Peter Gadiel just doesn't get it.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., right, and Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., meet reporters on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2006 to call on Treasury Secretary John Snow to investigate the ownership of ports on the East Coast. On Monday, a $6.8 billion dollar deal put the operation and control of major N.Y. and N.J. ports in the control of a firm in the United Arab Emirates owned by the Government of Dubai. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke)

How, asks Gadiel, whose son James died in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, can a company owned by a terror-linked country get control of our nation's ports?

"I'm a lifelong Republican and I think the President's gone insane," said Gadiel, 58, who heads 9/11 Families for a Secure America.

Two of the 19 9/11 hijackers were citizens of Dubai, the Arab emirate whose bid to run ports in New York, New Jersey and four other cities was okayed by the White House even though investigators have found signs that money used to finance terrorism flowed through Dubai banks.

"How the hell could this happen?" fumed Bill Doyle, 58, a retired Staten Island stockbroker whose son Joseph also died when the Trade Center fell.

"We're not securing our country in any way by selling our ports to foreigners," he said.

Gadiel and Doyle stood with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) yesterday at the harbor to express their outrage.

Bruse DeCell, 55, whose son-in-law died in the attacks, said that homeland security should be the highest concern when approving the activities of foreign business interests.

"This administration is putting the selling of our country on a fast track," he said. "There are a lot of loose ends that caused 9/11 to happen. I'm trying to close them."

Only 5% of the cargo containers entering U.S. ports are inspected, said Schumer, who has called for upgrades in port security for years.

© 2006 Daily News, L.P.

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