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Alan's Blog
Entry March 2, 2006 - Dubai Ports World Purchase of the Operation of six Major U.S. Ports
The controversy over the planned acquisition by Dubai Ports World of
London-based Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company, which
currently oversees the operation of the ports of New York, Baltimore,
Newark, Philadelphia, Miami, and New Orleans just won’t seem to go away
– as well it shouldn’t. It is a bad deal.
Dubai Ports World is the product of a merger of Dubai Port Authority
and Dubai Port International and is wholly owned by a holding company
called the Ports, Customs, and Free Zone Corporation (PCFC). This
government holding company is headed by Shiek Mohammed bin Rashid al
Maktoum, who also happens to be the ruler of Dubai, one of the United
Arab Emirates.
Notwithstanding the supposed help that the UAE has been to the United
States in the war on terror, the proposed sale should be stopped cold
by Congress. The position expressed by the administration that turning
away DPW’s offer would somehow indicate that the United States has
racist attitudes toward Arabs is a non-starter. Racism has nothing to
do with this port deal. It has everything to do with security.
It is maddening to realize that this deal was almost inked by a group
of mid-level bureaucrats and that only after the scandal broke did the
President, the Secretary of Defense, and the Homeland Security Director
hear about it. The fact that a group of unelected, unaccountable career
public servants almost completed the sale of the operation of six of
our major ports (not counting the ports of Beaumont and Corpus Christi,
Texas), begs the question: What else in this country is being offered
for sale to foreign entities of which we are not aware?
Even though there will likely be a public vetting process in which the
leadership of Dubai Ports World will be investigated (and declared
clean - mark my words), it is not at the top where the risk to port
security occurs. All that is required for the components of a nuclear
(or other) device to be slipped into this country is for a mid-level
clerk, who can either be persuaded to assist Al Qaeda or is a true
believer already, to alter the shipping manifest (Sen. Charles Schumer
said “manifold” the other day on the Imus show) of a single
cargotainer. With accomplices in the UAE and at the port of
disembarkation in the U.S., the doomsday device could be off-loaded and
delivered to a warehouse near you where sleeper cell operatives could
assemble it.
Especially during this time of global uncertainty, the operation of our
ports should be managed by a home-grown enterprise. We should exhaust
all possible options to determine if there are American firms that have
the expertise to operate these six ports, and if so, have them to
compete for a contract consisting of cost plus a reasonable percentage.
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