UAE, that "great ally", still supports terror

By Aussiegirl

The fact that Dubai Ports World is a government-owned company is what really makes it entirely different from the British or any other company taking over. Newt Gingrich (that notorious racist and xenophobe) mentioned this today in his comments regarding this deal on Fox. Private companies are concerned with the bottom line, profits, and efficient management. Governments have different interests, and as recently as four years ago the interests of the Dubai government coincided with the likes of AQ Kahn, suicide bombers, Al Aqsa, and Bin Laden. Also the UAE votes against the U.S. 2/3 of the time in the U.N. Today, some of their interests may coincide with ours (or they may simply be interested in cornering the markets on control of the world's seaports). But tomorrow, their interests could be entirely different.
What does our support of the UAE say about our defense of democracy in the ME?
(In a related matter, see my recent post on a UAE think tank founder's defense of Martyr Moms.

Alex Alexiev on United Arab Emirates on National Review Online

Proponents of the Dubai Ports transaction make two main arguments that in their view prove conclusively that the deal is in the best interests of the United States: First, that guaranteeing our ports security means that they will remain in the hands of U.S. authorities and, second, that the UAE is a friendly country cooperating with the U.S. military in a variety of ways and thus contributing to the war on terror. What if, for the sake of argument, we agree that both of these assumptions are true, yet there are nonetheless compelling reasons to oppose the deal on national-security grounds.

[...] Much more serious than the nature of its government, though, is the evidence that the Emirates have for decades been one of the key financiers of radical Islamism and even outright terrorism. Indeed, if they have been a reliable friend and ally to anybody, it is to the House of Saud in its efforts to export the hateful Wahhabi creed worldwide. And it is this massive campaign over the years that has created the huge infrastructure of thousands of radical mosques, madrassas, Islamic centers, and “charities” that is the true breeding ground of hate, fanaticism, and terrorism.

[...] However the DP World controversy is resolved ultimately, it would have been worthwhile if it leads to a long-overdue debate on who really is friend and who is foe in the war on terror. It's something that we still do not seem to be quite sure about four and a half years after 9/11.