DPW purchased 50% of P&O. Maersk, which is Danish, holds the other 50%. Maersk is presently operating the terminals (NOT PORTS).
UAE is working with Israel to improve relations.
http://www.somethingjewish.co.uk/articles/1027_israel_talks_to_uae.htm
Saudi Arabia has operated Marine Terminals since 1991
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1584235/posts
This morning, FNC is still stating that UAE will *own* US territory. While people with port, security, Coast Guard, Navy and maritime shipping experience have posted substantiated facts that show this is not unique and does not make us insecure, and is simply an operation of terminals, some cruise ships and some perishables and only some containers, the same anti-administration, anti-GOP, anti-capitalism talking points keep getting repeated.
I have seen you on most of these threads. You seem to ignore every expert statement offered. I have no idea if anyone opposing this deal is a racist or a xenophobe. I do think they are all knee-jerk reactionaries, Nativists and isolationists that operate on emotion, cannot adapt to changing environments and seem to enjoy being angry.
There is no "control over vital American interests". From my own research, the *American* companies that handle container loading/unloading are all owned by foreign countries. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, China. All the workers are Teamsters. I have read repeatedly that these workers are vetted. None of those with maritime operations experience have said otherwise.
Our imports are cleared at point of departure by forward deployed Customs, Coast Guard, DEA, FDA agents. Manifests are examined while these ships are in transit. There are protocols in place to identify problematic containers. These are hand screened prior to any container ship docking. Recall the scare a couple of years ago over a load of Spanish clay tiles. NEST arrived while the ship was held miles offshore and examined the entire ship before clearing it. Experts have posted that we have the tech that will soon be put into place to screen every load entering the US without shutting down the economy. With this tech, we will have 100% screening at US ports of entry.
Remember when Daschle got the Teamsters to shut down the West Coast ports and it turned out to be about union jobs? This is exactly the same thing. The DPW will modernize operations and some Teamster jobs (DNC votes/thugs) will be made superfluous. Serve the guys at the DPW ports right if shipments instead go to other ports and their hours are cut.
FReepers have embarrassed themselves, as have the GOP critters and Senators and Governors who are grandstanding for Teamster dollars and a chance to bash Bush. So far, McCain and Ehrlich have been the most adult on all of this.
Just what do all the nay-sayers really want? Federalized ports? Teamsters with government union contracts? Another huge bureaucracy? Clinton as POTUS? Bush impeached by the donks so that we lose all control, have taxes raised, socialized health care and an unbreakable donk hold on the politics and tax receipts of this nation? No Navy dockage in UAE? No air bases in UAE? No accommodation between the UAE and Israel?
Does anyone think Tancredo, Pence or Ron Paul could ever be POTUS? They obviously do not, as they haven't run and show no signs of doing so.
If anyone was going to get a bomb or WMD into the USA, they have had 16 years to do it via the Saudi-operated terminals. We catch people trying to smuggle themselves and others in via container and these stories have been made public repeatedly since 9/11. We bust Teamsters for drug importation almost daily, from the articles I have seen on line over the years I have had internet access. I don't know that I trust Americans who aren't Muslim any more than I trust any modernizing Arab country.
I did my time on the left. They are they enemy. Anyone who aids and abets them is also an enemy of the America we are fighting to keep. Putting up a stink over the administration on this issue aids and abets the donks. It is just the kind of play the conservatives fall for, over and over.
And those 64% who are against the DPW deal? They had no real information and instead, were bombarded by union and leftist propaganda for 5 days prior to the poll, echoed and amplified by our own hysterical conservative outlets and commentators who took all their intitial reactions from MSM articles that were slanted and egregiously incorrect. Note that the FR opinion has reversed as the real facts were posted over and over again, with cites and by experienced, informed people willing to post their own qualifications.
We are never going to be *secure*. Life is never going to be risk-free. We cannot sacrifice the good because it isn't the best. Perfection is not going to occur here on Earth.
The horse is dead and it is time to stop beating on it.