by Douglas DeBono, 2006

ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED AT StandingOrders.BlogSpot.Com, February 09, 2006

DP World is a shipping firm based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. They have completed a deal to purchase the British Firm Pennisular and Oriental Steam Navigation for the tidy sum of $6.8 billion.

Fine. The Arabs are free to spend their money as they wish.

This deal was contingent on clearing the national security concerns of State, Justice, Homeland Security, Commerce, Defense and Treasury.

DP World now manages the ports of Miami. Baltimore, New York, New Jersey, New Orleans and Philadelphia, or to put it another way a Middle East conern now manages six ground zero targets.

We are told that the UAE is a reliable US ally in the war on terror. The only reliable ally we have in the Middle East is Israel, and we treat them like dirt. The UAE never responded to questions regarding money laundering and al Qaida. Gee that sounds like anational security concern to me.

As difficult as I find it, I am agreeing with Charles Schumer (one of the most detestable little men in the Senate). To paraphrase him, "We should be careful about outsourcing homeland security duties for the nation's busiest ports."