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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration needs to show Congress why national security won't be hurt by a deal that gives a company based in the United Arab Emirates management of six major U.S. ports, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Monday.
Ridge, appearing on CNN's "American Morning," said, "I think the anxiety and the concern that has been expressed by congressmen and senators and elsewhere is legitimate."
Ridge said that during his tenure as secretary of homeland security from October 2001 to February 2005, he sat in on deals with similar national security concerns and officials would not jeopardize national security.
"The bottom line is I think we need a little more transparency here," he said. "There are legitimate concerns about who would be in charge of hiring and firing and security measures -- added technology in these ports that we need to upgrade our security." (Watch lawmakers call for deal to be stopped -- 2:55)
Ridge recommended that the Bush administration go to Capitol Hill to show how America's security will be enhanced by the deal.
"I suspect they can do that," he said.
Earlier this month, shareholders of British-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) approved the company's acquisition by a group owned by Dubai Ports World, which is based in the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
The Bush administration says the UAE is a key ally in the war on terror, but some lawmakers have suggested the small Persian Gulf nation might have terrorist ties.
According to the 9/11 commission report, at least one of the 19 hijackers drew money from bank accounts based in the UAE to help pay for operations. And, according to the report, hijacker Marwan al-Shehhi was from the UAE.
Lawmakers call for probe
Several lawmakers on Sunday questioned the deal, with two senators calling for a congressional probe.
"We certainly should investigate it," Sen. Lindsey Graham told Fox News.
"I don't know if we should block it. But it's unbelievably tone deaf politically at this point in our history, four years after 9/11, to entertain the idea of turning port security over to a company based in the UAE, who avows to destroy Israel," the South Carolina Republican added.
Indiana Democrat Evan Bayh agreed.
"I think we've got to look into this company," he told Fox.
Bayh added that the threshold for approving a foreign company's takeover of a U.S. company needs to be high.
"We have to do, even if it costs us a couple extra bucks, what it takes to protect this country," he said.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the sale was reviewed by several federal agencies.
"You know, this issue comes up periodically every time a foreign-owned company wants to take over an asset that has national security significance," he said on CNN's "Late Edition."
"And there is a legal process Congress created for a committee to sit and review this. It's Treasury, Commerce, DHS, FBI is involved, and DOD is involved. We look at these transactions," Chertoff added.
"If necessary, we build in conditions or requirements that, for extra security, would have to be met in order to make sure that there isn't a compromise to national security."
Schumer: 'Accident waiting to happen'
Sen. Charles Schumer denounced the deal, saying the UAE has "a sad history with terrorism."
Speaking at a news conference Sunday with some families of people killed in the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States, the New York Democrat said, "These families know the danger of being careless and casual about terrorism."
He called on Bush to intervene.
"Outsourcing the operations of our largest ports to a country with long involvement in terrorism is a homeland security accident waiting to happen," he said.
Possible legislation
London-based P&O has been running ports in the United States since 1999, according to the company Web site. The six ports affected are in New York; New Jersey; Baltimore, Maryland; Miami, Florida; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; .
On Friday, Sens. Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-New York, announced they planned to introduce legislation that would ban companies owned by foreign governments from controlling operations at U.S. ports.
Menendez said Sunday that Chertoff's comments show "that the Bush administration just does not get it."
"No matter what steps the administration claims it has secretly taken, it is an unacceptable risk to turn control of our ports over to a foreign government, particularly one with a troubling history," he said in a statement. "We cannot depend on promises a foreign government has given the administration in secret to secure our ports."
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