Are there any risks on America's security in having outsource-business with Dubai?
156723
People seem to be forgetting that U.A.E. is a very valuable ally.  George Bush probably knows much more than we realize.  If he does the U.A.E. this favor, the U.S. will almost definitely get a very valuable favor in return.  We are also forgetting that the current leader of U.A.E. is close to death (maybe he is even dead already, for as much as I know).  This man is a very good friend of the U.S., but there is no guarantee that his successor will be.  If we do the U.A.E. this favor, we increase the liklihood that they will remain our valuable ally.
310653
America will not and cannot mind it's own business.  That's because business will mind America.  Business interests own America.  When you see us try engaging in foreign policy... it is to protect our private businesses and industries.\n\nNationalism was superceded by big business a long time ago.\n\nIs this a bad  thing?  Sometimes yes and sometimes no.  It depends on the scenario.
108466
No. First off,this is america and americans need jobs so put some americans to work .Second,there is way too many foreigners taking what precious few jobs we do have.third, dont enough american companys outsource enough of our jobs outside of america? And most importently How can we trust our security to other countries? We Americans,and I do mean all us Americans, I dont care if you are black,white,brown  or green if you were born in the U.S.A then you are American I think we need to gather up and tell our leaders that enough is enough and that we are tired of selling our country to foreigners one piece at a time and that we want america to be owned by Americans once again!
125912
The better question is how can Bush and Cheney allow a security company owned by the United Arab Emirates government take over 6 major ports in America?
356968
It depends on the business activity...but more or less it is pretty safe.  Just make sure you know all the in and outs (from the legal perspective).
505231
First of all, I'm as a Saudi person think that we don't need the Americana's protection. Therefore, we kicked the US troops from here about four years ago in order to tell the world that we can stand by ourselves and we are not anymore under the US protection. In fact, Saudi Arabia is so important as it plays a major role of politics in the region and known as a peaceful and neutral country.\n\nI think there are great business deals between America and Saudi Arabia as well as other countries but i don't think Saudi would pay one cent to American in order to be protected.\n\nSaudi Arabia has the key either to run the world or shut it down because we all know that it plays a leading role in OPEC and it ranks as the largest exporter country providing 1/3 petrol in the world.\n\nImagine if we just burn the oil here.. would you be able to fly from florida to new york within 2 hours? .. i don't think so .. you may need to buy a bicycle. But for us it won't make much difference you know we are Bedouins and we still have our own camels but i believe that your president will be broadcasted ridding a bike.\n\nfor further discussion\nsaudix@gmail.com
3771
I'm in the Satellite TV and Internet business and the outsourcing done by the satellite companies is not working out.  My customers who call for support can not get it done unless they are speaking to an american technician, otherwise I am hearing constantly that they are on the phone for long periods of time with people who are apparently only marginally trained to deal with problems.  So outsourcing is not working out in my experience and is only irritating the people who it's supposed to help.\n\nIt also takes away jobs from Americans who developed , and support many of these companies.
196028
Neither.\n\nThey are not a military or economic threat to American because a) they don't really have a military and b) the outsourcing would be done by someone else if not by them.\n\nThe biggest complaint by most uneducated people is that outsourcing will hurt our economy.  When in all actuality, it will force us to create more value-added jobs and head back to school for more advanced degrees.  Outsourcing is a form of forced intellectual advancement.  Either retrain and move upwards or work blue collar where you can’t be replaced.
841952
Greed is the reason for most outsourcing.  Most outsourcing companies have three levels of personnel.  The first level is proficient in English and can sound "American" on the phone.  This is used to lure in the US companies.  The second and third levels are progressively worse.  (they are put into place after a long term contract is in place).\n\nIf you think I am lying, compare BofA's phone support now verses a year ago.  It is obvious that you are talking to someone in Bangalore.  A year ago you could swear you were talking to a US born citizen.
215860
I think the "logic" is, hey, we outsource all our other jobs, why not outsource our security as well?
