Lawmakers, White House at Odds Over Ports

[Kat Kanning]

Lawmakers, White House at Odds Over Ports

By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer Mon Feb 20, 4:49 AM ET

WASHINGTON - Members of Congress and the Bush administration are at odds over whether security is compromised by an Arab company's takeover of operations at six major American seaports.
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Some lawmakers expressed concern Sunday that the safeguards are insufficient to thwart infiltration of the vital facilities by terrorists.

At issue is the purchase last week of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., by Dubai Ports World, a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates, or UAE. Peninsular and Oriental runs major commercial operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.

Homeland Security Secretary
Michael Chertoff defended the U.S. security review of DP World in various television interviews Sunday.

"We make sure there are assurances in place, in general, sufficient to satisfy us that the deal is appropriate from a national security standpoint," Chertoff told ABC's "This Week."

The government typically builds in "certain conditions or requirements that the company has to agree to make sure we address the national security concerns," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press," but added that details were classified.

Rep. Peter King (news, bio, voting record), R-N.Y., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said later he wasn't as sure.

"I'm aware of the conditions and they relate entirely to how the company carries out its procedures, but it doesn't go to who they hire, or how they hire people," King told The Associated Press.

"They're better than nothing, but to me they don't address the underlying conditions, which is how are they going to guard against things like infiltration by al-Qaida or someone else? How are they going to guard against corruption?" King said.

Critics have cited the UAE's history as an operational and financial base for the hijackers who carried out the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In addition, they contend the UAE was an important transfer point for shipments of smuggled nuclear components sent to
Iran,
North Korea and Libya by a Pakistani scientist.

A Miami company, Continental Stevedoring & Terminals Inc., has filed suit in a Florida court challenging the deal. A subsidiary of Eller & Company Inc., Continental maintains it will become an "involuntary partner" with Dubai's government under the sale.

Michael Seymour, president of the North American arm of Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation, said in a statement that company lawyers would have to examine the lawsuit before he could comment on it.

He noted, however, that his company "is itself a foreign-owned terminal operator that has long worked with U.S. government officials in charge of security at the ports to meet all U.S. government standards, as do other foreign companies that currently operate ports in the United States."

"We are confident that the DP World purchase will ensure that our operations continue to meet all relevant standards in the U.S. through ongoing collaboration between the port operators and American, British, Australian and port security officials throughout the world," Seymour said.

Lawmakers from both parties questioned the sale as a possible risk to national security.

"It's unbelievably tone deaf politically at this point in our history," Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., said on "Fox News Sunday." "Most Americans are scratching their heads, wondering why this company from this region now," he said.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., told CBS' "Face the Nation": "It is ridiculous to say you're taking secret steps to make sure that it's OK for a nation that had ties to 9/11, (to) take over part of our port operations in many of our largest ports. This has to stop."

Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice told Arab journalists Friday at the State Department, that it was "the considered opinion of the U.S. government that this can go forward." She pledged to work with Congress because "perhaps people will need better explanation and will need to understand some of the process that we have gone through."

At least one Senate oversight hearing is planned for later this month.

"Congress is welcome to look at this and can get classified briefings," Chertoff told CNN's "Late Edition." "We have to balance the paramount urgency of security against the fact that we still want to have a robust global trading system."

[Thespis]

I heard about this.

What I find so ridiculous is that no one was looking at port security before this.

I predict that this will trigger a port security "crackdown."

[AlanM]

No one was concerned about the security of these port facilities until an Arab company bought out the London based company. Who's to say whether the old security was lax?
This is all a matter of thinking all Arabs must be bad, because some Arabs are bad. Sorry, but this pertains to all nationalities and cultures. Some are bad, most are good.

[Thespis]

No one was concerned about the security of these port facilities until an Arab company bought out the London based company. Who's to say whether the old security was lax?

I'm not saying it was lax. I'm just saying that they were concerned with air traffic, and immigration. Now they're probably going to seek to "improve" port security. And, we all know what happens when the government decides to improve something.

But, yes, it's been triggered by xenophobia.

[AlanM]

No one was concerned about the security of these port facilities until an Arab company bought out the London based company. Who's to say whether the old security was lax?

I'm not saying it was lax. I'm just saying that they were concerned with air traffic, and immigration. Now they're probably going to seek to "improve" port security. And, we all know what happens when the government decides to improve something.

But, yes, it's been triggered by xenophobia.

I wasn't implying YOU said that at all. I was just pointing out the ridiculousness of the whole situation, and the attempts to portray Arabs as evil. Big Gov needs an enemy of some sort to rally the sheeple to their side. The problem is, the sheeple are only too glad to bow down to those who would strip them of their freedom.

[Thespis]

No harm, no foul.

I agree with you.

[Lloyd Danforth]

The lack of Port safety is brought up in the media all the time, or, at least that they only inspect about 5% of the stuff coming off of ships.
If the authorities were performing effective inspection, the sneaky Arabs wouldn't get anything past them.  As it is now they wouldn't need to control the ports to get something in.
The funny part is when the clown who heads Homeland Security was interviewed this morning he said he hadn't been briefed about this port thing.

[mvpel]

But, yes, it's been triggered by xenophobia.

Thirty years ago, would you have put random Russians in charge of facility security at Lawrence Livermore National Labs?  Sixty years ago, would you have put random Japanese in charge of perimeter defenses of Pearl Harbor?  Would a decision not to employ such people, or to subject them to intense scrutiny before allowing them into those roles, be "triggered by xenophobia," or would it be simple common sense?

The UAE banking system was one of the key elements in Osama bin-Ladin's financial network leading up to the 9/11 attack, as reviewed in the 9/11 Commission report.

If an Iranian nuke is going to come in to the US, it may well be buried in a containerload of rubber vomit shipped into the Port of Miami, with the radiation detectors, oops!, "accidentally" unplugged by a single agent of the terrorist plotters earning his living as a janitor at the port.

[Thespis]

Terrorists don't need to infiltrate anything to gain entry into this country.

I'd check out the legitimacy of any company before I sold them anything, regardless of where they came from. That's good business. Would I investigate a certain company even more because it's from a certain culture that the U.S. is at odds with at the moment? No.

Do you agree with the decision to place U.S. citizens of Japanese decent in an internment camp during WWII?