United Arab Emirates firm to operate six major U.S. ports
From the World Tribune
Excerpt: The Bush administration has approved a deal in which a United Arab Emirates company would operate six major ports in the United States.
A U.S. government panel has determined that the UAE firm, DP World, would not endanger national security.
DP World, based in Dubai, has offered $6.8 billion for the purchase of a British firm that operates the ports of Baltimore, Miami, New York, New Jersey, New Orleans and Philadelphia, Middle East Newsline reported.
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Also see: Who's got control the Panama Canal?

Labels: bush, national security, UAE

Customs Lets Man In U.S., But Takes Bloody Chainsaw, Sword
From WSOC-TV Charlotte, NC
Excerpt: "On the morning of April 25, Gregory Despres hitchhiked to the Canadian border crossing at Calais, Maine, carrying a homemade sword, a hatchet, a knife, brass knuckles and a chain saw stained by what appeared to be blood.

Customs officials confiscated the cache of weapons and fingerprinted Despres, but allowed him to enter the United States -- not knowing the gruesome scene about to unfold in the hitchhiker's hometown.

The following day, in the village of Minto, New Brunswick, the decapitated body of a well-known country musician named Frederick Fulton was discovered on his kitchen floor. Police found the 74-year-old man's head in a pillow case under a kitchen table and the body of his common-law wife, Veronica Decarie, stabbed to death in a bedroom.
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Labels: national security

Air Travelers Stripped Bare with X-Ray Machine
From USA Today
Excerpt: "The agency in charge of the nation's air security expects later this year to begin using a controversial X-ray machine that will show airport screeners a clear picture of what's under passengers' clothes — whether weapons or just bare skin...
...Security workers using the machines can see through clothes and peer at whatever may be hidden in undergarments, shirts or pants. The images also paint a revealing picture of a person's nude body..."
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Labels: national security, privacy

US Eases Saudi Visa Restrictions
From Arab News
Excerpt: "US Ambassador James C. Oberwetter says changes in the US visa process would ease travel between the States and Saudi Arabia..."
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FLASHBACK: US VISA EXPRESS
From the American Embassy in Riyadh
6/25/2001
Excerpt: "Applicants will no longer have to take time off from work, no longer have to wait in long lines under the hot sun and in crowded waiting rooms, and no longer be limited by any time constraints. Effective immediately, ALL APPLICANTS will be expected to use the US VISA EXPRESS service offered by any of the selected companies listed below..."
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Labels: immigration, national security, Saudi

CIA Director Cuts Meeting on Terrorism
From the Washington Post
Excerpt: The daily 5 o'clock meeting at CIA headquarters that for the past three years has coordinated tactical counterterrorism operations involving senior CIA, FBI, Pentagon and Homeland Security Department officials has been cut back by new CIA Director Porter J. Goss to three a week, according to current and former administration and intelligence officials...
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Labels: CIA, FBI, national security, pentagon

U.S. to Seek Dismissal Of Terrorism Convictions
From the Washington Post
Excerpt: The Justice Department will ask a federal judge in Detroit to dismiss the convictions of three men in a high-profile terrorism case last year, saying it has uncovered serious prosecutorial misconduct in the case... More

Labels: law, national security, prisoner

9/11 Terror Suspect Freed
From CNN
Highlights: Lotfi Raissi was originally held on suspicion of having trained one of the suicide pilots but those charges were dismissed at an earlier hearing when the U.S. failed to substantiate its case. On Wednesday, the U.S. attempt to have Raissi extradited on lesser charges such as lying on a pilot's licence application form was also thrown out...District Judge Timothy Workman said that the U.S. authorities had provided no evidence Raissi was linked to terrorism. "He has appeared before me on several occasions where allegations of involvement with terrorism were made," Workman told the court. "I would like to make it clear that I have received and the court has received no evidence to support such a contention."... Raissi was arrested at his London home on September 21 on a request from the FBI.

Labels: national security, September 11