Doing It In Dubai

 

[Mar09 Update. BULLETIN at Michelle Malkin: Dubai Deal Dumped.NOTE: Iris demurs, suspects fraud] Could real life (or real night life) matter in a bipartisan uprising against White House globalistas? Persian Gulf fun and games and partying? Relevant? Relevant to Dubai Ports World coughing up 6.8 billion dollars to buy the U.K. P&0 company and move into U.S. ports? Relevant to, "In a post-9.11 world, do we really want this?"  The  Dubai fun, of course,  comes with some real world complications, like significant  human trafficking and White Slavery (although the bondage is hardly all 'white' today.)

 

Official Damage Control in the U.S. needs to put out the 'xenophobic' firestorm against The Deal (the "nativists" are restless.) Yet, officials seem to shy from  the significance of Emirati hedonism and its marriage (well, civil union) with the liberal West . Scott Sutton, in Sex and the City, Dubai Style, reports on  multy-culty mullah-free living, a place of carnal races(wait, that's camel races), shops, souks, surf, safaris, fille de joie multi-nationals, erotic tatoo service, humongous hotels, diverse cuisine, local Arabs  who dress in black and tolerate you, Filipinos and Indians who will serve you in Pizza Hut.  The Emir billionaires even permit Christian Churches, (none of which have been blown up.) Neighboring Saudi Arabia this is not. 

 

Official Damage Control  prefers to focus on geopolitical "facts." These United Arab Emirate rulers are allies in the War on Terror. Didn't they donate $100 million to Katrina hurricane relief?  All right, so they recognized the Afghan Taliban (while it still had a Government) and will not recognize Israel, and they fund Hamas, and have hunted in Afghanistan with good old boys from Al-Quaeda, and the UAE has been  home to world class money laundering, hawala banking, Al Quaeda 9.11 business, shake-downs, intimidation, infiltration, and shipping nuclear material to Iran, Libya and North Korea, but hey, do you think the Emir approves? Crap happens. Politically they have to act Arab. Anti-Israel is an Arab League thing,  pressures, humoring the Arab Street, chanting the Arab music.   Don't be confused. Get the facts. Listen to the facts, not your gut. This Port Deal is about business. No change in security. It means we keep an even closer eye on them. Would they want to nuke their own investment in New York City? Get serious.  Do they look like Musab al-Zarqawi to you? Get the facts. You think we don't know what we're doing in the MIddle East? Look at Iraq.........

 

The "fact-based assurances" go on. Possibly the "'human trafficking' complication convinces  the globalizers to stay away from the "quality of Dubai life" issue. But there are plenty of freelancers for libertine living.  The Arab Emirate way of life is certainly  not all about abduction and other forms of indentured servitude. The UAE is generally seen as a fabulous success story of moderate muslims. Six states got together in 1971, total area near the size of Maine,  and the rest is petroleum-fueled history, today's population about 2.5 million. It  just isn't the Saudi  kind of Arabia. They don't shred Christian Bibles, or even confiscate them. The UAE is  now one of the fastest growing tourist destinations anywhere. . A Danish paper's publishing mildly satiric Mohammed cartoons did not drive the locals out of the Arab coffee houses, shaking their fists, vowing vengeance and looking for a Western  embassy to burn down.

 

Permissiveness  is safe here.  Females fly in from the West, some meeting up with big--unusually big--wallets. At Palm Island beach parties women  are not subject to the Saudi lash, even when showing  far more than just an ankle. At the Palatial Holiday Inn  a belly-dancer can relieve the lawyer's tedium of parsing out  a contract for U.S. ports. As for the Canadian English teacher, ex-pat worker or non-rock star who can't afford  "high-maintenance" fun after watching the Lebanese Salome swivel and sway,  pick-ups are sometimes possible  over at Dunkin' Donuts. Westerners, including sailors on shore leave, tend to like Dubai.  Even Al-Quaeda has not bombed anything here.  Is this because the Emirs know how to crack down, or how to pay up? You don't ask at Coco's or Starbuck's or the Hard Rock Cafe, and  the blonde from Moscow in that short skirt and halter top doesn't seem to know.

