Dubai Ports World: Commercial Racial Profiling

[uhramechi]

Dubai Ports World: Commercial Racial Profiling
February 20, 2006
Ivan Eland



Some members of Congress, exhibiting post-9/11 jingoism and paranoia, are pressuring the Bush administration to reconsider its decision to allow Dubai Ports World, an Arab company, to take over operations at six U.S. ports. The approval should stand.

Congressman Peter T. King (R-NY), Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and, more importantly, a Congressman from an area near two of the ports that will be operated by Dubai Ports World, expressed this xenophobic view about Dubai’s acquisition of the British company that is currently operating the ports: “In the post-9/11 world, there should have been a presumption against this company.”

Why? Because two of the 9/11 hijackers happened to be from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the country in which the company is based. Yet the British company, Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, was allowed to operate the ports in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Miami, and New Orleans despite Richard Reid’s (the infamous “shoe bomber”) British citizenship. And American companies are permitted to operate some U.S. ports despite the fact that Timothy McVeigh, Jose Padilla, and other U.S. citizens are convicted or accused terrorists. For that matter, how do we know that even an American company running the ports would be immune from terrorist infiltration?

In fact, since two of the 9/11 hijackers were from the UAE, Dubai Ports World might even have a stronger interest in operating safe and secure ports than companies from other nations. Dubai has a worldwide presence, an extensive history of operating ports, and a reputation to uphold. If a terrorist incident occurred in one of its ports, the company would probably lose more business worldwide than a non-Arabic company would under the same circumstances.

The company should be evaluated on its qualifications to operate the ports, not on McCarthy-like litmus tests for Arabs or the UAE. Besides, although Dubai Ports World will operate the ports, U.S. federal and local authorities will remain in charge of security.

Members of Congress such as Congressman King and New York Senator Charles E. Schumer certainly get points with their New York constituents for defending the nation against the onslaught by “Arab terrorists,” and perhaps trying to protect U.S. companies from foreign competition as well.

But if Arab companies truly cannot be trusted to operate U.S. ports, then shouldn’t they be banned from all involvement with U.S. airports, farming, electrical generation, water works, nuclear power plants, chemical, biomedical, and pharmaceutical production, and tunnel, bridge, stadium, and skyscraper construction? Extending this flawed logic further, perhaps even airlines from Arab countries should be banned from landing at U.S. airports because they might be used in terrorism or bring terrorists into the United States—in spite of the fact that the planes used on 9/11 were U.S. airliners.

After 9/11, U.S. authorities incarcerated and questioned people based on their Arabic nationalities and Islamic religion. The vast majority of them had no connection to terrorism or the 9/11 attacks. This was widely perceived to have been an overreaction. Yet more than four years after 9/11, this racial and ethnic profiling has now moved from individuals to businesses. The Bush administration was right to insist that no security threat emanated from a routine business purchase of a British firm by an Arab company. The politicians should quit posturing and move on to more important issues.

[Shake n Bake]

"But if Arab companies truly cannot be trusted to operate U.S. ports, then shouldn’t they be banned from all involvement with U.S. airports, farming, electrical generation, water works, nuclear power plants, chemical, biomedical, and pharmaceutical production, and tunnel, bridge, stadium, and skyscraper construction?"

Yes, They should be banned


"After 9/11, U.S. authorities incarcerated and questioned people based on their Arabic nationalities and Islamic religion. The vast majority of them had no connection to terrorism or the 9/11 attacks."

Source?

[remo williams]

this racial profiling argument is a fcuking joke..i've never seen a arab get a DWB,so please stop before they embarass themselves would be my advice.look it's a bad idea..why are they so hot to buy 6 U.S. ports anyway?really now when the cnooc deal got shut down noone said it was "racism or profiling" then.the "Arabs" making the arguement have no fcuking idea what racism and profiling is in this country unless they are us citizens or on the way to becoming one...sounds like some brow beating to me..i've experienced and seen such thigs as a fact...so the arguement coming from someone whose not a us resident,but more or less an agent of a questionable gov't is a fcuking joke to me...face it..all this is is one rich business man(arab)trying to get money from another(white american)businessman.When you're talking about money the color is green and none of us on this forum are that shade of it at that level..therefore we don't count.black white yellow brown clear etc..we're below the type of people behind this...

[haze99]

I am still waiting for Christian's to be able to run business's and build church building's in UAE and Saudi Arabia. (but, I won't hold my breathe!)

[shire19]

I am still waiting for Christian's to be able to run business's and build church building's in UAE and Saudi Arabia. (but, I won't hold my breathe!)

Don't know about Saudi but Dubai has churches and christian run bussineses afaik.

[Ayura]

The Saudi Government IMO is a mess of an attempt to try to be Islamic. The royal family, mistreatment of womens right and other things. But not much can be done because they own Mecca...

[Omaha]

The Saudi Government IMO is a mess of an attempt to try to be Islamic. The royal family, mistreatment of womens right and other things. But not much can be done because they own Mecca...

Wahabi. The cancer of the world.

You ask me, we're killing the wrong terrorists. But, to the government's credit, any Saudi offensive to do anything will be seen (or twisted) to an assault on Mecca.


