Port Authority, Free Trade & Absolute Monarchy

It seems a forty-five day truce has been called in the firestorm of outrage concerning our government’s approval of a financial transaction transferring management of our strategic ports to a corporation owned by the United Arab Emirates. Much of the criticism, with considerable cause, has centered on the direct financial and personal connections between the supreme leaders of the Emirates, Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden himself.

We should not forget that only a shadow of a false rumor (the discounted meeting of operatives in Prague) suggesting similar connections between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda was employed as a cause of war.

There are in fact very serious questions regarding whether or not this transaction compromises national security. At the very least, it fails the test of common sense. Among the questions that arise:

1. Would it be easier for a radical Islamic terrorist to infiltrate a corporation from Dubai, whose leaders were hobnobbing regularly with Osama bin Laden as recently as 1999, two years before the twin towers fell, as opposed to an American government agency?

2. Would it be possible for port management to cover the trail of an illicit shipment of chemicals, weapons technology or a nuclear device?

3. Would it be easier for an employee of port management to gain entry to this nation?

4. Would it be easier to channel illicit funds through an approved port management corporation as opposed to an overseas company?

5. Would any other corporation with direct ties to Al Qaeda and the September 11 attack be allowed to assume control of our ports?

Finally, if Al Gore or John Kerry had been elected president and approved such a deal in a post-911 environment, what would be the response of the party of opposition?

Clearly, there are national security risks involved in this transaction that are hardly balanced by the advantages of global free trade or the tentative alliance of the United Arab Emirates. When any other corporation with a similar record of dubious connections would be rejected out of hand, there is a double standard in place but it favors the UAE.

What kind of nation is the UAE? Is it a bastion of progressive values in the Middle East? At a time when our only surviving rationale for occupying a Middle Eastern nation is the establishment of a viable democracy, is the UAE moving in that direction?

The answer is a resounding No!

The seven emirates are absolute monarchies ruled by the right of hereditary succession. There are no labor rights, no freedom of speech, no right to assemble, no freedom of religion, no free press, and justice is administered by royal decree in accordance with Shari’a Islamic law. There are no elections in the emirates – not even for dogcatcher.

In short, the United Arab Emirates is everything that American values oppose.

To be absolutely clear, we and every democratic nation on earth should uphold a double standard in dealing with the UAE – not because it is Arabic and not because it is Islamic but because it is antithesis to the core principles of our founding.

What has happened here is that the Dubai Ports World acquisition of strategic port management has left naked and exposed the true and ugly nature of global economics. The international corporate consortium has supplanted the nation state as the dominant authority for international conduct. The corporate globalists do not believe in fundamental human rights. Corporate values begin and end with the bottom line.

I do not believe we should go to war with every nation that does not embrace the principles of democracy and human rights but neither do I believe that we should regard such nations as equals worthy of the benefits of unhindered trade.

If we are serious about moving the world in a democratic direction (Haiti, Venezuela and Palestine tell us that we are not), then the least we can do is to inform the offending nations, the nations that flagrantly disregard human rights, that there is a price to be paid for such offense.

For those who suggest that we need the Emirates more than they need us, several questions deserve an accounting:

First, if our alliance with the UAE is dependent on the port transaction, then the alliance is not nearly as strong as advertised, thus rendering the deal even more suspect. In fact, it begins to look like common extortion.

Second, if oil is the critical element in the equation, perhaps we should give more than lip service to the problem of our addiction by imposing strict fuel efficiency standards, subsidizing hybrid technology, eliminating SUV subsidies, requiring solar panels in all newly constructed structures, creating viable mass transit, and infusing alternative energy research and development with massive funding.

Third, if our alliance with the UAE is critical to the war effort, eliminate the necessity by withdrawing from Iraq.

Jazz.

JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS). THE CHRONICLES HAVE APPEARED ON DISSIDENT VOICE, THE ALBION MONITOR, BUZZLE, PEACE-EARTH-JUSTICE AND COUNTERPUNCH.

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