Tide of Opposition to Port Deal Swells Despite Assurances That It is Safe

The Bush administration yesterday failed to quell the swelling tide of opposition to the deal that would give a company owned by the government of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates control over six American ports.

The board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey promptly made public their demand to the federal government for information and documents related to the decision in preparation for its own review of the implications of the deal next week.

The Port Authority oversees one of the facilities that the Emirati company would operate, the Port Newark Container Terminal. Dubai Ports World is set to acquire the ports' present operator, the London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, in a $6.8 billion merger approved by the British company's shareholders last Monday.

American legislators and Middle East specialists have questioned the government's approval of the deal for reasons of national security, citing the United Arab Emirate's ties to terrorism.

The Port Authority conducts a "due diligence" review of all potential tenants, according to the chairman of its board of commissioners, Anthony Coscia. Unusually, the commissioners are requesting more information from the federal Treasury Department, which runs the committee that approved the deal and says that findings of its application approvals are confidential.

"In view of the concerns raised by federal, state, and local officials over this approval, the Port Authority must ensure that a full and comprehensive review of this matter is complete,"

Mr. Coscia said in a letter e-mailed to the secretary of the treasury and chairman of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, John Snow.

The committee, which approved the deal earlier this week, is composed of the secretaries of 12 federal agencies, including the departments of the treasury, homeland security, and state.

Mr. Coscia asked Mr. Snow for all "pertinent information you can provide on the process that the U.S. Department of Treasury used for this review and the rationale for its approval of this application."

A spokeswoman, Brookly McLaughlin, said the Treasury Department was reviewing the letter.

Senator Schumer, a Democrat of New York, who first spoke out against the deal's approval, joined three other senators and three representatives in urging the federal government to review its decision and further investigate the company.

The White House rebuffed their criticism yesterday, the Associated Press reported, quoting the National Security Council spokesman, Frederick Jones, as saying the foreign investment committee had "rigorously reviewed" the Emirati company's application.

But the dissenters were not convinced. "The potential threat to our country is not imagined, it is real," said Rep. Mark Foley, a Republican of Florida. Another, Rep. Vito Fosella, a Republican of New York, called for congressional hearings on the deal.

Other legislators urging the Bush administration to reconsider its approval were senators Tom Coburn, a Republican of Oklahoma; Frank Lautenberg, a Democrat of New Jersey; Chris Dodd, a Democrat of Connecticut, and Rep. Chris Shays, a Republican of Connecticut.

They said the United Arab Emirates was an important transfer point for shipments of smuggled nuclear components sent to Iran, North Korea, and Libya by a Pakistani scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, according to the AP. They also said the country was one of only three countries to recognize the now toppled Taliban as Afghanistan's legitimate government.

Yesterday, both Dubai Ports World and the Emirati government defended themselves.

"We have worked very closely with the United States on a number of issues relating to the combat of terrorism, prior to and post September 11," the Emirati foreign minister, Sheik Abdullah Bin Zayed al-Nahyan, told the AP. President Bush considers the country an ally in the war on terror.

"We intend to maintain and, where appropriate, enhance current security arrangements," the company said in a statement. "It is very much business as usual for the P&O terminals" in America.

The deal would also give Dubai Ports World control over operations at the New York Passenger Ship Terminal in Manhattan, as well as terminals in Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami, and Philadelphia.