O'Reilly Factor Comments on Arabs Owning U.S. Ports.
February 22, 2006

1) "We found no evidence that the UAE government wants to destroy Israel."

2) "The Emirates, along with Jordan, is America's best Arab state ally in the war on terror. That country allows U. S. planes to base on its soil. It's a tremendous help in intelligence-gathering."

3) "If the Bush administration fires the Emirate's company without cause, it spits in the eye of a strong Mid East ally. I hope everybody understands how dreadful that would be. The USA cannot win the war on terror without the help of moderate Arab nations. Talking Points believes we'll actually lose the terror war unless we build alliances in the Middle East."

4) "Right now there's no reason to fire the Arab company EXCEPT that they are Arabs. Isn't that 'racism'? Can America afford to send that message to the world?"

5) "There's nothing Bin Laden would like more than for the USA to alienate the United Arab Emirates."

6) "We have to give the new company a chance to work in our ports but with strict oversight and any foreign company should have that these days."

O'Reilly ended by calling those who oppose this deal "demagogues," which means that last night he insulted a big chunk of the population of the United States!

His guest, Dr. Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institute made the same kind of claims about the ports that O'Reilly has made for years about the borders.

O'HANLON: "I would start with the following, that we have to view ports as part of the front line in the war on terror, part of the front line in homeland security. Turning them over to ANY foreign government or company is essentially like letting a foreign company or government run a military airfield in a classic military operation. It's just something where you have to be super vigilant. I'm not trying to say in any way the UAE is committed to Israel's destruction or to our demise or to the well-being of jihadism, but I think that we have to hold a very high standard here for vigilance."

O'Reilly then introduced two NEW arguments in favor of the secret deal, brokered behind closed doors by twelve very highly placed Bush administration officials. He argued that this company would not be in charge of security, only of operations, and as he put it, "this company is basically a bureaucracy - all they do is port operations."

O'Reilly noted that when P&O, a British company, did the work, there was no media and Congressional outcry and everything ran smoothly.

O'REILLY: "You sell it [the ports contract] to United Arab Emirates - everybody admits, one of our best friends in the war on terror, doin' a heck of a lot behind the scenes to help us and we're gonna kick 'em out because they're Arabs? Sorry, that's a disaster for this country, sir."

Unresolved Problems Segment
Securing our ports
Guest: Dr. George Friedman, Stratfor.com

The Bush administration will allow a company based in the United Arab Emirates to operate some major United States ports. Although politicians on both sides of the aisle are demanding an investigation, security expert George Friedman downplayed the potential danger. "Most of the people running the ports will be Americans and Brits. You're not going to have an influx of Emirate citizens to come in and take it over. This may potentially increase the risk a little, but it's not a major event." The Factor pointed out that the United Arab Emirates is one of America's few allies in the Arab world. "If the Bush administration bans the UAE from this contract, it will be an insult to the country. You have to give them a chance, but you also have to have oversight."