There's a big brouhaha on Capitol Hill and in some corners of the blogosphere over the purchase of a British company that currently manages several U.S. ports by Dubai Ports World, based in the United Arab Emirates.

Let me begin by saying that the politics of this are undoubtedly bad. Whether or not there is a real danger, the mere idea that an Arab/Islamic country's company would be managing a U.S. port in a post-9/11 world is outrageous to many Americans. The concern is reminiscent of the U.S. real estate purchases -- like Rockefeller Center -- by Japanese companies in the '80s and '90s. If I recall correctly, many of them ended up losing money on those deals.

This is certainly more serious than the Japanese buying a strip mall, but I wonder if this is a real danger or just a scare. After all, port security standards are set by the federal government, and if the company isn't meeting them, they'll lose the contract. You've still got longshoremen unloading the ships, and it's doubtful some guy from Jersey is going to keep quiet if he's got reason to believe something coming into the U.S. that will make 9/11 pale in comparison.
The Bush administration would probably be wise to just squash this deal, if only for the public relations points to be gained.

Then hopefully we can move on to killing this "guest-worker" program that is really "amnesty" in disguise.