 

Members of the U.S. media apologia  appear to have a clue. They've either been there or know those who have. Powerful Bush elephant  Rush Limbaugh describes flying over Dubai and the amazing  sight of something more than Las Vegas  sprouting out of  Allah-forsaken desert. He tells his conflicted listeners to stop being afraid. The conservative icon even uses an old time-honored liberal weapon. He instructs his millions not to do "racial profiling" on these Arabs. Don't go "racist."  This is business, folks. Good old capitalism at work. He can see that. Why can't you? We need friends over there. Don't get emotional, you people. Get the facts.

 

 

Bill ("No Spin") O'Reilly, a self-described warrior in "the War on Terror," is even more vehement,  surprising many who he's "lookin' out for."   It's not just "you gotta  get the facts,' and "there's no security problem, trust me."  O'Reilly, suddenly switching from seasoned reporter to Savanorola mode, haranguing the misguided and unenlightened, warns  of "consequences" for rejecting the Deal.  What would rejection mean to the Emirates? "It would mean you're spitting in their faces." O'Reilly knows. He understands Arabs. You don't want to spit in their faces. They will resent that. Look, these guys are friends. We need every friend we can get over there. That's why we need to be fair and balanced, let them manage ports here, even if we don't manage ports over there. Remember, if you reject the Deal, you're spitting in muslim faces. Not good.

 

Nevertheless, some nay-sayers are surfacing. As for "getting facts instead of emotion,"  Frank Gaffney, former assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan Administration,  reacts to a favorite talking point re security.

 

"The Coast Guard is in charge of security, not the corporation." - That is true, but the corporation can make it easier to smuggle things into or out of the port by altering cargo lists, changing schedules, forging paperwork, or whatever. 50%+ of all security is paperwork. (visas, identification papers/cards, badges, concealed carry licenses, et cetera) All it really takes is for whomever does the paperwork to turn against you. The fact that the UAE is a politically friendly nation isn't terribly relevant; it's an Arab nation from the Gulf region. All it would take is some mujihadin sympathizers in the company, and I can guarantee that those are far more common in the UAE than, say, Britain. US officials who insist that this idea won't be a security risk obviously are not connected closely enough to the reality of security operations...."

This hasn't stopped "conservative" Bush himself from using a classic liberal ploy, worthy of "Pinch" Sulzberger's New York Times---the race card.."How could the British company be okay, and not the Arabs? This would be sending the wrong message."

 

At this point the headstrong Bill O'Reilly, normally the kind of "populist" the Left hates, in effect advises leaders, corporate lawyers and clients on how to sell The Deal, although he addresses not them, but his audience. Telling the folks to trust "the facts" instead of "emotion," he boldly admits that the Emir  "runs that place, it's not a democracy, it's a fascist dictatorship." Is that good? Maybe not, but it's not so bad either. O'Reilly, in other words, suggests that  Washington  stop the mealy-mouth and be forthright. Acknowledge. De-classify reality. Are Americans not grown up enough to hear it? Why not admit that the UAE is a "fascist dictatorship"?

 

O'Reilly, in effect,  says that the UAE is not your common desert-variety Islamo-Fascism.  It's not Al-Quaeda, Hamas or the Taliban. Instead, the UAE is a shining example of friendly Islamo-Fascism. It would rather buy you than kill you.

 

In fact ( as we do want to be "fact-based"), the UAE is  even friendlier than our Islamo-Fascist "friends and allies"  in Saudi Arabia.  Americans should show their gratitude and not "spit" at them.  Refuse U.S. ports to them? Folks, don't you understand how that would deeply offend these moderate muslims? Ask Lobby Man in Washington. You yourselves can't or won't run your own ports anymore. Even the Chinese do it more efficiently, no labor unions, no featherbedding for them.(See Red Capitalist China's COSTCO in Long Beach, CA.  Today is the advent of Fat America. The Fat One doesn't do what it no longer has to do. Americans are a post-industrial species. Lawyers replace makers. Foreigners, including Chinese, do  for you, make for you, wait on you. Wake up, bubby. It's arrived.  So why not these Arabs? (Now sign right here.)..................

