Mar 02 2006
From Those Who Know About Ports
Why do we need The UAE as an ally both commercially and with regards to security? Listen to the experts, one of whom commented on this site most intelligently about what is a real threat and what is a politically made up threat:
Since I work in the cargo industry, I am not surpised in any way with the UAE port deal. This type of deal has been around the cargo business – air and sea – for years upon years. It’s a neccessary evil to get goods from point A to point B. Import or Export. It has an incestuous nature to it – always has.
Why are some vociferous conservatives not as concerned (visibly speaking) about cargo-only airlines that are owned by arabs? Their aircraft fly into the US on a regular basis. Arabs own or invest in many cargo-only airlines. They all fly in and out of the US. Why is there no concern that these same arabs might fill a single 747, or other wide-body cargo aircraft from ten different cargo airlines with 56 Tonnes each of explosives, or nuclear devices, or chemical devices or other instruments of mass destruction and fly legally into US airspace?? 10 bomb filled planes that need not veer off course (hence no red flags) – they need only fly to their destination and detonate.
Don’t even need security measures for that because they would not be violating our airspace, our ports or our airports. It will happen – there is no way of monitoring the overseas ports/airports/employees.
The US does not control the airport/port security overseas, they rely on our allies to do so. So who do we want and need as an ally? Who can we really rely on to protect US interests by not allowing terrorism to foment at their port/airport? Who is the most strategically placed ally? Which Middle Eastern country is more interested in promoting and protecting the human race than destroying it? Who has been investing in the US – and has a stake in it’s future? Those are the countries we need on our side.
I daresay we have come pathetically close to dismissing one of our biggests allies in the region. Ignorance is not always bliss.
Listen to the people who know, not insta-experts like Savage who simply rant out of ignorance.
Good Question On The Port Deal…
This thing has really gone to far. I’m astounded by the short-sightedness of people regarding this thing. People are now trying to find every negative thing about the UAE it can to dismiss this deal, but they say nothing about China’s rec…
At a recent conference, I spoke to some young women who work at the NYC port.
They are involved with security. They did not like the UAE idea.
They were not high officials, but they are at the port all the time.
And according to this, the security implications of the port deal were not studied:
GUNNYISM OF THE DAY
“We now know that the Departments of Homeland Security and Treasury, according to Rep. Peter King, never considered terrorism when looking into the ports deal, this from the Congressman who says this is what DHS and Treasury told him directly. Does anyone smell something rotten here?” http://2005.koaradio.com/pages/shows_gunny.html
A former Navy man is in charge of DP World operations!!
A steady pilot in the storm
By Robert Wright — Financial Times
Published: February 24 2006 20:10 | Last updated: February 24 2006 20:10
For anyone who has visited the Jebel Ali container port near Dubai City, which forms the heart of Dubai Ports World’s operation, the wave of outrage in America in the the past two weeks over DP World’s takeover of P&O has been particularly curious. In the minds of many US congressmen and women, the company from the United Arab Emirates seems to conjure up images of some mad Islamist intent on destroying the US and Israel. But one of the most striking impressions for a visitor to the port is likely to be the powerful bond between the operations at Jebel Ali and one man: Ted Bilkey, a 71-year-old American who is DP World’s chief operating officer.
When DP World announced late in the week that it would press ahead with the P&O deal but segregate the US assets from the rest of the company, the quote on the statement was from Mr Bilkey – a rare step from a company whose public statements are nearly always made by either Mohammed Sharaf, the chief executive, or Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, the chairman.
However, Mr Bilkey himself was perhaps the most powerful message. His first job on graduating from Yale University was clerical, on the docks in New Jersey. He served in the US Navy and was also at one time vice-president of New York’s Maher Terminals, still the largest container terminal operator in the Port of New York/New Jersey. After a lifetime in the container ports industry, he is widely regarded as its elder statesman and is well liked despite a sometimes gruff exterior, according to industry insiders.
He has built up a like-minded, international team – including many Americans – around him. If Mr Bilkey and his team cannot be trusted to run US port terminals, the message seems to go, who can?
read the rest here…
SBD
SBD
Facts, I guess, have stopped mattering to the Malkin-Gaffney axis of fear-mongering.