Fred Barnes writes:

This isn’t true. Security would remain in the hands of the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs Service. And the personnel operating the ports would be the same. Only the company owning the terminals would change.

I’ve come to accept this as true, which is why I’m not terribly up in arms about the Dubai Ports World deal.

But Matt Yglesius gives one pause to think:

This a widespread notion, but is it true? If you’ve ever been to a port it doesn’t seem to be crawling with Coast Guard personnel, they’re out in the harbor somewhere. There are some Customs folks about and sometimes a special port police departments, but as with any other sizeable business in America the ports I’ve seen appear to employ a lot of security guards to do security. Consider a bank. The FBI, I believe, is responsible for catching bank robbers. The Secret Service handles counterfeiting. If I point a gun at a bank teller, grab some cash, then run out onto the street, the local police will chase me. Law enforcement professionals, in other words, are in charge of enforcing the laws against robbing banks. But there’s an important sense in which (duh) banks are responsible for bank security. They have cameras and guards and locks and procedures and all the rest.

Transparent Grid has further thoughts.