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President Bush said Friday he was troubled by the political storm that forced the reversal of a deal allowing a company in Dubai to take over take over operations of six American ports, saying it sent a bad message to U.S. allies in the Middle East. Bush said the United States needs moderate allies in the Arab world, like the United Arab Emirates, to win the global war on terrorism. The president said he had been satisfied that security would be sound at the ports if the Dubai deal had taken effect. "Nevertheless, Congress was still very much opposed to...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and United Arab Emirates have postponed free trade talks set for next week, the U.S. Trade Representative's office said on Friday. The announcement came one day after state-owned Dubai Ports World, facing intense U.S. political opposition, said it would sell recently acquired U.S. assets to an American entity. "The U.S. and UAE are strongly committed to making progress on our FTA negotiations. In order to get an agreement that both sides can successfully implement, we need additional time to prepare for the next round of negotiations," Neena Moorjani, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Trade...

Details to follow soon.

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...

MAR. 9 12:29 P.M. ET A New Jersey judge on Thursday axed a bid by officials from two states to end Port Newark's lease with a company that plans to sell operations at major U.S. ports to an Arab-owned company. Superior Court Judge Patricia K. Costello denied a request by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to immediately terminate its 30-year agreement with London-based Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. However, the judge said the bi-state agency's lawsuit against the company can continue. ... Under the $6.8 billion deal, DP World would take over major commercial operations...

WASHINGTON -- The Dubai-controlled company at the heart of the port-security controversy has decided to shed its U.S. holdings, Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner said on the floor of the Senate. In a statement on the Senate floor, Sen. Warner (R., Va.) said the decision was intended to preserve "the strong relationship" between the U.S. and the UAE. Mr. Warner said Dubai Ports World has agreed to "transfer fully the U.S. operations" to a U.S. entity, and will work with the Bush administration to ensure DP World "will not" suffer economically. DP World closed this week on the $6.8...

:Dubya's last stand By Joseph Farah, Posted: March 8, 2006 WorldNetDaily.com Lame duck George W. Bush obviously has no care for how his party performs in the 2008 presidential election. But he has a little more time to consider his own fate in the 2006 mid-term congressional elections. Oh, it won't make any difference whether Republicans or Democrats are elected this fall to the rest of us. After all, with Republicans in charge of Congress and the White House for the last six years, spending has increased way beyond anything we imagined during President Clinton's eight years in office. Republicans...

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.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Dubai's government may formally subscribe to the Arab boycott of Israel, but a state-owned company at the center of a controversy over its bid to take over some U.S. port operations says it routinely works with Israeli firms. It's a contradiction increasingly apparent in the region: Several Persian Gulf states, especially ones entering international markets, mostly ignore the boycott even though they haven't formally ended it and don't recognize Israel. Countries like the United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is a part, have also ended secondary boycotts, meaning Israeli products not shipped directly from Israel...

"But I also want to repeat something again, and that is, this is a company that has played by the rules, that has been cooperative with the United States, a country that's an ally in the War on Terror, and it would send a terrible signal to friends and allies not to let this transaction go through." - President Bush, 2/21/06 "[T]he military-to-military relationship with the United Arab Emirates is superb. ... They've got airfields that they allow us to use, and their airspace, their logistics support. They've got a world-class air-to-air training facility that they let us use and...

Hillary Clinton, a leading opponent of DP World's takeover of some US port operations, was this week forced to admit that she did not know her husband had advised Dubai leaders on how to handle the growing dispute. But former President Bill Clinton's ties to Dubai and the United Arab Emirates should not have come as a surprise to his New York senator wife. Mrs Clinton's own senatorial financial disclosure forms reveal that her husband earned $450,000 giving speeches in Dubai in 2002.

Halliburton Eyed for Dubai Ports Deal The Bush administration is working behind the scenes to defuse the Dubai Ports World controversy by having the UAE-based firm team up with an American company. According to the New York Daily News, which first reported the new White House strategy on Saturday, "one snag may be that sources say the U.S. company best equipped to partner with DP World is Halliburton, once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney." But a role for Halliburton may not be such a "snag" after all, since the controversial company's involvement has already been endorsed by leading ports...

WASHINGTON - The White House is quietly pushing a Dubai company to "significantly restructure" and partner up with a U.S. outfit to keep the port deal from sinking, sources told the Daily News yesterday. "It's in the hands of the company now. ... They're going to have to significantly restructure," said a Republican source familiar with White House expectations. A revamped deal to allow Dubai Ports World to take over six major U.S. ports - including Manhattan's cruise ship terminal and Newark's container depot - would have to be something along the lines of the Marine One contract. British- and...

LONDON: A London High Court judge ruled on Thursday that Dubai Port World's (DPW) $6.85 billion proposed takeover of P&O can go ahead, despite objections from one of the British firm's partners in the United States. Justice Nicholas Warren sanctioned a so-called scheme of arrangement allowing the deal to proceed, rejecting submissions from US ports operator Eller & Co and two private P&O shareholders who oppose the takeover for different reasons. "The objections of Eller do not persuade me that I should not sanction the schemes," Justice Warren said. Lawsuits have been filed in the United States and London in...

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....

Coast Guard News and Information Press Release Date: Feb. 28, 2006 Contact: Cmdr. Jeff Carter (202) 267-1933 STATEMENT BY VICE ADM. TERRY CROSS, VICE COMMANDANT OF THE U.S. COAST GUARD, ON THE COAST GUARD'S DUE DILIGENCE IN SUPPORT OF THE CFIUS PROCESS WASHINGTON - "Early in the CFIUS process, the Coast Guard's initial review identified potential intelligence gaps. Since completing its initial intelligence assessment, the Coast Guard has continued its due diligence by auditing all P&O operations in the United States, examining DPW operations outside the United States, obtaining formal assurances from DPW regarding ongoing access to information on personnel...

Fearful Fringe nativism is the essence of surrender By Tony Snow A fair number of analysts have linked the Dubai Ports World controversy with President Bush's approach to border security. The president, they say, can't keep our borders safe, so why should we trust his word when it comes to securing our ports? The question unmasks the questioners. While our borders have become porous, they haven't become highways for terror, at least by the slender evidence available to laymen. Instead, they have become the focal point for fearful imaginings — of Islamofascists secreted in otherwise empty trucks or train...

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...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2006 – The Defense Department will participate in a re-review of a slated acquisition of shipping terminal operations at six major U.S. ports by a United Arab Emirates-owned firm, a senior Pentagon official said here today. It's too early to say, DoD spokesman Bryan Whitman told Pentagon reporters, which department representatives would work with the re-review that's to be conducted by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. DoD elements were part of the first review also. Dubai Ports World, owned by the United Arab Emirates government, bought British-owned ports operator Peninsular and Oriental Steam...