Results 1 to 8 of 8

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

  1. #1
    Senior Member CountFloyd's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Occupied Territories, Alta Mexico
    Posts
    3,008

    Company From UAE Poised to Oversee Six American Ports

    Company From United Arab Emirates Poised to Oversee Six American Ports Due to Sale

    http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060211/ports_security.html?.v=2

    WASHINGTON (AP) -- 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.
    It's like hell vomited and the Bush administration appeared.

  2. #2
    Senior Member CountFloyd's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Occupied Territories, Alta Mexico
    Posts
    3,008
    Either this type of story is becoming much more common, or I'm just beginning to notice them.

    So the Bush Administration is going along with a plan to outsource six American ports to the UAE, the operational and financial base of the 9/11 hijackers.

    This is madness, pure and simple.

    Where is the opposition? Can't the Democrats get off abortion and gay rights long enough to actually do something to stop this madman?
    It's like hell vomited and the Bush administration appeared.

  3. #3

    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Posts
    239
    As being part of port operations, those foreign "agents" are now protected by Patriot Act provisions (at least the provisions that existed a few weeks ago).

    Interference , or EVEN surveillance of those agents, could constitute terrorism.

    I could be wrong, somebody with some legal knowledge should take a quick look and tell us if this is a possibility.



    Labour disputes might be exempt from the provisions.

    thus:
    ------------
    (...)U.S. ports will continue to be run by unionized American employees.
    ------------

    I have a feeling NO funds will allotted for these American employees to keep a watch on the foreign agents.
    I have a feeling no intellegence whatsoever will be shared with the Amercain's working there.

    Although, a shrewd leader would use this opportunity to set up a sting operation, then seize the Port corporation (for free), after catching them plotting something.

    Except, out Prez. is not that shrewd, and nobody will believe they was a plot anyway.

    pa

  4. #4

    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Posts
    239
    What a clever scheme..... enact new police powers to protect vital economic sectors....and then bring in foreigners to take FULL control it.

    Even complaining about it could be "indirect support for terrorism".


    -pa

  5. #5
    Senior Member JuniusJnr's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Posts
    5,557
    I'd like to know where in hell they think they are going to get WORKERS from UAE (The United Arab Emirates.) I guess this means that they are going to hire terrorists from other countries to work here now. I am freaking out here because I know way too much about that region and their "work" habits to believe for one second that this is anywhere near truthful.
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  6. #6
    Senior Member moosetracks's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    Kentucky
    Posts
    3,118
    You know someone "Archie Bunker types", will take a bribe...somewhere along the line.

    We no longer have loyal Americans....at least the one's that are rich or in position to make things happen....it's all about $$$$

    Why don't they just kick out all Americans and let the drug lords, murderers, terrorists take over the complete country?

    We're ending up like Mexico...corrupt and don't give a damn, as long as there's money for some big guys..that's all that matters.

    I'm rambling, cause I'm so D,,, mad!!!
    Do not vote for Party this year, vote for America and American workers!

  7. #7
    Senior Member Virginiamama's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Alabama
    Posts
    2,088
    Someone has to stop this "anything for a buck" nonsense.

    I read this morning in The Birmingham News That as part of Bush's National Debt reduction he is selling off 300,000 acres of National Park land, IT IS NOT HIS TO SELL!

    http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/i ... xml&coll=2

    Bush seeks sale of national forest land
    Saturday, February 11, 2006
    KATHERINE BOUMA
    News staff writer
    President Bush's 2007 budget includes a proposal to sell 300,000 acres of national forest, including land in each of Alabama's three national forests.

    In Alabama, the U.S. Forest Service would sell 3,220 acres from the Bankhead, Conecuh and Talladega national forests. The proposal will be published in the Federal Register at the end of this month. It would require public comment and action by Congress.

    Forest Service spokeswoman Mary Gaines said all of the Alabama parcels are isolated and some are outside the National Forest boundary line.


    "This is going the wrong way," said David Carr, public lands project director with the Southern Environmental Law Center. Americans want more public land, not less, he said.
    The Southeast has the lowest percentage of public forest land in the country but took the biggest hit proportionally in the proposal. More than one-sixth of the land proposed for sale, 55,862 acres, is in the Southeast although the majority of the nation's public land is in the West.

    Alabama has vast tracts of forest and tree farms, 71 percent of its total land at last count. Nearly 23 million acres, about 95 percent, are privately owned while about 667,000 acres belong to the U.S. Forest Service and are open to the public for hiking, birdwatching and camping, as well as to industries for forestry.

    Money from the proposed sales, about $80 million, would be used to pay counties, according to the Forest Service. Traditionally, counties with national forests have received payments to compensate them for lost property taxes after land is taken off tax rolls and put into government use.

    Carr said his group fears the proposal is being used to ultimately cut out those payments to counties, either by reducing support for them now or eliminating them in five years when the money from the current sales run out. That federal money is earmarked for schools and other community projects.

    E-mail: kbouma@bhamnews.com
    Equal rights for all, special privileges for none. Thomas Jefferson

  8. #8
    Senior Member JuniusJnr's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Posts
    5,557
    Personally, I'm just thanking my lucky stars that there are more good Border Agents than there are bad ones. If they would LET these people do their jobs instead of criticizing every move they make, it would make all the difference in the world.

    I don't condone the bad apple, by the way, I just believe there are more good than bad at the present time. However, if we don't do something constructive (like constructing a fence, hint, hint) on the border soon, that will probably not be the case.
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •