Feb 2, 2006- Port Security

HON. MARCY KAPTUR
 OF OHIO
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 2006

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Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, it is hard to believe, but the Bushadministration, through its Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte,has given a nod and green light to the Dubai Ports World deal.

Mr. Negroponte says the Bush administration ``assessed the threat to U.S.national security posed by Dubai Ports World to be low. In other words, he said,``We didn't see any red flags come up during the course of our inquiry.''

Now the questions I have to ask: Why should we trust the Bush administrationor their analysis on intelligence on anything certainly when it comes to the Middle East? It seems to me their record on assessingrisk is not good.

Let us review some of their intelligence predictions:

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, back in February, 2003, said about thewar in Iraq,``It is unknowable how long that conflict will last. It could last 6 days, 6weeks. I doubt 6 months.'' That is what he said. His estimate was dead wrong.

Vice President Dick Cheney, March, 2003, said, ``We will, in fact,be greeted in Iraqas liberators ..... I think it will go relatively quickly ..... in weeks ratherthan months.'' His estimate was dead wrong.

President Bush told us that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.Well, the United Statescalled off that search in January, 2005. There were no weapons of massdestruction. His estimate proved to be dead wrong.    

This administration seems to make wrong decisions about a lot of things,like knowing who the enemy really is, like knowing what causes enemies to risein the first place, and working to prevent that by avoiding cozy deals withdictatorships of all stripes.

I think it is clear to even the least interested of observers that thearchitects of this war, starting with the President, the Vice President and theSecretary of Defense, allowed our troops to go to war in insufficient numbers,with inadequate resources, with fantastic escalating costs and with absolutelyno plan whatsoever to win the peace. Globally, their approach is yielding moreterrorism every day. Their approach is yielding more anti-Americanism every dayglobally.

Why then should we trust the Bush administration? Why should we believetheir intelligence that the Dubai Ports World deal will not risk U.S. nationalsecurity? Those who seek to do us harm know a lot about ports. Two weeks ago,in Yemen,23 al Qaeda members escaped from prison. Thirteen of them were men convicted ininvolvement in the 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole that occurredin Yemen'sharbor which killed 17 American soldiers. The others were attackers of theFrench supertanker Lindbergh in 2002.

Some of those who are our enemy have spent decades working the oil fieldsand sea lanes of the Middle East. Supertankerslike the Lindbergh now wend their way to our shores because we irresponsiblyare dependent on oil imports to sustain this economy. Those who want to harm usknow this system well.

The quagmire in Iraq isbringing contempt for the UnitedStates around the world and our enemies seekto harm us. That is why port security must be uppermost in our minds.

Americais fast becoming a dependent Nation, dependent on other countries for oil, forfood, for autos, for electronics, for toys, even for clothing. Our maritimesystem includes over 95,000 miles of open shoreline, and 316 U.S. ports andships carry more than 95 percent of our non-North American trade. But only 2percent of what comes into this country is even inspected. Just last week, wesaw what happened in SaudiArabia as an al Qaeda attack occurred attheir largest oil facility.

In this era, when vastly more is shipped into our ports than goes out, wehad best be on the alert to protect our portals. I am introducing legislationto prohibit any foreign government or foreign-owned company from owning,leasing, or in any way controlling a U.S. port. The bill will ask ourCoast Guard to assume full oversight and control over these bloodlines and allinspection of all cargo flowing into them until America is no longer at war.

The Federal Government controls and operates the agencies that admit peopleinto this Nation. Our Federal Government controls and operates the systems andagencies that admit airplanes into this Nation. We should have the very samesystem of control over our port systems, one that, by the way, is increasingand expanding at a very rapid rate. In 2005, more than 11 million containerscame into our country from abroad, and the estimate is that will quadruple inthe next 20 years if we don't get this trade balance in line.

We have invested billions in other systems and pennies in our port system.Isn't it time to put America'snational security first before any private deals?

END