Any Port in a Storm?

The interesting thing about this is that the liberals have forced us to strip search Nuns and 2 year old girls at airport security stations so as not to be accused of racial profiling. Yet here is Chucky Schumer standing up and saying no, simply because the buyer is Arab. Hypocracy anyone?

However, for once I agree with the ambulance-chaser, anyone who reads this should call the White House and tell them to get their heads out of their butts. This doesn't make sense on any level.

From IBD:
National Security: At a time when our seaports are considered the weak link in homeland security, the operation of six U.S. ports may be turned over to an Arab state from which two of the 9-11 hijackers originated.

In a deal that could not have occurred on Sept. 12, 2001, the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment, a Treasury Department interagency panel that reviews foreign investments, has approved a $6.8 billion deal granting a Dubai-based company, Dubai Ports World, management of the ports in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Miami, Baltimore and New Orleans.

Dubai is one of the seven small states that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is an Arab federation that Marwan al-Shehhi, one of the 9-11 hijackers, called home and where al-Qaida has recruited, traveled and roamed freely. Much of the operational planning for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon took place inside the UAE.

The Bush administration considers the Emirates an ally in the war on terror. But the Treasury Department has been largely stonewalled by the Emirates in trying to track al-Qaida's bank accounts. U.S. officials have said money for the 9-11 attack was wired through the UAE banking system.

U.S. seaports handle 2 billion tons of freight each year, but only about 5% of containers are inspected on arrival. A container on one of these ships would be an ideal delivery system for a weapon of mass destruction such as an Iranian nuke.

True, American ownership is retained, and U.S. longshoreman would still roam the docks. But under UAE ownership, it would no longer be unusual to see young male Arab nationals lurking about.

Management of U.S. ports means entrusting foreign ownership based in a country known to have been penetrated by terrorists in the past with key information about U.S. ports.

As defense and national security expert Frank Gaffney points out, these ports are vital to our energy security. Philadelphia alone handles some 85% of the oil coming into the East Coast, and New Orleans is responsible for one-seventh of all our imported energy.

It's conceivable that some port manager would conspire to bring in a dangerous and deadly cargo in one of the uninspected containers. Al-Qaida is said to own a fleet of 15 freighters, one of which was used in 1998 to smuggle explosives into Africa for the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

An al-Qaida training manual that was discovered in the United Kingdom said seaport workers would make good recruits. The Philippines, home to more than one terrorist group, is the world's biggest crew supplier, with Indonesia, another terrorist stomping ground, a close second.

Last week, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, urged the White House to reconsider approval of the deal in light of security concerns that have been raised. We concur.

Security at our nation's seaports needs to be tightened and enhanced. This will not be accomplished by outsourcing responsibility for their management to countries whose territory and banks al-Qaida once favored.