UAE Port Deal Brings Charges of 'Islamophobia'

[checkmate]

February 22, 2006

 

As the debate continues over a deal allowing a Dubai-based company to operate major American seaports, in the United Arab Emirates the dispute is being attributed variously to ignorance, election year posturing, and "Islamophobia."

 

Dubai Ports World's $6.8 billion acquisition of the British company P&O will give the state-owned UAE firm oversight of the ports of New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.

 

A number of Republican and Democratic lawmakers have voiced concern about the security implications of the deal, but President Bush said Tuesday he would veto any attempt by Congress to block it, and asked why a Middle Eastern company should be held to different standards than a British one.

 

Opponents of the deal argue that the Gulf state, while considered a U.S. ally, has a poor record on terrorism.

 

Two of the 19 terrorists who carried out the 9/11 attacks were from the UAE, including Marwan al Shehhi, named by the FBI as the hijacker who flew United Airlines flight 175 into the second World Trade Center tower.

 

"Many of the Sept. 11 hijackers and planners traveled through that country [the UAE], and its banking system was used in preparing for the attacks," the New York Times said in a recent editorial, while critics have also noted that the UAE was one of just three countries to recognize the Taliban regime when the al-Qaeda ally ruled most of Afghanistan.

 

It cut ties with the Taliban 11 days after 9/11, and annual State Department reports on terrorism since then have given the UAE glowing reports, praising it for cooperating with the 9/11 investigation, arresting terrorists, and condemning extremism in Islam.

 

The current criticism is viewed warily in the UAE, with commentators bristling at the notion that their country is soft on terrorism.

 

Writing in Gulf News, Rashed Saleh Al Oraimi, a columnist for the Al Ittihad newspaper, suggested that if the UAE's banking system comes in for criticism over 9/11, then so too should the U.S. banking system, airports and flight-training institutes.

 

Citing the NYT editorial, al Oraimi said Islamophobia was on the rise and was even showing its face in liberal media circles.

 

A poll conducted by Gulf News asked readers why they thought some members of Congress were against the Dubai Ports World deal.

 

Of the three options given, 25 percent of respondents chose "xenophobia," 32 percent said "security concerns," and 42 percent selected "jealousy."

 

A writer to the paper said a fourth reason should have been offered: "A mid-term election is due in the U.S. this year and politicians opposing the takeover may be posturing to appear 'tough' on security issues."

 

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What does this signify in your view? I believe the injury is already done regardless of the outcome.

[Jacpher]

Another example of Bush standing up for what he believes is right. Good for him. Let's see if congress can overrule his veto by getting 2/3 vote on the issue. I doubt if it'll go that far but we'll see.

[Castro]

Originally posted by Ducaqabe:

Another example of Bush standing up for what he believes is right. Good for him.

I know I didn't just read Ducaqabe cheering Dubya. :eek:

 

If these were genuine calls of concern about the security of the US, this would have been their top priority:

 

For Uncle Sam's debt to the rest of the world already amounts to more than a third of his annual domestic production and is still growing. That alone already makes his debt economically and politically never repayable, even if he wanted to, which he does not. Uncle Sam's domestic, eg credit-card, debt is almost 100% of gross domestic product (GDP) and consumption, including that from China. Uncle Sam's federal debt is now US$7.5 trillion, of which all but $1 trillion was built up in the past three decades, the last $2 trillion in the past eight years, and the last $1 trillion in the past two years. Alas, that costs more than $300 billion a year in interest, compared with, for example, the $15 billion spent annually on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). But no worries: Congress just raised the debt ceiling to $8.2 trillion. To help us visualize, $1 trillion tightly packed up in $1,000 bills would create a pile 100km high.

 

But nearly half is owed to foreigners. All Uncle Sam's debt, including private household consumer credit-card, mortgage etc debt of about $10 trillion, plus corporate and financial, with options, derivatives and the like, and state and local government debt comes to an unvisualizable, indeed unimaginable, $37 trillion, which is nearly four times Uncle Sam's GDP. Only some of that can be managed domestically, but with dangerous limitations for Uncle Sam noted below. That is only one reason I want you to meet Uncle Sam, the deadbeat confidence man, who may remind you of the film Meet Joe Black; for as we get to know him better below, we will find that he is also a Shylock, and a corrupt one at that.

 

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[Jacpher]

They taught me in school if you can't beat them, you might as well join them.

[Castro]

^ You went to the wrong school saaxib. In mine, if we can't beat them, we are to eat them.