A speaker at a drug workshop today told the audience that DC area port

[NVMojo]

has a huge problem with drug smuggling and lack of security. He deals with federal drug issues. I can't remember where I read it here but someone on DU posted that this is probably a good reason to not have UAE oversee US port security.

[dcfirefighter]

1. Baltimore Heroin nt

[Flabbergasted]

2. That's a really interesting angle!

[CrazyOrangeCat]

3. It's a terrible idea . . .

. . . because UAE is so close to Afghanistan. The opium crops there have been going gangbusters for two or three years now.

This country will be flooded with heroin. It would only take sneaking a few containers into those ports to really mess things up. I have a friend who works for Partnership for a Drug-Free America. I'll bet she'll have some choice words about this.

[High Plains]

8. Afghan heroin mainly goes to Central Asia, South Asia & Europe

It is supplying junkies from London to Lahore, Berlin to Baghdad, and don't forget Teheran. Iran may have the world's highest opiate addiction rate right now, thanks largely to their Afghan neighbors.

We Americans get most of our junk from Colombia and Mexico.

[Mythsaje]

4. As if this bunch has ever been serious about the WO(S)D

in the first place. From the CIA connection to crack cocaine to Poppy Bush's military expedition into S. America to go after the coca plantations in Bolivia and refineries in Peru, they've always been more interested in looking like they're doing something on that front than actually accomplishing anything. All the better to sharpen their axes on our civil liberties, if you know what I mean.

When you add it to the fact that just months before 9/11 the Bushies were sending the Taliban money to help eradicate poppy plantations, the whole damn thing looks pretty screwy.

Of course, I'm one of those who thinks the WOSD is an example of rampant corruption and deception in the first place, so maybe I'm a bit prejudiced on the matter.

[TheDebbieDee]

5. I've heard a similar conspiracy theory

on the Stephanie Miller Show........The UAE, in cohoots with the Bush administration, will use their DuBai port and terminal management expertise to distribute the cocaine or heroin and poppy seeds harvested from the Afghani fields to points world-wide.

[benburch]

6. Well, if it brings in some good hashish...

then it can't be all bad! :evilgrin:

[spindrifter]

7. There is no way that UAE would oversee port security!

DP-World will be doing stuff like scheduling arrivals, scheduling yards for goods that have to wait for transportation. They will negotiate labor contracts with ILA in most, if not all of the ports, since they are East Coast.
Security will be the responsibility of the Coast Guard and Customs under the umbrella of DHS. The actual security will likely be union people from ILA. Overseeing security measures consists of stuff like checking for security seals on containers, making sure that cargo is not stored if it doesn't have a shipping date, checking for tampering, inventorying hazardous substances, checking the permits of people coming into the port area.
DP-World is going to have the unions and the Coasties all over their butts.

[High Plains]

9. These drug guys think EVERY port has a huge drug problem

and every interstate highway is a "major narcotics transshipment corridor."

I'd bet even money this guy was with the Balitmore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. It's part of law enforcement's job to keep telling us bad the drug problem is so we'll keep funding them (though, paradoxically, given that we already spend $40 billion a year and we have cops telling us how bad it is, maybe we shouldn't be throwing good money after bad in programs that fail any cost-benefit analysis).