Democrats see a national security opening

Tom Curry National affairs writer • Profile • E-mail

WASHINGTON - Well before Sept. 11, 2001, polling showed that the public trusted Republicans more than Democrats on national security. And since 9/11, President Bush has seemingly "owned" the issue.

But now two wrinkles have emerged — an Arab firm’s takeover of leases of container terminals at East Coast U.S. ports, and increasingly bold steps by illegal immigrants to enter the United States — giving Democrats an opening to charge that President Bush and his party aren’t vigilant enough against threats to the nation’s security.

On Tuesday morning in San Diego, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., conferred with border officials to discuss last month’s discovery of an underground tunnel crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

Feinstein, up for re-election this November, unveiled new legislation making the building of such border tunnels a federal offense.

Meanwhile in an unusual left-right combination, New York’s two Democratic senators, Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer, the Republican governors of New York and Maryland, George Pataki and Robert Ehrlich, and an array of House Republicans, are crying foul over the takeover of container terminals in six East Coast ports by Dubai Ports World, a company owned by the government of the United Arab Emirates.

The firm has won Bush administration approval for its $6.8 billion purchase of the London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.

Clinton and Sen. Robert Menendez, D- N.J., who are both up for election this November, will offer legislation to prohibit firms owned or controlled by foreign governments from purchasing port operations in the United States.

Critics of the port takeover, which will be completed on March 2, argue that some of the 9/11 hijackers used the UAE as an operational and financial base.

Even Frist has doubts
Even Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, usually a sturdy Bush ally, added his voice Tuesday to those challenging the port deal.

“If the Administration cannot delay the process, I plan on introducing legislation to ensure that the deal is placed on hold until this decision gets a more thorough review,” Frist said in a written statement.

“The problem the Bush people have is that one of their fundamental tenets is to scare people about terrorist threats; well, here’s a legitimate national security issue and they’re saying, ‘not a problem,’” said Democratic strategist Steve Elmendorf. “I can’t imagine any of their (Republican) members of Congress wanting to have this put to a vote.”

The port deal was approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), an inter-agency committee headed by the Secretary of Treasury. In 1988, Congress gave the panel power to review any proposed foreign acquisition of a U.S. corporation that is determined to threaten American national security. It also gave the president authority to suspend or prohibit any such acquisition.

Citing the CFIUS’s closed-door meetings, Elmendorf said, “It’s another example of the Bush administration operating in secrecy where they don’t have to explain what they’re doing. If they believe this position is defensible, they should explain it in the light of day.”

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