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Senator: Review port takeover by Arab nation Schumer says United Arab Emirates has been 'linked to terrorism' Tuesday, February 14, 2006 By TERENCE J. KIVLAN WASHINGTON -- Sen. Charles Schumer has called on the federal Department of Homeland Security to review the impending takeover of New York Harbor's port operations by a company based in the United Arab Emirates. "Foreign control of our ports -- which are vital to our homeland security -- is a risky proposition, riskier yet if we are turning them over to a country that has been linked to terrorism previously," said Schumer (D-N.Y.) in a statement yesterday. But James Devine, president of New York Container Terminal at Howland Hook in Mariners Harbor, seemed puzzled by the senator's trepidation. "He probably knows more about it than me, but I have never thought of the United Arab Emirates as a hotbed of terrorism," said Devine in an interview. The company, Dubai Ports World, won the right to assume control of the harbor as a result of a $6.8 billion acquisition of the previous contractor, the British-owned firm of Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., the fourth-largest enterprise of its kind in the world. RUN OTHER PORTS Under the sale, Dubai also will run the ports in Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia. As port operator, Dubai will oversee all functions in the harbor except for cargo screening, which is the responsibility of Homeland Security. The functions controlled by Dubai will include regulating the arrival and departure of cargo, and hiring security personnel. Schumer charged that the sale was "quietly" cleared by a government panel -- the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States -- without public scrutiny. "Even if the company is perfectly suited to run our ports, what checks do we have in place to ensure it is not infiltrated?" the senator said, adding that an investigation is needed to "give this company a clean bill of health." FOREIGN COMPANIES Devine said he would be concerned were the firm based in Syria, Egypt or Saudi Arabia. "But the United Arab Emirates doesn't jump off the charts for me" as a center of terrorist activity, he said. He added that foreign companies control most of the port terminal operations in the harbor, including NYCT. It is owned by a Hong Kong-based firm, OOCL, which runs the Howland Hook facility under a long-term lease from the Port Authority. "It's where we are today," said Devine. "We are an international industry." But he stressed that jobs and other "assets" in the port would remain "American-based." The United Arab Emirates has a somewhat ambiguous record. Since declaring the war on terror in the aftermath of 9/11, the Bush administration has praised the Arab nation as an ally in the fight. But the country, a loose federation of kingdoms, was used as a staging area for the 2001 suicide hijackings. Money was transferred through its banking system to help pay for the operations. Several of the hijackers traveled through the Emirates on their way to the U.S. One of the hijacker pilots -- Marwan al Shehhi -- was born in the Emirates. He flew the plane that hit the World Trade Center's Tower 2. Terence J. Kivlan is Washington correspondent for the Advance. He may be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
