The Sky Is Falling!

Now that our brave protectors in Congress have acted to prevent some of our port terminals from falling under the control of nefarious foreigners, what will they do for an encore? Force all the foreign interests (including Chicoms) who already control US port terminals to give up their ownership? Not bloody likely.

Craig e-mails from Illinois to suggest that they look to the skies:

I've been following the DPW ports issue pretty closely and I decided to do a little research today in order to put this whole thing in context.

The most cogent argument put forth by those who oppose the DPW ports deal is that we should not turn over port management to companies who are based in, or owned by, foreign countries that have significant Islamist populations, because this would increase the likelihood that a native Islamist in the host country could infiltrate the company and carry out a terrorist attack on our home soil.

While I sympathize with this line of reasoning, I don't think the threat is significant because DPW will be largely relegated to managing American fork-lift operators, whereas US federal and local authorities will be managing security.

But, assuming the DPW opponents argument is valid, should we allow such questionable countries to operate 747's over our biggest cities?

UAE, Turkey, Jordan and Kuwait currently fly jumbo-jets into JFK airport on a regular basis. In addition to JFK:

* UAE, home of two of the 9/11 hijackers, flies Emirates Airlinesinto George Bush Airport in Houston.

* Turkey, home to Abdullah Ocalan and a population that was found to be the the least friendly to Americans , hosts Turkish Airlines that flies into Los Angeles, Cleveland, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas and Miami.

* Jordan, home to head-hacker-extraordinaire Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is also the home of Royal Jordanian Airlines which flies into Chicago, Detroit, and San Francisco.

* Kuwait, home of Terrorism Kuwaiti Style , and a Senior Kuwaiti Official who said Katrina is a soldier of Allah in the fight against American Imperialists, flies Kuwait Airways into Seattle, San Diego and Boston.

Thus, if the DPW opponents are correct, and we can't trust these people to manage American fork-lift operators on our port docks, then we certainly shouldn't allow them to fly 747's within striking distance of our precious cities. However, I think this whole DPW flap has absolutely nothing to do with security and everything to do with politics.

Nice work by Craig. While we're at it, let us not forget 1999 and Egypt Air Flight 990:

The relief first officer's calm repetition of the phrase "I rely on God," beginning about 74 seconds before the airplane's dive began and continuing until just after the captain returned to the cockpit (about 14 seconds into the dive), without any call for help or other audible reaction of surprise or alarm from the relief first officer after the sudden dive is not consistent with the reaction that would be expected from a pilot who is encountering an unexpected or uncommanded flight condition.

Sure now our ports are safe. But what about our skies? What about our skies?