text: His office is legally responsible for doing an in-depth security review of all major company sales by foreign businesses.  They review the deals to ensure there are no legal or security concerns before the deal is allowed to go through.  If they run into any concerns they can take steps to mitigate the risks (such as ensuring no one will be placed into sensitive areas, background checks, rescoping the contract, etc...)  This is naturally done in private since we are talking about security concerns and big business deals that can affect the stock of said companies.\n\nIt is possible that his staff reviewed the deal and gave the go-ahead without his direct involvement and he is merely saying he trusts his staff: heck, he did pick a bunch of people who think exactly like him.  Regardless, after reviewing the facts it sounds like opposing the deal would be akin to prejudice.\n\nWe can't stop foreign companies from controlling american interests.  The company that is trying to take control of the ports (they will not be providing security mind you) does an excellent and professional job of managing other ports around the world.\n\nOf course I do enjoy watching the republicans rip apart Bush on the issue.  I imagine it will eventually blow over, it's just no one wants to look weak on security during an election year and there are few opprotunities to show that.  This looks like smoke and mirrors to me.