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CNN: LOU DOBBS TONIGHT March 20, 2006

US Ports

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DOBBS: SSA Marine, it is one of the last remaining U.S.-owned port operators in this country. It says it's now exploring strategic alternatives. What that means is it's looking for a buyer, and that buyer isn't likely to be American. This is a stark reminder of just how dependent this country has become on foreign money, foreign management and operations.

Christine Romans has the story.

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CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): What little is left of U.S.-run port operations may soon slip away. The largest U.S.-run port operator is looking for a suitor.

SSA Marine says it will not consider selling control of its U.S. operations to a foreign government. But a foreign company, that's all but assured. Eighty percent of U.S. port operations are in foreign hands, and that investment doesn't stop at our nation's ports.

Landmark buildings: The government of Dubai owns New York's Essex House Hotel and the Helmsley Building rising above Grand Central Station.

Military contracts: A Dutch company makes body armor for our troops and a French company supplies meals.

Critical infrastructure: European companies have substantial control over U.S. natural gas and electricity supplies. They run power plants and water treatment facilities.

FRANK CILLUFFO, HOMELAND SEC. POLICY INST.: There are some security implications we should be examining, and we want to make sure that security's not a footnote in some of our dealings with international businesses and international companies. ROMANS: Venezuela's radical president controls gasoline retailer Citgo, and from time to time threatens to cut off U.S. supplies.

JOHN PIKE, GLOBALSECURITY.ORG: President Chavez seems to be doing everything within his power to get on America's enemies' list. And at the same time, you have a Venezuelan-owned string of gas stations here in the United States that people are filling up their tanks every day and not evening thinking about it.

ROMANS: Almost a quarter of our oil refiners are owned by foreign companies and half of our government debt is foreign-owned.

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ROMANS: And then there's Westinghouse, a classic case of blurred lines between international commercial interests and national security. U.S. taxpayers are loaning the company $5 billion to build foreign nuclear reactors in China. In China, even though the company is majority owned by a British firm and is about to be sold to a Japanese company -- Lou.

DOBBS: That may be one of the most idiotic examples of a just confounded upside-down U.S. policy in international commerce as -- well, Dubai Ports World comes to mind as well.

Christine, thanks very much.

Christine Romans.

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