Welcome to the Port of New York — Gateway to the United Arab Emirates
ByReading today’s headlines, you probably know that the “Cheney victim” has given a press conference. You’ll know that there is question as to whether a man who allegedly shot and killed his wife and child will get a fair trial. You’ll know that the dog that won the Westminster Kennel competition is missing. You’ll know that there is a $1 million bounty on the head of a cartoonist. You’ll know that you can easily find out about the people who have been shot, robbed, were injured or are sick in this country in the last 24 hours.
I went to the US pages of Yahoo News, Google News, Fox News and CNN, just to see what the big domestic headlines were. These are the news stories that should inform people on the issues that are critical to this nation. One shouldn’t have to dig for them; you should be able to see these headlines with one or two clicks. I find it odd, then, that one news story has been swept under the so-called prayer rug.
So, in case you missed it, shipping terminals in NY, NJ, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia, were sold to Dubai Ports World — a company owned by the United Arab Emirates. I don’t know about you, but I don’t really want or need to know more to be a bit dubious about this deal. Only Drudge has a link to it up on his page, right up top.
(As I was writing this, it looked like maybe CNN was about to do a story on it. The President was giving a speech in Miami, but I guess they got too bored with him yammering on about how we need to continue to fight terrorism…since the President didn’t mention anything about the port sale in the 30 seconds they aired, why should they?)
But it gets even better, because according to Reuters, guess who’s introducing legislation to block this deal? Our very own junior senator from NY! (Actually, there is a whole list of lawmakers involved in this from both sides of the aisle, as there should be — this is not a partisan matter.)
Look, I don’t care who looks into this — this has that same uneasy feeling that the CNOOC purchase of Unocal had (which was ultimately blocked). What’s next, a sale of mining companies to an Iranian company? Come on.
Update: No sooner do I hit “publish” than do CNN and CNBC both mention this story. Still, this should be top news. This should be ALL OVER the business pages, political pages, etc.
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8 Comments
February 17th, 2006 at 7:40 pm
Gail,
I think you should have given a shout out to the FT who had an article on the port sale on page 2.
As much as I’m a bit concerned about them buying the ports, I still don’t like the idea of blocking international purchases. The blocking of the Unocal purchase was a mistake by our government. Like China buying dollars, it would have been one more thing that would keep them closer to us. The argument about war in the future is nonsense because if we went to war with them, we just would have repossessed the assets for free, keeping their money.
I look at it like all the complaining that was done when Japan when on a buying spree buying things like Rock Center. They ended up paying top dollar and then selling it back to an American company at a discount.
February 17th, 2006 at 7:53 pm
True, but Japan doesn’t censor or control its people and it certainly doesn’t have the same anti-US sentiment that middle eastern nations do. The UAE are just as much our ‘friends’ as the Saudis are. Anti-US sentiment is high there — I hear it all the time from my ex-pat friends living in Dubai. Japan wasn’t looking for world domination in the way that I believe the Communist Chinese are. Remember, they’re still a communist country. Yes, they’re buying our dollars but isn’t there a huge trade imbalance with them as well because we import more than we export? Okay, keep your friends close and your enemies closer, but don’t let your enemies move in or gain positions that can affect your security. Compared to the Chinese controlling a portion of our pathetic power grid or the Arabs controlling our ports, the Japanese owning Rock Center is a joke. They wanted a ‘brand name’ and the bragging rights to a big American icon. I wasn’t thrilled with Japan buying it in the first place but it hardly had the same security ramifications that acquiring Unocal or US ports do.
I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to crack open this morning’s FT yet. I have just gotten around to unfolding the WSJ to see what was on the front page.
February 17th, 2006 at 10:02 pm
ps – Rock Center was bought by a Japanese company, not the Japanese government. Both CNOOC and DP World are government controlled, so in effect, we’d be selling part of, or infrastructural access to, our country to another government, neither of which are our allies, by any real means. An even scarier thought.
February 21st, 2006 at 4:19 pm
I understand the concerns about the UAI buying the ports as a matter of national security though I think it’s been completely overblown and exploited for political purposes. However, if it’s such a matter of national security how come nobody has complained for all these years as a British company has owned them. It’s not like a U.S. company is selling the ports, they’re owned by the Brits.
If it’s really a matter of national security then no country should control it whether they’re our allies or not.
February 21st, 2006 at 7:33 pm
Let’s not get all morally equivalent here. There is a world of difference between a British company owning a strategically important site in the United States and a company from a state with known terrorist links owning said site.
There is certainly an element of the political here, but you cannot fault the Democrats or the Republicans for this latest uproar. The war against the radical Islamics is a constantly evolving one in which we are learning the softness of our targets with each passing day.
And saying that if a problem arises we can just repossess the property at our leisure is a glib answer that solves nothing. By the time we know there is a problem, it’s already too late. The terrorists will have already smuggled their nukes or their chemical and biological weapons into the country.
Whenever any sale or exchange of American companies or assets that have strategic security value are made, particularly with companies that are either strategic competitors (China – Unocal) or dubious allies (United Arab Emirates), these deals must be reviewed. Frankly, I have just as little trust for corporations as I do for the government. Companies in and of themselves have no patriotic allegiance (not that they should). Therefore, the best solution is for government review of business deals that have bearings on our country’s strategic assets.
February 21st, 2006 at 7:55 pm
I completely agree that they should be reviewed and they are and this case was.
I just like the way the whole thing has been portrayed. They make it appear as if there is a bunch of terrorists sitting in the UAE loading dirty bombs with another group on this side unloading them.
These ports, no matter who owns them, still are monitored by the U.S. government, including the Coast Guard.
February 21st, 2006 at 9:02 pm
There’s another problem that is not being addressed – the sheer volume of goods that come into this country makes it virtually impossible to check everything. It’s not like we’re going to just stumble onto a cargo container with five guys living in it with their stored WMD.
February 22nd, 2006 at 2:17 pm
Considering that containers come from all over the world into every American Port, they can do that already no matter who owns is.