Three Senators Want Port Investigation Moved to Congress

Senators Schumer, Clinton, and Menendez, a Democrat of New Jersey, are staging a fight over whether the executive or legislative branch of government should have final say on a deal by which a company owned by the government of the United Arab Emirates would take over operations at six American Ports.

New York's City Council also sought to exercise its influence over the deal yesterday, as several members said they would introduce a resolution condemning the arrangement.

The Coast Guard, in the front line of national security, reported in a secret memo they were unsure whether the takeover would make it easier for terrorists to penetrate American ports. Citing broad gaps in U.S. intelligence, the Coast Guard cautioned the Bush administration that it was unable to determine whether a United Arab Emirates-owned company might support terrorist operations, a Senate panel said yesterday.

The deal was also challenged by an American company in court in London yesterday.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat of New York, joined six members of the City Council led by the chair of the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Committee, Alan Gerson, to announce the introduction of their resolution against the deal.

The chairmen of the committee on public safety, Peter Vallone Jr., and the waterfronts committee, Michael Nelson, said they would hold hearings with local and federal officials on March 30th to discuss the deal. Both council members are co-sponsors of the resolution, as are Gale Brewer, Oliver Koppell, and David Weprin.

Council members said they hoped the resolution would influence national opinion and encourage other city's legislatures to pass similar condemnations. The council has been known to pass such resolutions on national and international issues, though its positions often lean more leftward. For example, the council passes a resolution in 2001 condemning the Iraq war, and later the USA Patriot Act.

The senators introduced a bill yesterday that would require the results of a second, more in-depth investigation of the company, Dubai Ports World, be made available to Congress, and would give Congress the power to disapprove the deal within 30 days.

The bill would also require the Bush administration, which previously approved the deal, to conduct such an investigation, though the White House on Sunday said it would do so voluntarily after DP World, offered to submit to one.

"If the report from the 45-day investigation is kept secret, the American people's fears will not be allayed," Mr. Schumer said. He added that the review was "a big step and we're glad they're doing it."

Mr. Schumer has promised that the bill will pass by a veto-proof margin. Last week, the president said he would veto any bill that sought to delay or block the deal.

Senator Collins, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security committee, released an unclassified version of the document at a briefing yesterday. With the deal under intense bipartisan criticism in Congress, the Bush administration agreed Sunday to DP World's request for a second review of the potential security risks related to its deal.

"There are many intelligence gaps, concerning the potential for DPW or P&O assets to support terrorist operations, that precludes an overall threat assessment of the potential merger," an undated Coast Guard intelligence assessment says.

"The breadth of the intelligence gaps also infer potential unknown threats against a large number of potential vulnerabilities," the document says.

The document raised questions about the security of the companies' operations, the backgrounds of all personnel working for the companies, and whether other foreign countries influenced operations that affect security.

"This report suggests there were significant and troubling intelligence gaps," Ms. Collins, a Republican of Maine, said. "That language is very troubling to me."

The White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, said at yesterday's press briefing that the administration was working to give members of congress "a better understanding of the transaction and the facts involved."

"Once they have that better understanding, we believe they'll be more comfortable with the transaction moving forward," he said, adding that the initial review involved a three-month intelligence assessment.

In London, lawyers for the British company told Britain's High Court yesterday that an American. company's legal challenge to P&O's takeover by DP World was "woefully thin." The High Court must approve the $6.8 billion takeover for the deal to go ahead.

Yesterday's hearing was expected to provide a routine rubber stamp, but Miami-based Eller & Company filed a last-minute appeal Friday asking the court to deny approval. Eller cited a number of grounds for its objection, including a "real prospect" that American authorities would revoke approval of the deal.