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Thursday, Feb. 23, 2006 | 8:49 a.m.

Either the Bush administration is brain dead or it operates in a parallel fantasy universe.

Isn't there one American-owned company that has the resources, knowledge and skill to operate our seaports? Are we so weak that we have to outsource port security to foreign countries? Why was a company owned by the United Arab Emirates selected to be in charge of our seaports in this day and age of threats of annihilation from Muslim countries?

Today we are apparently unable to secure our borders and seaports from an invasion of illegal aliens or potential foreign terrorists. President Bush is now prepared to turn over the operation of our ports to the United Arab Emirates. This is the equivalent of the United States turning over port and border security to companies in Nazi Germany and Japan during World War II.

Bush keeps telling us we are in a long-term war with the Muslim jihad terrorists, and he now proposes to give them an opportunity to capitalize on a weakness by which to carry out another devastating national attack.

This whole idea teeters on some insane, politically correct notion that we must show the world that we are really cooperative with Muslim nations.

In time these terrorists will capitalize on our own blindness to bring devastation to this nation. Can we really expect better from a president who walked hand in hand with a Saudi prince whose own citizens plotted and carried out the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on us?

Virgil A. Sestini, Las Vegas