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Feb. 23, 2006 I might be beating a dead horse here by writing an article on the East Coast Port matter but the heck with it. I checked this morning on CNN website and it is on there home page so I figure it is still a valid subject. I have stated before I have been to the Persian Gulf twice during Desert Storm/ Desert Shield. Dubai was a port stop of ours on a couple of different occasions. I would like to confirm Dr. Mick’s findings that he talked about in his “I was wrong about port security” article by saying it was a port that my shipmates looked forward too (well, as much as you can when you are in the Persian Gulf Region). The Dubai ports where clean, there was good security, and they had an International Seafarer’s Club where you could go get about any type of alcohol available (that’s almost all you look forward to when you have been out to sea for 59 days straight) and good Cuban cigars. You did not even have to venture off the compound. I did on occasion venture off the compound and found Dubaians (is that right) to be very westernized in there ways. Now for some of you who say “Ooooh, he’s been to Dubai and that’s it” I was also in Bahrain to many times to list (we have an Army Base there), Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, and Oman. Trust me I am not bragging. I would have never of went there if it weren’t for the U.S. Navy. Now, On to the meat of the Article. A British company ran the ports and now a Dubai company will run the ports. Security of the ports is still run by the Coast Guard. Now, where is this company going to hire people from? Are they going to bring in foreign workers to run the ports? I doubt it? It would be an administrative nightmare. This is purely conjecture, but they are probably either keeping the current employees on or they will hire from the communities in the port areas they are running. Let’s do some comparisons here. The British are considered our allies. The United Arab Emirates are considered our allies. Britain have had terrorists in their country. The UAE have had terrorists in their country. We have 3 people right now who have been brought up on terrorism charges in this country. Near where I live, in Northern California, we have a terrorist in custody. I believe some of the terrorists of 9/11 where living in this country. Terrorists are everywhere. Let’s look at how foreign investments in other industries in the U.S.A. The information in this paragraph was pulled form an article in the USA Today and can be found here. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-02-22-ports-foreign-investment_x.htm I will paraphrase the article and I am going to leave out which specific countries hold these investments just to get a feel for the gravity of the holdings. More than half the debt available for public purchase (2.2 trillion) is held by foreigners. More than a 10th of the crude oil and natural gas produced in the U.S. is partially foreign owned. Twenty seven out of one hundred and forty-five U.S. refineries were owned by foreign affiliated companies. Data based on most current 2003 statistics. No real data here but 25% is the greatest amount of voting shares that can be held by foreign investments in any U.S. Airline company. Two foreign companies have contracts in the United States to operate toll roads in Indiana and Illinois. The contract in Indiana is for 75 years. No more than 20% of the U. S. telecommunications market can be owned by foreign interests. This rule is easily skirted if it is deemed in the public’s interest. One in twelve Americans (drinking and waste) water service is controlled by foreign companies. Eight thousand out of 140,000 route miles of track used for freight is controlled by two foreign companies. Now, if you actually take the time and read the article you’ll see that most of the countries are friendly countries like Spain, Canada, Japan, and so on … What or who is to say that they do not have terrorists already within their organization ready to strike the infrastructure listed above. We just don’t know. I think ultimately we need to be raising a ruckus that we have let these important infrastructures to be handled by outside companies, period. I think maybe the government and the country should see the port take over as a wake up call that we have given up to much of the infrastructure to foreign interest. Just a thought but maybe we can find ways to legally have these companies scrutinize their employee stock and dig a little deeper when these foreign companies are hiring people. I think we need to remember that Rome didn’t just fall because of outside influences, they also fell from within. Thanks for your time. ------------ About the author Shaun Farman: I am a 35 year old who has been working in Information Technology for 17 years. I read a lot of everything. I decided to start posting because my wife gets tired of hearing my rambling so I thought it might be fun to ramble to a bigger audience. Email: sfarman@comcast.net Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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