Enemy at the gate

This story sounds unreal to me. An overly sensitive, overly trigger-happy government that is willing to put at stake our civil liberties to supposedly protect us from the enemy, is willing to hand over control of some of Americas most important ports to an ethically questionable government that knowingly harbors fundamentalists and terrorists. I guess there is no loyalty above the good business deal.

The United Arab Emirates company would control management of ports in New York and New Jersey, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Orleans and Miami.

Republican Congressman Peter King, who is chairman of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, said on Sunday the Bush administration had failed to put adequate security conditions on the deal, which has raised concerns about the safety of strategic facilities considered vulnerable since the September 11 attacks.

King said that before the administration approved the sale of British firm P&O, which manages six U.S. ports, to Dubai Ports World of the United Arab Emirates, it failed to determine whether the company could be trusted.

"In light of these critical functions being transferred from a private company based in Britain to a United Arab Emirates government-owned company based in Dubai ... Sen. Schumer and Congressman Peter King will announce their emergency legislation to suspend the Dubai port deal," the statement said...

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has defended the deal, saying the administration approved it after a classified review and included provisions to protect national security.

New York's other U.S. senator, Democrat Hillary Clinton, said last week she planned legislation to ban companies owned or controlled by foreign governments from acquiring U.S. port operations, and Republican Gov. George Pataki has also criticized the deal.

U.S. seaports handle 2 billion tonnes of freight each year. Only about 5 percent of containers are examined on arrival and since September 11, 2001, security experts in New York have been particularly concerned about ports' vulnerability to attack.

U.S. officials have praised the United Arab Emirates for steps to protect its booming financial sector against abuse by terrorism financiers. Money for the September 11 attacks was wired through the UAE's banking system, according to U.S. officials. Two of the September 11 hijackers were UAE citizens.