Port Authority suing to halt sale
February 23, 2006
BY KAREN MATTHEWS ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK-- The Port Authority said Thursday it will file suit to block a Dubai-based firm from taking over operations at a Port Newark container terminal, saying the federal government has not given them assurances about security issues.
Anthony Coscia, chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said the agency would file a lawsuit later Thursday or Friday in New Jersey's Essex County state court.
"We as owners of that facility should be made comfortable that whoever operates it is capable of it," Coscia said.
Coscia wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff asking for details about how the federal government determined it was safe to allow Dubai Ports World, a state-run firm out of the United Arab Emirates, to buy a British company now doing business at the terminal.
The agency said it is not filing suit because of specific concerns about the Dubai company, but based on concerns that the government's secret vetting process was now thorough enough.
Many in Congress, including New York lawmakers, have complained the government did not do a comprehensive security review of the port operations purchase.
"To compare pre-9/11 reviews with post-9/11 reviews is difficult because we are in a very different environment," Coscia said.
The British firm, P&O, signed a 30-year lease with the Port Authority, and that lease would be assumed by DP World on March 2 unless Congress intervenes. President Bush has promised to veto any legislation blocking the sale.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press.
