JINSA Report #555 Friday

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March 10, 2006

JINSA Report #555

Friday

It is time for a wrap-up of the week's good and less good news.

Dubai Ports World - Dubai waved the white flag and, apparently, will not
operate terminals at American ports. But the United States is no closer
to shielding and protecting American ports and other critical
infrastructure from all foreign-government-owned entities. Hutchison
Wampoa, a terminal operator owned by the Chinese Army, controls
terminals at Long Beach, San Francisco and New Orleans, among other
places. This cannot be good for us. We still believe Security Boards of
Americans with security clearances, along the lines of those used by
American defense companies with partial foreign ownership, should be
attached to all critical infrastructure, including ports and power
plants. A Security Board, acting as the interface with the U.S. Coast
Guard and U.S. Customs Service, would help ensure that information about
how port security is designed and run by those agencies stays in
American hands.
The USA Patriot Act - We were honored to be among those at the signing
of the renewed USA Patriot Act this week. The original Patriot Act was a
bipartisan decision to give counter-terrorism forces in the United
States the same tools that were long been available to criminal
investigators. It brought down the "wall" between law enforcement and
intelligence and made it easier to track suspected terrorists. President
Bush pointed out that, "Over the past four years ... Federal, state, and
local law enforcement have used the Patriot Act to break up terror cells
in Ohio, New York, Oregon and Virginia. We've prosecuted terrorist
operatives and supporters in California and Texas, New Jersey, Illinois,
Washington, and North Carolina."
The renewed version passed 89-10 in the Senate and 280-138 in the House.
The large margins are evidence that Congress, at the end of the day,
knows we are, in fact, at war.

U.S. Military Recruiters - According to a unanimous Supreme Court
decision this week, military recruiters cannot be barred from college
campuses because of the military's position on homosexual soldiers if
the institutions accept Federal money. Justice Roberts, wrote in the
decision that the United States is at war and the Constitution gives
Congress the power to "raise and support Armies..." and to "provide and
maintain a Navy." That brings the Supreme Court into line with Congress
and the President on the fundamental issue of our day - our country is
at war. Political analyst Michael Barone notes, "Meanwhile... Yale
College has admitted as a student a former spokesman for the Taliban,
which threw homosexuals into ditches and then had concrete walls
bulldozed over them."

Finally, thank you to the astute readers who reminded us that almost
three years ago to the day (10 March 2003, JINSA Report #394) we wrote
about explosions in Shiite mosques in Iraq by "terrorists wanting to
foment war between Shi'ites and Sunnis, or to provoke Shi'ite
counterattacks. The goal would be turmoil to keep Iraq from moving
toward a peaceful, representative government... Gen. Abizaid... was
asked whether there was a civil war going on in Iraq. Since one side was
blowing things up and the other side was dying (he) wisely rejected the
notion." They didn't succeed then, or yet.

To view this JINSA Report online click on the link below.
http://www.jinsa.org/JINSAReports/3352

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