The hue and cry by the anti's is total blather based on extreme ignorance.
Consider me one of the "blatherers" then bert! Humor me!!!
What, most specifically does DPW have influence over in this?
What do they do when they get to work, the DPW employees that is, on a daily basis? They show up and do what? Write checks, sweep floors in a closed room with no windows and no computers housing critical information re: our ports, or what?
Are you telling us that they'd have absolutely no information that could ever be used by terrorists should it fall into the wrong hands?
Why do you call them "Arabs" now instead of Muslims? Just curiuos, b/c Dubai and the UAE are almost entirely muslim. Check me if I'm wrong, but isn't that where most if not all major terrorists hale from?
Let's suppose that DPW wanted to allow one or two "dubious" people into certain positions, could they do it, and could it in any way be harmful to the US? Can you answer that it would not and provide us the detailed reasons as to why not?
What if they wanted a "person of dubious intent" in there to pass along pertinent information to would-be terrorists or others intent on harming our nation, could they do it? And I'm not talking simply info re: our ports, but anything.
What information, specifically, do they have access to bert?
Just blathering on here...
Oh yeah, while I've been a huge Bush supporter, can you please tell me, us, exactly and specifically what W's major successes are on border control and how those translate to success and an awareness of the problem in this matter? Inquiring minds want to know!
B/c as many of us "blatherers" see it, if W's policies, apparently unless you have something to offer there, are to serve as the guide, he doesn't really appear to see much of a security issue with the borders and appears to be willing to throw national security to the four winds in that way simply for purposes of what he and his administration deem some sort of economic necessity.
Can you prove the opposite with the borders?
If not, can you prove to us that the same philosophy of economics over national security does not exist with the ports?
So pardon me "in my ignorance" as you stated the antis were. And for the record, I for one, an not "anti," but given W's track record on national security and his sucking up to the muslim world, the cornerstone of worldwide terror, I'd sure like to see a little more evidence that there is absolutely no opportunity for any negative ramifications at all in this deal. And no, I don't trust muslims. Neither should you unless you're naive, you infidel you!
Your spinning is certainly typical but nonetheless, not very enlightening.
Why do you call them "Arabs"
Because they live on the Arabian Peninsula and are ethnic Arabs. They are Muslim but they are not ethnically Persian as in Iran or Malay as in Malaysia or Indonesia or Negro as in Somalia.
What do they do when they get to work,
I'm not positive of the total corporate structure but think this will be pretty much true. The British company being bought is an old and respected steamship line that runs container liners that is ships on a regular schedule on specific routes over and over and over. They pick up containers in Britian or Antwerp or Rotterdam and bring it to America, New York, Baltimore Norfolk, Charleston , Savannah and many other places. I don't know if they call at alley ports listed but might not call at Savannah if they serve Charleston for instance.
On a day to day basis the workers must schedule the vessels to call based on known sailing times and trip times. They must have efficient terminal operations to load and unload the ships in a most expeditious and least costly manner. They must design equipment and methods to do this work. they must develop and hone confuter's to keep track of all the containers to know where they are all the time and be sure they go where intended.
There are sales people who travel inland to companies hawking their abilities to safely transport and handle the freight without damage. Time is of the essence in a world with just in time manufacturing schedules. Inventory sitting in a container ine the port worthless. It takes lots of good logistic skills and minds to make all this happen while constantly trying to improve to stay ahead of the competition.
There are also check writers and credit managers and maintenance people and salesmen and all the people needed in a business,
Regarding the security. That is in my view a red herring. Of course there is going to be some information that might be useful to enemies. The company in question has employees who can go work whereever they wish. They can float from company to company. They could float into another terminal operation and learn the same info if they work at it.
Terminal security is not about terrorism, although that is a by producr. Terminal security is about property security. The terminal handles the transfer of property and liability from the steamship line to an inland truck line. The transfer of ownership for a shipment commonly occurs when the cargo is loaded aboard ship.
The chain of custody and liability goes from a US business via a trucking bill of lading to a trucker who hauls the container to the port where he drives the sealed container into the port where the seal is examined and if so , the trucker is given a dock receipt which transfers the liability to the terminal. The terminal guards the cargo until loaded on board the ship. At this point, the shipline gives an onboard ocean bill of lading and takes liability. At this point, ownership commonly transfers from the American exporter to the foreign buyer.
The procedure described is for exports and is reversed for imports with the US Customs added between the turnover from the port to the inland trucker.
As a practial matter all this is done by oceanfreight forwarders who are very specialized clerks who shuffle all these papers between the various patties involved in a typical container movement.
Check me if I'm wrong, but isn't that where most if not all major terrorists hale from?
Yes two did come from the UAE. By this logic we must condemn all American blacks because two blacks terrorized Virginia and Maryland with a sniper rifle. But I digress. I don't know the exact figures, but I can safely say that there aren't many real UAE natives and a very, perhaps extreme portion of the UAE population are foreigners imported to do the work. there are some Americans but they are very expensive and Brits are almost as good and a lot cheaper. There are lots of Indians and Philippinos and Packistanians who do the actual work. The Arabs sit at the top and manage. Younger Arabs have been American and British educated and are beginning to take control. Their fathers or uncles hired out everything. The younger Arabs are now able to take control and act because they are educated in the formal business o world trade. The are taking the $$$$ earned selling oil and making prudent investments, diversifying away from oil. Dubai is being turned into one of the world's most important centers of trade and finance. The transformation from seedy desert insignificance to world class everything is actually spectacular.
but given W's track record .....
I think the Mexican border action is yet to be dealt with, not because of neglect but because of political timing. I see no real relation between the problem of Mexican illegal immigration and the flap over ports. I am sure that the reason the pressure on the port deal is evaporating is because Senators and others are being told they are showing their asses and should back off or suffer from being on the wrong side of the issue.
There is a tendency to forget that we went to war with Iraq in 1991 and the state of war is continuous to the present. We saved Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and the others on the Arabian Peninsula. Saddam invaded Saudi Arabia from Kuwait and was repulsed immediately. The armored unit that first engaged the Iraqi armor was from the UAE. The Saudi's quickly engaged and repulsed the Iraqis.The governments are extremely grateful. There are Arab people who are not. They are extremely pissed over the change they see. They don't like all the accoutrement's of 2005 living. They long for the pure faith that sprung out of lining in tents in the desert. They are the source of the zealots who blow things up. They are far form the majority. They have no political strength and control nothing. Their goal is to wrest away control from the existing governments and reverting to some great or imagined date in days gone by.
You make a serious mistake by lumping all into the bad guy pile. Since You don't really know hoe to distinguish Arabs from Muslims this is understandable. But it can be remedied by enlightenment.
I have written before and will write again here. The goals of the current disruption of the status quo is a totally new middle east. The strong players will be the GCC states, Israel and the USA/UK coalition. When stable, Iraq will join the GCC, along with Jordan and Lebanon and the area will develop into a great economic power that will threaten Europe. That will happen nothing the next 25 to 50 years. Dubai has been selected as the capital, the economic center of this emerging trade block. We are arm in arm with them and W will never act to block this change.
Forget what was and concentrate on what can be..... that is W's course.