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12/5/05:
US News
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".
How jihadist groups are using organized-crime tactics--and profits--to
finance attacks on targets around the globe? Visit link:
Paying for Terror
Main Page:
10 Smart Reasons to STOP Port Deal! This report is an indictment of
dishonest UAE authorities, who operate without respect for the rule of law
and the inherent dignity of mankind".
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