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Despite denials from her soon-to-be former employers, the Albright Group, former Clinton EPA head and soon-to-be climate change czar Carol Browner served as a de facto lobbyist for Dubai Ports World, owned by the United Arab Emirate of Dubai, which arranged to buy a company operating six major U.S. ports, including New York and New Jersey. Browner told the Obama transition team that she never served as a lobbyist in her time in Washington, and her employer, the Albright Group, owned by former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, also said that the firm does not lobby. But in 2006, when...

DUBAI — Dubai Ports World, which faced a last-minute snag in selling its US ports, yesterday said it will not budge to the new demand made by New York Port Authority to pay a $84 million transaction fee. Speaking to Khaleej Times from New York, Chairman of Dubai World, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem said: "We have not accepted and we will not accept the huge fee they now demand. However, we are confident that the issue can be resolved as we remain committed to completing the sale as promised." Although DP World has received approval for the sale of...

WASHINGTON - At midday on Fridays, Muslims gather to pray in a basement room of the U.S. Capitol. Kneeling on sheets they've spread over the floor and facing east toward Mecca, they are members of the Congressional Muslim Staffers Association, about two dozen congressional aides who are part of a small but growing minority in America and in the halls of government. At first just a prayer group, later a Muslim support group, the association is now looking outward to change what many see as woeful ignorance about Islam on Capitol Hill and beyond, said Jameel Aalim-Johnson, a black Muslim...

Sharia Flogging for Estonian Soldier From the desk of Martin Helme on Tue, 2006-04-04 17:13 An Estonian soldier on his way home after having served with the coalition forces in Afghanistan, was arrested in the United Arab Emirates and will be flogged. Andrei Korol was accused of being drunk and harassing a local policewoman while he was in transit at Sharjah international airport where they “make your life easy.” The incident happened on 23 February. There were no witnesses of the alleged harassment. Korol’s comrades say that he was so tired and drunk that most of the time at the...

President Bush yesterday told Congress to increase legal immigration and temporary visas as part of the debate over illegal aliens and enforcement. "I've called on Congress to increase the number of green cards that can lead to citizenship," Mr. Bush said. "I support increasing the number of visas available for foreign-born workers in highly skilled fields like science, medicine and technology." ... The president first called for more green cards in 2004 when he announced his guest-worker proposal. Green cards signify permanent legal residence and are the key intermediate step toward citizenship. Mr. Bush has not said how big an...

The controversy over Dubai Ports World was a great victory for them—but a defeat for candor and sensible security and economic policies. Untruth by Robert Samuelson March 20, 2006 issue - The idea of letting an Arab-owned company, Dubai Ports World, run container terminals at five U.S. ports struck many Americans as an absurdity. Why not just turn control directly over to Al Qaeda? In late February, a CBS News poll found that 70 percent of respondents were against the deal and only 21 percent in favor. The company's withdrawal last week can be seen as a triumph of public...

A video grab from CNN shows reporter Wolf Blitzer reporting on Israel's largest shipping line endorsing the takeover of six major U.S. ports by Dubai Ports World March 2, 2006. Dubai Ports World $6.85 billion acquisition of Britain's P&O will close on Friday or Monday, despite an additional 45-day review by the U.S. Government in response to security concerns, a U.S Treasury Department official said on Thursday.

It was Karl Rove who conveyed the bad news. President Bush's political adviser called Dubai Ports World said the White House couldn't hold out any longer against congressional pressure to kill the Arab company's plan to acquire freight terminals at six U.S. ports. The initial response of one Dubai executive was: "Who's Karl Rove?" But in the end, political leaders here recognized that it was time to fold a losing hand. Until Rove's call, Dubai's business leaders had insisted they would fight on. The chairman of Dubai Ports World, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, told me emphatically on Wednesday that his...

Dubai Ports Worls to divest itself of all American interests

More info and interviews with principals of DPW.

AIRS: 4-6 p.m. and 7-8 p.m. ET Monday-Friday Monday's show Wolf Blitzer is live in Dubai with a look at the company at the center of U.S. port takeover controversy.

A Miami company objecting to the takeover of British shipping company P&O by Dubai's state-owned DP World said today it has been granted the right to take the case to Britain's Court of Appeal - a move that puts the deal on hold. Miami-based Eller & Co., which says its business could be harmed by U.S. concerns over a United Arab Emirates company controlling significant operations at six major U.S. seaports, said Britain's Court of Appeal would hear its petition for an appeal on Monday. If the right to appeal is granted, the higher court will immediately hear the case....

WASHINGTON, March 3 (UPI) -- A top Republican has declared opposition to allowing a Dubai government-owned company to assume control of operations at U.S. ports. House Armed Services Committee Duncan Hunter said the United Arab Emirates has a "terrifying" record of allowing the transshipment of nuclear materials and weapons of mass destruction through its country to Pakistan, Iran and other countries. The controversial deal will give Dubai Port World, Inc. control over P&O North America, a shipping and port terminal operator with a presence in 21 American ports on the East and Gulf Coast. P&O runs public port terminals --...

Concerns over port security may be sky high, but the chief of security for the East Coast's main port operator, Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co., hardly knew it when he sat before a Senate Commerce panel on Tuesday. More than a dozen senators grilled U.S. government officials, and the chief operator officer of Dubai Ports World, which is on the verge of acquiring P&O and all its world-wide port operations. But no senator had a single question for Robert Scavone, the man who oversees P&O's security for North America -- and will do the same for DP World. Scavone...

