Bush takes offer to delay ports sale

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration yesterday welcomed an offer by an Arab-owned company to delay its acquisition of shipping operations at six major US ports, saying that the extra time would help them convince skeptics in Congress that their fears the arrangement could compromise national security are mistaken.

But President Bush insisted through his spokesman that the deal will go through, despite mounting opposition. The president has vowed to veto any legislation that would block the transaction.

''We believe it would be helpful to have some additional time to brief Congress," said Scott McClellan, White House press secretary. ''We believe once Congress has a better understanding of the facts and the safeguards that are in place that they will be more comfortable with the transaction moving forward."

McClellan said the White House can't say how long the ''slight delay" will last: ''It's not up to us. It's up to the company to make that decision."

But critics in Congress said that sidetracking the American portions of the proposed $6.8 billion business deal -- in which Dubai Ports World, a government-owned United Arab Emirates company, would purchase a British company that holds management leases for terminals at the ports of Baltimore, Miami, Newark, New Orleans, New York, and Philadelphia -- was not enough.

Yesterday, two more Republican senators -- Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine -- joined a growing bipartisan group of lawmakers pushing an emergency bill to suspend the sale for at least 45 days. The lawmakers want a more thorough investigation into the national security risks of allowing the Dubai company to manage cargo loading and unloading at the six ports.

''At this time of heightened terrorist threat, we can ill afford to add another element of risk to our nation's homeland security," Snowe said in a statement yesterday. ''I believe it is absolutely essential that this deal does not proceed until the Congress has a greater understanding of any potential national security implications."

They joined Republican Senators Norm Coleman of Minnesota and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma in supporting the bill, along with Democrats Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Bob Menendez of New Jersey, and New York Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer, the bill's original sponsor.

Also yesterday, Representative Peter King of New York, the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, called the delay ''a positive step." But King, who has filed similar legislation to stop the deal, said he still wants the US government to conduct a more robust investigation to ensure no Dubai Ports World employees harbor sympathies for Al Qaeda or the Taliban.

''If the company . . . or the administration thinks that just by explaining the deal, that Congress is going to get on board, I don't think so," King said in an interview on CNN yesterday.

The United Arab Emirates was one of three nations to formally recognize the Taliban, a Muslim extremist faction, as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan, and two of the hijackers involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, came from the emirates. The country also was a hub for Al Qaeda financing and black-market nuclear technology before Sept. 11.

Since furor erupted over the Bush administration's approval for the deal in recent days, the White House has disclosed that Dubai Ports World promised to turn over information about its employees and any business records whenever investigators ask for them, even without a subpoena. And, it noted, the Coast Guard and Customs still would run all aspects of port security when the deal is completed.

Moreover, it argued, since the 2001 attacks, the United Arab Emirates has stood with the United States, allowing the Pentagon to use its deep-water seaports and air bases in critical operations related to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Dubai also donated $100 million to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort last year.

But doubters in both parties have argued that there may still be Al Qaeda and Taliban sympathizers within the United Arab Emirates and its government. Allowing a government-owned Dubai company to handle cargo operations, the critics warn, could make it easier for terrorists to infiltrate the country.

On Thursday, the rising opposition on Capitol Hill and at ports around the country prompted Dubai Ports World to offer to delay its takeover of operations in the US ports so the rest of the global merger deal could go through. At the same time, Bush has condemned opposition to the deal as anti-Arab bigotry, saying it had been thoroughly vetted and raised no legitimate national security concerns.

Yesterday, however, King dismissed Bush's contention of bias against Arabs.

''I don't think it serves any purpose saying that this is somehow anti-Arab," King said. ''It's real concerns about a company which comes out of a country which had the strongest pro-Taliban leanings in the world prior to 9/11 and also in many ways refused to cooperate with the US in the war against terrorism until recently. These are real concerns which have to be addressed."