 

The UAE's Vice President is multi-billionaire Prime Minister and ruler of Dubai,  His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum (also known as "Sheik Mo."). The 56-year old ruler is not considered a bad man. As a child, Sheikh Mo enjoyed Luhol and Hawaim (also known as tag and hopscotch), learned hunting and falconry, later studied languages at Cambridge, has a magnificent collection of yachts and  thoroughbred horses, rides, and is using his moderate muslim ways to mega-project  the Emirate of Dubai into a world class haven for transnationals, workers who want to work, and wealthy High Life, a union-free globalist dream sustained by imported servants and laborers, including those who deliver "comfort."  Mike Davis, writing for The Nation Institute, describes his visit to "Sinister Paradise." (As the title suggests, his progressive sensibiity was awed and dismayed---mostly dismayed.)

 

Dubai  is many Meccas. Besides a Mecca for banking, construction, architectural mania, post-Cannes beach life etc, it  has world class operations in money laundering, drug trans-shipments, white slavery, and child abuse.    These latter and the support for  Hamas, refusal  to recognize Israel, and usually voting against the U.S. at the UN complicate the relationship with, as Bush puts it, "our good allies,"  yet even Al-Jazeera notes that the State Department is talking sanctions for "human trafficking" (or was, earlier in 2005,  before Treasury Department investment experts secretly vetted the Ports Deal.)

In June, 2005 The State Department  published a brief on the UAE's contribution to Human Trafficking & Modern Day Slavery.

 

This federation of sheikhdoms in Southeast Arabia traffics anywhere from a few thousand women to tens of thousands, depending on your source. (Of course, this is done by Pimps & Slavers  International, not an official UAE agency.) The women, whether enticed and  lured, sold or kidnapped, come mostly from South Asia, Russia, East Africa and other Arab countries. There's a market for children too. Children, mostly from South Asia, are trained to be camel jockeys ( there's no evidence that all  are sodomized.)  The UAE estimates their number at no more than a few thousand. A Pakistani NGO puts it at 5-6000. Lightweight kid jockeys are in demand for the popular camel races.  (The State Department reports cases where camel speed is increased  by starving the child jockeys.)

 

Policy wonkers  and Dubai Ports World can point out  that the UAE fights the drug trade vigorously, penalties harsh,  airport inspection very effective.  Unfortunately,  the weakest link is---that's right--- the port. The port is where most--by far the most---illicit shipments come or go. They've got their sniffer dogs, and  inspectors who don't take bribes.  However,  "it is not easy to check all cargo," as port management---including the uncorrupted and un-infiltrated---knows. They do make an effort, whether for drugs, terrorist business, or nuclear material like that already smuggled to Iran, North Korea and LIbya. UAE lobbyists, like the Clintonite Madeleine Albright (ex- Sec. of State) and the Republicans'  Robert Dole (former Presidential candidate), can explain how the Emirates want to become even better friends and allies. The UAE already hosts U.S.Navy and Air Force units there,  a falcon's flight from Ayatollah Iran.

 

With the trafficking in contraband is not considered an impediment to the Ports Deal, does the human trafficking make any difference?

 

No, judging by media and official attention.This  even seems rational, technically speaking. What, after all, does this New World Order globalista  Dubai Deal have to do with  late night at the Cyclone club, or Syrian-Armenian pimps at the Hyatt Regency, or how the 16-year old Olga was bought for $6000, had to be "disciplined" at the "Sahara Desert" and later tried to slit her wrists (as reported by Armenian journalists)?  Certainly it's not about paypal  Russians being the most commonly available, or the elegant Moroccans in demand as trophy women for rich Arabs,  although the large number of Ethiopians are considered among the most beautiful and best dressed, while the Ugandans, due to  shape, size and  odor are rarely mistaken for Ethiopians, let alone sultry Lebanese (although Ugandans are reportedly a favorite of Brits, the Brits  known as 'coalminers').

