Mohammed Sharaf, Chief Executive Officer — Mr. Sharaf has more than 18 years of expertise in the transport and logistics industry and holds his Executive Degree in Business Administration from the University of Arizona, Tucson.

Edward H. Bilkey, Chief Operating Officer — Mr. Bilkey is a graduate of Yale University and has Masters Degrees from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, run by Harvard, MIT and Tuffs Universities. He served in the US Navy after completing his graduate studies and has been in the shipping/terminal industry throughout his business career.

George Dalton, General Counsel — Mr. Dalton has over 25 years of legal experience with an extensive background in corporate, financing and international transactions. Mr. Dalton has a juris doctorate from Fordham University School of Law in New York and is a graduate of Fordham University.

Joost Kruijning, Senior Vice President of Operations — He was closely involved with the development and start-up operations of the first semi-automated container terminal in the Ports Industry. Attended Maritime Institute in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Matt Leech, Head of Business Development — With over 14 years of experience in the finance and container transportation industries, he is responsible for global new business development activities. Mr. Leech received a BA in economics from Georgetown University and an MBA with a finance focus from the University of Maryland.

Under the heel of British colonialism until the late 1960′s, the United Arab Emirates have used the last forty years to bootstrap themselves into being everything the western countries could wish for as an icon of what the Arab countries can become. Instead of resenting the west that dominated them, they have accepted the guidance of western industry leaders to create what is arguably the most technically respected container port terminal management company in the world (and currently the seventh largest). They represent the cutting edge of logistics technology. Let’s not act like a bunch of provincial rubes and kick them in the teeth just because they are Arabs.

Frank Gaffney is president of the Washington, D.C.–based Center for Security Policy and a former assistant secretary of defense for International Security Policy during the Reagan administration. In an article published in the Washington Times on February 14 he expressed concerns about the UAE ports deal.

So online newspaper NewsMax conducted a telephone interview with Gaffney. He reportedly said,

The permutations of the deal are much bigger than originally reported. I keep learning about yet more ports that are caught up – like Houston and Port Arthur (Texas). The count of port facilities affected by the deal has gone from six to eight, and now to 10 if the information I am getting is correct. DPW has got to raise between $6.5 billion and $6.8 billion on the capital markets to finance the deal. When investors put up that kind of money, there’s bound to be some quid pro quo. Likely included, for instance, would be a demand to have more involvement in the affairs of the company. Where exactly is this money coming from – Iran, Saudi Arabia? When you factor this in, it compounds an already worrisome potential.

In their own poorly researched article, NewsMax builds on Gaffney’s ignorance of the subject.

Who Is Financing Ports Deal?
Dave Eberhart, NewsMax
Monday, Feb. 27, 2006

Although beleaguered Dubai Ports World has agreed not to exercise management over U.S. ports pending further discussions with Washington, one national security expert told NewsMax that as key questions are raised and answered, the deal will likely be scuttled.

Among the key questions being asked by Frank Gaffney is where the billions of dollars needed to close the transaction for DP World will come from….

For a long time, the British firm Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) has provided operations management of selected piers and gantries at five US container ports, and has ongoing contracts to broker stevedore personnel at twenty-three US ports. This information has always been available on their website, as well as in the financial reports and business journals. There has never been anything secretive about it. All companies provide a statement of their holdings in their reports to stockholders, which are also available online and in most big-city libraries.

The stockholders of P&O have approved the buyout by Dubai Ports World, so that company will acquire the assets described on the P&O website — no mystery there. The only people who might be surprised are those who have not done even minimal homework. Unfortunately, that seems to include our media and our politicians.

It has also been widely reported in the financial press that the United Arab Emirates are seeking financing for the deal from Barclay’s Capital (British) and Deutsche Bank (German). No problem there.

Let’s see. Gaffney and NewsMax are asking rhetorical questions about where the money will come from to rachet up the hysteria — and solicit donor funding for Gaffney’s not-for-profit and sell NewsMax subscriptions. We deserve better from our researchers and our media. Perhaps Steve will give them all a complimentary subscription to Forbes.

