It looks like New York's Republian Governor George pataki has jumped on the growing bi-partisan bandwagon opposing this deal.
From today's New York Post:
EX-HOMELAND CHIEF HITS PORT DEAL
By Deborah Orin, Fredrick U. Dicker and Ed Robinson
February 21, 2006 --
Gov. Pataki has ordered the Port Authority to "explore all legal options" concerning the controversial deal to hand over New York's port operations to a company owned by the United Arab Emirates, as criticism of the takeover mounted yesterday.
"Ensuring the security of New York's port operations is paramount and I am very concerned with the purchase of Peninsular & Oriental Steam by Dubai Ports World," the governor said in statement yesterday.
Pataki, still hospitalized following an emergency appendectomy, joined a a chorus of critics questioning the deal, including President Bush's former Department of Homeland Security secretary, Tom Ridge.
Dubai Ports World is a UAE government-run company looking to take over operations of the ports in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans and Miami from British-controlled P&O.
Pataki directed the Port Authority "to explore all legal options that may be available," while asking the Department of Homeland Security to provide all information about the deal, which a federal panel, led by the Treasury Department, approved.
The PA could try to break its contract with P&O, but a spokesman for the agency said such speculation is premature.
But another Republican governor, Robert Ehrlich of Maryland, said he's considering killing P&O's contract for the Port of Baltimore.
"We have a lot of discretion in the contract," Ehrlich said.
Ehrlich said he was upset that he received no advance notice from the Bush administration about the purchase.
"We needed to know before this was a done deal, given the state of where we are concerning security," he said.
Ridge said the president must do a better job addressing concerns about the purchase.
"I think the anxiety and the concern [over the deal] that has been expressed by congressmen and senators and elsewhere is legitimate," said Ridge, who served as Bush's homeland security chief from 2001 to 2005.
"The bottom line is I think we need a little bit more transparency here. There are some legitimate concerns about who would be in charge of hiring and firing, security measures, added technology in these ports," Ridge told CNN.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan yesterday insisted there has been a "rigorous review process," but didn't rule out the possibility that Bush might intervene.
House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King (R-L.I.), normally a Bush loyalist but a major critic of the deal, said he's considering all options, including a lawsuit to stop it.
King told The Post, "The Treasury Department [is] saying our lawyers are looking at this and they think it can't be blocked — but the fact that they are looking at it tells me they aren't so sure."
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) yesterday told Fox News Channel he's so worried about security risks that he'd rather see the ports run by Halliburton.
deborah.orin@nypost.com
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And this article, about Dubai, the country where this Arab company is based:
DIRTY DUBAI DEALERS HELP FINANCE TERRORISTS
By Niles Lathem, Post Correspondent
February 21, 2006 --
WASHINGTON —
Tens of billions of dollars are laundered every year through banks in the United Arab Emirates, financing evildoers like al Qaeda, Afghan drug lords and even Iran's outlaw nuclear program, according to U.S. intelligence reports.
The controversy over the takeover of ports in New York and five other U.S. cities has shed a white-hot spotlight on the UAE, a country long considered the arms-smuggling and money-laundering capital of the Middle East. U.S. officials say it has an improving — but still shady — record in the war on terrorism.
"It's a mixed and questionable record. They are making progress but not enough to allow a contract like this to go through without the most thorough and complete vetting," House Homeland Security chairman Rep. Peter King (R-L.I.) told The Post.
The country's notoriously lax banking laws, poor control over its legendary gold brokers and low taxes have made money-laundering a $30 billion-a-year business in the UAE.
U.S. intelligence officials said some financing for terrorists in Iraq moves through banks and informal transfer centers known as hawalas in the UAE.
The port in Dubai — managed by Dubai Ports World — has been used as a transshipment center for the movement of arms and guerrillas into Iraq, King said. He added there is no evidence of complicity in this scheme by Dubai Ports World.
niles.lathem@nypost.com
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And finally, this editorial:
PORT STUPIDITY
February 21, 2006 --
Gov. Pataki last night hinted broadly that he would seek to extract the Port of New York and New Jersey from the federal contract that hands control of six U.S. harbors to a firm based in the United Arab Emirates. It remains to be seen whether he has the power to kill the deal, but he certainly needs to try.
Pataki and Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich both expressed grave doubts on the deal; Eherlich suggested he'd try to exempt the Port of Baltimore from the new pact, too.
Let's be clear: It's an unnecessary, and exceedingly dumb, deal.
The UAE capital, Dubai, is a breeding ground for Mideast terrorism — and was where the 9/11 hijackers planned most of the World Trade Center attacks.
For that reason alone, turning U.S. ports over to Dubai Ports World — following its $6.8 billion purchase of the British-owned Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. — is insane.
Beyond New York/New Jersey and Baltimore, ports at Miami, New Orleans and Philadelphia are at issue.
Still hospitalized after emergency surgery, Pataki issued a news release to say, "Ensuring the security of New York's port operations is paramount and I am very concerned with the purchase of Peninsular & Oriental Steam by Dubai Ports World."
"I have directed the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to explore all legal options that may be available to them," he added.
Meanwhile, Rep. Peter King (R-L.I.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, is similarly perplexed: "It puts the New York ports at risk when you have a company coming out of a country where al Qaeda has such a strong presence."
He added, quite accurately: "The ports are always going to be the weakest part of our homeland security. You have to ask yourself, if something does happen, how could you explain to a 9/11[-like] commission that we just let it happen?"
Good question.
King also notes that Dubai Ports World wasn't exactly fastidious when it comes to security in its home port — through which weapons flowed to Iran.
The Bush administration's tone-deafness on this issue is inexplicable. The idea has been met with bipartisan opposition on Capitol Hill; Democratic Sens. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who are readying legislation to block foreign firms from running U.S. ports.
Its only defender seems to be Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who claims that a background inquiry "cleared" the deal.
No disrespect to Chertoff, but nuts to that.
America's ports are critical strategic assets. As it is, security at the facilities is at best problematic. Introducing yet another element of operational risk makes no sense whatsoever.
Maybe the Port Authority doesn't have the legal standing to pull out of the pact. But we bet Congress not only has the horsepower to get the job, it won't hesitate to use it.
The White House would be wise to check which way the wind is blowing, and to cut its losses.
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My prediction is that the Bush administration will (thankfully) find some way to squash this deal.
If they don't it will be politicl suicide.
And if he doesn't do it soon, he's running the risk that as the outrage over the deal increases, there's a chance that if there is some nefarious reason (read: money) that helped this deal along through the secret meetings of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., that reason will come out as well.
