Emirates firm offers to delay control of ports

WASHINGTON -- A United Arab Emirates company offered late yesterday to delay taking control of cargo operations at six US ports in order to convince skeptics in Congress that the deal would not endanger national security, capping a day in which President Bush suggested that anti-Arab bias may be at the root of a bipartisan rebellion over the deal.

In a statement reported by the Associated Press, Ted Bilkey, chief operating officer of Dubai Ports World, said the state-owned company was volunteering to exercise no influence for an indefinite period over the six US ports run by a British port company in order to allow the rest of the $6.8 billion acquisition to proceed without the delay urged by many members of Congress.

''It is not only unreasonable but also impractical to suggest that the closing of this entire global transaction should be delayed," the statement said, according to the AP. ''The reaction in the United States has occurred in no other country in the world. We need to understand the concerns of the people in the US who are worried about this transaction and make sure that they are addressed to the benefit of all parties. Security is everybody's business."

The surprise announcement may relieve some of the mounting political pressure surrounding the deal, which intensified yesterday as Bush suggested, in his strongest language yet, that prejudice against Arabs was to blame for criticism of a deal he said posed no threat to security.

''What I find interesting is that it's OK for a British company to manage some ports, but not OK for a company from a country that is also a valuable ally in the war on terror," Bush said. ''I also want to remind folks that it's really important we not send mixed messages to friends and allies around the world as we put together a coalition to fight this war on terror."

Bush's comments were echoed by officials who appeared before a Senate panel to explain why the administraiton approved the deal, including Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, who suggested that critics of the deal were ''paranoid."

''It is important that we treat our friends and allies equally and fairly around the world, and without discrimination. Otherwise it will be harmful in this war," England said. ''The terrorists want our nation to become distrustful. They want us to become paranoid and isolationist. And my view is, we cannot allow this to happen. It needs to be just the opposite."

England, along with officials from 12 agencies who approved the deal, sought to reassure a Senate panel that the Coast Guard and Customs Service would still run security at the ports in New York, Newark, Miami, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New Orleans.

Nonetheless, lawmakers from both parties continued to call for a delay in finalizing the deal. The president's top political adviser, Karl Rove, indicated in a radio interview that the administration was willing to give Congress more time to get comfortable with the arrangement. But members of Congress insisted the administration reconsider the deal.

''What is deeply troubling to me about this proposed sale is the combination of one of America's greatest vulnerabilities to terrorist attack, our ports, with what appears to me to be a casual approach to reviewing the sale of US port facilities to a country with an uneven record of combating terrorism," said Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan.

A spokesman for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, Republican of Illinois, declined to directly address Bush's suggestion that anti-Arab prejudice was shaping the criticism of the deal, but said he remained concerned: ''The speaker is reflecting concerns from our members, who are hearing from constituents across the country in phone calls and Town Hall meetings that they are not pleased with this deal."

Under the $6.8 billion deal, Dubai Ports World would purchase London-based P&O, which has leases to operate the terminals of the six ports. The Bush administration signed off after a 12-agency committee decided that the deal raised no national security concerns, which by law would have triggered a 45-day delay for additional review.

The deal has been in the works for months and openly discussed by business media since October. But over the weekend, members of Congress reacted with outrage to further media reports about it. Skeptics argue that control of cargo terminals by the United Arab Emirates could make it easier for terrorists to infiltrate the country or smuggle in a weapon of mass destruction.

Two of the hijackers in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks came from the United Arab Emirates.

Before the Sept. 11 attacks, Dubai was a hub for the flow of money to Al Qaeda. Black-market nuclear technology spread by Pakistan's rogue scientist A.Q. Khan passed through Dubai. And the United Arab Emirates was one of the few governments in the world to recognize the Taliban government in Afghanistan.

But the Bush administration said yesterday that the United Arab Emirates government changed its ways since the 2001 terrorist attacks and has been an ally in the war on terrorism, working with US intelligence and military operations. The United Arab Emirates allows US Navy and commercial ships to dock at its ports and it has let US military aircraft use its airbases and airspace.

Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John Warner, Republican of Virginia, yesterday praised the United Arab Emirates' assistance in the war on terrorism, but he also pressed officials to say for the record whether they had considered the ''troubling facts" about the United Arab Emirates' past association with terrorism when they reviewed the deal.

''There were certainly factors that were taken into account during the course of the review, Mr. Chairman, and particularly taken into account on the assessment done by the intelligence community," replied Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt.

England, the deputy secretary of defense, said the Pentagon had carefully reviewed the deal and found it would not endanger national security. In contrast, England said, scuttling the deal would hurt America's national security by damaging its standing with the United Arab Emirates.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, traveling through the Middle East, also expressed concerns about the message the United States would be sending to the Arab world if it blocked the deal, saying the United Arab Emirates' government has been a ''stalwart partner" in the war on terrorism.

''We have to maintain a principle that it doesn't matter where in the world one of these purchases is coming from; if it meets the standard of meeting the security standard that we need to meet, then it ought to go through," Rice said after meeting with the Saudi Arabian foreign minister. ''And that should be the case if it is from Great Britain or if it is from Germany or if it is from the UAE."