Re: UAE Port Deal
I don't have particularly strong feelings on this either way, and if it was a Bush decision then there's bound to ahve been plenty of incompetence and wishful thinking involved, but some points:
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The UAE was one of three countries in the world to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.
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Enough red flags for this American.
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To all extents and purposes the Taliban was the government of Afghanistan - and its rivals to legitimacy were not much better in terms of fundamentalism, and supported by well-known US allies such as Iran. Others may not have chosen to officially recongise the Taliban government but in practice the US for example was perfectly happy to deal with it pre-9/11.
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The UAE has been a key transfer point for illegal shipments of nuclear components to Iran, North Korea and Lybia.
According to the FBI, money was transferred to the 9/11 hijackers through the UAE banking system.
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It is one of the key shipping and banking centres of the Middle East. No doubt money went through the British and US banking systems too.
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After 9/11, the Treasury Department reported that the UAE was not cooperating in efforts to track down Osama Bin Laden's bank accounts.
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The banking system or the government? If the latter, I can see that this could be a worry.
For whoever said they'd be less worried if it were a privately opwned company, I think the opposite is true. The UAE government is a Western ally and petrified of al-Qa'ida and the like, to whom it is anathema as a feudal, insufficiently Islamic regime. A private company would be more likely to be run by people with al-Qa'ida sympathies.
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