According to
Bill Gertz, author of ''
Breakdown: How America's Intelligence Failures Led to September 11'': :Intelligence and security officials opposed to the deal with Dubai Ports World said ports are vulnerable to the entry of terrorists or illicit weapons because of the large number of containers that enter U.S. territory, regardless of who manages them.
Frank Gaffney, president of the
Center for Security Policy wrote:
Susan Collins, Republican Senator from Maine (and
Homeland Security Committee chairwoman at the time) wrote: After the DP World announced its decision to transfer the U.S. port operations to a U.S. entity, the
BBC quoted
Daniel T. Griswold, director of the
Cato Institute's Center for Trade Policy Studies, as saying that the affair would "send a chilling signal":
Opposition The objections to approving the sale centered on arguments about who controls U.S. ports, especially after the
September 11, 2001 attacks. Some opposed to the sale have argued that no foreign government should be permitted to own such strategic assets while others argue that port security should remain in the hands of American firms under American control at the very least. Few had offered similar objections to the P&O's ownership, until the proposed DPW takeover brought attention to the situation. Over 80 percent of the terminals in the USA are already controlled by foreign owners. Those who expressed opposition to the deal included:
The New York Times,
Michael Savage,
Lindsey Graham,
The New Republic, The
John Birch Society,
Sean Hannity,
Lou Dobbs,
Laura Ingraham,
Bill Frist, and
Hillary Clinton, as well as prominent politicians from two different parties,
Bob Menendez and
John Gibson. Then-Senator
Barack Obama stated his opposition to the deal. So did Senators
Carl Levin and
John Kerry. The objections commonly raised in public discourse differ from those lodged by Eller & Company, the Florida firm responsible for bringing national attention to the deal. Eller has two joint ventures with P&O and it feared becoming an "involuntary partner of DP World".
Thomas Friedman, and
John Warner. Former President Bill Clinton advised top United Arab Emirates officials on how to address growing U.S. concerns over the acquisition but later stated "He told them that he didn't know the details about the deal." In a press conference, his spokesman Jay Carson stated Clinton "felt that any ports deal should be subject to the full scrutiny process and should also take steps to make ports safer, not maintain the status quo." However, his wife Senator Clinton was publicly opposed to the deal. Clarified in the same interview: "Like Senator Clinton and many others, he is concerned about foreign state ownership of our ports, and, to this end, he is supportive of her legislation," Carson told CNN. Former Senate Majority Leader and 1996 Republican presidential candidate
Bob Dole was a special counsel in the Washington office of the law firm Alston & Bird. DP World hired the firm in 2005 to help shepherd its purchase of the British-based firm Peninsular and Oriental. His wife, North Carolina Republican Senator
Elizabeth Dole, has also raised questions about the Dubai-based company. The chairman of the North Carolina Democratic Party, Jerry Meek, publicly called on Senator Dole to remove herself from "any congressional oversight" of the Dubai port deal and stated, "The fact that Dubai is paying her husband to help pass the deal presents both a financial and ethical conflict of interest for Senator Dole." The Bush administration and other supporters of the deal made the following arguments: • The UAE has proven itself a strategic partner by allowing the U.S. military access to its land, ports and airspace for basing and operations in
Iraq and
Afghanistan; • The UAE has allied with the U.S. in the
Global War On Terror; • Blocking the transfer of operating rights held by a
British firm to an Arab firm appears discriminatory against Arabs; • Security would remain a government responsibility as always, and performed by the
United States Coast Guard and
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Israel's largest container shipping firm,
Zim Integrated Shipping Services, came out in support of the deal. :"During our long association with DP World, we have not experienced a single security issue in these ports or in any of the terminals operated by DP World... We are proud to be associated with DP World and look forward to working with them into the future."
Zim Integrated Shipping Services Chairman of the Board, and main shareholder, Idan Ofer, February 22, 2006. The controversy came shortly after the
World Trade Organization's
Doha Round of global trade talks. At which many member states called for the U.S. to open up its ports to international competition, in the same way that other industrialized nations have pushed poorer countries into opening up their service sectors (e.g. water, telecoms, etc.) ==Aftermath==