"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 to The Associated Press."
"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."
"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."
"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."


Politics will win out over actual on the ground security of ports
every time.  Here it is, over four years after 9/11 and virtually all
of the ports do not even have a completed security risk assessment
package, much less significantly upgraded physical security.  And
screening of cargo containers is still about five percent of the
incoming containers.  Add on-site ability to collect intelligence and
manipulate records, containers and cargo and you have a recipe for a
whopper of a port attack or the capability to ease terrorists and
their equipment or WMD into the U.S. undetected.  Wonder how much DP
World contributed to political campaigns CICBush43 is interested in?
Also, wonder who sits on that committee and their connections to DP
World or UAE?

David Bier

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060211/ports_security.html?.v=2

UAE Co. Poised to Oversee Six U.S. Ports

Saturday February 11, 9:41 am ET

By Ted Bridis, Associated Press Writer

Company From United Arab Emirates Poised to Oversee Six American Ports
Due to Sale

WASHINGTON (AP) -- 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 to The Associated Press.

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.

The committee, which could have recommended that President 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 fight
against 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.

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."

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.





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