UAE Terminal Takeover Extends to 21 Ports

There's something fishy going on here, and I don't think it's just the normal fish smell that you get around port cities.

Let's think about this. Here's a story about a foreign company (not just any old foreign company, mind you, but a company owned by a foreign government) taking control of, among other things, the details governing the security of a bunch of our strategically important ports. (Remember the other day when we were talking about 6 ports? Turns out now it's 21.) And not owned by just any foreign government, but one of just three in the world who recognized the Taliban government in Afghanistan. Not just any foreign government, but one who's Royal Family has partied with Osama himself—and in fact that's one reason given by the CIA for not taking out Osama before 911.

Ok. Just suppose someone wanted to smuggle one o' those fabled WMD things into the US—say into a port. The security details of that port might be something you'd like to know ahead of time.

Aw, pshaw, you say. Such things just don't happen. Surely the US wouldn't allow such sensitive information into the hands of terrorist-connected folk?

Travel back in time with me, to before 911, the "event that changed everything." On June 17, 2005, right wing website Frontpage.com had this article telling about a company you've probably never heard of called Ptech:

"Ptech, which recently changed its name to GoAgile, developed a software, also called Ptech, that was used primarily to develop enterprise blueprints that held every important functional, operational, and technical detail of a given enterprise."
. . .
"Ptech’s clients in 2001 included the Department of Justice, the Department of Energy, Customs, Air Force, the White House, the FAA, IBM, Sysco, Aetna, and Motorola, to name just a few. "
. . .
"In October 2001, former Vice-President of Sales for Ptech approached the FBI Boston office with detailed information regarding possible links between Ptech and the 9/11 attacks. He was followed by Indira Singh, a risk consultant at J. P. Morgan Chase, in May 2002, who approached the Boston FBI office, the NY Joint Terrorism Task Force, the management of J. P. Morgan Chase and FBI headquarters with more documentation regarding possible Ptech penetration of US government agencies and corporations."

...and, the point of this article—

"So, how could a small, Saudi-financed company with questionable terrorist connections obtain significant government and business contracts, and who facilitated this? Was Horizons, its Egyptian branch, ever investigated? Why wasn’t Ptech shut down? Why is it still allowed to operate? And even more importantly, are there other Ptechs around?"(*)

The author of this article, Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, "a member of the Committee on the Present Danger, is Director of the American Center for Democracy, and author of Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed – and How to Stop It (Bonus Books, 2004,2005)"