Dubai Firm to Sell U.S. Port Operations

A United Arab Emirates-based maritime company at the center of a furious controversy over port security bowed to pressure from Congress yesterday and announced that it will sell off its U.S. operations to an American owner.

The announcement, issued by Dubai Ports World Chief Operating Officer Edward H. Bilkey, came hours after House and Senate GOP leaders bluntly told President Bush that Congress would kill the U.S. portions of the company's $6.8 billion acquisition of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. (P&O), which has operations at six major U.S. ports, including New York and Baltimore.

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Even before the deal fell through, Arab media had been portraying U.S. opposition as an anti-Arab slur, contrasting that resistance to the acceptance generally accorded in the United States to investments from Asian and European entities.

This can only make the already-damaged image worse, said Youssef M. Ibrahim, managing director of Dubai-based Strategic Energy Investment Group. The problem is, for four or five years, we haven't found a way to repair that damaged image.

But, what was not widely known at the time of the Bush-Dubai port deal was that fact that Dubai was the major world-wide hub for funneling gold to Hawalas positioned around the world, including the United States, as a means of financing terrorism in the post 9/11 environment.

Source: Ramblernews