Congressman Virgil Goode (Republican, VA-5) has just rushed to press his
March 1 "Goode News" website newsletter. He's boldly pointing in the direction the prevailing wind is blowing:
From across the Fifth District of Virginia, many have written and called me to voice their deep concern over the announcement that a company headquartered in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been chosen to head security at six ports in the eastern United States and the Gulf of Mexico. I share your concerns and oppose the involvement of the UAE in our port security.
For any who may have missed the story, the ports have been operated by a British firm that is being acquired by a company in the UAE. The change of ownership was reviewed by some of the top Cabinet members in the Administration, and they agreed that the new ownership should be approved to operate these six U. S. ports. While actual security at the ports would continue to be handled by United States citizens and work on the docks would still be performed by U. S. longshoremen, the concern that the owners of the middle eastern nation would gain awareness of what security measures are in place and steps this our nation is taking to safeguard our ports from terrorist attacks.
The Administration can put the contract on hold while a further review is made. If it does not, many of us in the House and the Senate are prepared to vote to block the contract.
Gotta love that contradiction between the assertion in the first paragraph that DP World would "head security" and the more correct observation in the following that in fact security would remain in U.S. hands. Whatever... the important point is to keep everyone's minds off of
Mitchell Wade of MZM's guilty plea today, with the admission that he was behind a $46K illegal campaign contribution to Goode.
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