I’ve been thinking about the Dubai ports deal, and I’ve realized something: Many people are asking the wrong question. The question is not “Should there be a 45 day review period?”, the question should be “Should Dubai Ports World have any chance to run our ports?”. Dubai Ports World is owned by the UAE government. Two of the 9/11 hijackers were from the UAE. Money for 9/11 was laundered through the UAE. AQ Kahn used Dubai ports to smuggle nuclear technology to Iran and North Korea. Bush claims that the UAE is our ally…but what about the next sheik? I don’t mean to sound anti-Arab, but we need to be very careful about letting a company from that part of the world have access to sensitive parts of our ports. Yes, the workers will be Americans, but the management will be UAE-which also brings up the question of whether people coming from a mindset in which it takes two women to equal the testimony of one man, where a husband can beat his disobedient wife, can be trusted to follow our gender equality laws.
# posted by Dan @ 5:33 PM
