Korean Job Discussion Forums

[igotthisguitar]

UAE Co. Poised to Oversee Six U.S. Ports
By TED BRIDIS, Associated Press Writer
Sat Feb 11, 9:41 AM ET

WASHINGTON - A company in the United Arab Emirates is poised to take over significant operations at six American ports as part of a corporate sale, leaving a country with ties to the Sept. 11 hijackers with influence over a maritime industry considered vulnerable to terrorism.

The Bush administration considers the UAE an important ally in the fight against terrorism since the suicide hijackings and is not objecting to Dubai Ports World's purchase of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.

The $6.8 billion sale is expected to be approved Monday. The British company is the fourth largest ports company in the world and its sale would affect commercial U.S. port operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.

DP World said it won approval from a secretive U.S. government panel that "considers security risks" of foreign companies buying or investing in American industry

The U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States "thoroughly reviewed the potential transaction and concluded they had no objection," the company said in a statement to The Associated Press.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ports_security;_ylt=App5FFhpd8Hy9rfUnKypZGgDW7oF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

[igotthisguitar]

White House Defends Port Sale to Arab Co
By DEVLIN BARRETT and TED BRIDIS, Associated Press Writers
Fri Feb 17, 4:49 AM ET

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is defending approval of a $6.8 billion sale that gives a company in the United Arab Emirates control over operations at six major American ports, even as one senator sought a new ban on companies owned by governments overseas in some U.S. shipping operations.

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., told The Associated Press he will introduce legislation to prohibit companies owned or controlled by foreign governments from running port operations in the United States. Menendez said his proposal would effectively block state-owned Dubai Ports World from realizing gains from its purchase of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.

The British company, the world's fourth-largest ports company, runs significant commercial operations at shipping terminals in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.

"We wouldn't turn the border patrol or the customs service over to a foreign government, and we can't afford to turn our ports over to one, either," Menendez said.

The pledge for new legislation was the latest step in a tense dispute in Washington over potential security risks associated with the DP World sale. Lawmakers asked the White House to reconsider its earlier approval, saying the United Arab Emirates is not consistent in its support of U.S. terrorism-fighting efforts.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/port_security;_ylt=AjZrMm4vKL9kJV8DS_Z3AdYDW7oF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

[dogbert]

Bush will be tried for treason someday, mark my words.

[igotthisguitar]

[Summer Wine]

Quote:

Bush will be tried for treason someday, mark my words.

I'll mark them and I will make a wager with you that he would never make it to a conviction if he ever was. But I don't believe he will ever be tried for treason in a US Court and I will wager a US$100 that he won't.

[VanIslander]

Americans assume not only the separation of church and state, which isn't fully operative in many Middle Eastern countries, but they also think that corporate and political decision making are divided (er...) ... or think the public is naive enough to think so.

A foreign company is bad enough, a foreign company owned by a foreign government should be unthinkable in the post-9/11 era (at least by right-wing Republican thinking).

[canuckistan]

Keep your friends close but your enemies closer?

[dogbert]

No bets...I realize this is not a perfect world. Instead, the Bush family will go one killing people, taking drugs, and making money.

Wasn't there a similar uproar a few years back over a plan by a Chinese-government owned shipper to buy the Port of Los Angeles?

[Summer Wine]