Five Senators Introduce Bill to Ban Foreign Government Control of US Ports

Led by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), five Democratic senators formally proposed legislation yesterday "to ban companies owned by foreign governments from controlling operations at U.S. ports. The bill would block the pending sale of U.S. port operations to Dubai Ports World, a company owned by the government of the United Arab Emirates," per Senator Clinton's website.

These five Democratic senators, representing the full-range of liberal thought from centrist to adamantly progressive, are Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL), Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Senator Clinton.

The Bill to Ban Foreign Government Control of US Ports was introduced after the Bush administration failed to reverse the controversial approval of the pending sale of operations at six major U.S. ports, including the port of New York and New Jersey, to Dubai Ports World.

While the President earned PR points by publicly agreeing to a 45-day review of the transaction, legal experts say that once the sale closes on March 2, the US government may lose its legal authority to block it. Thus, the 45-day review would be rendered little more than another phony Bush/Rove PR ploy.

Said Senator Menendez, "Lawmakers from all parts of the country and of every political stripe called on President Bush to reverse course on this deal to outsource control of our ports to a foreign government.

Instead he chose stall tactics that only mask his administration’s plan to move full speed ahead with this sale. Since the president won’t act to keep our ports safe, we will.”

Senator Clinton commented, "In the post-9/11 world, we cannot afford to surrender our port operations to foreign governments. Port security is national security and national security is port security. Our legislation will stop foreign governments from managing, controlling, or owning U.S. port operations.”

A CBS poll released yesterday says that 70% of Americans, including 58% of Republicans agree with Senator Boxer when she said, " Common sense dictates that in this post-9/11 world, foreign countries should not run our ports or other infrastructure. The fact that we have to fight for this wise policy is mind boggling."

Republican Thomas Kean, Chairman of the 9/11 Commission and former governor of New Jersey told AP that "the deal was a big mistake because of past connections between the 2001 hijackers and the UAE," reported the Philadelphia Daily News.

Continued the Philadelphia newspaper " 'It shouldn't have happened, it never should have happened.' The quicker the Bush administration can get out of the deal, the better, he said. 'There's no question that two of the 9/11 hijackers came from there and money was laundered through there," Kean said."

A Rasmussen poll last week reported that just 17% of Americans believe Dubai Ports World should be allowed to purchase operating rights to several U.S. ports, and that 64% believe the sale should not be allowed.

That means the Senator Clinton-led consortium of Democratic senators are clearly speaking the thoughts and feelings of a majority of Americans on this urgent national security issue.....and Republican leadership is not.
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