An update on that port thing. I screwed up the other posting.

More are questioning port transfer

BY JOHN RILEY
STAFF WRITER

February 17, 2006

New York Sen. Charles Schumer won new allies in Congress and the media yesterday in his campaign to raise national security concerns about a planned transfer of port operations in Newark and other key East Coast cities to a company controlled by the government of Dubai.

Dubai Ports World, already a global player in port operations, acquired a stake in terminal operations in New Orleans, Miami, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Newark on Monday when shareholders approved its takeover of the British firm Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation. Critics fear the deal increases the risk of weapons or terrorists being smuggled into the United States.

The takeover was approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., an interagency panel headed by the Treasury Department that can block foreign acquisitions that threaten national security.

But Schumer, who first raised questions Monday, was joined yesterday by an array of six congressmen, including Republicans such as conservative Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, in a call for a second look. Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) has also raised questions, and The New York Times yesterday editorialized against the deal.

"Outsourcing the operations of our largest ports to a country with a dubious record on terrorism is a homeland security and commerce accident waiting to happen," Schumer said.

The Bush administration has portrayed oil-rich Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates, as an ally in the war on terror. But Schumer and other opponents noted that one of the Sept. 11 hijack pilots came from the UAE, and the plotters moved money through that country's financial system.

While the alarms have attracted media attention, a Treasury Department spokesperson said yesterday that the approval can't be reconsidered and the White House defended it. And some outside experts noted that foreign companies have long been dominant in maritime shipping and major players at many U.S. ports.

Regardless of the national pedigree of the terminal operator, noted Stephen Flynn, a maritime security expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, the U.S. Customs agents will still screen containers, and patriotic American longshoremen will still work the docks. The key to better port security, he said, is more attention to needs such as better technology to screen incoming containers.

"The ownership of marine terminal operations by foreign companies is not at the top of my list," Flynn said. "It distracts us from much more worthwhile efforts to build security."