Officials Say Port Company Faces More Intensive Review (NYT)

Officials Say Port Company Faces More Intensive Review

By ERIC LIPTON and DAVID E. SANGER
Published: March 4, 2006

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/04/politics/04review.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

WASHINGTON, March 3 — The deeper review promised by the Bush administration of a Dubai company's plan to take over some terminal operations at several American ports will include inspections at the ports, background checks on employees and an examination of the efforts of the United Arab Emirates to fight terrorism, senior officials said Friday.

"This is a full review without preconceptions," Stewart A. Baker, an assistant secretary of homeland security, said in an interview. "We are going to give this transaction a very robust examination."

The details reflect what Mr. Baker and other officials described as a commitment to broaden significantly an initial review that gave the go-ahead to the acquisition, but whose conclusions have been challenged by the governors, mayors and members of Congress.

The plan to re-examine the deal was drafted this week after the company, DP World, bowed to the criticism by agreeing to resubmit its application to manage terminals in six cities. On Friday, a bipartisan group of senators demanded that they be kept fully informed of the process.

securities issues were addressed. How could they have been addressed, when the states they will be operating in seem to have been uninformed. There are local security issues, how could they have been addressed, if there was no notification to those responsible for addressing them!