Tue Feb 14, 6:00 AM ET
Do the feds really want to place the ports of New York and New Jersey in the hands
of a Middle East country with ties to the Sept. 11 hijackers? As The Post reported
on Sunday, that's what's about to happen, now that Dubai Ports World has won
control - for $6.8 billion - of British-owned Peninsular and Oriental Steam
Navigation Co.
The purchase gives Dubai Ports control of six U.S. ports - including, in addition to
New York-New Jersey, Miami, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New Orleans.
True, the deal reportedly was approved by the top-secret U.S. Committee on
Foreign Investment in the United States, which decided there was no security risk.
But at a time when security in the ports remains unacceptably lax, we wonder
whether this is a wise move.
Dubai Ports, after all, is owned by the United Arab Emirates, whose banking system
- considered the commercial center of the Arab world - provided most of the cash
for the 9/11 hijackers. Indeed, much of the operational planning for the World
Trade Center attacks took place inside the UAE.
And while the Bush folks now consider the UAE a major ally in the war against
terror, the Treasury Department has been stonewalled by the emirates, and other
Arab countries, in trying to track Osama bin Laden's bank accounts.
The new leader of Dubai, one of the seven small countries that make up the UAE,
has said all the right things about fighting radical Islam since 9/11.
But this remains very much an Islamist nation, where preaching any religion other
than Islam is prohibited.
New York Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), for one, thinks this is a
case where it's better to be safe than sorry.
Noting that the nation's ports "remain top terrorist targets," Schumer rightly
argues that "we would not outsource military operations or law-enforcement
duties."
Likewise, he says, "we should be very careful before we outsource such sensitive
homeland security duties."
The fact is, control of America's ports increasingly is being placed in private - and
foreign - hands. And there's no guarantee that today's ally in the War on Terror
will remain such tomorrow.
There already is reason enough for concern about security in the ports: Homeland
Security officials concede that it is impossible for them to fully inspect all but a tiny
percentage of the containers that enter from abroad.
Though no one likes to discuss it publicly, smuggling in weapons of mass
destruction likely can most easily be done through the ports.
Supporters of the deal insist that it doesn't give al Qaeda opportunities it doesn't
already enjoy. That's no comfort.
