Baltimore Mayor Denounces Arab Port Deal

February 19, 2006 - 9:49am

BALTIMORE - Approval of a $6.8 billion sale that gives a United Arab Emirates company control over operations at six major American ports - including Baltimore's - was an "outrageous, reckless and irresponsible decision," Mayor Martin O'Malley said Saturday.

O'Malley, who co-chairs the U.S. Conference of Mayors' Task Force on Homeland Security, called on President Bush to reverse the decision "to surrender already vulnerable American port operations to a foreign government."

O'Malley said the federal government already has failed to invest in port security.

"Now, that failure is being compounded by this outrageous decision to turn over the operations of our port to a foreign government," O'Malley said.

The mayor said he will be working to rally opposition with the leadership of the U.S. Conference of Mayors to oppose the deal.

"And I call upon state leaders, not to roll over and play dead in the face of this outrageous, reckless, and irresponsible decision, but to stand up and defend the safety and security of the Port of Baltimore," O'Malley said in a statement Saturday.

The deal also has sparked opposition on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., has said he will introduce legislation to prohibit companies owned or controlled by foreign governments from running port operations in the United States.

Under the deal, Dubai Ports World will buy London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.

The British company is the world's fourth-largest ports company. It runs commercial operations at shipping terminals in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.

The Bush administration has defended its decision, saying the sale was "rigorously reviewed" by a U.S. committee that considers security threats when foreign companies seek to buy or invest in American industry.

The Treasury Department's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States received an assessment from U.S. intelligence agencies. The committee's 12 members agreed unanimously the sale did not present any problems, the department said.

But critics have cited the UAE's history as an operational and financial base for the hijackers who carried out the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The Homeland Security Department has said it was legally impossible under the committee's rules to reconsider its approval without evidence that DP World gave false information or withheld vital details from U.S. officials. The 30-day window for the committee to voice objections has ended, the department said.