For me, this is not about Arab or Muslim connections. It is about a much simpler principle – our ports should not be under the control of foreign entities.

The management of major U.S. ports taken over by an Arab-owned company? What was the Bush administration thinking when it allowed such a thing?

That is the question being asked by members of Congress from both parties. Their indignation is aimed at the $6.8 billion purchase by Dubai Ports World, a state-owned company in the United Arab Emirates, of a firm that handles most operations at ports in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.

At a news conference yesterday, a bipartisan group of seven House and Senate members demanded that an interagency task force on foreign investments, which approved the transaction, examine it more closely. The group contended that although the UAE may have a strongly pro-U.S. government, the country was traversed by some of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers and its banking system has been used by groups affiliated with al Qaeda.

"Our ports are major potential terrorist targets," said Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.). "I strongly urge the administration to thoroughly investigate this acquisition."

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said, "Handing the keys to U.S. strategic ports to a regime that recognized the Taliban is not a sound next step in our war against terror."

It really does not matter who is in charge, if they are not Americans. The reality is that these ports are vital national security centers for the United States. It does not matter if the company in charge is the UAE or the UK – there is no guarantee that they will have the interests of the USA at heart.

Posted by: Greg at 12:36 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 301 words, total size 2 kb.