WASHINGTON, March 10, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A Dubai-owned company has since January provided services in 12 US ports and to the US Navy, the Time magazine revealed Friday, March 10, as Dubai Ports World bowed out of running six US port facilities to quell an outcry over security concerns.

The British company Inchcape Shipping Services (ISS) was sold in January to a "Dubai government investment vehicle for $285 million," the Time said.

ISS has more than 200 offices around the world, including more than a dozen in US port cities including Houston, Miami and New Orleans, where it engages in "arranging pilots, tugs, linesmen and stevedores, among other things," said the magazine.

The US Navy in June of last year signed a 50-million-dollar contract, making ISS its "Husbanding Agent for vessels in most Southwest Asia ports, including those in the Middle East," said Time quoting from an unclassified Navy logistics manual.

As husbanding agent, ISS is responsible for arranging everything from fuel to spare parts to fresh vegetables for vessels at ports.

"More critically," said the mass-circulation magazine, "they often provide security, like erecting concrete barriers and what the military calls force protection."

The company also knows weeks in advance ships' schedules.

An ISS spokesman contacted by Time refused to comment on the report, but a statement issued by the company said ISS had undergone rigorous external security checks and has comprehensive internal policies on security, adding that all port staff are fully vetted and undergo a background check.

The Washington Post said Friday the ISS was purchased by a Dubai company whose executive, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, also heads DP World, whose takeover of British firm Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company was opposed by many US lawmakers but supported by the White House.

"To simply say that the US entity will be separate isn't enough," said Schumer.

The state-owned Arab company DP World pledged on Thursday, March 9, to transfer operation of six US port terminals to a US entity, a move the White House said should settle a political firestorm surrounding the deal.

"It does provide a way forward and resolve the matter ...," White House spokesman Scott McClellan commented on the company's announcement, reported Reuters.

The statement by DP World's chief operating officer, Edward Bilkey, said that the company had decided to "transfer fully ... to a US entity" the operation of North American ports terminals it had acquired from British-based P&O.

Many lawmakers have demanded that the Dubai company be stopped from running the ports because of potential security risks, rebelling against President George W. Bush, whose administration approved the company's involvement in January.

But Capitol Hill critics in both parties said they wanted to see the fine print of the new statement before backing away from legislation to unwind the contract, noting the company had not said to whom it was selling, or when.

"To simply say that the US entity will be separate isn't enough. How will it be separate? How thick is the wall?" demanded New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer.

The company announcement is not clear enough, added Florida Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairwoman of the Middle East subcommittee of the House International Relations panel.

"Is the ports deal dead? Will the US entity be a mere shell company?" she asked.

In Dubai, sources close to the deal said the United Arab Emirates government had intervened to defuse the crisis that exploded in Washington last month after the deal became known.