Something just really does not sit right with the way this story is unfolding. With the potential of exploitation by our enemies, why are we taking this chance? President Bush made the statement that we fight “terrorist organizations and those who harbor and support them.”

WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is defending the Bush administration’s review of an international shipping deal two days after one company in the Port of Miami sued to prevent an Arab-owned firm from taking over port operations.

Meanwhile, lawmakers also are considering legislation to stop foreign-owned companies from running U.S. ports.

Chertoff on Sunday said the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, had carefully reviewed the Dubai Ports World purchase of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., which runs commercial operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.

“We make sure there are assurances in place, in general, sufficient to satisfy us that the deal is appropriate from a national security standpoint,” Chertoff told ABC’s “This Week.”

That doesn’t sit well with Miami firm Continental Stevedoring & Terminals Inc., a subsidiary of Ellery & Company Inc. Representatives from that company asked a judge to block the takeover of P&O, saying that U.S. agencies can not guarantee DP World will comply with U.S. security rules.

The deal “may endanger the national security of the United States,” reads the suit filed late Friday.

Hat Tip - NIF / Michelle Malkin