March 8, 2006

StreetTalk

by Carol Rosen

How do you feel about a business from the United Arab Emirates—a country with ties to 9/11 hijackers—managing six major seaports on the East Coast?
(Asked at Kirkwood Plaza)

“I don’t like it for economic reasons. I’d just rather have the ports run by the United States.”

Kay Huntze, 67
Campbell/San Jose border
Retired


“I don’t think it’s a good idea because we have a lot of people in the United States that could do the job. I’m not prejudiced, I have nothing against foreigners, it’s an economic issue. At the same time, I don’t think it’s a good idea, too many terrorists can sneak in. ”

Susan Churillo
San Jose
Program project manager


“I’m not in favor of it. I think it’s a very dangerous idea. It makes it too easy for [a number] of illegal acts, such as smuggling, terrorism, the whole bit. I’m very much against the idea.”

Teri Silvestri, 69
San Jose
Music coordinator at Queen of Apostles Church


“I’m okay with it. I presume that [the government] has gone through the normal corporate checking they go through before allowing a foreign business to work here. I’m making the assumption that these individuals have gone through these checks and passed.”

Kay Luck, 46
Campbell/San Jose border
Homemaker and Girl Scout leader


“I don’t think it’s a good idea. It’s scary because some of the 9/11 terrorists are from there. I think that someone from the government didn’t pay enough attention [when this first came up], they just dropped the ball.”

Joy Francois, 52
Campbell
Marketing project coordinator


“As long as it operates satisfactorily and as long as there’s no direct connection with terrorists, fraud, smuggling or other illegal acts, it’s okay.”

Duane Amrine, 69
Campbell
Retired


“It’s like a Trojan Horse coming into our country. When I can’t get through airports without taking all of my clothes off, why should we let people from a country that we know has produced terrorists run major seaports? We don’t know, they might let anything into our ports in cargo containers, there’s no limit to what could come in [with these people in charge]. It’s like a Saturday Night Live skit, you couldn’t invent a more scary scenario that this. No doubt these people [who are going to run these ports] are friends of Bush. It’s scary, it’s uncalled for, there is no rational reason [to allow this] if our administration is so worried about our security to let people with contacts in the Middle East run our ports. It’s too unreal!”

Mike Steinberg, 54
Saratoga
Photographer


“I think it’s a terrible idea because I don’t believe Arabs should control our ports. There’s too much known hostility between Arabs and Americans even if this country has been a [U.S.] ally for the last 10 years. It’s just like Iran saying that the Canadians should run their ports; there are too many bad things that could happen. I’m definitely shocked. It’s okay for them to buy and run a grocery store or even Disneyland, but not something as important as our ports.”

Vicki Renrose, 40
Campbell
Executive Assistant


“I think it’s fine. They have a proven track record, and they know what they’re doing.”

Beth Eben, 40
Campbell
Admin clerk