On Thu, 02 Mar 2006 21:48:16 GMT, Gene Kearns
wrote:
On Thu, 02 Mar 2006 16:24:00 -0500 in rec.boats, JohnH penned the
following thoughts:
Gene, what is it that you fear the Dubai folks would allow through our
ports?
Rather than guess at what specifically might go amiss.... why don't we
just look at the obvious. We're bringing a group of foreign nationals
from the heartland of al Queda to run operations at major ports.
What better chance would there be for an operative to spy on anything
and everything physically available to them? And then there is that
chance of tacit approval of terrorism.
Do you think that no employee of UAE (or any other country in close
proximity to al Queda) is going to get a missive much like this?
http://www.ctc.usma.edu/aq/AFGP-2002-603856-Trans.pdf
How far would YOU go to protect your family against those terrorists
in your home country?
Any attempt to put the fox in charge of the hen house is bad. Period.
And no spin will ever make it otherwise.
All well and good, but you didn't answer the question. Terrorists could be
anywhere, and unless we begin some severe racial profiling we won't be able
to keep them out of the country.
I've been on the Dundalk Marine Terminal in Baltimore several times. I
could have been a spy. Hell, there are overhead photos available all over
the net. P&O operate some of the berths at that terminal, but they surely
don't run the operations of the Port of Baltimore.
The fear is that a nuke or other WMD may enter through a port, in a
container. The fact is that once the container is in the port, it's too
late.
I'd hate to see us lose the Port of Baltimore. Beautiful place and nice for
boating.
--
'Til next time,
John H
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