Hot Air And Bigotry Causes Storm Over Ports

I've been watching with increasing bemusement the bipartisan category 5 politicane raging over the sale of P&O to Dubai Ports World, which would involve a handful of ports currently run by P&O in the U.S. being run by the Dubia state-owned DPW. Frist and other Republicans are threatening a bill to stop or delay the takeover; Bush has threatened to veto any such bill; the Dem leadership suddenly sound like the kind of superhawks who would nuke an Arabic nation without pause for thought and even, the temperature of hell notwithstanding, Malkin and the Kossacks are united!

WTF people?

Can we get beyond the hype, counterspin and the kneejerk Islamophobia here? Maybe? Yes? Take a chill pill and listen a moment. Kevin Drum has it right and the Wall Street Journal for once has some sense to it's Opinion. The London Financial Times says the paranoia is needless and adds "The bluster about national security conceals one of the uglier faces of US protectionism - the one with the slightly racist tinge".

I've some other observations:

P&O was a British company so the ports in question were already run by a foreign company. Given the UK's multicultural basis, several employees were no doubt Moslems. If it's a problem of national security to have foreign companies own sensitive national assets then how come no-one worried about the Brits owning the ports? Or for that matter about the Brit companies, 100% state owned by a socialist government, that have been handling US nuclear waste and nuke plant fuelling, maintenance and construction this last decade and more?

DPW already runs major port facillities worldwide, including in Australia and Europe, and has done since before 9/11. Notice none of it's people have blown anything up? In fact, Lloyd's of London regards it's abilities very highly. DP World recently won their DP World won the prestigious (within the industry) ‘Container Terminal Operator’ award. Oh, and they intend keeping the current P&O management in place, with the headquarters of the division still in London.

Both the right and left are contributing to runaway Islamophobia over this. Think Pogress spits out an Indian report (yeah, that'll be unbiased - NOT) that Bin Laden was meeting the UAE royal family in Afghanistan in 1999. The writer, Judd, fails to draw attention to there being absolutely NO evidence for any UAE royal being present - just an official aircraft. The testimony quoted is full of mights and possiblies that Judd happily ignores in the pursuit of hysteria. If Malkin did this on another issue Judd would jump all over her.

Meanwhile LGF has a fearmongering bit about a Hamas website being run from Dubai but doesn't mention that Rightwing favorites the Murdoch's get on very well indeed with the Emirate's royal family. As if the nation of origin of the Hamas website really matters - most are hosted in Russia.

Then there's the way that money being channelled through Dubai banks to al Qaida or some of the 9/11 team passing through the UAE are being brought up by all and sundry. For that matter, money passed through US and UK banks too - it doesn't mean their governments or state-owned companies will give al Qaida material aid. And let's remember that ALL the 9/11 hijackers passed through the US. Does that mean that America should be labelled as an abettor of terror and disalowed from running its own or anyone elses port facillities? Of course not.

Rampant bigotry disguised as argument by way of fearmongering. I am frankly ashamed of my colleagues on the Left who have joined this witchhunt so rabidly.

Although there are actually a few points worth discussing:

The sale has been major news worldwide for since November last year, with discussions in the British parliament and all...so let's not believe Bush knew nothing about it till five minutes ago shall we? Either that or he is admitting to being the bubble-boy we've often accused him of being. Take your pick - it's one or the other.

There's the big question of how much cronyism was involved.

First there's uncertainty over how much influence Dave Sanborn had. He was Director of Operations for Europe and Latin America for DP World until nominated by Bush to be Maritime Administrator on 24th January. Then there is John Snow who was head of another company that sold out to DP World the year after he left to join Bush's administration as Treasury Secretary - the guy who whose agency heads the federal panel that signed off on the deal.

Then there's this:

The Atlanta-based law firm Alston & Bird has advised DP World for several months as it worked for clearances for foreign investment in the United States, a source told NBC News. Now former Sen. Bob Dole, special counsel at the firm, has become part of the team working on the Dubai company's case, according to the source, who is close to Dole.

Allied to the cronyism aspect are questions, legitimate ones, about why the statutory 45 day investigation wasn't done in favor of a 25 day look at the deal and it's implications.

All those questions will have to be answered but none of them are about "national security". The ports will still be run and managed by the same people, right down to the lowliest stevedore. The Coastguard and DHS will still be running security and customs. The only thing that will change is that the company owning the ports will be a state-owned company from a nation whose support for Islamist extremism is difficult to make into a really serious case.

I'm reminded of the scares over mobile phones on aircraft and subways because they could be used to trigger bombs even though no intelligence has ever shown that to be planned when timers or suicide switches are more reliable. I'm reminded of the illegal immigrant hysteria of the wingnut right. I'm reminded of so many more examples of fear and loathing in America.

As Alan Reisner at Reuters writes: "For almost five years President George W. Bush has warned Americans to fear terrorism, but now those words may come back to bite him."

He has made the "Home of the Brave" into a nation of scaredycats.