Residents Raise Concerns About Port Deal

BOSTON -- If an United Arab Emirates-owned company gets the port security clearance President George W. Bush is seeking, Boston's Black Falcon Cruise Terminal would be partially run by DP World of Dubai.

NewsCenter 5's Jack Harper reported that a lot of people are not pleased with the move.

"If the government can promise me that they'll protect and take care of my home and my personal being, then I would be comfortable, but if not, then I have to tell you, 'No,'" one resident said.

"They currently rent a couple of administrative offices at Black Falcon. From those offices they contract directly with the cruise ship lines to hire local longshoremen to load and off load the cruise ships of luggage, provisions and food and such," Massport Executive Director Craig Coy said.

DP World is in line to take over security at six major U.S. ports.

"There is no national policy on checking background checks. That is one of the things that I talked to the port authority -- a national policy on background checks. I don't care who it is," Boston Mayor Tom Menino said.

"I think it's incumbent upon Massport whether they are running the ports to make sure any company -- I don't care if it's an Arab company or a company doing business out of South Boston -- that they check them out and make sure they are appropriate to do it," another resident said.