S. ports, not six as previously reported by most major media. According to the website of P&O Ports, the port-operations subsidiary of the London-based Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. (P&O), DPW will pick up stevedore services at 12 East Coast ports including Portland, Maine; Boston; Davisville, R.I.; New York; Newark; Philadelphia; Camden, N.J.; Wilmington, Del.; Baltimore, Md.; and Virginia locations at Newport News, Norfolk, and Portsmouth.
Additionally, DPW will take over P&O stevedoring operations at nine ports along the Gulf of Mexico including the Texas ports of Beaumont, Port Arthur, Galveston, Houston, Freeport, and Corpus Christi, plus the Louisana ports of Lake Charles and New Orleans. Previously reported have only been P&O Ports' container operations at New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Miami, and New Orleans. Stevedore services also typically involve the loading and unloading of containers on and off cargo ships, as well as moving and storing containers, though often in separate facilities from where containers are initially loaded and unloaded from the cargo ships. Thus, while DPW will be operating the container terminal operations of only the six ports initially disclosed, DPW will be managing stevedore services, handling containers at a total of 21 ports, located along the Eastern seaboard from Maine to Virginia, and across the Gulf of Mexico from Texas to Louisiana. Additionally, the website of P&O Ports North America lists that P&O provides container services at the Port of Miami, through a subsidiary identified as P&O Ports Florida, Inc. This brings to 22 the total number of American ports where DPW will be acquiring P&O operations. On Jan. 24, P&O Ports North America and the Tampa Port authority announced they reached an agreement to enter into a long-term contract permitting P&O to operate terminals at the Port of Tampa for general and refrigerated cargo. By acquiring P&O internationally, DPW will pick up all P&O operating agreements, including this one just concluded in Tampa. (.pdf file) The website of P&O Ports North America brags that "P&O Ports North America is now the largest independent stevedore and terminal operator on the U.S. East and Gulf coasts with operations in most ports from Maine to Texas." In reality, DPW is a front-company 100 percent owned by the government of Dubai. The nearly $7 billion in debt financing put together by international bankers to finance the DPW acquisition of P&O was predicated on the A1 Moody's rating of the government of Dubai, plus the assurance that the "full faith and credit" of the government of Dubai would guarantee 100 percent repayment of all loans and interest payments required to debt finance this leveraged acquisition. As WND is reporting today, new polling information reveals only 17 percent of Americans favor the deal to turn over control of U.S. ports to a state-sponsored company in the United Arab Emirates, and shows a major blow to President Bush's perceived leadership in the war on terror. |