[Vision2020] RE: Port Sale

[James Reynolds]

>From today's (February 28, 2006) Washington Post -
>
>"There are many intelligence gaps, concerning the potential for DPW (DP
>World) or P&O (Peninsular & Oriental) assets to support terrorist
>operations, that precludes an overall threat assessment" of the potential
>merger, the half-page excerpt said. "The breadth of the intelligence gaps
>also infer potential unknown threats against a large number of potential
>vulnerabilities."
>
>And still Bush publicly stated that he had Coast Guard approval for the
>sale?
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Coast Guard Worries Reanimate Ports Debate
>
>By LIZ SIDOTI
>The Associated Press
>Tuesday, February 28, 2006; 10:10 AM
>
>WASHINGTON -- Republican congressional leaders had hoped to curtail
>bipartisan outcries over a United Arab Emirates-based company's pending
>takeover of some U.S. port operations by brokering an agreement for a new
>investigation of the deal's potential security risks.
>
>Then came the disclosure that the U.S. Coast Guard had raised concerns 
>weeks
>ago that, because of U.S. intelligence gaps, it could not determine whether
>the UAE company, DP World, might support terrorist operations.
>
>Bush administration officials say those concerns were addressed and
>resolved.
>
>Nevertheless, both Republicans and Democrats seized on the Coast Guard
>assessment, which was released by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, at a Senate
>Homeland Security Committee hearing Monday, to launch a fresh round of
>criticism just as the furor over the ports deal appeared on the brink of
>subsiding.
>
>"I am more convinced than ever that the process was truly flawed," said
>Collins, the Homeland Security Committee's chairwoman. "I can only conclude
>that there was a rush to judgment, that there wasn't the kind of
>painstaking, thorough analysis that needed to be done, despite serious
>questions being raised and despite the involvement of a wide variety of
>agencies."
>
>"If this isn't a smoking gun," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said, "it 
>shows
>that there may be one undetected" by the multi-agency panel that approved 
>DP
>World's proposed purchase of London-based Peninsular & Oriental Steam
>Navigation Co. The panel signed off on the deal without doing a 45-day
>investigation into security implications, which critics say the law
>requires.
>
>More fuel could be added to the fire Tuesday when the Senate Commerce
>Committee holds a hearing to review the DP World deal. Edward H. Bilkey, DP
>World's chief operating officer, was to testify.
>
>In February, the Commerce Committee vetted the appointment of David C.
>Sanborn of Virginia, a senior DP World executive, to be the new
>administrator of the Maritime Administration of the Transportation
>Department.
>
>The White House appointed Sanborn, who worked as DP World's director of
>operations for Europe and Latin America, to the post in January, the same
>month the Treasury Department's Committee on Foreign Investment in the
>United States approved the DP World takeover.
>
>Two Democrats, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Bill Nelson of Florida,
>have vowed to block Sanborn's nomination unless he testifies again before
>the Commerce Committee. "He worked for Dubai Ports World when this deal was
>rushed through under cover of darkness without sufficient security review,"
>Kerry said in a statement Tuesday. "In the post 9/11 world, we need to know
>why."
>
>White House spokesman Scott McClellan has said the DP World deal "went
>through the normal review process and was carefully checked."
>
>The deal has threatened to divide the Republican Party on its signature
>issues _ national security and fighting terrorism _ during a pivotal
>election year in which the entire House and a third of the Senate faces
>re-election.
>
>Looking to head off a Republican revolt, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist
>and other GOP congressional leaders sought to ensure the White House would
>be able to stand with members of the president's own party and counter
>Democratic criticism that they were soft on terrorism.
>
>Under the agreement congressional GOP leaders negotiated over the weekend,
>the Bush administration agreed to the company's request for a highly 
>unusual
>45-day national security review of its business deal.
>
>But a bipartisan group of senators on Monday introduced a bill anyway that
>would delay the deal and give Congress an opportunity to block the 
>takeover.
>Separately, Democrats introduced legislation that would prohibit companies
>owned by foreign governments from controlling operations at U.S. ports.
>
>"While it's a step in the right direction to undertake the 45 day review,
>Congress must have the opportunity to actually examine that report and vote
>within 30 days to disapprove the sale," Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said 
>in
>remarks prepared for delivery before the Commerce Committee.
>
>At a Homeland Security Committee hearing, Collins released an unclassified
>excerpt of a Coast Guard intelligence assessment done before the government
>approved the DP World takeover.
>
>"There are many intelligence gaps, concerning the potential for DPW (DP
>World) or P&O (Peninsular & Oriental) assets to support terrorist
>operations, that precludes an overall threat assessment" of the potential
>merger, the half-page excerpt said. "The breadth of the intelligence gaps
>also infer potential unknown threats against a large number of potential
>vulnerabilities."
>
>The Coast Guard document raised questions about the security of the
>companies' operations, the backgrounds of people working for the companies,
>and whether other foreign countries influenced operations that affect
>security.
>
>"We were never told about this," Michael Moore, DP World's senior vice
>president, said of the excerpt. However, he said it shows "serious and
>probing" questions were asked and that the initial approval of the deal
>indicates those questions were answered.
>
>In a statement, the Coast Guard said the assessment was part of a broader
>classified Coast Guard analysis that concluded that DP World's pending
>takeover "in and of itself, does not pose a significant threat to U.S.
>assets in (continental United States) ports."
>
>

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