News article from 2 months ago: UAE: An Unlikely Criminal Crossroads

[paulthompson]

I just stumbled across this US News and World Report story on the UAE from December 2005. Check out the two related links, too:

An Unlikely Criminal Crossroads

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. Interior Minister Sheik Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan told U.S. News the U.A.E. has made great strides in cracking down, but he insists that the real problems lie elsewhere. "We are a neutral country, like Switzerland," he says. "Give us the evidence, and we will do something about it. Don't blame others." Not everyone agrees. "All roads lead to Dubai," says former treasury agent John Cassara, author of Hide and Seek, a forthcoming book on terrorism finance. Cassara tried explaining U.S. concerns about Dubai to a local businessman but got only a puzzled look: "Mr. John, money laundering? But that's what we do."

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

Where are all those people again who say opposition to the ports deal is just racism against Arabs? I'm sorry, but there is a serious security concern here.

[TayTay]

1. Excellent find. This should be on the home page.

Nice, nice find.

[LuckyTheDog]

34. Amazing

Bush is literally selling out national security for personal financial gain. And many of his hard-core followers love him for it. Go figure.

:banghead:

[Cleita]

2. Thanks for posting.

I'm reading your "Timeline" book again. It looks like you may have another book connecting the Bush administration with the drug dealers, money launderers and terrorists that are otherwise known as the ME tribal sheiks.

[wakeme2008]

3. kicked and nom

:)

[Benhurst]

4. recommended

[me b zola]

5. Any congress critter who sides with the chimp will have this tattoo

Already several pukes are falling into line with the WH. Let this (and more) haunt them as they attempt to keep their seats in Congress.

[Nothing Without Hope]

6. Other related threads - LINKS & EXCERPTS:

I'll add this one to the PORTS OPERATION SALE COMPILATION THREAD later.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x490176
thread title (2-22-06 GD): UAE and BCCI >>>
Comment/excerpt: The Bank of England shuts down Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), the largest Islamic bank in the world. Based in Pakistan, this bank financed numerous militant organizations and laundered money generated by illicit drug trafficking and other illegal activities, including arms trafficking. Bin Laden and many other militants had accounts there. <Detroit News, 9/30/01> One money-laundering expert claims, “BCCI did dirty work for every major terrorist service in the world.” <Los Angeles Times, 1/20/02> American and British governments were aware of its activities yet allowed the bank to operate for years. The Pakistani ISI had major connections to the bank. However, as later State Department reports indicate, Pakistan remains a major drug trafficking and money-laundering center despite the bank's closing. <Detroit News, 9/30/01> “The CIA used BCCI to funnel millions of dollars to the fighters battling the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan” according to the Washington Post. A French intelligence report in 2001 suggests the BCCI network has been largely rebuilt by bin Laden (see October 2001). <Washington Post, 2/17/02> The ruling family of Abu Dhabi, the dominant emirate in the United Arab Emirates, owned 77 percent of the bank. <Los Angeles Times, 1/20/02>
And there is also the Ariana Airlines and massive DRUG & WEAPSONS TRAFFICKING: Comment/excerpt: “In 1996, al-Qaeda assumes control of Ariana Airlines, Afghanistan's national airline, for use in its illegal trade network. Passenger flights become few and erratic, as planes are used to fly drugs, weapons, gold, and personnel, primarily between Afghanistan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Pakistan. The Emirate of Sharjah, in the UAE, becomes a hub for al-Qaeda drug and arms smuggling. Typically, “large quantities of drugs” are flown from Kandahar, Afghanistan, to Sharjah, and large quantities of weapons are flown back to Afghanistan. <Los Angeles Times, 11/18/01> … A former National Security Council official later claims the US is well aware at the time that al-Qaeda agents regularly fly on Ariana Airlines, but the US fails to act for several years. The US does press the UAE for tighter banking controls, but moves “delicately, not wanting to offend an ally in an already complicated relationship,” and little changes by 9/11. <Los Angeles Times, 11/18/01> Much of the money for the 9/11 hijackers flows though these Sharjah, UAE, channels…..“

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x478454
thread title (2-21-06 GD): CIA: UAE is a DRUG transhipment point (& money laundering) / PORT SALE
Comment/excerpt: From the CIA web site: “The UAE is a drug transshipment point for traffickers given its proximity to Southwest Asian drug producing countries; the UAE's position as a major financial center makes it vulnerable to money laundering….”

