'Anyone That Operates Inside the Port of Beaumont is Safe and Secure'
Posted on: Wednesday, 22 February 2006, 15:00 CST
By Angela Macias, The Beaumont Enterprise, Texas
Feb. 22--An Arab company would oversee the handling of military cargo at the Port of Beaumont if a controversial deal being decried by lawmakers materializes.
Dubai Ports World, a United Arab Emirates state-owned business, plans to purchase Peninsular and Oriental, an operator of six major U.S. ports, according to The Associated Press.
The British-owned company, which works at most Gulf Coast ports, provides "stevedoring" services in Beaumont, Chris Fisher, the port's director, said Tuesday.
As a stevedore, Peninsular and Oriental act as a middleman between shippers and the port, supplying the equipment and hiring the longshoremen to do the loading, he said.
The company provides the same service for military cargo at the Port of Corpus Christi, said John LaRue, port director.
The military selects the contractor. But port officials have discretion over who is allowed onto the property, Fisher said.
"We are going to make sure anyone that operates inside the Port of Beaumont is safe and secure whoever they are because we have control of the port," he said.
Politicians, alarmed by a Middle Eastern company having a stake in the nation's ports, want to block the deal.
U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, called the acquisition a breach of national security.
Two of the 19 hijackers involved in the Sept. 11 attacks were from the United Arab Emirates.
Poe, a member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, is drafting legislation to stop the sale.
"It's unwise to allow that sale to occur," he said. "I think it's just asking for trouble down the road."
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Source: The Beaumont Enterprise
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