THANK GOD we kicked the Arabs out of the ports...

[Space Tycoon]

Because they could have really f--ked us up. (http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=8680)


Unlike now, of course...


The threat of economic retaliation from Dubai hasn't hit home yet, but when it does, their threat to do business with Airbus instead of Boeing is sure to provoke howls of outrage from the same crowd. We're kicking them out of the American port business – and also out of any defense-related industries, it seems – but, heck, why do they have to go and reciprocate in kind? That's positively anti-American, and yet more proof that those emirs are terrorist-loving Ay-rabs (is there any other kind?)...

...The economic consequences of severing ties with Dubai – which is what legislation now being pushed in Congress would effectively accomplish – could be substantial. As The Hill reports:

"Retaliation from the emirate could come against lucrative deals with aircraft maker Boeing and by curtailing the docking of hundreds of American ships, including U.S. Navy ships, each year at its port in the [UAE]."






.

[Daltons Chin Dimple]

Welcome to the world of Realpolitik.

[Space Tycoon]

Of course. Instead of setting off a bomb in a freight container, they can simply use economic means to hurt US interests..

And who can blame them, at this point?



.

[Bark]

We we go down, we're taking Canada with us. :D

[neglet]

... because we want all their oil and Timbits. :wink:

Seriously, the only thing good I can think of coming out of this whole kerfuffle is that maybe Congress will pay some serious attention to security in our ports. Right now, only 5% of all containers entering the country are even inspected, and people are worried about a ports company owned by wealthy Arabs running a few American ports? By buying P&O, Dubai Ports World become a global company with operations all over the world; they have a serious stake in keeping security tight, unless they want to jeopardize their entire business. We're talking billions of dollars at stake--I'm sure they would invest plenty in port security.

So now we'll have some unnamed "American" operation running the ports. (And if you read the statement from DPW, they didn't say they would sell or divest, only "transfer" the ports.) Will that make it any safer, if Homeland Security is still ignoring the potential danger in our ports? I don't think so.

Props to Sen. Joe Lieberman for not going all knee-jerk on the deal and actually suggesting we fund port security. (http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID=2006-03-06T232801Z_01_N06449587_RTRUKOC_0_US-SECURITY-PORTS.xml)

[tstone]

Unnamed, Negs? I'll betcha Haliburton is sending little "Help a brotha out" notes to Dick.

[sickness]

It's about freaking time someone brought up port security in Congress. There is assloads of technology that will allow CBP to scan literally hundreds of containers in minutes with a high degree of certainty yet Congress and the President have failed to make any real headway in securing such technologies. This kind of stuff is the business I'm in and I can tell you with absolute certainty that the government has been hiding this under a rock and for all the wrong reasons. This DPW deal getting the uproar it did is the best thing that could have happened for the issue of homeland security. If the DPW deal went through without so much as a whimper, we'd STILL have no reasonable port security. As such, it probably wouldn't matter if someone infiltrated DPW. However, there's no reason to give terrorists two ways through our ports.

[Space Tycoon]

We we go down, we're taking Canada with us. :D
You can take our wives... but you'll never take... OUR FREEDOM!!



No seriously, you can take our wives. Please!




.

[Bark]

Are they hot? :eyebrow:

[American]

UAE cuts off Trade Talks witht he US (http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1728544,00.html). I hope Congress is happy. Well done. F***ed the country again. Go back to whining about Bush spying on terrorists you braindead assholes.:angry

I wonder who Boeing donates to (probably will cut off that donation line now)


Unnamed, Negs? I'll betcha Haliburton is sending little "Help a brotha out" notes to Dick.
Won't bother me. I gots me some shares in King Hal. 50 shares to be exact. Even if it is small, that runs into $$$ in the long run. I hear the Bulls stampeding on Scottrade! :jump2:

[Space Tycoon]

Are they hot? :eyebrow:

Even some of our lady politicians aren't bad....

Not a Hilary in the bunch! :D




.

[Bark]

I need visual confirmation.