[Clips] Stew Baker: *I* didn't approve Ports Bill...

[R. A. Hettinga]

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  Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2006 14:15:39 -0500
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  From: "R. A. Hettinga" <rah at shipwright.com>
  Subject: [Clips] Stew Baker: *I* didn't approve Ports Bill...
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<http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PORTS_SECURITY?SITE=7219&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-02-25-10-37-13>


  Feb 25, 1:20 PM EST

  Homeland Security Objected to Ports Deal

  By TED BRIDIS
  Associated Press Writer



  AP Photo/JOSEPH KACZMAREK

  WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Homeland Security Department objected at first to a
  United Arab Emirates company's taking over significant operations at six
  U.S. ports. It was the lone protest among members of the government
  committee that eventually approved the deal without dissent.

  The department's early objections were settled later in the government's
  review of the $6.8 billion deal after Dubai-owned DP World agreed to a
  series of security restrictions.

  The company indefinitely has postponed its takeover to give President Bush
  time to convince Congress that the deal does not pose any increased risks
  to the U.S. from terrorism.

  Some lawmakers have pressed for a new and intensive review. Despite
  persistent criticism from Republicans and Democrats, the president has
  defended his administration's approval of the ports deal and threatened to
  veto any measures in Congress that would block it. Hearings are to continue
  this week.

  A DP World executive said the company would agree to tougher security
  restrictions to win congressional support only if the same restrictions
  applied to all U.S. port operators. The company earlier had struck a more
  conciliatory stance, saying it would do whatever Bush asked to salvage the
  agreement.

  "Security is everybody's business," senior vice president Michael Moore
  told The Associated Press. "We're going to have a very open mind to
  legitimate concerns. But anything we can do, any way to improve security,
  should apply to everybody equally."

  The administration approved the ports deal on Jan. 17 after DP World agreed
  during secret negotiations to cooperate with law enforcement investigations
  in the future and make other concessions.

  Some lawmakers have challenged the adequacy of a classified intelligence
  assessment crucial to assuring the administration that the deal was proper.
  The report was assembled during four weeks in November by analysts working
  for the director of national intelligence.


  The report concluded that U.S. spy agencies were "unable to locate any
  derogatory information on the company," according to a person familiar with
  the document. This person spoke only on condition of anonymity because the
  report was classified.

  Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and others have complained that the intelligence
  report focused only on information the agencies collected about DP World
  and did not examine reported links between UAE government officials and
  al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks.

  The uproar over DP World has exposed how the government routinely approves
  deals involving national security without the input of senior
  administration officials or Congress.

  President Bush, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Defense
  Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and even Treasury Secretary John Snow, who
  oversees the government committee that approved the deal, all say they did
  not know about the purchase until after it was finalized. The work was done
  mostly by assistant secretaries.

  Snow now says he may consider changes in the approval process so lawmakers
  are better alerted after such deals get the go-ahead.

  Stewart Baker, a senior Homeland Security official, said he was the sole
  representative on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States
  who objected to the ports deal. Baker said he later changed his vote after
  DP World agreed to the security conditions. Other officials confirmed
  Baker's account.

  "We were not prepared to sign off on the deal without the successful
  negotiation of the assurances," Baker told the AP.

  Officials from the White House, CIA, departments of State, Treasury,
  Justices, and others looked for guidance from Homeland Security because it
  is responsible for seaports. "We had the most obvious stake in the
  process," Baker said.

  Baker acknowledged that a government audit of security practices at the
  U.S. ports in the takeover has not been completed as part of the deal. "We
  had the authority to do an audit earlier," Baker said.

  The audit will help evaluate DP World's security programs to stop smuggling
  and detect illegal shipments of nuclear materials at its seaport operations
  in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.

  The administration privately disclosed the status of the security audit to
  senators during meetings about improving reviews of future business deals
  involving foreign buyers. Officials did not suggest the audit's earlier
  completion would have affected the deal's approval.

  New Jersey's Democratic governor, who is suing to block the deal, said in
  his party's weekly radio address on Saturday that the administration failed
  to properly investigate the UAE's record on terrorism.

  "We were told that the president didn't know about the sale until after it
  was approved. For many Americans, regardless of party, this lack of
  disciplined review is unacceptable," Jon Corzine said.

  Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, said there was no going
  back on the deal.

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  R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
  The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
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-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'