UAE PORT SALE TAKING A LIFE OF ITS OWN

Presidential Press Secretary Scott McClellan stated today that the Bush administration should have clarified to Congress and the American people the sale of operations of six major U.S. ports. That is an under statement. One contention that I have had with the President is the fact that instead of using the , "Bully Pulpit, " to speak to the people he allows situations to basically run the gambit of political and media coverage. McClellan said that the administration did not see the political fall out that this has caused. Though greater detail about the sale by the administration could have prevented much of the fall out, I still have my doubts about the acquisition. As I have looked into this sale in more detail my initial thoughts that this would become a major terrorist problem as far as using the ports a venues to launch attacks have subsided. I initially pictured turban clad Arabs driving fork lifts which held possible threats to the country. Now this vision is a bit of an exaggeration but I also believe that this is the picture that most Americans have concerning the sale. The Coast Guard and current long shore man will continue to operate facilities as they have always done while the ports were under British control. Yes, the ports nationwide are handled by state and federal port authorities but operational control of every port is handled by other countries. Operation control is the loading and unloading of the millions of containers the leave and enter our ports on a daily basis. This is what the UAE will have control over if the sale is allowed to go through. I do not believe that the sale should be put on hold simply because it involves Arabs as has been indicated by Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton in a form of racial profiling. My contention and my reason for opposing this move is simply this. Though nothing from an operational stand point would change at any of the ports including U.S. jobs, this acquisition would allow the UAE access to vital security information that is used to protect our ports and much of our travel and shipping industries. Gaining access to this vital security information would be necessary in order to handle containers in a secure and expedient way. This in my opinion poses a problem because of past involvement of the UAE in terrorist activities. Yes they are now an ally in the War on Terror and have been very helpful both in the war and in servicing our Naval vessels in the port of Dubai. This does not prevent the infiltration of Al Qaeda or any other terrorist organization from entering the United States as management in the UAE company and thus gaining access to vital security information and passing it along to sleeper cells or those planning attacks from over seas. That is my main concern and unless through an exhaustive investigation this possibility can be unequivocally proven impossible then this sale should NOT happen. I realize that the with drawl of this sale could damage relations with Arab nations but our National Security is more important than relations with any country whether Arab or any other nationality. Remember we have placed spies from friendly nations in prison for using their friendly status to pass secret information to their countries and I see this UAE sale as the possible opening of a flood gate of security information falling into hands that have designs on our destruction.

Ken Taylor