By Debbie Schlussel
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I don’t get it. It’s “Son of Dubai Ports,” only waaaay worse.
Dubai and the rest of the United Arab Emirates helped the 9/11 hijackers, and their money laundering-friendly laws make it the bank location of choice for all Islamic terrorists. They also refused to stop recognizing the Taliban until December of 2001. After 9/11, they funded authors and speakers who claimed that 9/11 was the work of the CIA, the Israelis, and the Jews, and that the Holocaust never happened. They continue to ship nuclear supplies to Iran.
And we were finally smart enough to stop them from running 22 of our ports.
So now, we’re trusting them with nuclear technology? File this under things that make you go, “HUH?! HUH?! HUH?!”:

The Bush administration plans to sign its first nuclear-cooperation agreement with a Middle Eastern nation within the next few weeks, according to a senior U.S. official, raising concerns among congressional critics who say the deal could fuel nuclear proliferation in the region.
The proposed deal with the United Arab Emirates has attracted attention because the U.A.E.’s largest trading partner is Iran. The U.A.E. has served in the past as a transshipment point for technology with military applications headed to Iran.
The move could place President-elect Barack Obama in a political tight spot with a Middle East ally by forcing him to decide whether to push Congress to ratify the agreement. He hasn’t taken an official position on the deal. An Obama spokesman declined to comment. The Bush administration has championed the nuclear agreement with the U.A.E. as a model for promoting peaceful nuclear energy while guarding against weapons proliferation.

Translation: Lame duck President Bush is preparing the grease for the skids as he seeks speaking engagement funded by rich UAE sheikhs. America’s national security be damned.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, ranking Republican in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, introduced legislation this week that would set conditions before Congress could approve the agreement. It would require that the next president certify the U.A.E. has taken extensive measures to cut off the flow of financing and sensitive technologies into Iran.

Nice try. But you can’t certify anything, except that our government is certifiable–certifiably insane for even considering, much less pushing this wholesale sell-out of American national security and any hope for stability in the Middle East.

The U.A.E. says its nuclear-power program will have extensive safeguards to protect against nuclear materials being diverted.

Uh-huh. Just like Pakistan and A.Q. Khan’s, um, “safeguards”?

It has agreed to allow monitoring and snap inspections by the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency.

Remember when Iran and Iraq once agreed to allow monitoring and snap inspections?

In recent months, the U.A.E. signed agreements with two American engineering companies — Thorium Power Ltd. of Virginia and CH2M Hill of Colorado — to oversee the development of its nuclear-power program. The U.A.E. has also hired a 30-year veteran of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, William Travers, to help run the U.A.E.’s nuclear regulatory body.

Lenin continues to be right about American capitalists selling their enemies the rope on which America will hang.

The Bush administration also is working on nuclear-cooperation agreements with the governments of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Bahrain. The pacts require Washington to share nuclear fuels, technologies and know-how on the condition that the countries commit to abiding by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and IAEA safeguards.

Oh, joy. Let me guess: George W. has some future lucrative speaking engagement prospects in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Bahrain. And America has some future lucrative prospects of selling all of its own national security and nuclear secrets down the river, thanks to him.

The Bush administration initially hoped to sign the nuclear accord with the U.A.E. last month, when Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, met President George W. Bush at Camp David, according to people familiar with the visit.

Al-Nahyan is the guy whose father funded the anti-American, anti-Semitic, Holocaust denial speakers who got the ball rolling on 9/11 Trutherism.

The nuclear trafficking network run by Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan used Dubai in the U.A.E. as one of its major bases, according to investigations of the Khan network. U.S. officials, however, say the U.A.E. has taken major steps to better manage its export controls and guard against money laundering.

Yeah, so we should suddenly trust them with our nuclear technology. Right?
UPDATE: My friend, Ruth King, sends this important article, which she aptly describes as “Must Reading for Useful Idiots Who Think that Dubai Is a ‘Fun’ Place.” An excerpt:

The Mumbai attack offers a case in point. The Gulf remains a major source of funding for al-Qaida and its affiliates, with millions of dollars being sent from the region to terrorist groups. Recipients of this largesse originating in the Gulf include the Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) – a UN designated terrorist group now suspected of perpetrating the recent attack in India. . . .
[A]ccording to media reports, an LeT operative arrested in India earlier this year with sketches of some of the targets in the recent attacks, was recruited in the United Arab Emirates. . . .
Beyond the terrorism portfolio, the need to secure the full-fledged assistance of our Gulf allies is most pronounced when it comes to Iran. Efforts to put financial pressure on Iran in an effort to persuade the regime to abandon its nuclear ambitions will not succeed without cooperation from the other Gulf countries.
Despite taking some steps recently to crack down on Iran, the UAE remains the main re-export capital for Iran. Thousands of Iranian businesses are located there and engage in this type of trade. As the business environment in Iran deteriorates, many Iranian businesses have relocated to Dubai, in an effort to circumvent the existing sanctions.
By doing so, Iranian companies have been able to improve their ties to European companies, for example, which are now reluctant to do business in Iran itself. In total, Iran imported approximately $10bn worth of goods from Dubai in 2006. In fact, Sheikha Lubna al Qasimi, the UAE’s minister of economy and planning, explained that there was a limit to what action her government would take on this front: “At the end of the day, Iran is still a neighbour.”
The UAE, like other Gulf countries, is trying to perform a high-wire balancing act when it comes to Iran. On the one hand, the Gulf countries don’t like Iran, fear the prospect of it developing nuclear weapons and would prefer not to anger the US. On the other hand, they would like to avoid antagonising Tehran – the emerging regional power – and they enjoy the benefits of strong commercial ties to Iran. Qatar’s ongoing discussions with Iran and Russia on establishing a gas cartel are indicative of the uphill struggle the US will face in persuading the Gulf countries to financially isolate Iran.

Yup, sounds like just the place with whom we should be sharing our nuclear technology. Yeah, that’s the ticket . . . to hell.