Senate Majority
Leader Bill Frist is the latest Republican to broadcast
his "independence" from President Bush on homeland
security, yesterday joining Senator Lindsey Graham, Representative
Peter King and numerous state politicians in calling on
the Administration to stop a deal that would allow a United
Arab Emirates company to manage six major U.S. ports.
The Democrats
are also piling on, and we'll speak to that in a moment,
but this behavior of Republicans strikes us as peculiar
coming from people who claim to support the war on terror.
Mr. Graham told Fox News that the Administration's decision
allowing the state-owned Dubai Ports World to run commercial
operations at U.S. ports was "tone deaf politically."
The voluble Senator said this is no time "to outsource
major port security to a foreign-based company" and
that "most Americans are scratching their heads wondering,
'Why this company, from this region, now?' "
Some of us are
scratching our heads all right, but we're wondering why
Mr. Graham and others believe Dubai Ports World has been
insufficiently vetted for the task at hand. So far, none
of the critics have provided any evidence that the Administration
hasn't done its due diligence. The deal has been blessed
by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States,
a multiagency panel that includes representatives from the
departments of Treasury, Defense and Homeland Security.
Yes, some of
the 9/11 hijackers were UAE citizens. But then the London
subway bombings last year were perpetrated by citizens of
Britain, home to the company (P&O) that currently manages
the ports that Dubai Ports World would take over. Which
tells us three things: First, this work is already being
outsourced to "a foreign-based company"; second,
discriminating against a Mideast company offers no security
guarantees because attacks are sometimes homegrown; and
third, Mr. Graham likes to talk first and ask questions
later.
Besides,
the notion that the Bush Administration is farming out port
"security" to hostile Arab nations is alarmist
nonsense. Dubai Ports World would be managing the commercial
activities of these U.S. ports, not securing them. There's
a difference. Port security falls to Coast Guard and U.S.
Customs officials. "Nothing changes with respect to
security under the contract," Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld said yesterday. "The Coast Guard is in charge
of security, not the corporation."
In a telephone
interview yesterday, Kristie Clemens of U.S. Customs and
Border Protection elaborated that "Customs and Border
Protection has the sole responsibility for the cargo processing
and cargo security, incoming and outgoing. The port authority
sets the guidelines for the entire port, and port operators
have to follow those guidelines." Again, nothing in
the pending deal would affect that arrangement.
The timing of
this sudden uproar is also a tad suspicious. A bidding war
for the British-owned P&O has been going on since last
autumn, and the P&O board accepted Dubai's latest offer
last month. The story only blew up last week, as a Florida
firm that is a partner with P&O in Miami, Continental
Stevedoring and Terminals Inc., filed a suit to block the
purchase. Miami's mayor also sent a letter of protest to
Mr. Bush. It wouldn't be the first time if certain politicians
were acting here on behalf of private American commercial
interests.
Critics also
forget, or conveniently ignore, that the UAE government
has been among the most helpful Arab countries in the war
on terror. It was one of the first countries to join the
U.S. container security initiative, which seeks to inspect
cargo in foreign ports. The UAE has assisted in training
security forces in Iraq, and at home it has worked hard
to stem terrorist financing and WMD proliferation. UAE leaders
are as much an al Qaeda target as Tony Blair.
As for the Democrats,
we suppose this is a two-fer: They have a rare opportunity
to get to the right of the GOP on national security, and
they can play to their union, anti-foreign investment base
as well. At a news conference in front of New York harbor,
Senator Chuck Schumer said allowing the Arab company to
manage ports "is a homeland security accident waiting
to happen." Hillary Clinton is also along for this
political ride.
So the same
Democrats who lecture that the war on terror is really a
battle for "hearts and minds" now apparently favor
bald discrimination against even friendly Arabs investing
in the U.S.? Guantanamo must be closed because it's terrible
PR, wiretapping al Qaeda in the U.S. is illegal, and the
U.S. needs to withdraw from Iraq, but these Democratic superhawks
simply will not allow Arabs to be put in charge of American
longshoremen. That's all sure to play well on al Jazeera.
Yesterday
Mr. Bush defended his decision to allow the investment to
go ahead, and he threatened what would be his first veto
if Congress tries to block it. We hope this time he means
it.