290631
The United States government could compete for the contract, if it so chose.  But what generally happens is that the US government does not actually do the work, but subcontracts it out to private companies.  That is what happened in the UAE ports deal.  The US was subsidizing out security operations to a private company.  However, in the UAE, the government actually owns, operates and profits from certain companies (capitalistic societies, especially the US, try to minimize this).\n\nSo the US government is in charge of the port security. They hire a company to oversee it on behalf of the government.  That company is bought by a company that is owned by the UAE government.  Since the late 1990s, a good number of US ports on the West Coast have been operated by China in the same manner, and the UAE actually oversees a number of other ports from late 2002 that they were given in another contract.\n\nCompetition of any type is good in a free-market, as long as it is done fairly and ethically.
239249
Emirates is a very westernized place, half of population are expats. It is essentially a model of how US wants to see the rest of Arabian world. Turning them down says "no matter how civilized you are, we still do not trust you b/c you are arabs"\n\nNot to mention that they will not run the terminals, just own a share in a British company that owns a share in US company that runs the terminals. And that "runs" means paying electricity bill for a warehouse; the security is still maintained by Coast Guard, INS, Customs.
163344
Bigotry takes many forms and attempts to disguise itself behind issues that many people can support (i.e., law and order, national security, etc). The issue here has never been about national security. Many people would like us to think that this is the case but it isn't. The truth is that most people are bigoted when it comes to Arab companies owning companies that do business in the United States. Let's look at all of the issues here. First, national security is not threatened by the deal. The company would not control port security nor would it have access to any information that would allow it to bypass security measures which are in place that it couldn't already bypass without purchasing an interest in the port. Second, the company would do financial harm to itself and is very unlikely to risk a sizable investment in our ports to further some ideological agenda of others. Third, any ownership of an interests in ports could jeopardize our national security even if its an American company therefore it makes no sense to discriminate simply because the company is based out of the UAE.
9719
This question is vague and not exactly related to law and ethics.  Nevertheless, I've included a link to a USA Today story about IBM and outsourcing in North Carolina, which the article proclaims is at the "center" of the outsourcing debate.  Similar incidents can be found with a Google search.
85754
The UAE is not really an Arab country in the way most Americans think of Arab States. Many American Citizens live there. Now the timing is bad just because we are so scared that even countries that are allies are hurt. It is a shame.\n\nPeople from the USA will still be running our ports. The workers are all from the USA. The reason we are scared is because the word Arab is in the name of the country. They are an economic powerhouse. They have _no oil_. They gained power through the free market like the USA.\n\n*The UAE is what we want Iraq to be.*\n\nIt should be investigated as the climate we are in calls for that. The congress should have been clued into this before. The secretive nature of this Bush administration is very worrysome. There is no reason to deny them other than their location in the world. It makes me wonder if something else is going on. He claims he had not known untill it was to late. How could he not know! I do not accept this. It makes me very nervous.\n\nThe investigation must be done, but a decision must be made fairly speedily or countries around the UAE will use it against the USA to turn more people in that region away from us.\n\nUPDATE:\nWow, I just heard the senate hearing on this. Appearantly, Bush was giving Dubai some breaks with this deal. He did not require them to make copies of business files in the USA, where they would be subjected to court orders from us. Also he did not designate a US citizen to make sure they were in compliance with US terms. This is so shady!
595718
only danger at the present time is from the USA
215133
These days most middle eastern countries claim/want to be US allies. The rest want to be the opposite. I live in Dubai and the conflict in the US government lobby regarding the Dubai Ports World deal created a lot of bad publicity in the press about the US, however i have not encountered even one comment that says the US-UAE relations should be severed. \n\nFact is, even though US supports Israel from the beginning, most countries in the region are and have been allies of the US, the most obvious cause of that being the US support of Kuwait when it was attacked by Iraq in 1991. A lot of the money from the region is invested in the US.\n\nFrom the point of view of the US, they want to have as many allies the region as possible. They do have all the oil here, don't they. And the petrodollars do flow into the US in most cases. However, this is indeed changing now.