Hey, here’s some good news for allowing UAE to manage our ports. This is what our CIA feel about them:
“[T]he 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; anti-money-laundering controls improving.
Yee-haw! Just what we need! Better access to transporting illegal drugs to the United States. What a great plan, President Dubious Bush!
By the way, the CIA’s file on UAE was updated as of January 10, 2006.
Technorati Tags: UAE, CIA, money laundering
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by politicalvine, on Sunday, February 26th, 2006 at 7:16 pm and is filed under WTF and You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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February 26th, 2006 at 10:55 pm
Hey, here’s some good news for allowing the UAE to lease a few terminals in the US…this is what our CIA says about them:
The UAE has an open economy with a high per capita income and a sizable annual trade surplus. Its wealth is based on oil and gas output (about 30% of GDP), and the fortunes of the economy fluctuate with the prices of those commodities. Since the discovery of oil in the UAE more than 30 years ago, the UAE has undergone a profound transformation from an impoverished region of small desert principalities to a modern state with a high standard of living. At present levels of production, oil and gas reserves should last for more than 100 years. The government has increased spending on job creation and infrastructure expansion and is opening up its utilities to greater private sector involvement. Higher oil revenue, strong liquidity, and cheap credit in 2005 led to a surge in asset prices (shares and real estate) and consumer inflation. Any sharp correction to the UAE’s equity markets could damage investor and consumer sentiment and affect bank asset quality. In April 2004, the UAE signed a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) with Washington and in November 2004 agreed to undertake negotiations toward a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the US.
February 26th, 2006 at 11:56 pm
“Since the discovery of oil in the UAE more than 30 years ago, the UAE has undergone a profound transformation from an impoverished region of small desert principalities to a modern state with a high standard of living.”
Funny thing…even with their profound increase in their standard of living, they still had no problem playing around with the Taliban and Osama bin Laden as late as 2000.