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Hillary Clinton Sides with Conservatives in Ports Controversy
Conservatives picked up an unlikely ally on Friday in their battle to persuade the Bush administration not to hand over control of six major U.S. ports to a Dubai-based company, when New York Sen. Hillary Clinton jumped into the debate. "Our port security is too important to place in the hands of foreign governments,” Clinton said, in a statement posted to her web site. "I will be working with [New Jersey] Senator [Robert] Menendez to introduce legislation that will prohibit the sale of ports to foreign governments.” Clinton endorsed the comments of Sen. Menendez, who complained: "Our ports are the front lines of the war on terrorism. They are both vulnerable targets for attack and venues for smuggling and human trafficking. We wouldn’t turn the border patrol or the customs service over to a foreign government, and we can’t afford to turn our ports over to one either.” The Committee on Foreign Investment, headed by Treasury Secretary John Snow, approved the deal earlier this week, which would hand over control of the ports to Dubai Ports World.
Story Continues Below Yesterday the White House tried to assure skeptics that the deal wouldn't compromise national security, with a spokesman insisting that the foreign investment committee had "rigorously reviewed" the Emirati company's application. But critics point to suspicions that banks in the U.A.E. have helped launder money for terrorists and the fact that the country itself was home to Marwan al Shehhi, the Sept. 11 hijacker who piloted United Airlines Flight 175 into Tower 2 of the World Trade Center. Clinton's opposition to the deal puts her on the same side of the debate as conservative bloggers like Michelle Malkin - who has been spotlighting the ports takeover all week - as well as the Washington Times editorial page, which said on Thursday: "Why should the United States have to gamble its port security on whether a subsidiary of the government of the United Arab Emirates happens to remain an antiterrorism ally? The Committee on Foreign Investment is the wrong place for this decision to be made; it appears to be little more than a rubber stamp."
Editor's note:
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Bush Administration Inside Cover Stories
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