UAE company to help oversee six ports in U.S.

This needs to be stopped cold. From an AP report today:

WASHINGTON - A company in the United Arab Emirates is poised to take over significant operations at six American ports as part of a corporate sale, leaving a country with ties to the Sept. 11 hijackers with influence over a maritime industry considered vulnerable to terrorism.

The Bush administration considers the UAE an important ally in the fight against terrorism since the suicide hijackings and is not objecting to Dubai Ports World’s purchase of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.

The $6.8 billion sale is expected to be approved Monday. The British company is the fourth largest ports company in the world and its sale would affect commercial U.S. port operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.

DP World said it won approval from a secretive U.S. government panel that considers security risks of foreign companies buying or investing in American industry.

The U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States “thoroughly reviewed the potential transaction and concluded they had no objection,” the company said.

The panel, which could have recommended that President Bush block the purchase, includes representatives from the departments of Treasury, Defense and Homeland Security.

The State Department describes the UAE as a vital partner in the fight against terrorism, though it was an operational and financial base for the 9/11 hijackers, the FBI said.

Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat whose district includes the New York port, urged the administration to consider the sale carefully.

“America’s busiest ports are vital to our economy and to the international economy, and that is why they remain top terrorist targets,” he said. “Just as we would not outsource military operations or law enforcement duties, we should be very careful before we outsource … homeland security duties.”

I’m still dumbfounded by this. If you’d like to do something about it right now, I urge you to leave a message on the Home Security Citizen Comment Line at:

202-282-8495

or contact your state senator’s office.