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Top Port Operators Pose Dubai-like Risks
One of most powerful arguments against the takeover of six major U.S. ports by Dubai Ports World is that two of 9/11 hijackers were born in the United Arab Emirates, home to the embattled ports operator. Indeed, the 9/11 Commission report has no fewer than 18 references to Dubai, noting that several hijackers traveled through the city repeatedly and used a Dubai-based relative of Khalid Sheik Mohammed to transmit financing for the attacks. But it turns out that the companies most qualified take DPW's place pose similar security risks, at least by the standards currently applied to the DPW takeover. According to a 2005 "Annual Review of Global Container Terminal Operators" published by Drewry Shipping Consultants Ltd., Hutchison Port Holdings tops the list of DPWs competitors.
Story Continues Below The chairman of Hutchison-Whampoa, HPH's parent company, is Chinese billionaire Li Ka-shing. In May 2003 Insight Magazine reported that Li has been "closely linked to former Chinese military intelligence director, Gen. Ji Shengde." Li also "sits on a board of a company tied to the Chinese People's Liberation Army that allegedly has sold arms to Iran and Pakistan." Next on Drewry's port operators list in PSA Corporation - which bills itself as "one of the leading marine service providers in the world." PSA is, however, based in Singapore - a location where - according to a Dec. 2005 review by The Economist's Intelligence Unit Ltd. - security precautions are "rather relaxed" and a terrorist attack is "highly likely." "One scenario causing the authorities particular concern is an attack on port facilities, possibly using a hijacked ship," the Economist said. "On a number of occasions the government has [said] . . . . that an attack taking place in Singapore was highly likely. More generally, the government's support for the US-led war on terrorism, coupled with its support for the US invasion of Iraq - an action condemned by many countries with a majority Muslim population - has further added to Singapore's vulnerability. Businesses may need to step up the current, rather relaxed, security precautions in their buildings." The A.P. Moller-Maersk Group is third on Drewry's ports list. That company, however, is based in Denmark, which has become the target of worldwide Muslim outrage spurred by derogatory cartoons of Mohammed published in a Danish newspaper last year. More than a few extremist imams have issued fatwahs against the Danes, with followers saying their cartoonists should be beheaded. In recent weeks, cartoon protesters have vowed revenge against both Denmark and the U.S., invoking the name of Osama bin Laden. The next largest ports operator is the China Ocean Shipping Company [COSCO], a state-owned company whose containers were used in 1996 in a bid to smuggle thousands of illegal weapons into the U.S. through the port of Oakland. On the night of March 18, 1996, undercover Customs and BATF agents discovered 2000 AK-47's in a container smuggled aboard the COSCO ship "Empress Phoenix." According to a report in Vanity Fair magazine, Chinese operatives nabbed in the sting explained that they were ready to smuggle in everything from grenade launchers to surface to air missiles, which they boasted could "take out a 747." Next on Drewry's list of port operators comes Eurogate, which calls itself "Europe’s leading network of container terminal logistics." However, Eurogate is based in Hamburg, Germany - a city with an even more troubling 9/11 connection than Dubai. Germany's largest port city played host to the notorious "Hamburg Cell," where Mohamed Atta, Marwan al Shehhi and other further 9/11 hijackers formulated plans to attack America and traveled back and forth to Afghanistan for training. Another major Drewry list container terminal operator - Hapag-Lloyd AG and Hamburger Hafen-und Lagerhaus AG - has the same Hamburg headquarters problem. Those who favor American ownership of U.S. ports might think that a terminal operator with the name, the American President Lines, would fit the bill. But they'd be wrong. Coming in at 12 on Drewry's list, APL is headquartered in Singapore, whose security risks have already been covered. The one American-owned company that could handle the job of running the ports purchased by Dubai Ports World is SSA Marine, a Seattle-based company that boasts of operating "more cargo terminals than any other company in the world." However, the Western Stevedoring Company, an SSA subsidiary, is based in Canada's Vancouver Island - a location that also has a Dubai-like association with al Qaeda. Before he was apprehended by an alert U.S. Customs agent in Dec. 1999, would-be LAX bomber Ahmed Ressam stayed in Vancouver in the weeks before attempting to enter the U.S. What's more, Washington state, SSA's home base, isn't exactly free of terrorist connections either. In Sept. 2004, Washington National Guard Specialist Ryan G. Anderson was convicted on five counts of trying to give al Qaeda information on U.S. troop strength, tactics and vulnerabilities. Military officials said Anderson's actions amounted to "attempted treason." Specialist Anderson graduated from Washington State University in 2002 with a degree in military history, specializing in the Middle East. Fortunately for those concerned with port security, we'll never know what might have happened had Mr. Anderson joined the Merchant Marine instead of the Guard. Editor's note:
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Al-Qaeda
Inside Cover Stories
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