SEEKING SAFE HARBORS

The furor over a sale that would put a Dubai company in charge of six U.S. ports has exposed American vulnerabilities. More than four years into the War on Terror, government agencies still aren’t sharing intelligence information and a lack of resources has left large gaps in port security.

Until last week, port security didn’t garner a lot of attention. Maybe there’s reason for that since U.S. ports have been vulnerable for decades but have not been attacked. However, if the goal is to get bombs or other weapons into this country, seaports would be a likely target. Ninety-five percent of U.S. cargo flows through ports with only a small percentage of containers searched.

That is a major concern of critics of the sale of port facilities to Dubai Ports World, a state-owned company in the United Arab Emirates. The company plans to buy the British firm Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., which operates terminals in New York, New Jersey, New Orleans, Miami, Philadelphia and Baltimore. It has some operations in Portland.

Critics, including Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, point out that some of the 9-11 hijackers traveled to the United States from the UAE, where they did some planning for the attacks.

Adding to the concern, Coast Guard officials told Congress that “intelligence gaps” prevented them from determining whether the Dubai company posed a threat. The Coast Guard later said that its questions were answered by U.S. intelligence agencies. It remains unclear what government agencies knew about or had access to intelligence that had been gathered about port security and the Dubai company.

To allay their concerns, the senators and many of their colleagues asked for a 45-day investigation, which is usually required when a state-backed company is to take over a company with U.S. operations. After saying such a review was unnecessary, the Bush administration Sunday agreed to Dubai Ports World’s request for such a review. Doing the review at the outset could have avoided much of the current criticism.

The review period now gives the White House and Congress time to develop a plan to improve port security. A bill co-sponsored by Sen. Collins would establish security standards and would expedite trade with countries that participate in a global cargo container inspection system. Every container leaving Hong Kong’s terminal is scanned and passed through a radiation detection device.

Images of the cargo are shared with American and other customs authorities. James Foy, a former deputy secretary of homeland security and commandant of the Coast Guard, and Stephen Flynn, a retired Coast Guard officer and fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, suggest in a New York Times op-ed column that Dubai Ports World could be asked to install such systems at the 41 international ports it owns. This is a suggestion worth pursuing.

Dubai Ports World would not be in charge of security; that is the job of the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs Service. As Sen. Snowe, chair of the Fisheries and Coast Guard Subcommittee, has said for years, security at U.S. ports is inadequate because of a lack of federal funding. While the service requires $7 billion to fully implement just the current port security requirements, they have received only $825 million to date.

The review may address concerns about the Dubai sale. Whether the sale goes through or not, the larger problems of intelligence sharing and port security funding remain and should be high priorities for congressional action.