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View Full Version : UAE Co. Poised to Oversee Six U.S. Ports


Royal
02-23-2006, 08:42 AM
What You think ???
Anyway, looks like Bush allready recieve royalties from this deal...becouse Bush say on TV that Senat or Conggress should oppose in anyways, would be VETOed by him !!!???

This is appropriate action to give the cotrol over any countries sea/air ports to foreign owners ???

How this can effect to any countries securities ??? if own sea/air posrt are controlled by foreighners , still operations are done by own security personnal...????

Allready people advising local governments to give 1 Police Plaza in Manhattan NYC to GOTTI family.
IRS opeartions privatized and sale to Columbia cartel people..and etc etc etc..


UAE Co. Poised to Oversee Six U.S. Ports

A company in the United Arab Emirates is poised to take over significant operations at six American ports as part of a corporate sale, leaving a country with ties to the Sept. 11 hijackers with influence over a maritime industry considered vulnerable to terrorism.

The Bush administration considers the UAE an important ally in the fight against terrorism since the suicide hijackings and is not objecting to Dubai Ports World's purchase of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.

The $6.8 billion sale is expected to be approved Monday. The British company is the fourth largest ports company in the world and its sale would affect commercial U.S. port operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.

DP World said it won approval from a secretive U.S. government panel that considers security risks of foreign companies buying or investing in American industry.

The U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States "thoroughly reviewed the potential transaction and concluded they had no objection," the company said in a statement to The Associated Press.

The committee earlier agreed to consider concerns about the deal as expressed by a Miami-based company, Eller & Co., according to Eller's lawyer, Michael Kreitzer. Eller is a business partner with the British shipping giant but was not in the running to buy the ports company.

The committee, which could have recommended that President Bush block the purchase, includes representatives from the departments of Treasury, Defense, Justice, Commerce, State and Homeland Security.

The State Department describes the UAE as a vital partner in the fight against terrorism. But the UAE, a loose federation of seven emirates on the Saudi peninsula, was an important operational and financial base for the hijackers who carried out the attacks against New York and Washington, the FBI concluded.

Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat whose district includes the New York port, urged the administration to consider the sale carefully.

"America's busiest ports are vital to our economy and to the international economy, and that is why they remain top terrorist targets," Schumer said. "Just as we would not outsource military operations or law enforcement duties, we should be very careful before we outsource such sensitive homeland security duties."

Last month, the White House appointed a senior DP World executive, David C. Sanborn of Virginia, to be the new administrator of the Maritime Administration of the Transportation Department. Sanborn worked as DP World's director of operations for Europe and Latin America.

Critics of the proposed purchase said a port operator complicit in smuggling or terrorism could manipulate manifests and other records to frustrate Homeland Security's already limited scrutiny of shipping containers and slip contraband past U.S. Customs inspectors.

"When you have a foreign government involved, you are injecting foreign national interests," Kreitzer said. "A country that may be a friend of ours today may not be on the same side tomorrow. You don't know in advance what the politics of that country will be in the future."

Shipping experts noted that many of the world's largest port companies are not based in the U.S., and they pointed to DP World's strong economic interest in operating ports securely and efficiently.

"Does this pose a national security risk? I think that's pushing the envelope," said Stephen E. Flynn, who studies maritime security at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations. "It's not impossible to imagine one could develop an internal conspiracy, but I'd have to assign it a very low probability."

Changing management over the U.S. ports "doesn't offer al-Qaida any opportunities it doesn't have now," said James Lewis, who worked with the U.S. committee at the State and Commerce departments. "It's in Dubai's interest to make sure this runs well. There is strong economic incentive to be sure these worries never materialize."

Flynn and others said even under foreign control, U.S. ports will continue to be run by unionized American employees. "You're not going have a bunch of UAE citizens working the docks," Flynn said. "They're longshoremen, vested in high-paying jobs. Most of them are Archie Bunker-kind of Americans."

Peninsular and Oriental and DP World set approval by the U.S. security committee as a condition for the sale. In regulatory papers, the companies said either the committee must agree not to formally investigate the purchase or Bush must not move to block the sale for national security purposes.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the FBI has said the money for the strikes was transferred to the hijackers primarily through the UAE's banking system, and much of the operational planning for the attacks took place inside the UAE.

Many of the hijackers traveled to the U.S. through the UAE. Also, the hijacker who steered United Airlines flight into the World Trade Center's south tower, Marwan al-Shehhi, was born in the UAE.