Here’s an honest analysis of what’s going on in Iraq & with the Bush Administration’s democracy policy. From the New York Post:

FAITH, BLOOD & BOMBS
By RALPH PETERS
February 28, 2006 — IN IRAQ

BAGHDAD — I FLEW over the streets of this city on Sunday. The calm made a striking contrast to the media hysteria. No mosques burned. No demonstrations seethed. The closest thing I saw to violence was a children’s soccer game played in a suburb.

Baghdad isn’t Candyland, of course….But it sure wasn’t civil war. For now, at least, Abu Musad al-Zarqawi and his blood-cult terrorists haven’t succeeded in pitting Sunni against Shia.

Our effort to help Iraqis build a rule-of-law democracy may yet fail. But it remains a better bet that Iraq will become the most equitably governed major Arab state and that a democracy, however imperfect, will stand where a monstrous regime fell.

Last week, the terrorists scored a temporary win by bombing the Golden Mosque in Samarra. Retaliatory attacks pocked Iraq’s urban landscapes, providing striking TV images. Starved for headlines, the global media declared a civil war.

But the Iraqis didn’t sign up….after an initial spate of bickering, Iraq’s key leaders came together — as they could not have done under Saddam — to calm the situation….

To the chagrin of the press, the country’s leaders continue to muddle through. That may not sound inspiring, but it should. Well-intentioned men and women from each of the country’s major constituencies are trying to find a formula for a new Iraq that works….

The bottom line is that Iraqi Muslims of every sect were appalled by the terrorist attacks upon faith’s symbols. While foreign journalists may long for civil war, Iraqis don’t….

….The real story of the tumult of the past week is that it didn’t spread ….we just witnessed an unsung moral victory.

You can read the entire article here.

Our Big Mouth US Media threatens future hopes of getting help from our friends. From Der Spiegel:

German Intelligence Gave U.S. Saddams Defense Plan, Report Says
By Michael R. Gordon

In providing the document, German officials offered more significant help to the U.S. than their government has publicly admitted.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 – Two German intelligence agents in Baghdad obtained a copy of Saddam Hussein’s plan to defend the Iraqi capital, which a German official passed on to American commanders a month before the invasion, according to a classified study by the United States military.

In providing the Iraqi document, German intelligence officials offered more significant assistance to the United States than their government has publicly acknowledged. The plan gave the American military an extraordinary window into Iraq’s top-level deliberations, including where and how Mr. Hussein planned to deploy his most loyal troops….

That account of German assistance differs from one the German government has provided publicly….

Here’s the link in case you want to read all of this article.

Around the world, militant Islamists are letting us know that they are offended by the humorous editorial cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed. Our leftwing liberals are pandering to them, and our media mindlessly endorse their grounds for grievance. Truth to tell, they have very little ground to stand on. This Photoshop artist asks:

We are introducing a new feature in the American Daughter Media Center — fine arts reviews. As contributors become available, we hope to be able to cover art, music, and theater offerings. We invite you to read the first article in this venue by our very own [Art Lady]:

As a parent with two kids in Texas schools, I have a pet peeve. I really, really resent that their education is hampered by kids who can’t speak English. I’ve seen classes that move mind-bogglingly slowly as teachers have to work one-on-one with children who shouldn’t be there in the first place. It’s enough to make me grind my teeth in frustration!

I am a big proponent of the immersion method of learning a language. It is my firm belief that once in America, immigrants should learn our language, and the best way is by complete and total immersion. When we lived in Mexico, we placed my son into a public school in the local village so that he could learn the language more rapidly. I continued to teach him at home what he needed to know to keep his education above American standards, and his classroom experience was for language purposes only. We asked for no special considerations, we just did what was necessary. It was not easy, but it worked.

That is only one of the reasons it is so offensive to see our tax dollars paying for immigrants, many of them here illegally, to receive special dispensations because they can’t (or won’t) learn our language! But why should they learn, when almost everything is bi-lingual anyway?

Recently in Arizona, an activist judge has ruled that it’s not enough that American citizens pay for a free education for the children of illegal aliens, and it’s not enough that the classes are dumbed-down for non-English speakers, but now the taxpayers must pay exorbitant funds to provide special classes for children who don’t speak English!

