There is a clean way to handle things such as the port operations, and it still astonishes me that it wasn’t done properly. It’s been done thusly for many years, actually many decades:
1. Create an American company to handle the matter (if foreigners wish to buy in, or even buy it, that’s ok);
2. Wall off the foreign investors/owners. They are silent partners. They have no say in the actual operation;
3. Create a “classified Board” composed of people with security clearances and experience in sensitive matters;
4. Appoint a CEO and other top executives with experience and clearances.
We do this all the time with, say, foreigners who want to buy companies that manufacture parts for weapons sytems, etc. It seems the obvious solution here. Dubai would get prestige and whatever profits are generated. Americans run the thing and guarantee, so far as is possible, security. Looks like a win/win solution. For that matter, we should have done the same sort of thing with the British owners, and we should do the same thing with the Chinese and others who now have access to all kinds of potentially dangerous information thanks to their buy-ins.