Posted on 02/21/2006 11:21:25 PM PST by presidio9
-snip-
the notion that the Bush Administration is farming out port "security" to hostile Arab nations is alarmist nonsense. Dubai Ports World would be managing the commercial activities of these U.S. ports, not securing them. There's a difference. Port security falls to Coast Guard and U.S. Customs officials. "Nothing changes with respect to security under the contract," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday. "The Coast Guard is in charge of security, not the corporation."
In a telephone interview yesterday, Kristie Clemens of U.S. Customs and Border Protection elaborated that "Customs and Border Protection has the sole responsibility for the cargo processing and cargo security, incoming and outgoing. The port authority sets the guidelines for the entire port, and port operators have to follow those guidelines."
The timing of this sudden uproar is also a tad suspicious. A bidding war for the British-owned P&O has been going on since last autumn, and the P&O board accepted Dubai's latest offer last month. The story only blew up last week, as a Florida firm that is a partner with P&O in Miami, Continental Stevedoring and Terminals Inc., filed a suit to block the purchase. Miami's mayor also sent a letter of protest to Mr. Bush. It wouldn't be the first time if certain politicians were acting here on behalf of private American commercial interests.
-snip-
As for the Democrats, we suppose this is a two-fer: They have a rare opportunity to get to the right of the GOP on national security, and they can play to their union, anti-foreign investment base as well. At a news conference in front of New York harbor, Senator Chuck Schumer said allowing the Arab company to manage ports "is a homeland security accident waiting to happen." Hillary Clinton is also along for this political ride.
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(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Two things seems certain (after reading the article): this has nothing to do with security operations; and this has nothing to do with foreigners working in our ports (particularly, unscreened Wahabbi types).
This is just another typical leftist media canard.
ping
So, are the new owners barred from breaking that contract? I've been following this story to some extent, and haven't seen (although I'm sure it must have been asked) an answer to that question.
Emotions are the domain of the liberals. Emotions are easy, logic and thinking are difficult and they don't like to do things that are hard.
It takes a great human being to be able to logically look at something and not have a knee jerk reaction. That is why Conservatives are the greatest of ideologies....it actually requires thinking....lol
Thanks
Exactly right. I am in NYC every day. There are no guarantees. I'll take my chances with Bush calling the shots for me on national security over Hillary's naked grandstanding.
Did I just use the words "Hillary" and "naked" in the same sentence?
In a word, yes.
"A bidding war for the British-owned P&O has been going on since last autumn, and the P&O board accepted Dubai's latest offer last month. The story only blew up last week, as a Florida firm that is a partner with P&O in Miami, Continental Stevedoring and Terminals Inc., filed a suit to block the purchase."
That is the most telling part of the article. The partners of the British firm running the port are raising a stink..and it is blown (pardon the pun) out of proportion.
I don't think that this is anything like what it is being made out to be...mainly because this is an election year and there is a lot of peacock posturing going on to raise profiles during an election by people who might not give a fiddler's da*n about security during a non-election year.
Too late. So now we move on to "get lost raghead, your money's no good here"?
Secondly, The government must be responsive to the mood of the country. We don't want an arab country running the port so sooin after 9-11 and during the war on terrorism when there are so many idiots running around arab countries. Bush made an idiotic decision. There's your emotional comment.
Third. The money and jobs should have been kept with an amercian comapny em0ploying americans. The government has no business awarding contracts to foreign countries.
sorry I said idiots, I meant suicidal/homocidal fanatics
Actually, the article points out that the London Subway bombings last year were carried out by British citizens, so unless we want to create internment camps for arabs in this country, we need to accept the fact that the same such idiots can just as easily be running around here.
Third. The money and jobs should have been kept with an amercian comapny em0ploying americans. The government has no business awarding contracts to foreign countries.
That boat left a long time ago. All of the companies you think of as American have outsourced and vice-versa. It's not as if DPW were planning on bringing arab workers to New Jersey.
Problem is it was a British company that was bought by the UAE. And the Brits "had control of the ports" I take issue with that phrasing because the Coast Guard has control of the ports.
I can't believe even FReepers could be gamed by Schumer!
Believe it.
And how are you going to achieve this? Twitch your nose and voila a new huge American shipping company.
Or do you want a govt. takeover where union goons can gorge on more graft.
Face it, it ain't a perfect world and maybe one way to get more American companies is to get rid of the onerous taxes and regulations, but that will take time, but at the moment we have a world economy and goods American consumers desire and demand have to be loaded off ships and you can't bring the economy to a halt just to make sure that the companies pass a nationality purity test, what you can do is add security features, which I believe theis administartion has.
An administration that has killed more islamofascists than any other administration combined.
BTTT
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
reminds me of the Patriot Act and their "hide the judge" scheme. This time its "hide The Coast Guard, Homeland Security and US Customs"
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