After the attacks, U.S. Treasury Department officials complained about a lack of cooperation by the UAE and other Arab countries trying to track Osama bin Laden's bank accounts. cnn/ap

SALAR
02-23-2006, 08:49 AM
This is just to show offfffffffffffffffffffffff

{Bush said he was struck by the fact that people were not concerned about port security when a British company was running the port operation, but they felt differently about an Arab company at the helm. He said the United Arab Emirates was a valuable partner in the war in terror and cautioned against sending "mixed messages" as the U.S. works with countries in fighting terrorism.}

not to make money

{In Lebanon, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=Condoleezza+Rice) said Thursday that the agreement was thoroughly vetted in a review process that took approximately three months. "This is supposed to be a process that raises security concerns, if they are there, but does not presume that a country in the Middle East should not be capable of doing a deal like this." She described the United Arab Emirates as "a very good ally" and said "if more details need to be made available then I'm sure they will be."}

No security problems

{WASHINGTON - President Bush (http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=President+Bush) on Thursday sought to calm an uproar over an Arab company taking over operations at six major American ports, saying "people don't need to worry about security." }

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060223/ap_on_go_pr_wh/ports_security;_ylt=AvmpSiNPU2JN4mvc5vLjrg2s0NUE;_ ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

spoon
02-23-2006, 08:54 AM
Considering 2 of the 24 hijackers were holding UAE passport during 9/11, I doubt the Americans will let the deal go through without a clutch.

spoon
02-23-2006, 09:03 AM
Dem Tayrorests Awre Tayken ova our Damn pawts !

"Sen. Barbara Boxer, on CBS' "Face the Nation," said, "It is ridiculous to say you're taking secret steps to make sure that it's OK for a nation that had ties to 9/11, [to] take over part of our port operations in many of our largest ports. This has to stop."

"Outsourcing the operations of our largest ports to a country with a dubious record on terrorism is a homeland security and commerce accident waiting to happen," says US Senator Charles Schumer.


So according to US Policymakers the globalization is a one-way street. Meaning that they can buy anything (that is, your business, your oil, your toys, your electronics), but you can't buy them. Hypocrisy and double standards in its quite purest form.

Isn't this precisely what the United States preaches? Don't we want places like Dubai to fight terror and to grow, to invest, to buy, to trade, to adopt Western commercial practices, to expose themselves to the rest of the world and thus become tolerant and moderate?

Instead, congressional leaders are trying to kill the deal, which is set to go into effect next week. Why? "Outsourcing the operations of our largest ports to a country with a dubious record on terrorism is a homeland security and commerce accident waiting to happen," says Schumer.


http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=022206H

Delf
02-23-2006, 09:46 AM
One word: Globalization.

If you want to be able to freely invest in foreign countries, you must allow foreign countries to freely invest in yours.

Delf.

melo
02-23-2006, 09:49 AM
I wouldn't trust the U.A.E. for anything. It is the country version of Las Vegas- anything for money.

spoon
02-23-2006, 09:53 AM
One word: Globalization.

If you want to be able to freely invest in foreign countries, you must allow foreign countries to freely invest in yours.

Delf.

What sector of UAE economy doesn't allow foreign investment? :)

spoon
02-23-2006, 09:54 AM
I wouldn't trust the U.A.E. for anything. It is the country version of Las Vegas- anything for money.

And what exactly does being compared to Las Vegas has to do with this deal?

melo
02-23-2006, 09:57 AM
And what exactly does being compared to Las Vegas has to do with this deal?

I guess that wasn't clear enoguh. I personally don't trust anyone who will do anything to make money.

Delf
02-23-2006, 10:00 AM
What sector of UAE economy doesn't allow foreign investment? :)
I was talking about US :P


Delf.

Royal
02-23-2006, 10:06 AM
what happened every body has a flu ?

Delf
03-10-2006, 10:16 AM
Dubai Ports World has dropped its bid for taking over operations of six US ports.

Sad ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubai_Ports_World_controversy#Chronology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubai_Ports_World_controversy)

Delf.

krokobazuka
03-10-2006, 10:37 AM
What is interesting... no one bitches about US Airports being operated by Dutch company owned by Israelis...

In keeping with ICTS International N.V.’s objective of significantly expanding its presence in the USA, in January 1999 the company acquired the Huntleigh Corporation, which at the time of the acquisition was the fifth largest provider of airline passenger screening services in the United States. The addition of this subsidiary placed ICTS International N.V. in a unique position as a worldwide service provider to the aviation industry, with the ability to provide its clients with a broad spectrum of services spanning the Atlantic.

