Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who has failed to secure the U.S. border, which is the primary function of his department, made the most inane remark of any administration official attempting to defend the UAE ports deal. Appearing on CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer" last Sunday, Chertoff said: "We have to balance the paramount urgency of security against the fact that we still want to have a robust global trading system."
First, securing our nation against terrorists must never be compromised for global trade. Secondly, a foreign government attempting to take control of a strategic asset in the U.S. is not engaging in "global trade," it is engaging in a global political gambit to enhance its own power. In this case, allowing revenues derived from a strategic U.S. asset to enhance the power of a foreign regime would mean enhancing the power of a regime that may have helped Osama bin Laden survive to carry out the 9/11 attacks.
