Dubai Ports executive knocks U.S. port security law

Reuters via Yahoo ^ | October 18, 2006 | N/A

[ARealMothersSonForever]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An executive with Dubai Ports World, the Arab-owned firm whose purchase of American port facilities caused an uproar this year, on Tuesday said a new U.S. port security law was fundamentally inadequate.

"There's a fundamental shortcoming in the SAFE Port Act," said David Sanborn, Dubai Ports World's managing director of the Americas. "It's not ambitious enough."

Dubai Ports, owned by the United Arab Emirates, became the center of a bitter debate in Congress after buying assets at six U.S. ports within its $6.8 billion purchase of Britain's Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. in February.

The Bush administration approved the purchase of facilities in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Miami and New Orleans. But lawmakers had security concerns about an Arab state-owned company running U.S. port terminals, and Dubai Ports responded by saying it would sell those U.S. assets.

President George W. Bush had nominated Sanborn to head the U.S. Maritime Administration, but he withdrew his name amid the ports uproar.

Sanborn told a maritime security conference in Washington the assets are "nearly sold."

The ports controversy advanced port security as an issue in Congress, which resulted in the Safe Accountability for Every Port Act of 2006 Bush signed into law on Friday.

The act authorizes $3.4 billion over five years for safety measures, including installing radiation detectors at the 22 largest U.S. ports by the end of next year.

Echoing some criticism voiced by Democrats, Sanborn criticized the act for setting up only a single pilot program to test at three foreign ports the feasibility of scanning cargo headed for the United States while it is still overseas.

"Is imaging and radiation detection necessary to protect us? If we believe it is, we should agree to do it everywhere," Sanborn said.

"This requires a global approach and not the unilateral or bilateral initiatives currently underway," he added. "The threats are global, they are not just directed at the United States."

Sanborn said Dubai Ports World is working to form a coalition with other private port operators to address security issues and called on governments around the world to meet industry representatives early next year to hammer out new global standards for port security.

He said any large port would require a number of scanning devices capable of detecting nuclear or other weapons inside shipping containers to upgrade security without impinging on the international supply chain of goods.

The estimated cost of $500,000 per scanner is small compared with the $300 million overall investment for equipping even a small port, he said.

[ARealMothersSonForever]

Seems like a case of sour grapes. At any rate, hold on to your wallets ladies and gentlemen. It looks like somebody needs to throw large sums of money at the problem.

[Dakara Yakah]

Dubai Ports had planned invest a substantial amount of capital to implement a full security upgrade including scanners at the facilities they managed had the deal gone through. Considering our comparatively lame implementation of security operations, I can understand if they are annoyed at the fact we ostensibly refused to allow them to do business due to security concerns.

They are correct that this is a global problem and I would not be the least bit surprised if WMD were smuggled in via the Mexican border or a Venezuelan ship while people are looking elsewhere.

[Alberta's Child]

Could be a case of sour grapes, but there's no getting around the fact that the DPW controversy exposed some serious ignorance -- to the point that it was embarrassing to hear -- from people in government and media.