That’s like looking for a bees nest to stomp on.

[American Patriot]

[liberal]durrr i don't trust dem arabs[/liberal]

[ViktorNavorski]

Paranoia about Dubai ports deal is needless

The current furore in Washington about the takeover of P&O, the UK-based ports operator, by Dubai Ports World says more about the United States Congress than the United Arab Emirates. The bluster about national security conceals one of the uglier faces of US protectionism - the one with the slightly racist tinge.

DP World, the mainly Dubai government-owned ports operator, paid top dollar, $6.8bn (£3.9bn), for P&O, part of its bid to build a worldwide network of maritime terminals with Dubai at its centre. The bold move was very much in character with the vaulting ambition of Dubai - one of the seven emirates in the UAE federation led by Abu Dhabi - and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, its restless ruler.

Dubai is the most dynamic of the glittering city-states that run down the east of the Arabian peninsula. It long ago decided to invest its (relatively modest) endowment of oil in other ways of making a living. So far, it has done very well. By creating excellent airport infrastructure and Emirates, one of the world's best and most profitable airlines, it seeded not just a regional but international air transport, transhipment and tourism hub. It has also become a regional financial and services centre. Oil revenue now amounts to only 7 per cent of Dubai's income, although it benefits from its federal ties with oil-flush Abu Dhabi.

It excites a bit of derision by seeming to want the biggest of everything: the largest man-made island, the highest tower (the planned 3,000 feet-plus Burj Dubai), the richest horse-racing prize or the biggest airliners' order. Yet its diversification strategy is increasingly admired and copied in a region that desperately needs to create jobs.

But some western governments and international companies - while benefiting from the boom in Dubai and the UAE - tend to be either patronising or paranoid. Either Dubai's success is overreach and financial levitation, or murky and in hock to sinister Arab aims. Being the Singapore of the Gulf is not the same as being Singapore.

Because DP World acquires through P&O American ports including New York, New Jersey and Miami, both Republicans and Democrats in Congress are denouncing a possible breach in the frontline against terrorism.

This is a more strident response than last year's rebuff of CNOOC, the Chinese state-owned oil company, and its $18bn bid for Unocal. The UAE is a strategic US ally in the Middle East. The Bush administration is right to defend the deal and the alliance.

First, the deal has been vetted by an inter-agency committee. And ports, in any case, are in one of the most highly regulated sectors in the US. What matters is how they are managed, not who owns them.

Second, leading Dubai companies such as DP World bring with them certain advantages. They habitually: spend money to make money; headhunt the best professionals (in DP World that includes top Americans); and produce high rates of growth. The ambitious new $15bn aerospace enterprise Dubai announced this week will be built around that formula.

Third, the honourable senators might get this purchase in perspective by pondering the extent to which the Gulf allies they so distrust already own vast quantities of US assets, as well as dollar assets held offshore. For Abu Dhabi alone, a 1 percentage point move in US interest rates now means more than a $10 per barrel swing in the price of oil. Do the math.

The political grandstanding is going to provide some good sound bites. I still remember the rhetorics against profiling of young Arab men, yet with this business transaction, we suddenly "know for sure" the UAE company represent a security threat. So much of a threat, it was fitting we sold them F-16 Block 60 and Apache helicopter.

[Mr Gently Benevolent]

Here was me convinced that the only decent thing (from a eurowussie perspective) was that the current US government fully endorsed the one world global capitalist vision, looks like I was maybe wrong. Jeez another N.I.M.B.Y

[Playtime]

Dubai outbidded singapore for P&O, only a 2 horse race. maybe they should just break up P&O so the ports can be sold seperately to more acceptable parties if any.

[One?]

I am still waiting for Christian's to be able to run business's and build church building's in UAE and Saudi Arabia. (but, I won't hold my breathe!)

Can I build a mosque in the vatican ?

As for churches in Dubai go do some research before posting bull****. Thank you!

Billions of dollars are in the US because of arab businesses. The ports are just another business just like other construction projects. Google some of top american companies and you will see either their partners are arab, or the owners are arabs or arabs have to do something with the company. You're just paranoid. Ya all 1 billion arabs are terrorists right?

[remo williams]

no..1billion are not terrorists like 249billion here are not war maongering meat puppets..but....yes 6% or so of the good ol us of a is owned by foreign countries..it's not a problem if the owners aren't looking the other way while a few thousand of your citizens (who are just trying to make ends meet and survive)are getting blown the fcuk up...that would raise some controversy don't you think?if after 9/11 the uae had fully cooperated then maybe the attitude would be different...since they obstructed a good deal well..the perception was made..and at the bery least they aren't a very trustworthy ally...i don't have a problem w/arabs owning something in the us..(as they own a decent amount as is..and most people don't realize it.)my problem is that the current admin of this country with the rulers of the uae aren't trust worthy..but businessmen..greedy businessmen...the free trade arguement ,i'm sorry but it's weak..and this racism issue is weaker still..most arabs untill 9/11 have no idea of what profiling and racism are about in this country..when's the last time you heard of hangang arabs,beating arabs,dwb,dwl(driving while latino)before 9/11? and to say they're an ally,but we got off to a rough start is unsettling...just myho