Posted on 02/19/2006 10:31:50 AM PST by Cagey
WASHINGTON — A New Jersey congressman said Saturday he wants to require that security officials at U.S. ports be American citizens to prevent overseas companies operating shipping facilities here from hiring foreigners in such sensitive positions.
Republican Frank A. LoBiondo, chairman of the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee, cited "significant" security concerns over a $6.8 billion sale that gives a company in the United Arab Emirates control over operations at six major American ports.
LoBiondo said he wants the new mandatory citizenship requirements approved by Congress and President Bush before state-owned Dubai Ports World completes its pending purchase of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.
The British company, the world's fourth-largest ports company, runs major commercial operations at shipping terminals in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.
The Bush administration earlier approved the deal, which has drawn escalating criticism by lawmakers who maintain the United Arab Emirates is not consistent in its support of U.S. terrorism-fighting efforts.
Caught by surprise over the breadth of concerns expressed in the United States, Dubai Ports World is cautiously organizing its response. The company quietly dispatched advisers to reassure port officials along the East Coast, and its chief operating officer _ internationally respected American shipping executive Edward "Ted" H. Bilkey _ was expected to travel to Washington soon for meetings on Capitol Hill and elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration is defending its approval of the sale, and strongly resisting demands by Congress to reconsider.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack described the United Arab Emirates on Friday as "a long-standing friend and ally" and said the United States and UAE had a good relationship.
Bush visited the port in Tampa, Fla., on Friday but did not mention the dispute. Bush said an important element of defeating terrorism was taking precautions domestically and working with local officials.
"We've got to protect ourselves by doing smart things in America," Bush said. "I appreciate working with the mayors on homeland security issues."
But one of those mayors, Martin O'Malley of Baltimore, criticized Bush's approval of the ports deal as an "outrageous, reckless and irresponsible decision" and urged the president to reconsider.
O'Malley, co-chairman of the U.S. Conference of Mayors' Task Force on Homeland Security, also is seeking the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in Maryland.
"I think that they did not take into account the vulnerability of America's ports," O'Malley said Saturday in a telephone interview. "I think Congress needs to have further hearings on these things."
He said only 5 percent of the shipments into the nation's ports are inspected, calling that a stark contrast to Hong Kong, which inspects 100 percent of shipments.
Dubai Ports World declined through a spokesman to respond to O'Malley's remarks.
In New York, families of some victims from the September 2001 terror attacks planned to criticize the deal Sunday during a press conference with Sen. Charles Schumer, a leading critic of the sale. Schumer, D-N.Y., said he is dubious any assurances can justify the UAE's involvement in American ports.
Schumer and others have cited the UAE's history as an operational and financial base for the hijackers who carried out the attacks against New York and Washington.
"A lot of families are incensed by this, because you're talking about the safety of the country," said William Doyle, whose son Joseph died at the World Trade Center. "We have a problem already in our ports because all of our containers aren't checked, but now they want to add this unknown? It's not right."
LoBiondo's legislative proposal would amend federal maritime laws to require facility security officers, which operate at terminals in every U.S. port, to be American citizens. LoBiondo said there now are no citizenship requirements, which he said permits foreign companies with a stake in U.S. terminal operations to employ security officers who are not Americans.
"We cannot be lax about our nation's security nor fail to recognize that our ports are realistic targets of terrorists," LoBiondo said.
This is news?
This scenario was a threat before the the potential DP World lease of ports.
This has been known for months. P&O(Peninsular & Oriental, a British shipping firm) was a takeover target and DPWorld and a Singapore firm bid on the sale.
DPWorld won and the shareholders of P&O approved the sale. There was nothing secretive about it. It was an old fashioned business takeover. If any American company was interested they could have made a bid to the P&O shareholders.
John,
Thank you for clarification. I think the administration needs to get the facts out to the common folk. If not our pro-islamic terrorist, anti-Bush administration is not much of a hlep to understand whats going on.
Pardon me for interjecting my comment but we are Citizens, not common folk, not consumers, but Citizens.
Good questions. And we desperately need the answers yesterday.
It's as if our foreign policy has been turned over to Cliinton.
You are right of course.
We have caught more illegals last year than in all of clinton's years combined.
With the rise of the internet people get more info and are more willing to take risks crossing borders.
Clinton also didn't help by appointing supreme court justices that voted in 2003 to affirmative action for any hispanic.
William Jefferson Clinton is the most overated president ever. Congress did everything, only thing he did was veto good bills. He did nothing about terrorism for 8 years and left with the economy in a bubble.
Remember that your clinton also pushed nafta through which effects came after he left. Same with Clinton doing nothing about terrorism for 8 years and running from somalia. Effects came after he left.
John, you don't need to sell me on what Clinton was is and always will be. The issue was illegals. In the 2000 census it was determined that there were about 10 million illegals in our nation. Those ten million had come into the nation since around 1989, since that's about when the last amensty ended.
Last year Time did a report that documented three million illegals coming across. I would generally dismiss Time's figures, but the INS announced that it had apprehended over 900 thousand people in about nine months. Traditionally INS agents have admitted that they generally only catch somewhere between 10 and 20% of those coming across the border.
For that reason the 3 million figure doesn't sound that far off base. That is especially true since INS agents were decrying a massive increase in border crossings in the first half of 2005.
It doesn't give me any pleasure to address this issue at Bush's expense. I wish he'd put an end to it now. I'd give him kudos for having done so.
Clinton is for permanent amnesty for the illegals here.
Hillary voted for amnesty for illegal farm workers in the ag bill in the senate last year.
Dean calls sensenbrenner and tancredo racists and compares the illegal immigration issue gop going after gay marraige.
Clinton is for affirmative action. He believes illegal hispanics should get priority over legal americans.
Hillary wants us taxpayers to pay for tuition for illegals to go to college.
It is one thing to criticize bush but you know you are dealing with the bucanhan brigade when they use their hatred against bush to praise someone like clinton who votes with barbara boxer all the time.
Hillary was also silent about gore wanting more visas for saudis and screaming about u.s abuses in saudi arabia.
But the media doesn't pick that up and the buchahan brigade starts to get nostalgic about gore's vp days.
Yes! Notice in the article, Bush is quoted about fighting the terrorists of Islamofascism. Makes me wonder what kind of brain this man has got. What a sellout!
Too bad you didn't get gore who goes to saudi arabia bashing america. Gore wants more visas for saudis.
If Bush is going to get hammered by conservatives from the lies of the media then might as well let the hillary and pelosi lead.
Nothing worse than having the media lie and lie and lie and conservatives buy their crap.
Too bad, P&O should have been advised that selling its assets to Arabs would lose it one of its big contracts. Its that simple. I live here, between NY & NJ ports and I'm not comfortable with the idea of port security being run by Arab Muslims, I don't care if they hire the entire staff in Kansas, Mexico, or the dark side of the moon.
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