It’s a controversy that didn’t go “straight to 10” on the scandal-meter, but the Bush administration’s decision to hire a United Arab Emirates company to run six American ports (Baltimore, Miami, New Jersey, New Orleans, New York, and Philadelphia) seems to be a controversy that’s getting worse for the White House every day.
Fox News got the ball rolling last Thursday.
Questioning the United Arab Emirates’ track record in the War on Terror, seven U.S. lawmakers said Thursday they want a committee led by Treasury Secretary John Snow to thoroughly review a deal that would let a UAE-based firm run six major U.S. ports.
“We’re calling for the full six-week investigation. It’s a serious investigation and the reason why this is critical is while maybe there’s nothing wrong with this company, how do we know they’re not infiltrated?” asked Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “The United Arab Emirates has had people involved in terrorism. In fact, some of its financial institutions laundered the money for the (Sept, 11) terrorists. And to just blithely go ahead and treat this as another economic transaction is all wrong.”
Currently, London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., the fourth largest port operator in the world, runs the six ports. But the $6.8 billion sale of P&O to UAE-owned Dubai Ports World (DPW) would effectively turn over North American operations to the government-owned company in Dubai.
Since then, the controversy has only grown more intense. Governors from both parties have condemned the sale, as have lawmakers from both parties. Today, even Bill Frist called on the sale to be delayed “until the administration conducts a more extensive review of this matter.” And that was before we learned that the UAE company has some financial ties to the administration.
The Dubai firm that won Bush administration backing to run six U.S. ports has at least two ties to the White House.
One is Treasury Secretary John Snow, whose department heads the federal panel that signed off on the $6.8 billion sale of an English company to government-owned Dubai Ports World – giving it control of Manhattan’s cruise ship terminal and Newark’s container port.
Snow was chairman of the CSX rail firm that sold its own international port operations to DP World for $1.15 billion in 2004, the year after Snow left for President Bush’s cabinet.
The other connection is David Sanborn, who runs DP World’s European and Latin American operations and who was tapped by Bush last month to head the U.S. Maritime Administration.
“The more you look at this deal, the more the deal is called into question,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who said the deal was rubber-stamped in advance – even before DP World formally agreed to buy London’s P&O port company.
It seems like a story that isn’t going away anytime soon. For Dems, this is a natural, particularly in light of the significance of port security. I think Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) struck the right chord yesterday: “We wouldn’t turn over our customs service or our border patrol to a foreign government. We shouldn’t turn over the ports of the United States, either.”
And for the GOP, no one outside the administration seems willing to defend the sale. As Kevin noted today:
What it shows is that Bush still doesn’t understand how much influence he’s recently lost with his conservative base. In the brave new post-Harriet, post-Katrina world, outrage over the port deal was initially driven not by liberal critics, but by conservatives like Michelle Malkin and even administration uber-stalwart Hugh Hewitt, who are no longer willing to simply take Bush’s word for it that they should trust him on this issue. For today’s chastened conservatives, it’s “trust but verify” when it comes to the Bush administration.
Will Bush cave and halt the deal, risking the appearance of weakness, or will he wait for the criticism to blow over, risking a political backlash? Stay tuned.