It is not Saudi Arabia, but the United Arab Emirates, which I beleive is under different rule than SA.

At first I too had the knee-jerk, WTF, reaction, until I dug deeper into the story.

According to Committee Chairman John Warner, ‘UAE "has played a key role" in support of the War on Terror by providing logistical assistance to the U.S. Armed Forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, particularly through docking support for naval ships and providing airfields for the U.S. Air Force.’

As far a security goes, presidential adviser Dan Bartlett said this, “The physical security of the ports is at the charge of the Coast Guard. The actual cargo that comes in on the ships, is ... charged to the United States Customs Service. So it's critically important for America to understand that doesn't change — not today, not tomorrow, not next week, not six months from now. They are in charge of the security of our ports”

Anyway, can the US legally do anything to stop this sale. It is a London-based firm selling it to UAE’s company, Dubai Ports World.

Doe these Arabs really post a threat, or is our knee-jerk negative reaction to it due to our prejudice against Arabs? Do we paint all Arabs with a broad paintbrush of being crazy terrorist?