Posted on 02/13/2006 3:03:53 PM PST by freedom9
WASHINGTON — A company in the United Arab Emirates is poised to take over significant operations at six American ports as part of a corporate sale, leaving a country with ties to the Sept. 11 hijackers with influence over a maritime industry considered vulnerable to terrorism.
The Bush administration considers the UAE an important ally in the fight against terrorism since the suicide hijackings and is not objecting to Dubai Ports World's purchase of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.
The $6.8 billion sale is expected to be approved Monday. The British company is the fourth largest ports company in the world and its sale would affect commercial U.S. port operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.
DP World said it won approval from a secretive U.S. government panel that considers security risks of foreign companies buying or investing in American industry.
The U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States "thoroughly reviewed the potential transaction and concluded they had no objection," the company said in a statement.
The committee earlier agreed to consider concerns about the deal as expressed by a Miami-based company, Eller & Co., according to Eller's lawyer, Michael Kreitzer. Eller is a business partner with the British shipping giant but was not in the running to buy the ports company.
Partner in war on terrorism
The committee, which could have recommended that President George W. Bush block the purchase, includes representatives from the departments of Treasury, Defense, Justice, Commerce, State and Homeland Security.
The State Department describes the UAE as a vital partner in the war on terrorism. But the UAE, a loose federation of seven emirates on the Saudi peninsula, was an important operational and financial base for the hijackers who carried out the attacks against New York and Washington, the FBI concluded.
Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat whose district includes the New York port, urged the administration to consider the sale carefully.
"America's busiest ports are vital to our economy and to the international economy, and that is why they remain top terrorist targets," Schumer said. "Just as we would not outsource military operations or law enforcement duties, we should be very careful before we outsource such sensitive homeland security duties."
Last month, the White House appointed a senior DP World executive, David C. Sanborn of Virginia, to be the new administrator of the Maritime Administration of the Transportation Department. Sanborn worked as DP World's director of operations for Europe and Latin America.
Weight of risks in question
Critics of the proposed purchase said a port operator complicit in smuggling or terrorism could manipulate manifests and other records to frustrate Homeland Security's already limited scrutiny of shipping containers and slip contraband past U.S. Customs inspectors.
"When you have a foreign government involved, you are injecting foreign national interests," Kreitzer said. "A country that may be a friend of ours today may not be on the same side tomorrow. You don't know in advance what the politics of that country will be in the future."
Shipping experts noted that many of the world's largest port companies are not based in the U.S., and they pointed to DP World's strong economic interest in operating ports securely and efficiently.
"Does this pose a national security risk? I think that's pushing the envelope," said Stephen E. Flynn, who studies maritime security at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations. "It's not impossible to imagine one could develop an internal conspiracy, but I'd have to assign it a very low probability."
Changing management over the U.S. ports "doesn't offer al-Qaida any opportunities it doesn't have now," said James Lewis, who worked with the U.S. committee at the State and Commerce departments. "It's in Dubai's interest to make sure this runs well. There is strong economic incentive to be sure these worries never materialize."
U.S. workers to run ports
Flynn and others said even under foreign control, U.S. ports will continue to be run by unionized American employees.
"You're not going have a bunch of UAE citizens working the docks," Flynn said. "They're longshoremen, vested in high-paying jobs. Most of them are Archie Bunker-kind of Americans."
Peninsular and Oriental and DP World set approval by the U.S. security committee as a condition for the sale. In regulatory papers, the companies said either the committee must agree not to formally investigate the purchase or Bush must not move to block the sale for national security purposes.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the FBI has said the money for the strikes was transferred to the hijackers primarily through the UAE's banking system, and much of the operational planning for the attacks took place inside the UAE.
Many of the hijackers traveled to the U.S. through the UAE. Also, the hijacker who steered United Airlines flight into the World Trade Center's south tower, Marwan al-Shehhi, was born in the UAE.
After the attacks, U.S. Treasury Department officials complained about a lack of cooperation by the UAE and other Arab countries trying to track Osama bin Laden's bank accounts.
We're asking, no make that begging, to be hit and hit hard.
FYI:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1577747/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1577307/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1577170/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1577034/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1576940/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1576547/posts
They will own some businesses in some ports. The ports, and their businesses, will still be under the control of the U.S. Coast Guard and the local Port Authority.
Each time this story shows up as a thread it seems to draw less interest.
So what?
It's not like all of the sudden they are going to man the ports with terrorists !!!!
Wake up - everyone invest in the U.S. - it's the best money can buy.
Remember when everyone had heartburn over the Japanese buying the Chrysler Building - and Pebble Beach Golf Course? Years later we bought them back for pennies on the dollar.
Relax everyone - when our oil money comes back into the country - it's a win for us - not a loss.
Don't react - think
BRAVO!!!
This has got to be the most stupid thing our government has done since Bill was in the oval office.
Isn't this just swell.
What? What's that? Is that going to be on the test?
Sorry, Didn't check first.
Ask the mod to remove it if you want.
I don't know how.
Da$%! Missed two out of three of them!
Actually, each thread has its own personality depending if the trilateralists or sinophobes or nukemalls got there first.
Each one has it's own 'imbedded' spin.
Now you have me confused.
If we have gotten our thinking skills in the public school system, we might not be able to actually think properly about this without waiting for MSNBCCNNABC to tell us what to think.
Yeah, that makes me feel comfortable.
Jan. 1997 - The Federal government announces that COSCO (Chinese Ocean Shipping Company) has been awarded a $138 million taxpayer-subsidized loan guarantee and will be allowed to build ships in a Mobile, Alabama, shipyard.
COSCO, a company owned by the Communist Chinese government, was implemented in smuggling 2,000 AK-47's into the U.S.
So much for Coast Guard "control".
When the deal goes through, officials and associates of the United Arab Emirates have legitimate access, cause and reason to maintain a presence at all those ports and a lot of money to throw around.
Wow, you're glass isn't half empty...it's totally empty and someone shat in it.
"Flynn and others said even under foreign control, U.S. ports will continue to be run by unionized American employees.
"You're not going have a bunch of UAE citizens working the docks," Flynn said. "They're longshoremen, vested in high-paying jobs. Most of them are Archie Bunker-kind of Americans."
After 9-11 didn't these union socialists shutdown the ports (on strike) hurting our war effort?
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