Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Coast Guard not happy about US ports
From the AP, Paper: Coast Guard Has Port Co. Intel Gaps:
Citing broad gaps in U.S. intelligence, the Coast Guard cautioned the Bush administration weeks ago that it could not determine whether a United Arab Emirates-based company seeking a stake in some U.S. port operations might support terrorist operations...
There are many intelligence gaps, concerning the potential for DPW or P&O assets to support terrorist operations, that precludes an overall threat assessment" of the potential merger, the unclassified Coast Guard intelligence assessment said.
"The breadth of the intelligence gaps also infer potential unknown threats against a large number of potential vulnerabilities," the assessment said...
The report raised questions about the security of the companies' operations, the backgrounds of people working for the companies, and whether other foreign countries influenced operations that affect security...
"This report suggests there were significant and troubling intelligence gaps," said Collins, R-Maine. "That language is very troubling to me...I think the paragraph speaks for itself."
