Dubai firm says it will delay U.S. port takeover

The vast majority of U.S. ports are owned by foreign companies, and security is handled separately by the U.S. government. According to Stephen Flynn, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, ownership is not the main reason for vulnerability. Regardless of who owns the ports, the volume of goods flowing through them is so massive that providing security oversight for incoming containers is a daunting task, Flynn says.

Bush said his administration would continue talks with members of Congress — Republicans and Democrats alike — who have rebelled against the takeover. He said the briefings were “bringing a sense of calm to this issue.”

“This wouldn’t be going forward if we weren’t certain our ports would be secure,” Bush said Tuesday.

In Lebanon, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday that the agreement was thoroughly vetted in a review process that took approximately three months. “This is supposed to be a process that raises security concerns, if they are there, but does not presume that a country in the Middle East should not be capable of doing a deal like this.” She described the United Arab Emirates as “a very good ally” and said “if more details need to be made available then I’m sure they will be.”

What U.S. required
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.

Dubai Ports agreed to give up records on demand about “foreign operational direction” of its business at the U.S. ports, according to the documents. Those records broadly include details about the design, maintenance or operation of ports and equipment. It also pledged to continue participating in programs to stop smuggling and detect illegal shipments of nuclear materials.

“They’re not lax but they’re not draconian,” James Lewis, a former U.S. official who worked on such agreements, said of the contractual stipulations. If White House officials negotiating the deal had predicted the firestorm of criticism over it, “they might have made them sound harder.”

The conditions over the sale were detailed in U.S. documents marked “confidential.” Such records are regularly guarded as trade secrets, and it is highly unusual for them to be made public.

Rep. Peter King of New York, the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said Wednesday that the conditions are evidence the administration was concerned about security. “There is a very serious question as to why the records are not going to be maintained on American soil subject to American jurisdiction,” King said.

Another critic, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., added: “These new revelations ask more questions than they answer.”

Dole, Albright lobby for deal
Dubai Ports is lining up powerful supporters to persuade skeptical lawmakers the deal is a good idea. Even before the controversy erupted, the company had hired Bob Dole’s law and lobbying firm, Alston & Bird LLC, to win approval for the deal. The Albright Group, led by former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, also has been trying to speak with members of Congress on behalf of the company.

Dubai Port’s top American executive, chief operating officer Edward Bilkey, said he will work in Washington to persuade skeptical lawmakers they should endorse the deal.

“We’re disappointed,” Bilkey told the AP. “We’re going to do our best to persuade them that they jumped the gun. The U.A.E. is a very solid friend, as President Bush has said.”

The disclosure of the negotiated conditions came as the White House acknowledged that Bush was unaware of the pending sale until the deal had been already approved by his administration.

Bush has pledged to veto any bill Congress might approve to block the agreement, but some lawmakers said they still were determined to capsize it.

Bush faces a potential rebellion over the sale from leaders of his own party, as well as a fight from Democrats. It puts Dubai Ports in charge of major terminal operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.

The White House said Bush did not know about the agreement until recently. The AP first reported U.S. approval of the sale to Dubai Ports on Feb. 11, and many members of Congress have said they learned about it from the AP.

“I think somebody dropped the ball,” said Rep. Vito Fossella, R-N.Y. “Information should have flowed more freely and more quickly up into the White House. I think it has been mishandled in terms of coming forward with adequate information.”

MORE FROM SECURITY

Security Section Front

Rural Ill. prison to house some Gitmo detainees Report: Islamic terror rising as al-Qaida fades AP source: Feds eye NY trial for Gitmo suspect Feds have mixed record in terror probes Americans held in Pakistan straddled 2 worlds Source: Senior al-Qaida leader killed by drone CIA ends secret Blackwater missile contract Security Section Front   Add Security headlines to your news reader: