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New Dubai Deal Stirs Security Concerns
A deal by a United Arab Emirates company to buy a British firm with operations in the U.S. has touched off security concerns among some members of Congress.
But it’s not the Dubai Ports World furor all over again. This time, Dubai International Capital has agreed to purchase Doncasters Group Ltd, a British parts manufacturer that works on sensitive American weapons programs such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
The Bush administration is conducting a security review of the $1.24 billion takeover and will present its findings to Congress, where many of the same voices that expressed outrage over the ports deal are beginning to complain about the Doncasters takeover, according to Hong Kong-based Asia Times Online.
Doncasters, which has nine plants in the U.S., also builds specialized fan blades for the M-1 Abrams tanks, the New York Sun reports.
Story Continues Below Two members of the House Armed Services Committee, John Barrow, D-Ga., and Ike Skelton, D-Mo., have raised questions about national security.
"I'm not against foreigners investing in this country as long as we don't sell them something we are not supposed to sell them," Barrow said. "But I am concerned about selling off our national-security infrastructure. We are selling off the military-industrial complex bit by bit." Democrats and Republicans alike loudly protested the Bush administration's approval of the sale of British P&O Line to Dubai Ports World, a deal that would place terminal operations at six U.S. ports in the hands of a government many in Congress consider an unreliable partner in the war on terrorism.
Dubai Ports World eventually agreed to sell its stake in American port operations.
Now the U.S. will have to contend with the deal involving Dubai International Capital, whose majority stakeholder is the ruler of Dubai, Sheik Mohammad. The $250 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is designed to build a next-generation stealth fighter that would replace several current strike aircraft.
Most of the Lockheed-Martin jets will be used by the U.S., but others will be sold to allies including the United Kingdom, Italy, Australia and Canada. The F-35 is scheduled to be operational by 2009.
Editor's note:
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Homeland/Civil Defense
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