text: Please do note that this was not a "deal" that the administration cooked up.   It was a sale of a business by a private company which required, like many other sales involving work in the U.S., review by the administration to make sure it meets legal muster.  Nor was the "deal" covert -- it was made public several months ago (when the leading bidder for the London company's business -- a Singapore company-- withdrew their offer).\n\nSo, as a matter of legal fairness, if the company has followed all the U.S. laws there is no proper reason to disallow the sale.   To do so, on no legal grounds, is to tell an Arab country which has, since 9-11 been very helpful in combatting terrorism (in precisely such areas as port security, esp. container inspection), that the rules we apply to all other nations don't apply to them.  That would also discourage other Arab countries thinking of co-operating with us from thinking it's worth doing so.\n\nThere may also be some specific ways the UAE has helped us in the past few years that the administration cannot, for security reasons, give details about  (i.e., you don't want to divulge what you know about terrorist groups you are pursuing, nor all the sources of that information, because that would put them at risk and dry up potential sources, who would fear being outted themselves).   Of course, the administration would want to CONTINUE to get this kind of help and nixing business sales might threaten such assistance going forward.\n\nAs for the question, 'why a UAE business, not an American one?'   Simple answer: NO American companies bid to purchase the London company's business.  They were welcome to do so.  But, in fact, there really are not any American companies vying to manage these port terminal operations.  And again, the administration was never "pushing" for Dubai Port Worlds to make this purchase.  That agreement was made between the parties before the U.S. government had any involvement in the matter.\n\nFinally, it would be wise to inform yourself about what exactly the "business" is, who would be doing the actual work etc.  (Short answer -- it is basically about loading and unloading boats in specific port terminals, NOT running the entire port, much less port security;   the on site workers will continue to be the AMERICAN dock workers who worked for the London company selling the business.)\n\nThese, any a few other points, were made (more clearly) in an email from Bush administrations officials a couple of weeks ago.   I don't have a copy of the full text, but a number of excerpts may be found at the link below.