US Ports controlled by UAE?
Living near one of the biggest ports in the world means enjoying the dubious honor of getting ‘blowed up real good’ before the rest of America gets a chance. The fact that the current administration has approved the sale to Dubai Ports World of the control of several US ports (including NY) does actually surprise me a little. This kind of thing is almost too idiotic for words. Even if there are no specific security concerns with this company in particular, what do they think the American people will think of such an arrangement? Personally, I think it’s just another example of the current administration’s arrogance. They don’t care what people think, ‘We the ignorant people’ don’t deserve an explanation. Although the UAE has a very high standard of living, and a strong economy based largely on exported oil and gas, there are some obvious red flags including an association with Osama bin Laden, the Taliban and al-Queda, a history of funding and money laundering for terrorism (including 9/11 hijackers through UAE banks) and serving as a key transfer point for illegal shipments of nuclear components to Iran, North Korea and Lybia. Yeah, lets give these boys the keys.
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Even republicans are uneasy about this deal: “I’m aware of the conditions and they relate entirely to how the company carries out its procedures, but it doesn’t go to who they hire, or how they hire people,” Representative Peter King, a New York Republican, told The Associated Press. “They’re better than nothing, but to me they don’t address the underlying conditions, which is how are they going to guard against things like infiltration by al Qaeda or someone else, how are they going to guard against corruption?” King said.
Senator Lindsay Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said: “It’s unbelievably tone deaf politically at this point in our history. Most Americans are scratching their heads, wondering why this company from this region now?”
There is an entire thread detailing UAE involvment in the historical timeline of the 9/11 tragedy at
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/. In my opinion it’s very likely that the same people deep in the UAE government who used to go hunting with Osama bin Laden and funded the Taliban would love to either buy or sell the kind of access to US ports that this deal will eventually make available to them.
According to the CIA Worldbook, “the UAE is a drug transshipment point for traffickers given its proximity to Southwest Asian drug producing countries; the UAE’s position as a major financial center makes it vulnerable to money laundering; anti-money-laundering controls improving”
News Hounds reports that ‘Former CIA Spy, Wayne Simmons, Says United Arab Emirates Gaining Control of U.S. Ports “Much Ado About Nothing”. Since almost anything this guy says can be guaranteed to be 180 degrees from the truth, it’s a good bet we should be worried.
My recent posts on this issue on
NonProphet
It seems clear that any company controlling ‘operations’ of a port would have access to information about what situations ‘trigger’ a security response. This one fact alone seems of enough strategic value that we should not permit foreign companies (let alone FOREIGN NATIONS as is largely true in this case) to sit in this kind of position. I’m fairly sure that most Americans were unaware that *any* foreign companies were in this kind of position, including the UK.
Security is more than an inspection process, it is also about intelligence. Any company that controls port operations will have access to critical intelligence that might be very valuable to an enemy. Air traffic controllers are government employees for a reason - they can be hired and overseen through a standardized process that we (the US) can control. If you do not see port operations in the same light as Air traffic control, it may only be because the nuke hasn’t been offloaded and delivered to your city yet.
Comment posted on 2-21-2006
Give me a friggin break. Sure, it’s a big ‘reputable’ company and they do their job well - but as we’re constantly reminded - we’re at war, and with people who have had proven ties to the UAE in the past. I don’t care how it may make leaders in the UAE feel, and if the Democrats had been in power and approved this deal the Republicans would be calling them traitors.
I see now that many of the big-wig Republicans are up in arms about this too.
Comment posted on 2-21-2006
Maybe a better way to deal with the UAE would be to buy their oil? According to my admittedly hurried research, they don’t sell it to us, but to: Japan 24.8%, South Korea 9.9%, India 5.4%, Thailand 5.2% (CIA Factbook 2004)
Even if Dubai Ports World doesn’t do the actual security checks, the day to day operations of the ports would be a major draw for would-be terrorists from that country. And since DPW would certainly hire most of it’s staff from their own nation (as they normally do), the US would be left out of the security screening process for these employees.
We need to deal with the ports (and our borders) as we have dealt with the airport security issue.
Comment posted on 2-21-2006
More evidence that the UAE is a great ally here:
The UAE understands how important it is to control what gets talked about in our universities, and puts their money where their ideology is by gifting huge sums to American Universities to influence who gets which chair.
“Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan. The unelected president and sole authority in the UAE since 1971, Zayed was also financing and hosting the think tank of the Arab League, the Zayed Centre, which promoted Holocaust denial, the resurrection of the blood libel and the myth that Osama bin Laden was a CIA agent and the United States was behind the attacks of Sept. 11.”
Comment posted on 2-23-2006
Newsday ran a story about the connection of UAE to Osama bin Laden today. Doesn’t anybody else remember when Clinton held off on launching an ‘attack of opportunity’ against Osama because he was in the company of several high ranking UAE officials? If memory serves, the Republicans went nuts at the time, that he had missed his chance and fubbed the whole thing up - so we’re turning over port operations to people we would have been happy to ‘blow up real good’ 6 years ago!?
Comment posted on 2-26-2006
Karl Rove has orchestrated a brilliant coup on this issue by getting GW and DPW to agree to a 45 day ‘cooling off period’ after GW’s idiot threat to veto caused what might be seen as a ‘vote of no confidence’ from his base. Opponents to a UAE takeover of port control will be hard pressed to keep up the drumbeat for 45 days, so KR is hoping to beat the horse to death by then in the media. I am opposed to any foreign control of terminal operations at our ports especially for companies that are owned by governments of foreign nations.
Comment posted on 3-8-2006
"And since DPW would certainly hire most of it’s staff from their own nation (as they normally do),"
DPWs COO sure looked and sounded A-mer-I-cann to me when he was testifing.
Comment posted on 3-9-2006
True, but the Executive Chairman is Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem and the CEO is Mohammed Sharaf
But besides these guys, most of their staff is British (the old P&O crew). There’s been a lot made about the fact that the American longshoreman would still be American, the security would still be our Coast guard, etc. but what you *can’t* find out anywhere is who they will hire to do the tedious management jobs (which is what I’m talking about). The guys who have the intelligence on operations, the guys who work in the offices. I wish I had cited my source for that comment, but the article suggested that *those* jobs were likely to be filled with UAE nationals. Since I’m only concerned about critical operational intelligence on the shipments going to a foreign nation, the fact that the boots on the ground lifting containers are Americans, and that some of GW’s buddies are involved at the highest levels doesn’t really answer the concern.