Port Security - Interviews Available

Institute for Public Accuracy
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org

Dubai Ports World, a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates,
is slated to buy a British company, Peninsular and Oriental Steam
Navigation Co., which runs major commercial operations at ports in six
U.S. cities.

PRATAP CHATTERJEE, pratap@corpwatch.org, http://www.corpwatch.org
Chatterjee is executive director of CorpWatch and was in Dubai in
the United Arab Emirates last month. He said today: "On the one hand,
it's protectionist and racist to prevent this because the company is
based in an Arab country. But there clearly are factors of government
secrecy and cronyism involved in this, as with so much of what the U.S.
government does. The government of UAE is providing a defacto base for
the U.S. military and private contractors in Dubai."

LAILA AL-QATAMI, laila@adc.org, http://www.adc.org
Communications director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination
Committee, Al-Qatami said today: "Those who purport that ports can be
securely run by a British company, but not an Arab one, are engaging in
racial profiling on the corporate level."

CHARLES SHOWALTER, cwshowalter@comcast.net; via Emily Ryan, eryan@afge.org
President of the American Federation of Government Employees'
National Homeland Security Union, Showalter said today: "As it is, we
don't have enough people on the ground breaking down as many containers
as we should at our ports. That desperately needs to change. This should
be a domestic function. Personally, I would prefer it to be a government
entity mandated to protect the public safety."

SAM HUSSEINI, sam@accuracy.org, http://www.husseini.org
Communications director for the Institute for Public Accuracy,
Husseini said today: "While continuing to detain hundreds of Arabs and
Muslims at Guantanamo without charges, Bush seems to suddenly recognize
profiling -- when the apparent victim is a multibillion-dollar entity.
On the 'other side' of the debate, 'security hawks' suddenly find flaws
with 'government secrecy,' and 'free traders' are going domestic. That
so many political players are seeming to take on atypical attributes
highlights that they invoke arguments because they are useful in a
particular instance for whatever it is they actually believe in but
don't openly state."

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167