Foxnews just balances it out

critisizing foxnews for being right wing biased doesn't really lend itself to the point.

Published: 21 February 2006
American aversion to inward investment from Dubai only harms its own interests

If they weren't so rich, one might even feel sorry for the royal family of Dubai. Not only have they been forced to pay far more than they intended for the ports operator P&O, but they now find themselves the object of a vicious political backlash in the US from congressmen who think that an Arab nation with financial links to the September 11 hijackers, however tenuous, an inappropriate owner of the company's US ports.

At this late stage, it's hard to see what harm this xenophobic nonsense can do to a deal which has been approved both by shareholders and all relevant regulatory authorities, including the US Committee for Foreign Investment.

Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, has vigorously defended approval against the onslaught of recent days. To reverse that decision now would require a change in the law to force DP World to divest its US assets. Even if this were forthcoming, it wouldn't undermine the takeover, the attractions of which lie mainly in P&O's Far Eastern ports, not its US operations. P&O doesn't in any case own the US ports, which it only runs under licence.

So the deal itself looks safe. More disturbing is the message this outpouring of ill-informed, semi-racist hostility sends to the Middle East. One of the hijackers came from the the Emirates and it is certainly true that some of the money to fund the September 11 terror attacks was funnelled through UAE banks. Yet to want to use these coincidences as a pretext to block the involvement of DP World in American ports beggars belief.

What do these congressmen imagine will happen? That the ports will become a conduit for terrorist bombs? It's no wonder that so much Middle Eastern money has been repatriated from the US since 9/11. The environment in the US for Arab businessmen and financiers has become so hostile that it's scarcely worth the hassle of staying. Nor is it any wonder that these regions have become so determined to build rival centres of commercial, industrial and financial power.

Dubai's latest plan is to funnel $15bn of its oil swelled coffers into developing a leading position in the global aerospace industry following its success in building what will soon be the world's largest airline. And why not too? By the look of it, they wouldn't be allowed to invest in these industries in the US.

Ibd
Fri Feb 17, 7:00 PM ET


National Security: At a time when our seaports are considered the weak link in homeland security, the operation of six U.S. ports may be turned over to an Arab state from which two of the 9-11 hijackers originated.

In a deal that could not have occurred on Sept. 12, 2001, the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment, a Treasury Department interagency panel that reviews foreign investments, has approved a $6.8 billion deal granting a Dubai-based company, Dubai Ports World, management of the ports in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Miami, Baltimore and New Orleans.

Dubai is one of the seven small states that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is an Arab federation that Marwan al-Shehhi, one of the 9-11 hijackers, called home and where al-Qaida has recruited, traveled and roamed freely. Much of the operational planning for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon took place inside the UAE.

The Bush administration considers the Emirates an ally in the war on terror. But the Treasury Department has been largely stonewalled by the Emirates in trying to track al-Qaida's bank accounts. U.S. officials have said money for the 9-11 attack was wired through the UAE banking system.

U.S. seaports handle 2 billion tons of freight each year, but only about 5% of containers are inspected on arrival. A container on one of these ships would be an ideal delivery system for a weapon of mass destruction such as an Iranian nuke.

True, American ownership is retained, and U.S. longshoreman would still roam the docks. But under UAE ownership, it would no longer be unusual to see young male Arab nationals lurking about.

Management of U.S. ports means entrusting foreign ownership based in a country known to have been penetrated by terrorists in the past with key information about U.S. ports.

As defense and national security expert Frank Gaffney points out, these ports are vital to our energy security. Philadelphia alone handles some 85% of the oil coming into the East Coast, and New Orleans is responsible for one-seventh of all our imported energy.

It's conceivable that some port manager would conspire to bring in a dangerous and deadly cargo in one of the uninspected containers. Al-Qaida is said to own a fleet of 15 freighters, one of which was used in 1998 to smuggle explosives into Africa for the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

An al-Qaida training manual that was discovered in the United Kingdom said seaport workers would make good recruits. The Philippines, home to more than one terrorist group, is the world's biggest crew supplier, with Indonesia, another terrorist stomping ground, a close second.

Last week, Rep. Peter King (news, bio, voting record), R-N.Y., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, urged the White House to reconsider approval of the deal in light of security concerns that have been raised. We concur.

Security at our nation's seaports needs to be tightened and enhanced. This will not be accomplished by outsourcing responsibility for their management to countries whose territory and banks al-Qaida once favored.

Dubai's royal family sent a delegation to the U.S. today to meet officials such as Senator Hillary Clinton to allay concerns about the emirate's purchase of six U.S. ports as part of its buyout of Peninsula & Oriental Steam Navigation Co.

Sultan bin Sulayem, chairman of the state-owned DP World, is heading the team will discuss Dubai's management of P&O operations in the U.S., which include the ports of New York and Baltimore, a United Arab Emirates' Foreign Ministry official said in a phone interview today.

Democratic Senators Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Hillary Clinton of New York are seeking to prohibit companies owned or controlled by foreign governments from buying U.S. port operations. A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers is calling for hearings on DP World's $6.8 billion purchase of London-based P&O that would give a company owned by Dubai's ruling Maktoum family, control over some operations at six U.S. ports.

``It's obviously sensitive and politics is coming into it,'' said Donald Struthers, a security adviser at U.K.-based Poseidon Maritime Ltd., whose clients include port authorities and shipping lines. DP World complies ``with international laws and from a security point of view that's the bottom line.''

P&O's biggest operations in the U.S. are at the Port of Newark, where it has 30-year lease from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to operate the 180-acre terminal, which can handle about 1 million containers a year.

The lease is shared by A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, the largest container-shipping company. P&O also has a 50 percent stake in the Port of Miami Terminal Operating Company, which handles about 500,000 containers a year at the port in Florida.

Singapore's PSA

Dubai beat Singapore's PSA International Pte in the takeover, approved on Feb. 14 in London by P&O shareholders, which more than doubles DP World's terminals to 51, with the capacity to move 33.3 million containers.

P&O also operates terminals in Philadelphia and New Orleans. Terminals in North and South America generated 16 percent of the 10.9 million containers that P&O handled in the nine months ended Sept. 30.

A spokesman for DP, Tim Ryan, confirmed that a delegation was in Washington today, when contacted on his mobile phone in the U.S. capital. He declined to give any details.

The International Maritime Organization, the United Nations agency responsible for maritime safety, in July 2004 implemented the International Ship and Port Facilities Security Code, which is designed to increase security at ports.

Key Ally

The Persian Gulf state, a federation of seven family-ruled sheikhdoms, is a key ally of the U.S. government in the region. Docking facilities at Jebel Ali port, the largest in the Persian Gulf and that's run by DP World, are used regularly by the U.S. navy, the spokesman said.

President George W. Bush's administration last month named Dave Sanborn, director of operations for DP World in Europe and Latin America, as U.S. Maritime Administrator. Sanborn is expected to take up his post later this year.

The Maritime Administration is responsible for ensuring the marine infrastructure meets the economic and security needs of the U.S., according to its Web site.