more on selling our security

Senators Say Ports Deal Raises Risks
WASHINGTON - Bush administration officials, trying to calm a political furor over allowing a United Arab Emirates company to take over a half-dozen U.S. seaports, told Congress Thursday they spent three months reviewing the deal and said all concerns about security were satisfied.

Earlier this morning, President Bush declared that "people don't need to worry about security," in regards to the approval of the deal to turn over port operations.
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Representatives of key agencies that investigated the port deal — but not the heads of the various departments — sought to reassure senators during the Capitol Hill briefing.

But Democrats angry about the arrangement lashed out at the administration. Two Democrats on the Armed Services Committee suggested that the turning over port operations to the UAE firm could open a window of opportunity for a terrorist attack.

Brushing aside Bush's assurances that security concerns have been addressed by his administration, Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the panel's ranking Democrat, said the UAE backed the Taliban and allowed financial support for al-Qaida.

Levin also charged that the UAE has an "uneven history" as "one of only a handful of countries in the world to recognize the Taliban regime in Afghanistan." He added that millions of dollars in al-Qaida funds went through UAE financial institutions.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., also was critical, calling the approval process "a failure of judgment" because officials "did not alert the president, the secretary of the treasury and the secretary of defense" that several of our critical ports would be turned over to a foreign country.

Under secret conditions of the agreement with the administration, the company promised to cooperate with U.S. investigations as a condition of the $6.8 billion deal, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

The U.S. government chose not to impose other, routine restrictions.
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Bush said he was struck by the fact that people were not concerned about port security when a British company was running the port operation, but they felt differently about an Arab company at the helm. He said the United Arab Emirates was a valuable partner in the war in terror.

Critics in Congress have complained that London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., which previously operated at those ports, is a publicly traded company while Dubai Ports World is effectively controlled by the government there. Sens. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Clinton have said they will introduce legislation to prohibit companies owned or controlled by foreign governments from running port operations in the United States.
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In approving the purchase, the administration chose not to require Dubai Ports to keep copies of its business records on U.S. soil, where they would be subject to orders by American courts. It also did not require the company to designate an American citizen to accommodate requests by the government.

Outside legal experts said such obligations are routinely attached to U.S. approvals of foreign sales in other industries.

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OK - BUSH of all people says that we "don't need to worry about security"?!?!? Just because HE doesn't ever worry about it, doesn't mean that the rest of us shouldn't! Every day that he is in office makes this country LESS secure!
How did this deal get this far without informing the president, secretary of the treasury or the secretary of the defense?!
Why did they choose not to impose routine restrictions on a government-run company with close ties to al-Qaida and the Taliban?!
Is bush surprised that people would feel differently about a company with ties to al-Qaida running our port security as opposed to Britian, one of our closest allies?!?! Seems like a slightly different situation to me!!
And, yet again, the Dems are taking steps to insure that foreign governments cannot control our security, while bush is doing his damnest to give us directly to our worst enemies!
Why would bush not require this company to keep records on American soil?!
How is it that this administration has been seen as tough on terrorists?!?! This is completely absurd!!