Selling our ports

[superdude]

yup, because the bad stuff makes for better televesion of course.

i dont relly like this idea that much.

sure, they may not use the ports to smuggle bad items into the US, but they can always use their ownership of the ports to obtain temporary work permits for terrorists, although i dont know the stipulations of the contract yet

i guess wll have to see

[gammawolf]

Originally Posted by Jensoid

Some items you might want to consider. Almost 90% of our ports are managed by foreign contries. The UAE company is a management firm. You will see very few nationals working at this port. It will be mostly managed by americans. I think we are getting a little paranoid here. The real concern is when these trailers are loaded before they even reach our shores. That is when the problems start. Once they are here, it is almost like it is to late. I mean what percentage of all those cargo trailers are inspected.. maybe 1%? We are very sensitive to anything coming from Muslim countries, and rightly so. We live in a very dangerous world, with religious zealots going bonkers all over... not to comforting to be an american right now. But this Port issue I feel is a little overblown.

This is a very valid point and overwhelmingly deserves the spotlight. If the vast majority of those containers are not inspected - WHAT THE FUCK IS HOMELAND SECURITY ABOUT?

Also, one could say that our ports are only managed by foreign countries and that Americans will work for those firms so we are being paranoid. My problem with this is that two of those terrorists that flew planes into us on 9/11 were from the UAE. Is that paranoid? Is that racist? Are all people from UAE bad . . . absolutely not. But why do we put ourselves in such situations that raise the risk? Didn't we learn anything?

Lastly was the deal itself. It seems as though there was a lot of lobbying, subcontracting, and behind the scenes negotiations about the UAE firm receiving the contract. And when the AP news broke the story, the white house press corp says that President Bush knew nothing about this deal whatsoever.

WELL WHY THE HELL DIDN'T HE?

If this statement is true and President Bush is in the dark about this, then I'm concerned for critical information not reaching the president. I'm one of those that don't believe that 9/11 happened because of Clinton. I believe that intellilgence wasn't shared between beauracrats and that it either became diluted, stale, or simply overlooked. This port situation seems like it should deserve the President's attention, is that too much to ask? Shouldn't he know?

[Ru_G36c]

was actually discussing this in lecture today. no new thoughts on it except on the subject of cargo inspection i think the figure is like 5 or 6% of containers are inspected randomly ... just not enough resources to inspect the billions of containers that come into and leave the US yearly

[jl9618]

Originally Posted by Ru_G36c

was actually discussing this in lecture today. no new thoughts on it except on the subject of cargo inspection i think the figure is like 5 or 6% of containers are inspected randomly ... just not enough resources to inspect the billions of containers that come into and leave the US yearly

exactly. It's unreasonable to expect every container to be inspected. Simply isn't possible.

[Ru_G36c]

it's all about making money ... capitalism and free markets at their best ... whoever owns these ports wants to make money off it ... besides, lets remember it's the not the company who owns the port that is in charge of security, we have customs, the coast guard and numerous other security institutions for thatpurpose alone

[jl9618]

From what I understand this is just a buyout and the contracts are being assumed. Why the big deal? Operations aren't changing. DPW is supposed to have the highest security rating among port managing companies. If anything, this should makes the ports more secure. Aren't 90% of our ports currently outsourced already? Aren't there a lot of unionized American workers employed through this company?

The UAE is shaping up to be a center point for the middle east region. We've had ongoing business with them for years and years. We currently have projects developing their country. They can be a powerful ally in years to come.

[gammawolf]

Originally Posted by jl9618

From what I understand this is just a buyout and the contracts are being assumed. Why the big deal? Operations aren't changing. DPW is supposed to have the highest security rating among port managing companies. If anything, this should makes the ports more secure. Aren't 90% of our ports currently outsourced already? Aren't there a lot of unionized American workers employed through this company?

The UAE is shaping up to be a center point for the middle east region. We've had ongoing business with them for years and years. We currently have projects developing their country. They can be a powerful ally in years to come.

I know we have projects in their country now, and they are considered our ally, but this relationship makes me weary nevertheless.

I'm still concerned about our ports regardless if a UAE firm is managing a port or not, so I'm glad the issue has surfaced.