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Bush shrugs off objections to port deal
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-22 10:00 A senior Homeland Security official, Stewart Baker, said this was the
first-ever sale involving US port operations to a state-owned government. "In
that sense this is a new layer of controls," he said. Baker added that US
intelligence agencies were consulted "very early on to actually look at
vulnerabilities and threats."
Bush sought to quiet a political storm that has united Republican governors
and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee with liberal Democrats,
including New York's two senators, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer.
Frist said Tuesday, before Bush's comments, that he would introduce
legislation to put the sale on hold if the White House did not delay the
takeover. He said the deal raised "serious questions regarding the safety and
security of our homeland.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., asked the president for a moratorium on
the sale until it could be studied further. "We must not allow the possibility
of compromising our national security due to lack of review or oversight by the
federal government," Hastert said.
Maryland's Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich, during a tour of Baltimore's port
on Tuesday, called the deal an "overly secretive process at the federal level."
Bush took the rare step of calling reporters to his conference room on Air
Force One after returning from a speech in Colorado. He also stopped to talk
before television cameras after he returned to the White House.
"I can understand why some in Congress have raised questions about whether or
not our country will be less secure as a result of this transaction," the
president said. "But they need to know that our government has looked at this
issue and looked at it carefully."
A senior executive from Dubai Ports World pledged the company would agree to
whatever security precautions the U.S. government demanded to salvage the deal.
Chief operating officer Edward "Ted" H. Bilkey promised Dubai Ports "will fully
cooperate in putting into place whatever is necessary to protect the terminals."
Bilkey traveled to Washington in an effort to defuse the growing controversy.
Bush said that protesting lawmakers should understand his approval of the
deal was final.
"They ought to listen to what I have to say about this," the president said.
"They'll look at the facts and understand the consequences of what they're going
to do. But if they pass a law, I'll deal with it with a veto."
Bush, who has never vetoed a bill as president, said on the White House South
Lawn: "This is a company that has played by the rules, has been cooperative with
the United States, from a country that's an ally on the war on terror, and it
would send a terrible signal to friends and allies not to let this transaction
go through."
Lawmakers from both parties have noted that some of the Sept. 11 hijackers
used the United Arab Emirates as an operational and financial base. In addition,
critics 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.
They say a port operator complicit in smuggling or terrorism could manipulate
manifests and other records to frustrate Homeland Security's already limited
scrutiny of shipping containers and slip contraband past U.S. Customs
inspectors.
Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y., and Democrat Schumer said Tuesday they will introduce
emergency legislation to suspend the ports deal. King, chairman of the Homeland
Security Committee, said the government "cannot consider approving this contract
until a much more thorough investigation takes place on this security matter."
Sen. Susan Collins (news, bio, voting record), R-Maine, and Rep. Jane Harman
(news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., said they would introduce a "joint
resolution of disapproval" when they returned to Washington next week. Collins
heads the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and
Harman is the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
Bush's veto threat didn't stop local efforts to block the deal. New Jersey's
governor, Jon S. Corzine, said Tuesday the state will file lawsuits in federal
and state courts opposing the agreement. Corzine, a Democrat, cited a "deep,
deep feeling that this is the wrong direction for our nation to take."
A company at the Port of Miami, a subsidiary of Eller & Company Inc.,
sued last week to block the deal in a Florida state court. It said that under
the sale, it will become an "involuntary partner" with Dubai's government and it
may seek more than $10 million in damages.
Frist said Congress should have veto authority over such foreign sales, which
are reviewed by a secretive U.S. panel that considers security risks of foreign
companies buying or investing in American industry. The panel includes
representatives from the departments of Treasury, Defense, Justice, Commerce,
State and Homeland Security.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld described the United Arab Emirates as a
close ally. "It's a country that's been involved in the global war on terror
with us," Rumsfeld said. He added that the United States and the UAE "have very
close military-to-miltary relations, as well as political and economic
relations."
Separately, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said port security would not be
threatened. "This is not a question about port security," Gonzales said. "This
is a question about port operation."
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