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Congress complicit in turning US ports over to foreign companies
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Location: Blogs Jim's Blog |
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| Posted by: Jim Hansen |
2/21/2006 |
The problem with our government contracting out port security at major US ports to Dubai World Ports is consistent with the way a lot of important US operations have been handled to benefit well-connected corporations. Congress is acting shocked, but it has let it happen and should look at its own complicity.
When US contracts are given out to private corporations, Congress should not be so surprised that a successful bidder is owned by a foreign government. Private relationships take precedence in Washington, DC these days, precedence over even national security. Harold Meyerson pointed out in the Washington Post yesterday: "By the logic of the market, there's no reason why our East Coast ports shouldn't be operated by a company owned by the United Arab Emirates." Of course, by the logic of national security, it should be seen as a crazy idea.
Follow the money, too (which Katrina Vanden Heuval did). According to the New York Daily News, David Sanborn, who runds DP World's European and Latin American operations, was appointed by the Administration to direct the US Maritime Administration in January. Was Congress asleep at the switch? Could they not have made the connection then?
And Vanden Heuval also notes that Treasury Secretary John Snow, who headed the federal review of the port deal that Congress is so upset about now, was the Chairman of CSX which sold its international port operations to DP World for $1.15 billion just one year before Mr. Snow joined the Administration.
The coast guard estimated that it would cost $5.4 billion over 10 years to make the necessary improvements the security of US ports but last year Congress appropriated only $175 million for the program. Congress knows that only about 6% of the 9 million containers arriving in US ports are physically inspected by customs agents.
The problems with the port deal are so serious because of the way business as usual is done in DC, including Congress, and has nothing to do with the ethnic identity of the shareholders of a corporation.
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