Thursday, February 23, 2006
Port Whine
This whole production about the UAE "taking over" of six major American ports is simply wrong-headed and an emotional reaction. I had the same reaction when I first heard it. I thought I was peering through Alice's looking glass. It just made no sense.
But now that the facts are coming out, its pretty clear to me that this is a big non-issue. DP World is not in charge of security - Homeland Security is. DP World will only manage a portion of port operations, not security. I they will own nothing. Employees will still have to be U.S. citizens or legal residents of the U.S. DP World has a long record of playing by the rules and has in fact been very supportive of the U.S. in the war on terror. They have stepped up as early adopters of Department of Energy and other initiatives to battle terrorism and secure our ports. DP World already manages ports around the world.
So why are members of Congress lining up, Republicans and Democrats alike, to challenge the deal? Pure politics, what else? There is a mid-term election coming up later this year and most members of Congress want to shore up their constituents perception of their position on national security. This is a perfect opportunity to be able to say how diligent they are in looking out for the security interests of the U.S. Not only is this disingenuous, it is certainly prejudging and probably racist - it assumes that any company based in an Arab country must be supporting terror.
