Schumer Calls for Probe of Arab Port Deal

Senator Schumer yesterday called on the Department of Homeland Security to review a federal committee's decision to allow Dubai Ports World, a company owned by the government of the United Arab Emirates, to buy six American ports, including one in New York.

"Foreign control of our ports, which are vital to homeland security, is a risky proposition. Riskier yet is that we are turning it over to a country that has been linked to terrorism previously," Mr. Schumer said at a news conference. One of the terrorists who flew a plane into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, Marwan al-Shehhi, was born in the United Arab Emirates. Other hijackers traveled through that country to America, though President Bush now considers the Emirates an ally in the war on terror.

A British company, Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, currently controls the Port of New York and New Jersey. Dubai Ports World won a bidding war to buy the London-based firm for $6.8 billion. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States cleared the deal, and Mr. Schumer expressed concern that it may have put economic and diplomatic questions before those of national security.

Spokesman for the committee were not immediately available for comment yesterday.