Outsourcing Safety

"This is not about the idea of an Arab country controlling American port operations. President Bush and the Republicans who control Congress should not outsource the safety of American ports to any foreign country. Democrats believe that America's security is America's business."

This what Howard Dean said the other day. But, as we all know, this Dubai Ports deal is dead now. Why isn't Howard Dean concerned about US ports being controlled by the Communist Chinese?

In 1998, a secret U.S. Army intelligence report raised concerns about how the Chinese government was anticipating the American pullout from Panama and the role Hutchison Whampoa could play in Beijing's strategy to have a presence in the world's major shipping choke points. Li Kashing, the Chinese owner of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. (HW) and Cheung Kong Holdings Ltd. (CK), took control of Panama Canal operations when the U.S. transfered it to Panama in 1999.

It's not just Hutchison Whampoa's ability in time of crisis to sabotage or control traffic in the Panama Canal that is of concern. The Chinese government has massive smuggling operations worldwide. There are no private companies in China. They are all either run by or influenced by Beijing, to say nothing of the state-owned China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO), which is a major containerized shipping and trucking firm with reach into the heartland of the United States, could be used to subversive effect.

But on these issues, Howard Dean and the rest of the Democrats are silent. And they are silent because all of these "outsourcing" events happened on their watch.

We can't have a port controlled by Dubai Ports because of 9/11 but why should we allow the Chicoms to control anything on US soil when their stated objective is to bury us?

Shouldn't this prohibition be extended to the Chinese? What about Arab countries other than Dbai? Did you know that National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (NSCSA) already runs 9 ports here in the US? Back in 1997, the Saudi owned shipping company (NSCSA) began service between North America and Italy, Greece and Turkey. Where was Howard Dean then? There's not much we can do about the Panama Canal (thanks to Jimmy Carter) but we can certainly control who runs our homegrown ports and shipping infrastructure. We need to take the momentum from this Dubai Ports fight and channel it while the brand is hot. We need to kick all of the foreign-backed companies out of the port management and shipping businesses on our soil!!!