So there has to be concern, even if the reputed bin Laden tape is bogus:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2131836
thread title (2-25-06 LBN): Qaeda Claim: We 'Infiltrated' UAE
NY Post article. Excerpt: “February 25, 2006 -- WASHINGTON — Al Qaeda warned the government of the United Arab Emirates more than three years ago that it "infiltrated" key government agencies, according to a disturbing document released by the U.S. military. The warning was contained in a June 2002 message to UAE rulers, in which the terror network demanded the release of an unknown number of ‘mujahedeen detainees,’ who it said had been arrested during a government crackdown in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. The explosive document is certain to become ammunition for critics of the controversial UAE port deal, who fear the Dubai-based firm could be used by terrorists to sneak money and personnel into the United States. … ‘You are well aware that we have infiltrated your security, censorship and monetary agencies, along with other agencies that should not be mentioned,’ the message said.”

PORT OPERATIONS SALE COMPILATION THREADS - there's a GD version and a Research Forum version. I'm far behind right now but will be updating. I hope others point out important threads I've missed - I'm sure there are a lot of them. The VIDEO threads are at the end.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=358&topic_id=3199&mesg_id=3199
thread title (2-21-06 Research Forum): UAE/Dubai - US port operations sale - THREAD COMPILATION
http://tinyurl.com/md99b

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x485968
thread title (2-21-06 GD): Dubai/UAE US port operations sale ***THREAD COMPILATION*** Please add!
http://tinyurl.com/ocup5

[paulthompson]

7. Thanks

for the links collection. :)

[Nothing Without Hope]

8. You're welcome. Be sure to check out the ports operation sale thread

compilation in the RESEARCH FORUM. I've just updated it with a bunch of new ones. Since that forum is open-edit, the thread list stays "clean" when new ones are added or rearranged. The VIDEO THREADS are arranged by source at the end.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=358&topic_id=3199&mesg_id=3199
thread title (2-21-06 Research Forum): UAE/Dubai - US port operations sale - THREAD COMPILATION
http://tinyurl.com/md99b

I'm going to try to get the Senate hearing video clips added tomorrow, and there are many others that I've missed, some of which I may go back and try to find by scanning older webarchive files of the Greatest Pages. But it would be helpful if people could point out what I've missed that's important. Partly for that reason, it's also posted in the GD Forum, but of course there comments and additions go into the replies and the opening post can't be edited:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x485968
thread title (2-21-06 GD): Dubai/UAE US port operations sale ***THREAD COMPILATION*** Please add!
http://tinyurl.com/ocup5

I'll repost the GD forum version sometime in the next few days to make it "cleaner" - the Reearch Forum version doesn't need to be reposted because of the open-edit.

I surely hope all this is of some use to people.

[RaleighNCDUer]

32. BCCI! BCCI!!

There should be NO discussion of Dubai without mention of BCCI and its subsidiary BCCE.

[alphafemale]

9. Good find - recommended

[Karenina]

10. Kick!

:kick:

[stop the bleeding]

11. Front page please.

[raggedcompany]

12. Seconded. n/t

[stop the bleeding]

19. it made the front page n/t

[Wordie]

13. This article makes it sound like they are a rogue state! Expats there say

different. Here's some info from an expat online site about the UAE:

HCT Tip: Be prepared for how westernized it really is here and the availability of sporting activities, educational opportunities, etc.

Less visible but more important has been the expenditure on developing the country’s most vital resource – it’s people. Today, all nationals are entitled to free medical care, all children go to school, and some 28,000 young people are university students, most of the them at the UAE University in Al Ain , The Higher Colleges of Technology ( 11 of them) and Zayed University in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

http://dwc.hct.ac.ae/expatinfo/uaelife.htm

[RaleighNCDUer]

31. 30 years ago Iran was the most progressive state in the Middle

East.

40 years ago Lebanon was a playground for the idle rich and had the highest standard of living in the Arab world, even above Saudi Arabia and Iran, based on its secular proclivities and openness, both social and political.

Things change.

[Wordie]

33. Yes, that's the point I'm making...

I think...

...are you agreeing with me? Forgive me if I don't understand, but in the last week ago that's been so rare that I don't quite know how to react to someone apparently agreeing! LOL

Or, are you saying that the UAE could go the way of Iran? If so, I'd like to remind you that it was our meddling in the internal affairs of Iran that in so many ways has led to an ongoing series of problems there. The two countries aren't quite comparable for that reason. If we need a solid guarantee of what a country will be like in 30 years before we do business with them, we aren't gonna do much business. And remember that China has quite a number of similar contracts with us too.

[doni_georgia]

14. This needs another kick

:kick:

[Trevelyan]

15. Wow! Great Research -- Thank you Will use this info on "neutral" sites

like AOL Messageboards and Belief.net where the "racism" meme is going strong.

