Port Authority: We're suing to stop sale to Dubai firm

[cal04]

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 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.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-usportny0224,0,4591190.story?coll=ny-top-headlines

[Stephanie]

1. PA doesn't have to transfer the lease

Bloomberg can withdraw too, and he better.

[cal04]

2. looks like their getting some grief

Shipping execs challenge port deal critics

Now just hold on there, Chuck.
Executives in New York's maritime industry yesterday questioned the campaign by Sen. Charles Schumer and other legislators against a Dubai company picked by the Bush administration to run port operations in the U.S.

Schumer and other senators have threatened to introduce emergency legislation to block Dubai Ports World from managing terminals in several U.S. ports, including New York's, claiming that the country has supported terrorism.

"It's been a little distressing to see the way that this has been politically handled," said Ed Kelly, the executive director of the 400-member Maritime Association of the Port of New York, which includes terminal operators, large shipping lines, marine lawyers and tugboat firms.


http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/am-port0223,0,7711406.story?coll=ny-nycnews-headlines

[ConcernedCanuk]

3. Just the logistics of this whole issue boggles my mind

.
.
.

The "SuperPower" contracts sensitive security employment to people half-way around the globe

While tens of millions of their own citizens languish in poverty

And I ain't the only one that makes that observation

USA is "fecked" IMO

[OKNancy]

4. kick

[Mizmoon]

5. Port Authority: We're suing to stop sale to Dubai firm

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 thorough enough.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-usportny0224,0,4591190.story?coll=ny-top-headlines

[CottonBear]

6. Is it my imagination, but are all of the ports in Blue cities? n/t

[Mizmoon]

8. Here's a list of Ports

at this link. http://logistics.about.com/od/ports/index.htm

There's one in Houston, one in Norfolk, and one in Savannah. I'm not sure about their blue/red status. The rest appear to be blue to me.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

10. I think that's just kind of coincidental

That is to say -- most major metropolises (metropoli?) lean blue. Even the ones in red states. Large urban areas are generally more liberal than rural areas.

[Peace Patriot]

7. Go, New York! And that's a wise legal move. They've got to get the goods

on them first, before they can state "specific concerns." And the Bush junta aint' telling.

[Megahurtz]

9. YEA!!!

All of the other Ports and States should step up and sue too!:bounce:
Fight these secretive bastards!:argh:

[maddezmom]

11. kick

[LiviaOlivia]

12. Port Agency to Break Lease in Bid to Block Dubai Sale

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/24/nyregion/24suit.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

February 24, 2006
Port Agency to Break Lease in Bid to Block Dubai Sale
By PATRICK McGEEHAN

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will break the lease of a big container terminal at Port Newark to stop a company based in Dubai from taking over part of the operation there, the agency's chairman said yesterday.

Anthony R. Coscia, the chairman, said the company that holds a lease on the terminal through 2030 violated the contract by selling a half-interest in it to Dubai Ports World without seeking the landlord's approval. He said the Port Authority would ask a judge in New Jersey Superior Court in Newark today to affirm its right to end the lease. "Fundamentally, this is a landlord-tenant dispute," said Mr. Coscia, who is a lawyer. "We're terminating their lease because they sublet illegally."

~snip~

....Port Authority officials have been frustrated at their inability to obtain information from the Treasury Department about the committee's review. But the Port Authority's only power to slow or block Dubai Ports World from arriving as a tenant rests in the lease.

There was no pending dispute with the operators of the container terminal before the Dubai deal surfaced. But, Mr. Coscia said, the lease states that a tenant must get the agency's approval of a transfer of ownership interest. "Our approval wasn't sought, so we haven't provided it," he said.

~snip~

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

13. Kick...

...eom

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

14. Kick...

...eom

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[saigon68]

16. Adios

[leesa]

17. How could push have pledged to veto legislation blocking the sale

when he didn't know about it yet?

I wish these weenies would STOP saying everything changed after 9-11. Nothing changed, except the fascists pushed through their agenda because fools like this allowed it with rhetoric like this.