[Vision2020] RE: Port Sale

[Pat Kraut]

Jeff Cooper the head of the Coast Guard was on the Tony Snow today and he
said this story has been put out in a misleading way. The Coast Guard has
faith in the UAE and believes this would be a good deal for the ports. He
said it is a business deal because only two businesses were biding and they
were the UAE and a Singapore company. The UAE came in with the highest bid
thats all that this is he said. If you read the entire report they had some
qualms at first and then talked to the CIFUS people realized the extra
concessions that had been arranged and no longer did...the newspapers and
others are following the Dan Rather school of journalism. He didn't say that
part...Snow infered it and I said it.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James Reynolds" <chapandmaize at hotmail.com>
To: <Vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 8:06 AM
Subject: [Vision2020] RE: Port Sale






>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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