Second Ports Review Aims to Avoid Showdown

With the Staten Island ferry behind them, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., left, and Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., right, flank U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., as he speaks to the reporters in Battery Park, Sunday, Feb. 26, 2006, in New York. Dubai-owned DP World, a United Arab Emirates company, on Sunday offered to submit to a broader U.S. review of the security risks from its deal to take over major operations at six American ports. Seeking to avert a showdown between President Bush and Congress, DP World also promised to create an American subsidiary that would function independently of executives in Dubai. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

This is also from Yahoo News:

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration will conduct a highly unusual second review of potential security risks in a business deal it previously approved for a United Arab Emirates-based company to take over significant operations at six leading U.S. ports.

The new, 45-day investigation is aimed at averting an impending political showdown as Congress returned to Washington on Monday from a weeklong break.

"We think this is a good middle ground that has been found," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who helped negotiate the plan, quickly recommended that lawmakers wait for the outcome before acting on legislation to delay or block the deal. Frist, R-Tenn., said he expects oversight hearings to continue this week.

In six pages of legal documents sent Sunday to the White House, Dubai-based DP World offered to submit to a second, broader investigation of its plans to run shipping terminals in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.

The Treasury Department, which governs the U.S. review panel, said it would accept DP World's extraordinary offer once the company formally filed its request for one. It said the same government panel will reconsider the deal that it earlier had agreed unanimously posed no national security concerns.

Some senators, led by Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said they still intend to introduce legislation Monday to block the deal pending a 45-day review and to require congressional approval before DP World can conduct business in the United States. Under existing law, Congress effectively has no role considering deals.

Bush has pledged to veto any measure blocking the deal. "The president's position remains the same," McClellan said. After the review, it will be up to Bush to decide whether the deal takes effect.

Schumer said Monday he is skeptical of the review panel's ability to evaluate the deal, saying the panel has been more focused on economic development rather than national security.

"The bottom line is this group did a very cursory review" when it approved the deal, Schumer said on ABC's "Good Morning America." "I'm a little dubious of this review, but let's wait, let's see the report and see what they say."

Still, the administration's announcement means the White House likely won't face a broader revolt this week by fellow Republicans. A united GOP can assert that its leaders — in Congress and at the White House — have taken additional steps to protect national security.

This is a compromise? Another 45-day review conducted by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States--the same secret government committee that casually signed off this deal in the first place?

Let's take this for what it really is--Bill Frist sold out to the White House. This is a face-saving measure which allows the White House to claim that Republican congressional leaders approved of Portgate. The Committee on Foreign Investment will go through its act of reviewing the deal, then sign off on Portgate for the same reasons it originally approved of the deal in the first place. Congress will be castrated regarding this deal--there is no way the Republican leadership will allow the Democrats to conduct any type of congressional hearings or investigations regarding Portgate, nor will the Republican leadership allow any type of legislation go through which would require Congressional approval for this port deal. The last thing that President Bush, Karl Rove, Bill Frist, or even Dennis Hastert would want is to have a bi-partisan Congress looking into this deal, especially the issues regarding security, and any connections between al Qaida and the government of UAE.

More Portgate to come....