One of the most outrageous examples of out-of-control judges is the case called Flores v. Arizona, now pending in federal court in Tucson. Originally filed in 1992, plaintiff lawyers claim to represent an estimated 160,000 children of illegal immigrants attending Arizona public schools.

The case seeks to force Arizona taxpayers to pay for bringing these children, euphemistically called English Language Learners, up to grade level. The lawyers are trying to accomplish this by turning a state legislative issue into a federal judicial command.

The background for attempting to accord special “rights” to non-American, non-English speaking residents was predicated on a case in Alabama where liberals tried to add the word “language” to the Civil Rights Act, thereby making it illegal to discriminate on the basis of language. While the case was originally successful in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, it was reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Based upon that, Arizona Judge Alfredo C. Marquez, appointed by Jimmy Carter, ruled against the Arizona taxpayers, but had enough restraint to recognize that he could not substitute the court’s “educational values and theories for the educational and political decisions reserved to state or local school authorities.” Nevertheless, he tasked the legislature with performing a cost study.

Over the next few years, the Arizona legislature passed three bills for this special funding. However, none of them were as large as Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, wanted and so she vetoed all three. Governor Napolitano wanted the Arizona Legislature to appropriate nearly $1,200 per immigrant child, totaling $192 million, without accountability for how it was to be spent. Obviously, the governor, with the judge’s ruling on her side, could sit and wait until the legislature saw things her way.

Unfortunately, the next judge in succession of Marquez, upped the ante. Appointed by Bill Clinton, Judge Ramer C. Collins, decided to punitively fine the Arizona State Legislature for not funding special accommodations for non-English speaking students.

In December 2005, Collins imposed fines of $500,000 a day, escalating to $2 million a day, for every day that the legislature fails to authorize funding acceptable to the governor.
[…]
Since Jan. 25, millions of dollars in court-ordered fines have been accumulating. If this continues to the end of the legislative session, the fines will total more than $77 million.

Who knew that an activist judge could legislate taxes and state funding?

If there is any issue that should be clearly and exclusively a function of the legislature elected by the people it is the matter of raising taxes and spending the people’s money. Unfortunately, there are many supremacist judges who think they (in this case, a judge and a governor) can order the legislature to raise taxes and tell them how to spend taxpayer money.

While many Americans in other states think that these problems are confined to the four states with Hispanic majorities (TX, CA, AZ, and NM) – think again. Small towns across America are finding their educational systems utterly compromised by an influx of illegal workers and their families: Melrose, MN; Delavan, WI; Herndon, VA; Wassau, WI; Des Moines, IA; Raleigh, NC; Fort Myers, FL; Sioux Falls, SD; Grand Rapids, MI and North Platte, NE. Still think it’s not your problem?!

As one small town resident has said, “I, along with millions of other American citizens, am sick and tried of the politicians and others treating illegal aliens like honored guests! They are not honored, and they are not guests.”

H/T: American Daughter

This has been a production of the Guard the Borders Blogburst. It is syndicated by Euphoric Reality, and serves to keep immigration issues in the forefront of our minds as we’re going about our daily lives and continuing to fight the war on terror. If you are concerned with the trend of illegal immigration in our country, join the Blogburst! Send an email with your blog name and url to euphoricrealitynet at gmail dot com.

It’s Monday, and there is another insightful article by our [WordSmith] on the Editorial Page. Please visit and read

The American Daughter Media Center staff is deeply divided regarding the proposed operational management of selected berths and cranes at five United States seaports by a Dubai company. Two of our contributors who support the deal have prepared a detailed analysis of the discussion points, which we urge our readers to consider.

We believe that most of the objections are fueled by misleading media coverage, political hypocrisy and opportunism, and a general lack of knowledge about port facilities. We are an educated populace, and we enjoy freedom of discussion and freedom of the press. We must draw our conclusions based on reasoned evaluation of accurate data. We must not allow ourselves to be manipulated by the “yellow journalism” of the mainstream media or by the political grandstanding of our ego-serving politicians.

Please take the time to consider the information in: