The parent company of a Dubai-based firm at the center of a political storm in the US over the purchase of American ports participates in the Arab boycott against Israel, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

The firm, Dubai Ports World, is seeking control over six major US ports, including those in New York, Miami, Philadelphia and Baltimore. It is entirely owned by the Government of Dubai via a holding company called the Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation (PCZC), which consists of the Dubai Port Authority, the Dubai Customs Department and the Jebel Ali Free Zone Area.

“Yes, of course the boycott is still in place and is still enforced,” Muhammad Rashid a-Din, a staff member of the Dubai Customs Department’s Office for the Boycott of Israel, told the Post in a telephone interview.

“If a product contained even some components that were made in Israel, and you wanted to import it to Dubai, it would be a problem,” he said.

A-Din noted that while the head office for the anti-Israel boycott sits in Damascus, he and his fellow staff members are paid employees of the Dubai Customs Department, which is a division of the PCZC, the same Dubai government-owned entity that runs Dubai Ports World.

Moreover, the Post found that the website for Dubai’s Jebel Ali Free Zone Area, which is also part of the PCZC, advises importers that they will need to comply with the terms of the boycott.

SBD

You mean that we might be wrong? I really like Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld. I just trust them. I think there is a lot they aren’t telling.
Later, maybe some things will make better sense.

I hope I am not misplace in my confidences.

Still, I always read across the political spectrum.

The truth is never just hanging ready-made on the rack.

If you are a spook, you know that.

Look at this:

http://www.850koa.com/pages/shows_gunny-news-archives.html#CLINTONUAE

Bill Clinton’s involvement with the U.A.E. may spring from his apparently chummy relationship with the country he calls “a good ally to America.” Clinton in 2002, after leaving the White House, was paid $300,000 to address a summit in Dubai.

–Newsmax

Snapple, I’m inclined to trust Bush too, and I’d like to think that he’s surrounded himself with a bunch of really good, decent people. I just hope we don’t all live (or not live) not regret it.

Are you saying that Clinton didn’t get his share of the port money?

Interesting.

Here is another port article by the same newspaper.

This article is against the port deal.

http://www.canadafreepress.com/2006/jonsson022506.htm

I am posting it not because I necessarily agree with it, but because it is from the same paper and may reveal agendas.

DPW did not take up the offer.

Hillary starts her rants.

Any more dots needed?

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.

I read that former President Clinton has been helpful to the UAE company but his wife is against the port deal.

I also read that the treasury guy who passed on this deal had some business interest with the UAE company.

At the same time, I read that UAE has been helpful in the WOT.

I would hope that these decisions are made because of national security and not because of some politician’s business ties.

When we investigate this company, I will be interested to see if they are getting this deal because they are giving money to politicians.

I am inclined to trust Bush, but I think some study is not a bad idea.
I’d like to hear all the viewpoints.

This is a very complicated issue. I don’t think it is fair to just say people who are against it are Islamophobes.