My sincere apologies to all the Bush critics on the UAE port deal – but I mean really:

Stewart A. Baker, assistant secretary for policy at the Department of Homeland Security, said at a news conference yesterday that Dubai Ports World, which won a takeover battle for a British firm now operating terminals in the ports, promised during an internal administration review that it would continue participating in security programs previously entered into with the U.S. government.

Duh! Of course they would, they are required to.

And Michael Seymour, head of North American operations for Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., the British firm being bought by the UAE firm, said the workers handling security in U.S. ports are supplied by longshoremen’s unions — an arrangement, he vowed, that would remain in effect. “So it doesn’t make any difference whether we are their employers, or other terminal operators are their employers,” he said.

Well Duh! That’s there job and they are serious about it. Unlike the critics who make fairly silly scenarios assuming really dumb federal officials.

Stephen E. Flynn, a specialist in maritime security at the Council on Foreign Relations, noted that although the company is state-owned, several members of its top management are Americans — including its general counsel, a senior vice president and its outgoing chief operating officer, Edward H. Bilkey, who is a former U.S. Naval officer. And in the years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the United States has increasingly depended on such foreign port operators to cooperate in inspecting cargoes before they head for U.S. shores.

Duh again! We need partners to help stop attacks before they happen. And companies are not ignorant of these realities. Only liberal eco-whackos used to buy into Hollywood’s caricatures of big business. Speaking of wild imaginations

“I think there’s some specter that people from the Middle East are going to come over here and operate terminals,” he said. “I don’t think anything like that is going to happen.”

Duh! They have highly trained, experience people in place. Changing them out would only ATTRACT attention.

Enough being flip. Serious people will read the article and learn about the subject. I had no idea US Ports were operated by foreign companies under contract. I did know port security was handled outside these companies because I am good friends with a former deputy commander of a major US port who recently retired from the Coast Guard. But all the rest is news to me.