Forum: Are we just brain-dead?

Oliver North’s excellent article “Death wish” (Commentary, Feb. 12) is his personal affidavit for why our government should continue to use eavesdropping surveillance during wartime. I agree with him; but unfortunately, after reading another article by the Associate Press titled: “United Arab Emirates firm to run six U.S. ports,” I wondered: Is this not also an American “Death wish?”

What is the good of fighting over authorization of the president’s power to use the War Powers Resolution and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to seek approval for electronic capabilities, to track down phone calls from known al Qaeda terrorists, if at the same time we turn around and allow an Arab organization to run Baltimore’s public terminals and take over operations for U.S. ports, including Baltimore’s?

Besides Baltimore, these ports are in New York, New Jersey, New Orleans, Miami, and Philadelphia. This is very disturbing.

Therefore, I ask every patriotic American to call their senators and representatives and ask: Who is on the “secretive U.S. government panel” that allowed this security risk deal to sneak by without giving us a chance to know what’s happening?

As a native-born American living in Maryland, I care about all our American citizens who will be affected by this perilous “giveaway.” It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it would be a “piece of cake” for just one of the UAE company’s Arab employee’s to put a bomb in a shipping container at the Dundalk Marine terminal. It could blow up all of Dundalk. This is like asking the fox to watch the hen house.

Now let me get this straight. Jimmy Carter gave away the Panama Canal, and now the Chinese have a base there. Bill Clinton sold most of our sophisticated computer technology to China, and China now has missiles aimed at us. And the Bush administration wants to make a deal to turn over our strategic marine shipping ports to people who refused to cooperate with us when we tried to track down Osama bin Laden’s bank accounts. We might as well give them the White House and the Statue of Liberty and get it over with.

Another concern: Why is George Bush the elder so close to Mr. Clinton now? Have our leaders forgotten Mr. Clinton disgraced the White House? Have we forgotten when Israel’s former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shook hands with Yasser Arafat in the famous White House garden, yet Arafat afterward reneged on his deal too by allowing Hamas to operate freely in Gaza?

Have we forgotten our leaders’ embrace of Arafat’s right-hand man, Abbas, at the White House did not prevent him from continuing Arafat’s legacy, leading to more suicide bombings, kidnappings and rocket attacks on Israel and a Hamas election victory? Also, because our leaders trusted the cruel “Gaza disengagement” plan, there has been an increase (not a decrease) in weapons and terrorists smuggled into Gaza via the new open Rafah border.

So why are our State Department and the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States pushing for another giveaway of our vital U.S. seaports?

This is a terrorist’s dream and an American’s nightmare, a gift of total surrender to terrorism on a silver platter.

Was it the $6.8 billion involved? I didn’t know America was for sale. Is this what our brave soldiers in Iraq put their lives on the line for every day, while we do nothing here at home?

I would rather see Presidents Bush the Younger and Elder. rubbing shoulders with Oliver North; somehow I would just feel more secure.

I am a patriotic registered Democrat, who voted for President Bush, mainly because I didn’t want the U.N. running our country under John F. Kerry, because I respected Mr. Bush’s moral and family values and because of his war on terrorism.

But I find it shocking and disturbing for the Bush administration to accept this “UAE” deal, which borders on treason. It is a definite conflict with our Homeland Security’s ability to scrutinize our shipping containers, that will be more accessible by an Arab organization on our soil, one that can avoid the U.S. Customs inspectors.

Therefore, I ask Oliver North, who raised the question about those against the president’s domestic wire-tappings, if he thinks our Maritime Administration of Transportation has a death wish? Would he protest the UAE deal and appeal to President Bush not to approve but to adamantly reject it?

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