March 1, 2006 – 7:10 p.m.
Customs officials in charge of reviewing the DP World deal called for extra steps to ensure safety but did not find sufficient evidence to view the transaction as a potential threat to national security, a senior Department of Homeland Security official said on Wednesday.
Jay Ahern — the top Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official to review the deal — disputed Sen.
Ahern said the New York Democrat’s remarks, made at a press briefing on Feb. 28, are inaccurate.
“He was not able to produce a document or a reliable source on that,” Ahern told an audience at the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies. “There was no . . . hesitation on our part in supporting this decision.”
Ahern also stressed that DP World would not play a role in ensuring the security of shipping containers — which are often considered to be vulnerable to smuggling of people or weapons. The sole responsibility for container security, Ahern said, will lie with the federal government.
“[DP World officials] do not know what’s in the containers, they do not have access to manifests of detailed information,” said Ahern. “They’re not involved or made aware of scores for risk of those particular containers and they’re not involved with the x-raying or the imaging or radiation scanning for those containers overseas or in the United States.”
The U.S. Coast Guard — which has responsibility for physical inspections of seaport security and for monitoring crews and passengers on U.S.-bound ships, — also defended the deal on Wednesday.
Rear Adm. Craig E. Bone, director of port security at Coast Guard headquarters, said the he had no reason to question the DP World sale — even though a recently released Coast Guard report reveals the service was worried about “intelligence gaps concerning the potential for DP World or P&O assets to support terrorist operations.”
P & O stands for Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, which is slated to sell its U.S. holdings to DP World.
Bone said those gaps — which included the potential for foreign influence on DP World, unknown backgrounds of DP World officials and questions about terminal security — were resolved before the Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) approved the deal.
“I can tell you that the operations portion and the people portions of that were resolved by the assurances . . . that were provided as part of the CFIUS process,” Bone said.
Such assurances include a promise to provide the Coast Guard with information about the people working at DP World terminals. Coast Guard will use the information to conduct its own background investigations, Bone said.
Ahern, the Customs official, said that under the terms of the deal DP World is also required to enroll in Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT). Companies participating in C-TPAT are supposed to tighten security in exchange for the privilege of forgoing container inspections.
Customs has come under fire for failing to certify that companies enjoying C-TPAT benefits have actually enhanced security. But Ahern said Customs is now visiting DP World facilities to confirm that the company has adequate security measures in place.
The Coast Guard has also visited four DP World facilities overseas, said Bone, and found that they were complying with international maritime security standards.
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But despite those assurances from government officials directly responsible for port security, Schumer and others lawmakers appear poised to continue questioning the security implications of the deal.
The Bush administration is embarking on a 45-day investigation of the transaction, and “We’re going to be watching it like a hawk,” Schumer said at a Feb. 28 press conference.
Caitlin Harrington can be reached at charrington@cq.com