 

Yet Dubai, as a haven of the new hotness, appears to illustrate strongly the globalista case: the UAE, our 'muslim friend and ally,'  has advanced away from  madrassa and suicide bomber. It is indeed 'upgrading into the modern world,' 'Westernizing,' even 'shedding the Shar'ia.' Well,  on the surface, anyway. (We are told that these muslim billionaires are hated by  muslim decapitators.) Foreigners can frolic.  Even the alleged corruption of local police and immigration officials and their business investments in the lucrative night life are  re-assuring: another  indication that these Arabs are 'moderates', not in jihad against the homosexual crusaders.

 

And ironically, speaking of the nasty kind of Islamo-Fascism,  the facts of Emirati night life  shed stunning light even on  the theocracy of nearby Iran. Donna M. Hughes, writing in the conservative Front Page Magazine, culls reports from inside and outside Iran, depicting the state of women under the oil-rich mullahs who, during President Jimmah Carter, replaced that "puppet of U.S. imperialists, the oppressive Shah." Her Islamic Republic's Sex Scandal reports, for Tehran, 250 brothels and  84,000 girls and women engaged in prostitution. The trade from Iran to the Emirates appears to be flourishing.   The State Department reports on Iran's trafficking (Iran has strong laws on the books) and there is more at Prostituting Islam.

 

 

Thousands are sold abroad, mainly to the Arab Gulf States. It adds, 'According to a report published recently by the Farsi-language Syna internet website, a “sex exhibition and auction” was held in the United Arab Emirate, somewhere between the sheikhdoms of Dubai and Fujairah, producing young Iranian beauties to the potential Arab buyers.'.  A State Department  comments on human trafficking in Mullah Iran and from there to Moderate Muslim Dubai. There is a sense that behind the cunning fanatics ruling Iran, behind the  fatwas and rantings about the 12th Imam and Mohammed cartoons, life in the oil-rich Islamic Republic can be at least as rotten and degenerate as anywhere else (and possibly even more so.)

 

SUMMARY

 

There are a number of arguments in favor of let-friendly-Arabs-do-U.S.-ports. At first glance they seem more sensible, relevant and convincing than arguments like  'Dubai, The Moderate Muslim Hedonist Haven.'  What about second glance?

 

SecState Condoleeza Rice, Homeland Security Chief  Michael Chertoff, Atty. Gen.Alberto Gonzalez: No problem, no danger. UAE company  will do management, not security.   U.S. Coast Guard "could not determine whether a United Arab Emirates-based company seeking a stake in some U.S. port operations might support terrorist operations." Liz Sidotti, AP... Update: Apparently after hearing from White House lawyers,  Coast Guard concern has been neutralized, at least publicly.

 

Condoleeza Rice, Michael Chertoff, Alberto Gonzalez:No problem, no danger. UAE company will do management, not security   On MSNBC Dr. Walid Phares, Arabic author of Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies Against America, said, "The Emirates have been infiltrated by Iranian services for decades."

 

 

How can you discriminate between Dubai Ports World and P&O, the U.K. operator?   Easily.   P & O is a private company, DPW state-owned. No Brit flew planes into the Twin Towers. Unlike two Emirati locals, no Englishman  has attacked the U.S. in 200 years.

 

UAE is friend and ally of U.S.   Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen: "But what about tomorrow?"

 

CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations:) 'We see Islamophobia, prejudice against religion and ethnicity.'  'Prejudice'?  Is that your definition of  caution, common sense  and national survival? . How many Christians, Jews, Buddhists and Hindus are  kidnapping, beheading, waging jihad, blowing up themselves and others, burning embassies over cartoons  and screaming "Death to America"?

 

Rush Limbaugh: "Even I detect some racism and xenophobia in these opponents of free trade and global markets."   First Jesse Jackson, and now a non-Democrat plays the tattered, dog-eared race card. Et tu, Rush?

 

The U.S. can't run its own ports. Look at Chinese, already  running U.S. ports on the West Coast     (Chinese? Wait, aren't we 'racist'?) Good point. Do you mean the Chinese at Port of Los Angeles or the Chinese Army's COSTCO brought in by Clinton at U.S. naval port in Long Beach, CA (a Chinese ship intercepted while carrying thousands of fully automatic AK-47's destined for L.A. street gangs?)

