Counterterrorism Blog

Weeks after political pressure forced Dubai Ports World to announce that it would surrender its control of U.S. port operations obtained in the P&O purchase, the issue could return to the front page. Today UPI reports the following:

Dubai International Capital, an investment company owned by the emirate's ruling al-Maktoum family, inked a deal last year to acquire a privately held British aerospace company called Doncasters Group, Ltd. The company owns nine plants in the United States, and makes parts for U.S. tanks and military planes, including for the Joint Strike Fighter -- currently at the center of a transatlantic row about contracts and technology sharing.

After senators questioned officials about the Doncasters deal earlier this month, the secretive inter-agency panel known as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, which is responsible for assessing such takeovers, announced that it was launching a special 45-day national security review of the purchase. The attention led Dubai International Capital to announce last week it was postponing the $1.2 billion takeover for two months while the CFIUS review went ahead.

Dubai International Capital isn't standing still; they've hired veteran Washington lobbyists at the firm of Hill & Knowlton to persuade Congress and the Executive Branch to approve the sale. And the UAE Minister of Economy was in Washington last week to try to ensure that relations between the UAE and the U.S. are not permanently damaged. But news of the DIC-Doncasters deal could run smack into the same issues that sank the DPW deal. Here are the CT Blog posts about that issue:

"The UAE…USA…Important Allies" by Dennis Lormel
"A Jihad Window at the Emirates Gate?" by Walid Phares
"The DP World Port Sale: Overblown Fears" by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross
"DP World Expands Worldwide, including to United States Ports. What effect on Port Security?" by Victor Comras
"Steven Emerson: Mixed UAE Record on Terrorism, With Hamas Still Supported" - my post of an interview with Steven Emerson
"Al Qaeda Claimed Infiltration of Key UAE Agencies in 2002" - my post on information provided by Lorenzo Vidino
"Poetic Justice in Ports" by Michael Kraft
"US Ports, the UAE and US visas" by Bill West
"Weaknesses in CFIUS Review Process Reported to Congress Last Year" by me
"The UAE (Hesitantly) Takes on Bout" by Douglas Farah