(2006-02-23) — Sen. John Kerry, D-MA, announced today that he would back the sale of a British company that manages U.S. seaports to a state-owned firm in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) only if President George Bush will order the National Security Agency (NSA) to secretly wiretap phone calls and emails involving Dubai Ports World.

“If an emir in Dubai is talking to an American port manager, at the gateway of a major city, we want to know why,” said Sen. Kerry. “and we can’t allow the whiners in the civil rights movement to jeopardize our national security in the name of the so-called right to privacy.”

Sen. Kerry rejected calls for the UAE wiretaps to be approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court.

“We’re not trying to build a legal case,” said Sen. Kerry, “We’re protecting our homeland from a potential devastating terror strike. People need to wake up to the fact that we’re living in a post-9/11 world.”

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