Uh Oh... Another Foreign Port Takeover

The French are coming to the Everett LNG (liquid natural gas) import terminal in Boston; via Daily Kos diarist Jerome a Paris:

It was purchased by Tractebel (a Belgian power company owned by Suez, a French private utility) in september 2000. Now Suez has announced its merger with GDF (Gaz de France), the 80% State-owned French natural gas utility, and it is expected that the French government will own about 35% (a blocking minority) of the merged entity.

Should we be worried? Jerome unleashes the snark:

France is also an almost-enemy State, having run an active campaign against the US at the UN in the run up to the Iraq war and generally trying to put obstacles to US policies around the world;

France is a quasi-Soviet state, dominated by protectionist, nationalist bureaucrats that have for sole competence that of extracting taxes from hapless companies and workers and channeling them lavishly to farmers and unemployed;

France is almost an Arab state already, and will soon be run over by fundamentalist, rioting Arab youth;

France, thorugh the new company, will become the biggest player in the Atlantic LNG market, controlling the main LNG terminal on the Eastern coast of the US and the terminal and gas hub in Europe (Zeebrugge in Belgium) - thus with an ability to manipulate prices on both sides of the Atlantic and to withhold vital supplies.

I am in agreement with Jerome, that foreign management/ownership of our ports is not that worrisome--whether it be European, Arab, Indian, Korean, or Singaporean. As long as the vetting process is open and the the foreign entity (corporate or government-controlled) poses no overt security risks to national security. What we need to do is ensure better port security as a whole--something that's been lacking from the BushCo administration in funding and in political will.

[UPDATE] ThinkProgress alerts us to the fact that Republicans in the House just defeated an amendment (proffered by Minnesota Democrat Martin Sabo) to add the following funding to port protection and disaster preparedness, which inlcuded:

$300 million to enable U.S. customs agents to inspect high-risk containers at all 140 overseas ports that ship directly to the United States. Current funding only allows U.S. customs agents to operate at 43 of these ports.

$400 million to place radiation monitors at all U.S. ports of entry. Currently, less than half of U.S. ports have radiation monitors.

$300 million to provide backup emergency communications equipment for the Gulf Coast.

Again, it doesn't matter who owns management of the ports if we're not going to fund the necessary security measures that would be provided by US governmental (federal and state) security offices.