The stories we never hear (here)!!!

I mentioned this story and tried to put a link to it in a reply I left on someone else's blog and the link kept getting cut off. I've pasted the entire story here and the title should be a link to the original Daily Star page.

I read too much for my own good, though not as much as I used to. I have an e-friend in Lebanon, and in trying to follow what's going on there I read the headlines from this paper daily, and some of the stories when I find time. With all the hand wringing and furor here this last few weeks, you can see why the following headline intrigued me:

"Dubai company provides port services to U.S. Navy"


By Agence France Presse (AFP)




WASHINGTON: While Dubai Ports World bowed out of running six US port facilities to quell an outcry over security concerns, another Dubai-owned company has since January provided services in 12 U.S. ports and to the U.S. Navy, Time magazine said on its website.

The British company Inchcape Shipping Services (ISS) was sold in January to a "Dubai government investment vehicle for $285 million," Time said.

ISS has more than 200 offices around the world, including more than a dozen U.S. port cities including Houston, Miami and New Orleans, where it arranges "pilots, tugs, linesmen and stevedores, among other things," said the magazine.

The U.S. Navy in June of last year signed a $50 million contract making ISS its "husbanding agent for vessels in most Southwest Asia ports, including those in the Middle East," said Time quoting from an unclassified Navy logistics manual.

As husbanding agent, ISS is responsible for arranging everything from fuel to spare parts to fresh vegetables for vessels at ports of call. "More critically," said Time.com, "they often provide security, like erecting concrete barriers and what the military calls force protection."

The company knows ships' schedules weeks in advance.

An ISS spokesman contacted by Time refused to comment on the report but a statement issued by the company said ISS had undergone rigorous external security checks and has comprehensive internal policies on security, adding that all port staff are fully vetted and undergo a background check.

The Washington Post said Friday the ISS was purchased by a Dubai company whose executive, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, also heads DP World, whose takeover of British firm Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company was opposed by many U.S. lawmakers but supported by the White House.

DP World's announcement Thursday that it would sell its US ports operations headed off a showdown between President Bush and Congress, despite its being in the control of his Republican Party. - AFP



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