Port deal reaction is threat to economy, warns Chertoff

[sabra]

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/82d84c58-b235-11da-96ad-0000779e2340.html

Port deal reaction is threat to economy, warns Chertoff

The emotional response of American lawmakers to Dubai's acquisition of five US port terminals threatens to damage the country's economy, Michael Chertoff, homeland security secretary, has warned.

In his first interview since Congress forced DP World to dispose of the terminals, obtained through the acquisition of Britain's P&O, Mr Chertoff stressed that the administration had to focus on "intelligent security" in a way that "doesn't burn down the village in order to save it".

He added that Congress under-estimated the progress madeby the Bush administration in promoting port security.

"We do not want a regimein which we are so focused on risk to the exclusion of all else that we lock everything down and we destroy our country," he told the Financial Times.