Dubai was safer bet - Chertoff

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/story/402482p-340909c.html

Dubai was safer bet - Chertoff


U.S. ports would have been safer with an Arab company running cargo terminals than they will be now that a political firestorm killed the deal, the chief of U.S. Homeland Security insisted yesterday.

Dubai Ports World of the United Arab Emirates was about to take over terminals at six major American ports but instead will sell those operations to a U.S. buyer following heavy bipartisan opposition in Congress.

"The oddity of this, the irony of this is that, had the deal gone forward, we would have had greater ability to impose a security regime worldwide on the company than we have now," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in Manhattan.

Because of the company's global reach, it could have helped impose stronger security at many ports where the U.S. now has limited influence, Chertoff said.