The Washington Times reports and alarming development: a United Arab Emirates firm is to take control of some ports in the US.

A company in the United Arab Emirates is poised to take over significant operations at six American ports as part of a corporate sale, leaving a country with ties to the September 11 hijackers with influence over a maritime industry considered vulnerable to terrorism.

 

The Bush administration considers the UAE an important ally in the fight against terrorism since the suicide hijackings and is not objecting to Dubai Ports World's purchase of London—based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.

 

The $6.8 billion sale is expected to be approved tomorrow. The British company is the fourth—largest ports company in the world, and its sale would affect commercial U.S. port operations in Baltimore, Miami, New Jersey, New Orleans, New York and Philadelphia. 

 

DP World said it won approval from a secretive U.S. government panel that considers security risks of foreign companies buying or investing in American industry. 

 

The U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States "thoroughly reviewed the potential transaction and concluded they had no objection," the company said in a statement to the Associated Press.