The Dubai Ports World deal can’t work. Dubai Ports World, the subsidiary of the United Arab Emirates, has now asked for a 45-day review from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to investigate security concerns over the control of six U.S. ports. This is to the good, calming calls for congressional action as well as subsequent threats of a presidential veto. Many lobbyists have been hired, charges alleged, fact-sheets disseminated, and polls put in the field. Still, questions remain to be asked, questions that none of the above D.C. responses have addressed. (snip) But better than...

News reports over the last two weeks have repeatedly claimed that a Dubai company was taking control of six major U.S. ports as part of a deal approved by the Bush administration. But according to one port security expert, Dubai Ports World will run just a tiny fraction of the terminals at the U.S. ports involved if the deal goes through. Defending the transaction on MSNBC's "Scarborough Company" Monday night, Kim Petersen, president of Seasecure, noted: "There are 300 terminals at those ports. Dubai Ports World is going to handle nine of them." SeaSecure is the largest provider of maritime...

LEXINGTON, Ky. - U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Saturday night that after recent briefings, he is now comfortable with an Arab-owned company running port security for six American cities and backed off a pledge to pass legislation to stop the deal. But Frist, a Tennessee Republican who was in Lexington for a state GOP dinner, told reporters that the next few days will be crucial for other members of Congress to press intelligence officials about the details of such an arrangement. "My comfort level is good, but I have 99 other United States senators who need the opportunity...

Posted on Wed, Feb. 22, 2006 Bush port defiance fuels bipartisan anger TOM RAUM Associated Press WASHINGTON - President Bush's marquee issue, the war on terror, is being turned against him by Democrats and rebelling members of his own party in an election-year dustup over a deal that allows an Arab company to manage major U.S. ports. People in both parties are suggesting it's another case of Bush seeming to be tone deaf to controversy - on top of government eavesdropping, Katrina recovery and Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting accident. The storm is forcing the president to choose between losing...

A few words on the Dubai Ports World imbroglio, written without pause or editing, which is probably just as well. Short version: the administration may have thought it was helping a Valuable Ally and probably a pal, end of story. But it plays like Bush defending eminent domain to condemn a neighborhood to build a mosque. I don’t make predictions, because – well, who cares? You either repeat the conventional wisdom and hide with the herd when you’re wrong, or buck the prevailing opinions and get a reputation as a “maverick” when you’re wrong, again. Works for some. But if...

-snip- the notion that the Bush Administration is farming out port "security" to hostile Arab nations is alarmist nonsense. Dubai Ports World would be managing the commercial activities of these U.S. ports, not securing them. There's a difference. Port security falls to Coast Guard and U.S. Customs officials. "Nothing changes with respect to security under the contract," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday. "The Coast Guard is in charge of security, not the corporation." In a telephone interview yesterday, Kristie Clemens of U.S. Customs and Border Protection elaborated that "Customs and Border Protection has the sole responsibility for the cargo...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - British firm P&O (PO.L: Quote, Profile, Research) may have to retain management of six major ports in the United States even though it is on the verge of being taken over by Dubai Ports World, a U.S. congressman said on Tuesday. Republican Rep. Peter King is one of a growing number of American legislators who oppose allowing state-controlled Dubai Ports World of the United Arab Emirates to manage American ports, citing security concerns. He plans to introduce legislation halting the deal next week. "I think for the short-term the British company would probably have to stay...

Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist called Tuesday for the Bush administration to stop a deal permitting a United Arab Emirates company to take over six major U.S. seaports, upping the ante on a fight that several congressmen, governors and mayors are waging with the White House. "The decision to finalize this deal should be put on hold until the administration conducts a more extensive review of this matter," said Frist. "If the administration cannot delay this process, I plan on introducing legislation to ensure that the deal is placed on hold until this decision gets a more thorough review." In...

Two U.S. Democratic senators said on Friday they would introduce legislation aimed at blocking Dubai Ports World from buying a company that operates several U.S. shipping ports because of security concerns. ADVERTISEMENT Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Hillary Clinton of New York said they would offer a measure to ban companies owned or controlled by foreign governments from acquiring U.S. port operations. "We wouldn't turn the border patrol or the customs service over to a foreign government, and we can't afford to turn our ports over to one either," Menendez said in a statement. P&O, the company Dubai Ports...

The White House is obviously not listening to the congressional uproar over Dubai Ports World. Lawmakers want to know why a federal panel allowed a state-owned United Arab Emirates shipping firm to pay $6.8 billion to acquire six major American ports -- including critical ones in New York, Baltimore and Philadelphia -- despite its home country's glaring ties to international terrorism. But the White House is yawning.

The Bush administration on Thursday rebuffed criticism about potential security risks of a $6.8 billion sale that gives a company in the United Arab Emirates control over significant operations at six major American ports. Lawmakers asked the White House to reconsider its earlier approval of the deal. The sale to state-owned Dubai Ports World was "rigorously reviewed" by a U.S. committee that considers security threats when foreign companies seek to buy or invest in American industry, National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones said. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, run by the Treasury Department, reviewed an assessment...