Friday, February 24, 2006

Reason from Reason

Reason has a good post on the Port controversy that is short and sweet and to the point.

What many bloggers have been equally careful to avoid is any factual discussion of the United Arab Emirates' role in the War on Terror. To do so would give their concerns a much less flattering color, closer in hue to simple racial and religious animus than impartial devotion to national security. To review the actions and policies of the Emirates since 9/11 is to see an Arab Muslim state quietly providing meaningful, material support in the War on Terror. In other words, a country doing exactly what we have stated we want it to do.

read it all.

UPDATE:


• The U.A.E. has allowed the deployment of military aircraft at Al Dhafra. From there the 763rd Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron conducts in-flight refueling operations throughout Southwest Asia in support of Operation Southern Watch.
• The U.A.E. allows U-2 and Global Hawk operations from Al Dhafra.
• The U.A.E. allowed the 10th Tactical Fighter Squadron to operate from Al Dhafra during both Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
• The U.A.E. has cooperated in the development of the Fujairah to Jebel Ali land link. This land link would serve as the U.S. Navy’s primary logistics/supply route in the case of any closure of the Straights of Hormuz. In other words, this link would allow the Navy to remain in the Arabian Gulf whether the Straits of Hormuz were remined or otherwise closed.


via: DtP

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey, we might hit the bigtime yet.

chuck said...

Knuck,

When I read DtP's posts I thought that maybe he had read Rick's post and also followed up later on your comment on shared ownership. But then again, maybe great minds *do* work alike.

Rick Ballard said...

Chuck,

I think he took another angle (in his posts, anyway). He described what port security was wrt responsibility while I tried to point out that P & O was running a freight terminal. I suppose if I cared I'd check the time stamps but I didn't read his take until Peter popped it into comments here.

Good for him.

Rick Ballard said...

Btw -This bit belongs to me - as of 2/24/06 at 12:17PM PST:

From comments at JOM:

"SMG,

You may hate the ocean but you have to love the Internet (thanks, Al).

When I look up competitors for P & O, I come up with American Stevedoring, Inc. which proudly proclaims itself to ba a "family owned business" - the Catucci family to be precise. (Click "Voyage Calendar" to see their clients - and how busy they are - then go here to see how busy P & O is.

Hmmm - Catucci - I wonder if they donate to pols? Why looky here! Gosh, they're Hillary fans. Whodathunk.

I wonder if ASI is a little nervous about losing their Saudi clients to a company owned by the UAE? 'Cause without those Saudi boats, they would be, well, sunk.

What's the old line - follow the money?"

ADDENDUM - The Catucci's have also given to Reps occasionally, although the majority of their dough has gone to Dems - Nadler in particular which I find oddly nauseating.

truepeers said...

Re the UAE role in the war on terror, what do you make of this claim they subsidize suicide bombing?

Unknown said...

truepeers:

I read somewhere that Zayed is dead and he is a prince from another emirate and has nothing to do with Dubai or this company.

I think that some of this is about one generation vs another generation. I have wondered in the past about frontpage mag in the past.

I really do not believe that the US government or Vancouver or Australia or any of these countries that deal with Dubai Ports would welcome terror to their ports. The very title is alarmist.

truepeers said...

Knuck, do you have the male and female numbers reversed? you say femalizing but they seem rather short of women.

Unknown said...

truepeers:

I don't think the Arabs are any uglier than the Russians and the Chinese and we do business with them everyday.

Btw, wasn't it the Russians who wrote the Protocols of the Elders of Zion? And don't the communist Chinese have exactly these same kind of contracts in several ports?

At least the UAE has never killed our people or threatened to go to war with us which is more than can be said for those two.

truepeers said...

femalizing, femiciding?

Charlie Martin said...

Knuck, sounds to me like you've got an example of the availability of modern obstetric medicine.

I would think, though, that coming close to equal numbers is a stabilizing influence.