 

Any chance of  U.S. snapping out of its globalized stupor? Any chance of making U.S. port operations as  competitive, efficient and modernized as everyone else does (even if it means dealing with union featherbedding and globowonks), so that Americans, not Chinese, not Arabs and not Brits will manage U.S. ports and the race hustlers can go hustle somewhere else? (Anyone know about the good old days of American know-how and Yankee ingenuity, before America got fat and out-sourced?)

 

Rejecting this deal will offend a moderate friend and ally, something we sorely need in the Middle East.  "Since the 1970's, the UAE has been a key backer and funder of Saudi-based Islamist operations all over the world, including the ideological take-over of the Black Muslims' Nation of Islam in the U.S. A reliable friend and ally? Perhaps, but hardly one of ours."  Alex Alexiev, Center for Security Policy.

 

UAE has given strong military assistance. U.S. warships regularly dock at Jebel Ali Port (managed by Dubai Ports World.). U.S. warplanes at Al Dhafra airbase near Abu Dhabi do missions over Iraq and are strategically located for any coming crisis with next-door neighbor Iran across the Persian Gulf. So why must U.S. ports be a quid pro quo for what is already mutual assistance? Two quos for one quid? Where is the old Yankee trader when you need him? The U.S. military defends the Emirs against non-Arabic Iran, and also against the terrorists which the Emirs are nominally against. How would Arabs not understand? These aren't nouveau Yalies struggling to keep military recruiters off campus. They've been horse trading for a thousand years and more, long before Americans began to globalize themselves at the CFR. 

 

Conclusion: The politicians, lawyers and media friendlies  urge people to "get the facts" about moderate muslim access to six U.S. ports. (Wait. Make that eight U.S. ports.) (Wait. Make that twenty-one U.S. ports.) The "facts,' they contend, will calm fears, anxieties xenophobia, and other examples of ill-tutored ignorance. The news that  "post-9.11 Emirates are coming to a port near you" has unleashed  national furor and unease---enough to stop the immediate ram-rodding of the Deal through Congress.  Congress  is getting 45 days to "review." The UAE diplomaticallyagrees to this probe. Smart money and  globowonk insiders  are betting that the Deal passes (with or without special amendments to break down resistance from the "savage nativists." . These "nativists" include former New Jersey Governor Keane, New York Police Commissioner Kelly and the NY/NJ Port Authroity.) Lobby Central, from Clinton's Madeleine Albright to the Republicans' Bob Dole, and much, much more, will be earning it's take for services rendered. However, even in 45 days, a number of "facts" may emerge, not all of them globally uplifting.  These could raise yet more  questions about infiltration, access to U.S. security secrets, how long will the royal family remain "steadfast friends" and why where some of its members hunting in Afghanistan alongside another wealthy Arab, Osama bin Laden, of Al Quaeda fame..

 

In the end, the Deal Lobby is unlikely to touch the incontrovertible fact that demonstrates the depth of modern Arab laissez-faire and the UAE's cohabitation with  Western liberalism, (not to mention the  venality and hypocrisy of Iran's Mullah regime): the spectacle, not of a mongol Kubla Khan, but  Arab Emir businessmen, displacing sand by the Persian Gulf, constructing a lavish and semi-futuristic (whether stately or not) Global Pleasure Dome.
_______________________________________________________________
Alexandra at Allthingsbeautiful reports on how the Deal Makers are wonking it out in Washington, 'Dubai Ports--The Saga Continues'
Michelle Malkin has at both libs and conservatives in "We Are All Bigots Now"   

 

Comments

[Phillip Wedeen]

Gringoman parades the american hard right spat between the failed neo-con Bush administration, over the "great ports" (Key West, Fire Island, & San Francico), and the usual fascist dirtbags, led by NewsMax and FrontPageMag. the "great ports debate" is
reminiscent of the nazi party having to deal with its own hardliners over the Von Ribbentropp-Molotov Pact.

It is amusing to hear that the UAE port deal being defended on security grounds by the same cabal who warned the world that Saddam was a threat.

How can the Bush-stenographers, Fox Channel, stoke the fires of racist xenophobia to a people who their boss claims are meek as lambs?

