Criminal crossroads:Dubai where Iran building bomb

[Generator]

12/5/05

From Egypt to Afghanistan, when terrorists and gangsters need a place to meet, to relax, maybe to invest, they head to Dubai, a bustling city-state on the Persian Gulf. The Middle East's unquestioned financial capital, Dubai is the showcase of the United Arab Emirates, an oil-rich federation of sheikdoms. Forty years ago, Dubai was a backwater; today, it hosts dozens of banks and one of the world's busiest ports; its free-trade zones are crammed with thousands of companies. Construction is everywhere--skyscrapers, malls, hotels, and, soon, the world's tallest building.

But Dubai also serves as the region's criminal crossroads, a hub for smuggling, money laundering, and underground banking. There are Russian and Indian mobsters, Iranian arms traffickers, and Arab jihadists. Funds for the 9/11 hijackers and African embassy bombers were transferred through the city. It was the heart of Pakistani scientist A. Q. Khan's black market in nuclear technology and other proliferation cases. Half of all applications to buy U.S. military equipment from Dubai are from bogus front companies, officials say. "Iran," adds one U.S. official, "is building a bomb through Dubai." Last year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents thwarted the shipment of 3,000 U.S. military night-vision goggles by an Iranian pair based in Dubai. Moving goods undetected is not hard. Dhows--rickety wooden boats that have plowed the Arabian Sea for centuries--move along the city center, uninspected, down the aptly named Smuggler's Creek.

U.A.E. rulers have taken terrorism seriously since 9/11, but Washington has a half-dozen extradition requests that they refuse to honor. The list includes people accused of rape, murder, and arms trafficking, and the last fugitive of the BCCI banking scandal. The country has put money laundering controls on the books but has made few cases.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/051205/5terror.b1.htm

[NVMojo]

1. once again, why is our President lying to us?

[Inspector77]

2. Like UK, Germany, U.S. France

[Skink]

3. In Dubai they treat women like the Taliban treat women.

Bush will feel right at home there when he needs a place to flee to.

[doublethink]

4. The original Star Wars Bar scene ......

where Hans Solo (Harrison Ford) shot that bounty hunter .... where All the Galaxy Thugs gathered. Then all the thug creatures turn their backs and go back to drinking ... the music starts playing again and Hans gets up and walks out..... yea that's the place.....

http://1001resources.com/hosting/users/cinesecrets/images/SW/SWCantina6%22+.jpg

[troubleinwinter]

5. U.S. State Dept.: UAE among the WORST RANKED on human slavery trafficking

Middle East: U.S. Trafficking Report Criticizes Four Gulf Allies
By Robert McMahon

A new U.S. report says 14 countries -- mainly from Asia and Africa -- could face sanctions for failing to combat human trafficking. They are ranked at the bottom of the U.S. State Department's annual survey of antitrafficking efforts, a congressionally mandated report aimed at ending what has been called modern-day slavery....


Washington, 3 June 2005 (RFE/RL) -- The State Department report lists four U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf region -- Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates -- as among the least responsive to the trafficking problem.
It says they are main destinations for sex slaves and forced laborers, mainly women and children.....

U.S. officials today stressed that the 14 worst-ranked, or "Tier-3," countries have three months to improve antitrafficking efforts or face sanctions. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters she hopes the report will result in increased cooperation.
http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:Nxet-UeMeTcJ:www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/06/fbe7e6d1-1940-45d5-92f7-cb56dea7bd16.html+sex+slaves+dubai&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=61

United States Department of State Fifth Annual Trafficking in Persons Report 2005: UAE Tier 3 (being the worst of human traffickers):

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (TIER 3)

The Government of the U.A.E. does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. Despite sustained engagement from the U.S. Government, NGOs, and international organizations over the last two years, the U.A.E. Government has failed to take significant action to address its trafficking problems and to protect victims....

...Despite the ongoing trafficking and exploitation of thousands of children as camel jockeys and women in sexual servitude, the government made insufficient efforts in 2004 to criminally prosecute and punish anyone behind these forms of trafficking.

http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2005/46616.htm#uae

So. UAE is a crossroads for trafficking in drugs, money laundering, weapons and human sex and labor slavery.

Well, I guess they've got the "know how" when it comes to ports and trafficking.