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Chertoff on port management deal
MR. RUSSERT: .... Since the September 11 attacks, the FBI has said that money for the September 11 strikes was transferred to the hijackers primarily through the United Arab Emirates banking system, and much of the operational planning for the attacks took place inside the United Arab Emirates. Many of the hijackers traveled to the U.S. through the United Arab Emirates. Also, the hijacker who steered a United Airlines flight into the World Trade Centers south tower: born in the United Arab Emirates. After the attacks, U.S. Treasury Department officials complained about a lack of cooperation by the United Arab Emirates and other Arab countries trying to track Osama bin Ladens bank accounts. Why would we allow a company based in United Arab Emirates be in charge of security for our ports? SECY CHERTOFF: Well, let me make it very clear, first of all. We have a very disciplined process, its a classified process, for reviewing any acquisition by a foreign company of assets that we consider relevant to national security. That process worked here. Without getting into classified information, what we typically do if there are concerns is we build in certain conditions, or requirements, that the company has to agree to to make sure we address the national security concerns. And here the Coast Guard and Customs and border protection really play the leading role for our department in terms of designing those conditions and making sure that theyre obeyed. I do have to caution people, though. The fact that there were somebody born in United Arab Emirates or that some people went to the United Arab Emirates doesnt mean that every company there is automatically guilty, or automatically has to be excluded from owning something here any more than we... MR. RUSSERT: But why take a risk? SECY CHERTOFF: Well, I mean, you know, Richard Reid was British. He was going to blow up an airliner. We dont say the British cant buy companies here. We dont take a risk. What we do is we require a very careful reviewwe have the FBI involved, we have the Department of Defense involvedof what the challenges are. We have, in fact, dealt with this port before because we deal with it overseas as part of our comprehensive global security network. Weve built in, and we will build in safeguards to make sure that these kinds of things dont happen. And, you know, this is part of the balancing of security, which is our paramount concern, with the need to still maintain a real robust global trading environment. Posted by: lotp 2006-02-19 |
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