[Trevelyan]

16. Recommended nt

[NJCher]

17. they're living way better than we are!

Today, all nationals are entitled to free medical care, all children go to school, and some 28,000 young people are university students, most of the them at the UAE University in Al Ain , The Higher Colleges of Technology ( 11 of them) and Zayed University in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Free medical care?

Wonder if they have to pay tuition?



Cher

[ClintonTyree]

18. But they're our friends!

They've done everything we've asked them to regarding the "war on terra'". :shrug: Everything but shut off the flow of money, illegal arms and other military hardware, that is. Why do you all hate America? Freedom is on the march! They're our friends! :sarcasm:

[WillyT]

20. Here's One I Found From 2004

Harvard Will Refund (UAE) Sheik's $2.5 Million Gift

By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 28, 2004

<snip>

While not unprecedented, the university's return of a major donation is rare. It followed a campaign by some students and faculty members to protest the inflammatory activities of a think tank named for the UAE's unelected leader, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Nahayan.

In a statement posted on its Web site yesterday, the divinity school said that "representatives of the UAE" recently "informed Harvard of the donor's desire to withdraw the gift for the Zayed Professorship, in advance of the University's scheduled consideration of the matter later this summer. Harvard has agreed to honor this request and to return the funds."

Zayed gave the money to Harvard in 2000 to endow a professorship of Islamic studies. But the post was not filled, and Harvard announced last year that it was on hold while university officials considered whether to return the money.

Although the UAE shut down the think tank last August, Zayed "has never publicly condemned or disassociated himself from the anti-Semitism emanating from his country, and until he does, he should not be associated with a prestigious university like Harvard," said Rachel Fish, who started the protests while studying at the divinity school in 2003.

Seven of the divinity school's 39 faculty members and hundreds of students and alumni had signed petitions urging Harvard to reject the gift. The petitions cited the activities of the Abu Dhabi-based Zayed International Center for Coordination and Follow-Up, which sponsored lectures and publications claiming that Zionists -- rather than Nazis -- were responsible for the Holocaust and that the U.S. military staged the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

<snip>

Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19223-2004Jul27.html

:shrug:

[Up2Late]

21. This article is full of understatements, here's more info

Here's a link to a NPR audio commentary from last week, by former New York Times Middle-east reporter Terence Smith: <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5230511>

Skyscrapers? How about the World's tallest skyscraper at 154 to 189 floors, 705m to 950 meters tall, (that's 2312.992 feet to 3116.79 feet) They won't say how tall, but it is currently under construction.

<http://www.burjdubaiskyscraper.com/>

<http://realestate.theemiratesnetwork.com/developments/dubai/burj_dubai.php>

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2797599.stm>

Then you have the IN DOOR Snow skiing, chilled water pools Air Conditioned Golf, and this new Housing complex, that was created by dredging sand from the Gulf:

<http://realestate.theemiratesnetwork.com/developments/dubai/palm_islands.php>

You can see it clearly in this satellite picture from 2003, I've seen newer shots, but I still have to find it. Click thumbnail, then goto image #75:

Or copy the address below to your browser address bar.

Make sure you remove the underscores after the forward slashes and before the http___

Note: the full size image is very large.

[Up2Late]

22. Or how about you own Private Island? They've got those too

<http://realestate.theemiratesnetwork.com/developments/dubai/world_islands.php>



The World Islands are a collection of man-made islands shaped into the continents of the world, located of the coast of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. It will consist of over 250 to 300 small private artificial islands divided into four categories - private homes, estate homes, dream resorts, and community islands. Each island will range from 250,000 to 900,000 square feet in size, with 50 to 100 metres of water between each island. It will cover a total area of 9 kilometers (5.4 miles) in length and 6 kilometers (3.6 miles) in width, surrounded by an oval shaped breakwater. The only means of transportation between the islands will be by marine transport.

The World Islands will be located 4 kilometers off the shore of Jumeirah, close to the Palm Jumeirah, between Burj Al Arab and Port Rashid. Each island will be sold to selected private developers and are expected to have pricing beginning at AED 25 million (US$ 6.85 million), for the AED 6.6 billion (US$ 1.8 billion) project.:crazy:

[EVDebs]

23. BCCI anyone remember that little fiasco ? Same intel players same

Farkel Ups. Buckle your seatbelts, we're heading for another ride on the merrygoround

[Wordie]

24. One might call New York a "criminal crossroads" as well...

but that would have more to do with it being a major city, a transportation and trade hub, indeed a crossroads of the world, that as such attracts both postive and negative elements. Dubai is the New York of the middle east. Why are people unable to view Dubai in the same light?