This Theatre of the Absurd surrounding the UAE/American Ports Pact exposes the fear rhetoric spun onto the public by the hard-right for pure political gain.
The neo-cons don't believe the red light/green light sliding scale of threats to the homeland, and Bush-fed to the public, based on "intelligence" gleaned through torture. No, these american fascists (as suggested by Gringoman) want the ports Nationalized for the Social good of the american people. What he fails to comprehend is that the job of the hard american right is to snowblind the public with false fears while the Republican party loots the treasury.

It is hard to sell the idea of more state-security without more threats. Even the propoganda organ, NewsMax, is nothing if it cannot effectivly keep people in fear; and in this case the fascist fearmongers have been undercut by their own administration.
For the countless thousands of "terror threats" (Minerets on the White House) propounded by fascist americans, this "great ports deal" have given ordinary people a peek behind the propoganda curtain. It's Bushit!

[Dan Cameron Rodill]

Wedeen, take a breath. Come up out of your Canadian prog bog for a moment. Relax.(Remember, you are not being reported as loony left "the fascists are coming" spam, as you are still receiving the benefit of a doubt---whether deserved or not.) Now a suggestion: Compose yourself. Try to get rational enough to face simple facts. Eg. The 12 courageous signers of this anti-Islamism Manifesto were almost entirely part of the Secular Left. Get it? Calm yourself enough to understand that this is supposed to be your political persuasion as you prove to mommy and daddy what a good little anti-imperialist you are. Got it so far? Another suggestion: Take a minute out from your loony "those Americans are Nazis" repetitious rant, and let us know: Do you endorse this Manifesto or not? You can go back to evasive rants and little leftie potty-mouth later. First: drop the weaselizing for a sec. Here's a chance to look adult enough to take a stand that is more than just a stupid spew. Seize the opportunity. Reveal yourself. Do you endorse the Manifesto, or do you prefer to sink back into that prog bog with the cozy commie platitudes?

[Phillip Wedeen]

Deslexia 4 Dummies, pls send two copies to Gringoman!
Wingnut, this thread concerns DUBAI. Dubai, a fascist country named itself after the great fascist leader: W.
DUBAI is in the news because the "Ports Deal" exposes the facitious rhetoric of the american administration, which has persuaded idiots like you that there are osamatons hiding in your closet!

The "Manifesto" appeared in a Danish newspaper and is not related to this thread. This thread concerns itself with DUBAI!

How come you don't comment here on McVeigh buddy, posed with another american Republican felon, Oliver North, on your MilitaryCorruption.com site? Or for that matter, you have not stated on this DUBAI thread anything about the FBI concluding that COL SHUE was a suicide.
Right wing Theatre of the Absurd! Well, I have linked to the neo-con turnout for the March 3rd march for cartoon solidarity and it looks as if about 25 people showed up! Still, it is understood that this is momentous news in the neo-con blog hermit kingdom! I'll bet even the Iraqi Dentist will have a Baghdad eye's view of the combination wingnut solidarity march and Lego toy sale!

[gringoman]

Wedeen, now that we know that you're "dyslexia-free," (and maybe you'll even learn how to spell it)cut the dodge. Come out of that prog smog you're trying to hide in. You can't hide. You can rant but you can't hide. To help you out, we can even accept, for the moment, that there is absolutely no relation between the Manifesto Against Islam and the political storm in the U.S. over the Dubai Ports Deal. So forget the Lawyering For Dummies. You are now cornered. Consider, if you need your dopey alibi, that the Manifesto is off-topic. Technically, I shouldn't ask you now to come clean and stand up like a real live homo sapien: Do you or do you not endorse this brave Manifesto signed by 12 writer-intellectuals in Europe (who have shown the kind of courage that you--let alone your mentor-- have yet to demonstrate)? Off-topic? Then let it be off-topic. Let's see what an anti-imperialist yammering slippery Wedeen does when it's cornered.

[gringoman]

Correction: 'Manifesto Against Islam' should read, of course, 'Manifesto Against Islamism.'

Caution to law student Wedeen: This error shall in no way absolve you of showing what you do when cornered and wondering whether to weasel yet again with yet another improvised dodge.