Based in St. Louis, Huntleigh operates at 36 US airports, including most of the international aviation gateways in the USA.

The services provided by ICTS/Huntleigh USA include security agents, charter flights security screening, skycap and wheelchair services, baggage Handling, Ticket Verification Agents, guards, ramp agents, passenger service agents, baggage Services Agents, Crew transport, baggage x-ray, aircraft search, Vendor Security Screening, and more.

This Dubai Port thing was purely anti-arabic showdown...

Delf
03-10-2006, 11:14 AM
And noone bitches about US debt being increasingly controlled by Communist Party of China either.

I think AIPAC has great control over entire US foreign policy.


Delf.

Delf
03-10-2006, 11:25 AM
BTW, Djigit and others, here is another conspiracy:
Most of world's firewalls and network security software are developed by an Israeli company (market cap $5.2 bln):

http://www.checkpoint.com/corporate/facts.html

Most of law enforcement in US use Checkpoint systems to do their job.

Delf.

spoon
03-11-2006, 01:58 PM
An Emirati's insight on the current controversy clouding DP World's takeover of the American ports.

Congratulations. For today is the day of victory for the communists who adore state control, terrorists who snicker when America casts away its allies, and opportunist senators who manipulate the US populace to serve their own needs.

Today, both the Emirati people and the American people have lost. Today for one of the first times in my life, I feel that America has begun a spiral of racism and overprotectiveness that will affect it greatly in the future. They could have placed any restriction or rule on this deal, but the choice was to ban the sale, instead of being proactive creative and intelligent, and actually controlling it to serve your interests. You could have forced DP to make your ports 10 times secure than they once were. But you didnt. People will think twice before doing buisness with America. They will think twice the next time an American says "We believe in freedom of trade". They will be weary of opportunist senators and overpatriotic uneducated people screaming on the radio how much they dont want the deal to commence because of the race of the people involved. But this does not concern your Senators, when asked about the Implications of it, as Gulf Airlines buy Boeing Planes in the Hundreds, one went to the length of saying

"Boeing will continue to operate with or without Gulf orders"

But what does that mean to him ? To him it means that when he retires, Boeing will still be there. But to you Americans, it means that people will lose jobs. This is very much like the swindling and career opportunism that went on in the Roman Senate, the last International Empire.

Please enlighten me. Do the American people think that they can win the war on terror by themselves ? Did such an insane over-estimate ever exist in the heads of those who have no idea about strategy ? If America is to win this war, it needs every single ally that makes himself available.

What would happen to the American war effort, if one day the UAE ceased to exist ? We help and stand by the US, and this is what we get ? You attempt to embarass this country in front of the world, because all it ever wanted to do is to become great not by killing, but by trading ?

And what is your argument ? 2 UAE passport holders that participated in the 9/11 attacks? Do you think we ordered them to do that, or wanted them to ? Then why are we responsible for it?
And then what is your other argument ? That George tenet of the CIA said that the UAE government was meeting with Bin Laden ? Remember Operation Infinite Reach, the Bombing of the Al Shifa Factory, 5 years of not finding bin laden, 3 years of not finding Zarqawi, 9 months of not Finding Saddam Hussein and you have the Audacity to say that 'we think that bin laden was with the UAE government' and to say that your Identification capabilities are proper?. I could say "Oh, Hillary Clinton met with Bin Laden in Dearborn Michigan" It would be a lie, but if my name was George Tenet, the media would pick up on it immediately.

Whats your other Argument ? That we are Muslim or Arab ? There are 300 Million Arabs. There are 1.2 Billion Muslims. If we were such a terroristic race, then why isnt there a world war ? How many of these people do you think are terrorists ? Of the 300 Million ? I will allow you to over estimate 300,000. Even that number is ridiculously enormous, probably a 10 fold estimate. Meaning that in every one thousand Arabs and Muslims, there would be one of them which has had connections with terrorism. And if your definition of a terrorist race is like that, then I would seriously ask you to reconsider your international alliances.

The Final argument is that we would endanger your country. We my friends have a history of cooperating with the Israelis in our ports. We do not even officially recognize the Israelis. The Israelis who are not only 10 times better than you in HUMINT, but that have one of the best Intelligence agencies in the world, pound for pound far better than the CIA which has gotten outsmarted by the Soviets, the Israelis, and even Bin Laden.

Today Bin Laden snickers at us all, Americans and Emiratis.

(c) UAE Blogger (http://aethoughts.blogspot.com/)