While I slept,
some apparently good news came out about the proposed Dubai Ports World takeover deal:
WASHINGTON - Bowing to ferocious opposition in Congress, a Dubai-owned company signaled surrender Thursday in its quest to take over operations at U.S. ports.
“DP World will transfer fully the U.S. operations ... to a United States entity,” the firm’s top executive, H. Edward Bilkey, said in an announcement that capped weeks of controversy.
But Barak of
IRIS Blog thinks there's less to this than meets the eye. (Hat tip:
Little Green Footballs.)
One article, however, quotes a statement that "we will continue to hold our U.S. operations separate while this process continues." In other words, the Dubai corporation will maintain a separate incorporation status for the American subsidiary. A few comments:
-This is a standard legal fiction for corporations who maintain complete operational control over their foreign subsidiaries. As an Information Technology consultant to many multi-national corporations, I can say with certainty that corporate management has access to the information systems of local subsidiaries.
-Note the key word "continue." This strongly implies that there is no change. In other words, there is no news here.
-While it is possible that the government-owned firm will indeed be forced to sell, it should be noted that all Arab governments routinely lie. Here is this week's biggest example.
It's not time to let up yet. Keep those emails to your Senators and Congressmen coming.
2 comments:
To make sure that the UAE cannot gain control of the ports, laws need to be passed that can effectively prevent them from doing so. The House was said to be working on drafting some bills; we need to ask the representatives to complete them.
I'm with you, Someguy; our work here is NOT done! The Dubai "royal" family is apparently OUTRAGED (as is the Muslim custom when things don't go their way) at this turn of events, but until they actually SELL the damned thing, they will have a foot in the door.
No matter how distant or tenuous their connection may be with strategic infrastructure, especially points of entry, it will present a grave danger to us.
I know I'm a nag, but PLEASE, if you haven't, read David J. Jonsson's article, "Dubai Ports - Strategic Implications." So far, he has laid out the Big Picture better than just about anyone. He describes the importance to Muslims of getting a foothold into North America (so far the only continent on which they have no such foothold).
Here it is - it's SO helpful:
http://canadafreepress.com/2006/jonsson022506.htm
When we finish up with the Port thing, maybe we can get serious about the borders.
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