Bush Agrees to Dubai Purchase of Defense Supplier
By CAREN BOHAN and SUSAN CORNWELL, REUTERS
President George W. Bush on April 28 approved a Dubai-owned company’s $1.24 billion takeover of Doncasters, a British engineering company with U.S. plants that supply the Pentagon.
The Bush administration, hoping to avert the sort of controversy that erupted over another Dubai state-owned company’s plan to acquire operations at U.S. ports, only signed off on the deal after getting company assurances that the military supply chain would not be broken, officials said.
Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, a leading opponent of the now-dead deal that would have given Dubai Ports World control of the U.S. ports, said he would not oppose the purchase of Doncasters by Dubai International Capital. But another lawmaker, Democratic Rep. John Barrow of Georgia, said he wanted more details.
“Congressional oversight means accountability and accountability will help make sure that we don’t sell off a piece of our military industrial complex today that we wish we had back tomorrow,” Barrow said in a statement.
Among the Doncasters’ holdings is a plant in Barrow’s district in Georgia that is the sole supplier of turbine fan parts for the U.S. Abrams Main Battle Tank manufactured by General Dynamics Corp.’s Land Systems unit.
Doncasters manufactures precision-engineered parts for a variety of industries including aerospace, gas turbine and petrochemical companies.
The interagency Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) sent its confidential recommendation on the Dubai takeover of Doncasters to Bush two weeks ago.
Bush told reporters he had approved the deal on Friday after it was “looked at very carefully.”
“It’s a sale that should go through,” he said.
ARMY APPROVED
A White House statement said the CFIUS panel examined “issues ranging from counterterrorism to counterproliferation to counterintelligence, among others.”
U.S. Army Secretary Francis Harvey said the Army had recommended approval of the deal even though it normally preferred to have more than one source for the parts it buys.
“We have British firms, we have French firms, we have Japanese firms” as suppliers, Harvey told reporters. “I don’t have concern.”
He said the deal had adequate safeguards to protect the Army’s interests.
In the earlier ports dispute, Bush found himself sharply at odds with members of his own Republican Party as well as Democrats. The lawmakers were angry they had not been consulted about a contract they said had obvious security implications.
This time, the administration went to lengths to brief both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill, officials said.
Schumer said in a statement Friday that the Doncasters’ deal was different because it had been carefully considered and involved products — not services that might have been easier to sabotage.
“Unless new information comes out, I will not oppose this deal,” he said in the statement.
Barrow was not satisfied, saying Bush should provide Congress with a full CFIUS report on the Doncasters’ investigation and specifics of any assurances in the deal.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican, said the case “will need to be carefully monitored, given the nature of Doncasters’ activities.”
The administration had approved DP World’s $6.85 billion purchase of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. in January without the matter having gone to an extended, 45-day security review. Without the extended review, the matter did not rise to requiring Bush’s approval as the Doncasters deal did.
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=1738714&C=america
By CAREN BOHAN and SUSAN CORNWELL, REUTERS
President George W. Bush on April 28 approved a Dubai-owned company’s $1.24 billion takeover of Doncasters, a British engineering company with U.S. plants that supply the Pentagon.
The Bush administration, hoping to avert the sort of controversy that erupted over another Dubai state-owned company’s plan to acquire operations at U.S. ports, only signed off on the deal after getting company assurances that the military supply chain would not be broken, officials said.
Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, a leading opponent of the now-dead deal that would have given Dubai Ports World control of the U.S. ports, said he would not oppose the purchase of Doncasters by Dubai International Capital. But another lawmaker, Democratic Rep. John Barrow of Georgia, said he wanted more details.
“Congressional oversight means accountability and accountability will help make sure that we don’t sell off a piece of our military industrial complex today that we wish we had back tomorrow,” Barrow said in a statement.
Among the Doncasters’ holdings is a plant in Barrow’s district in Georgia that is the sole supplier of turbine fan parts for the U.S. Abrams Main Battle Tank manufactured by General Dynamics Corp.’s Land Systems unit.
Doncasters manufactures precision-engineered parts for a variety of industries including aerospace, gas turbine and petrochemical companies.
The interagency Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) sent its confidential recommendation on the Dubai takeover of Doncasters to Bush two weeks ago.
Bush told reporters he had approved the deal on Friday after it was “looked at very carefully.”
“It’s a sale that should go through,” he said.
ARMY APPROVED
A White House statement said the CFIUS panel examined “issues ranging from counterterrorism to counterproliferation to counterintelligence, among others.”
U.S. Army Secretary Francis Harvey said the Army had recommended approval of the deal even though it normally preferred to have more than one source for the parts it buys.
“We have British firms, we have French firms, we have Japanese firms” as suppliers, Harvey told reporters. “I don’t have concern.”
He said the deal had adequate safeguards to protect the Army’s interests.
In the earlier ports dispute, Bush found himself sharply at odds with members of his own Republican Party as well as Democrats. The lawmakers were angry they had not been consulted about a contract they said had obvious security implications.
This time, the administration went to lengths to brief both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill, officials said.
Schumer said in a statement Friday that the Doncasters’ deal was different because it had been carefully considered and involved products — not services that might have been easier to sabotage.
“Unless new information comes out, I will not oppose this deal,” he said in the statement.
Barrow was not satisfied, saying Bush should provide Congress with a full CFIUS report on the Doncasters’ investigation and specifics of any assurances in the deal.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican, said the case “will need to be carefully monitored, given the nature of Doncasters’ activities.”
The administration had approved DP World’s $6.85 billion purchase of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. in January without the matter having gone to an extended, 45-day security review. Without the extended review, the matter did not rise to requiring Bush’s approval as the Doncasters deal did.
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=1738714&C=america
