Pentagon, Homeland Dept. objected to UAE port deal

[kpete]

Issue Date: March 6-12, 2006, Posted On: 3/6/2006

Pentagon, Homeland Dept. objected to UAE port deal


A cargo ship sits at the dock at the Port of Miami in Florida, one of the ports where Dubai Ports World could take over operations. (Robert Sullivan/AFP file photo)


At least three security agencies raised objections to a takeover by a United Arab Emirates state-owned company of the operations of six major U.S. ports.



Congressional sources said the Defense Department, Homeland Security Department and Coast Guard expressed objections during the review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States of the state-owned Dubai Ports World, which bought the British-owned Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. P&O has managed port operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, Miami, Philadelphia and New Orleans.



"All of the rules were bent on this one," a congressional source said. "We had a major security review managed by political appointees."



But most of the objections were not recorded in the proceedings of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the sources said. They said the objections remained off the record for "technical reasons." Later, the heads of some of the agencies denied that their representatives raised concerns.



"During this review process there were no issues raised by any agency within DoD, including our U.S. Transportation Command, and that is significant because that was a special review measure we'd put in place to ensure that any military transportation security issue would be identified," Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Feb. 28.

http://www.insightmag.com/Media/MediaManager/ports.htm

[electropop]

1. So records of the "review" have been falsified.

Great. One more thing to nail them on.

[Dr. Jones]

2. But

I thought Bush said it had been thoroughly reviewed by our Intelligence community and was found to be just peachy! What gives? Could Bush have...er...LIED? Is that POSSIBLE?
:sarcasm: