Editorial: Bush too trusting on ports

Sunday, Feb. 26, 2006 | 8:20 a.m.

Until it was already approved by a classified federal agency, President Bush wasn't even aware of a sale that would put the United Arab Emirates in control of terminal operations at six U.S. ports.

That is why we cannot understand Bush's aggressive defense of the sale that he became aware of only through the media. The agency within his administration that purportedly did scrutinize the sale in secret, with help from numerous intelligence analysts, spent more than two months on the project.

So how did Bush, in a matter of hours after the news broke last week, suddenly become expert enough on the issue to say that America faces no security risk? Is he putting the same amount of trust in this agency that he did in Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Homeland Security Department before Hurricane Katrina?

We support the members of Congress who are questioning the sale on national security grounds. They are demanding, and have every obligation to do so, a broader review of the $6.8 billion purchase of a private British shipping company by Dubai Ports World, which is owned by the United Arab Emirates. The British company's interests in the American ports are part of the sale, which is scheduled to close early next month.

Dubai Ports World last week said it would delay a takeover of the American terminals for awhile, to give Bush time to persuade Congress of the sale's merits. Bush said the company's action was "helpful." But how much choice did it have, unless a foreign country now has a bigger say about what happens on American soil than does Congress?

Particularly galling to us, and to Republicans and Democrats in Congress, is the secret way in which the classified government agency - the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States - approved the sale. Bush wasn't informed, members of Congress weren't informed and even the port authorities were never informed.

The United Arab Emirates is a country whose security risk has been well documented, including by the 9/11 Commission. Bush argues that the country's Supreme Council of Rulers, consisting of seven sheiks, is friendly to U.S. interests in the Persian Gulf region.

But what about the rest of the more than 2.5 million people in the United Arab Emirates? What are the chances that among them are people unfriendly to the United States who could work their way into responsible positions in companies such as Dubai Ports World?

Can we afford to assume there are none? In our view, we can't.