Republicans, oil sheiks,Bush family

The Bush administration said Friday it won't reconsider its approval for a United Arab Emirates company to take over significant operations at six U.S. ports. The former head of the Sept. 11 commission said the deal "never should have happened."

Opponents, including the agency that runs New York and New Jersey ports, took their case to court, while the company, Dubai Ports World, stepped up efforts to change the minds of congressional critics.

Thomas Kean, a former governor of New Jersey who led the bipartisan probe of the Sept. 11 attacks, said the deal was a big mistake because of past connections between the 2001 hijackers and the UAE. "It shouldn't have happened, it never should have happened," Kean said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

"There's no question that two of the 9/11 hijackers came from there and money was laundered through there," Kean said."From our point of view, we don't want foreigners controlling our ports," Kean's comments threatened to overshadow moves by the company and the White House to appease critics by delaying the takeover.

"Governor Kean knows as much as anyone how risky it is to deal with the United Arab Emirates," said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and a leading opponent.

"This just proves that no real investigation was ever conducted, and it's unfortunate that he and the other 9/11 commissioners were not contacted before the government approved this."

The former head of the CIA's Osama bin Laden unit joined in the criticism."The fact that you are putting a company in place that could already be infiltrated by al-Qaeda is a silly thing to do," said Mike Scheuer, who headed the CIA unit until 1999.

Lawmakers led by King and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., plan to introduce legislation next week that would put the deal on hold while the government conducts further investigation.