Senators slam plan to allow Arab firm to take over ports

US Democratic senators assailed an Arab company's takeover of operations at six major US ports and said on Monday that US President George W. Bush should stop the deal to better protect the US from terrorists.

"We wouldn't turn over our customs service or our border patrol to a foreign government," New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez said during a news conference.

"We shouldn't turn over the ports of the United States, either," he said.

Menendez said he and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will introduce legislation prohibiting the sale of port operations to foreign governments.

Criticism

Elected officials from both parties have criticized the government's approval of last week's purchase of London-based P&O, by Dubai Ports World, a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates, or UAE.

P&O runs major operations in New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.

Lawmakers say they are worried there are insufficient safeguards to thwart infiltration of the vital facilities by terrorists.

"It's unbelievably tone deaf politically at this point in our history," Senator Lindsay Graham, a Republican, said on Fox News Sunday.

"Most Americans are scratching their heads, wondering why this company from this region now," he said.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Monday defended the deal and said that the administration had a "very extensive process" for reviewing such transactions.

"Lots of considerations are weighed in connection with a recommendation, and the consensus was this was a transaction that should be approved," he said.

`National security'

"It was something that went through our normal process. It's one that takes into account matters of national security, takes into account concerns about port security. And for a variety of reasons, the consensus was that this was a transaction that should be approved," he said.

But critics have cited the UAE's history as an operational and financial base for the hijackers who carried out the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

In addition, they contend the UAE was an important transfer point for shipments of smuggled nuclear components sent to Iran, North Korea and Libya by a Pakistani scientist.

"God, if you have a country that is not doing internally what it should be to prevent the transfer of nuclear parts, we're going to give that country operation of the major ports of this nation?" Menendez asked. "I think not."

"It needs to be stopped by the president, first and foremost. Either freeze the deal or negate the deal," he said.