Arab bash, French splash

More than a week has passed since the announcement of the purchase of a British company that ran some ports operations by a company owned by the United Arab Emirates. We have all watched the competition among our elected officials when they were all rushing onto the "bigotry" train.

Outrageous statements were made by elected officials from both parties. But so far no one can top Sen. Robert Menendez who stated after the Dubai Company offered to delay the acquisition transaction, "it is not worth the paper it was written on" and Sen. Frank Lautenberg who compared the deal with the UAE as dealing with "the devil."

Inaccurate and misleading information was presented to the American public in the name of national security.

Many members of Congress are introducing legislation to stop the deal. In fact, New Jersey's Assembly Homeland Security and State Preparedness Committee approved a bill that would bar the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey from allowing any marine terminal under its jurisdiction to be leased or operated by an entity under the control of a foreign government.

Do these people know that most of our ports are being operated by foreign companies? Do they even know that some other Arab, Chinese and Panamanian companies run our ports?

While this is taking place, a sweet deal is being passed like a hot knife through butter and no elected official seems to care or pay attention to our security. The parent company of United Water, North Jersey's biggest water supplier, is being sold to a utility holding company controlled by the French government.

Is the security and vulnerability of our drinking water less important to those politicians than the security of our ports? How easy or how hard is it for some terrorists to poison our water and what are the chances that 1.2 million New Jerseyans mostly in Bergen and Hudson counties would be affected? How come the media is not bringing this national security issue to the public's attention? How come those elected officials are not screaming "security" or does it only concern them when it is related to Arabs and them keeping their seats?

Have they forgotten the "freedom fries" and now must we drink "French" water?

Hesham Mahmoud, Rutherford