U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley says a controversial plan to turn over management of six major U.S. ports to an Arab company is “highly questionable.” The governors of New York and Maryland are the first to threaten legal action to block the deal. D-P World, a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates, would assume control of ports in Baltimore, Miami, New Jersey, New Orleans, New York and Philadelphia.
Grassley says it doesn’t make sense, adding, “There isn’t any need to have an outside country manage our ports, particularly a nation connected with extreme Muslim religion.” Grassley says he considers the United Arab Emirates a “friend” of the U.S., but he says the situation demands serious review.
Some of the Nine-Eleven hijackers used the U-A-E as their operational and financial base. Grassley says he doesn’t want to make a “hasty judgment” but he says the deal is “highly questionable” yet he says he won’t make a “flat-out statement against it without having more information.” Legislation is pending in the Senate that would ban the sale of port operations to foreign governments.