Please consider that there is another side to the story:
Dubai was the first government in the region to sign the U.S. Container Security Initiative, through which all containers heading for the United States are screened for security risks .
http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/press_releases/archives/2005_press_releases/0032005/03282005.xml

Worried about nuclear material? Dubai signed an agreement in 2005 with the U.S. Department of Energy to stop nuclear material from passing through UAE ports, and install radiation-detecting equipment.
http://www.ameinfo.com/60159.html

The UAE joined the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings and the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism.
http://www.uaeinteract.com/news/default.asp?cntDisplay=10&ID=216

UAE has put in place a comprehensive set of anti-money laundering laws and regulations preventing the financing of terrorism.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2004/06/08/stories/2004060802680600.htm

The UAE National Consultative Council has instituted laws that removes citizenship from any person who pledges allegiance to foreign extremist groups.

Read this for more info:

The Arab Gulf states: fighting terror lawfully
Mohamed Al Roken
6 - 12 - 2005
Arab as well as western states are introducing new laws for an age of terrorism. Mohamed Al Roken, professor of public law at UAE University, evaluates the counter-terrorist laws passed in two Gulf states in 2004 in light of historical and modern international experience.

...Arab and Muslim countries’ general experience of terrorist attacks, and that of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states in particular, has been quite remarkable. Because of a series of mindless acts perpetrated by a few Arabs who wave the banner of Islam, people and regimes in the region have had to bear the political, economic and cultural brunt of their insanity both in the region and beyond.

As long ago as 1998-99, I strongly urged people concerned to sway such badly-guided groups from their path. More recent bloodshed – the kidnappings and beheadings in Iraq, the siege in Beslan, the numerous bombings in Saudi Arabia – indicate that the problem persists. All these actions have achieved is to drive the people and the religion of the perpetrators deeper into a vortex of destruction with no benefits at all. It is time that religious scholars, sociologists, law-makers, economists and government officials deploy concerted efforts to confront this sweeping wave of blind extremism. This is of utmost importance to pre-empt the disfiguring of the history, values and foundations upon which a divine and universal religion such as Islam is built.

The development of agreements and laws in the region indicates some progress in understanding the seriousness of this issue. An agreement on counter-terrorism was first reached by Arab ministers of the interior and of justice in Cairo in April 1998; this was collectively ratified by the six GCC countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – in May 2004. In 2004, there were two national laws: on 16 February 2004, Qatar promulgated a Counter-terrorism Act (law number 3, 2004 , issued by the Emir of Qatar); on 28 July 2004, a decree-law on the fight against terrorist crimes (decree-law number 1, 2004) was issued by the UAE president. Qatar and the UAE are the only two countries within the GCC alliance to promulgate legislative texts against this crime, which is rather new in the annals of the region.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/conflict-terrorism/terror_arab_3094.jsp

[robertpaulsen]

25. I think this ties in with what Sibel Edmonds is talking about.

Check this interview out:

SE: Essentially, there is only one investigation – a very big one, an all-inclusive one. Completely by chance, I, a lowly translator, stumbled over one piece of it.

But I can tell you there are a lot of people involved, a lot of ranking officials, and a lot of illegal activities that include multi-billion-dollar drug-smuggling operations, black-market nuclear sales to terrorists and unsavory regimes, you name it. And of course a lot of people from abroad are involved. It's massive. So to do this investigation, to really do it, they will have to look into everything.

CD: But you can start from anywhere –

SE: That's the beauty of it. You can start from the AIPAC angle. You can start from the Plame case. You can start from my case. They all end up going to the same place, and they revolve around the same nucleus of people. There may be a lot of them, but it is one group. And they are very dangerous for all of us.

more...

http://www.antiwar.com/deliso/?articleid=6934


Think about what she's saying here in relation to the UAE article:

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.



Be sure to read my signature article for more information on how Khan relates to the outing of Valerie Plame and Brewster Jennings & Associates.

[psychopomp]

26. An important point

Thanks for providing the links and info.

[wordpix]

30. "same nucleus of people, one group:" that would be the *cabal, headed by

international group of developers, bankers, weapons dealers, Big Oil and various corporate heads, selecting BushCheney as joint CEOs.

[scarletwoman]

27. This needs a kick....

[theHandpuppet]

28. Kicking -- this should be the headline on every news broadcast!!

Kudos to you for the find.

[0007]

29. I'm indeed surprised that this thread hasn't at least a 100 hits.