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Arabia
‘Objections to DPW takeover is a backlash on 9/11': Karen Hughes
2006-02-21
DUBAI - US lawmakersÂ’ objections to a Dubai companyÂ’s takeover of US port operations is a backlash from the Sept. 11 attacks, not an expression of wider anti-Arab sentiment among American politicians, the top US envoy for public diplomacy said here on Monday.

In a discussion with reporters, Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes said she didn’t believe the gathering objections represent a general Islamophobia among American lawmakers, as a Dubai newspaper’s opinion article Monday alleged. “I would hope that is not the case,” Hughes said. “I hope the people of the United Arab Emirates and the government will understand that in a democracy, there is a process of debate.”
No wonder the folks in the UAE were bewildered!
Hughes defended the Bush administration’s security review of Dubai government-held Dubai Ports World’s $6.8 billion purchase of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. But “the lawmakers are questioning about security concerns in light of the fact that a couple of the Sept. 11 hijackers did come from the UAE,” Hughes said. “Since that time, and over a period of years, the UAE has been a long-standing good friend and a strong partner in the war against terror.”

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, who plans to discuss the lawmakers’ objections during a visit to the Emirates this week, has pushed for a more open discussion of the security oversight DP World has undergone. “Secretary Rice says we will have to go to Capitol Hill and get the administration to explain a little more fully the thorough review that was done,” Hughes said. “The administration will be doing that, I’m sure, in the days ahead.”

Newspaper opinion articles in Dubai have blamed the US backlash on political grandstanding ahead of this year’s congressional elections and a general American sense of “Islamophobia.” An op-ed article on Monday in a local newspaper said the controversy demonstrates that “Islamophobia is rising and has become like an infectious disease that spreads amid political and media circles in the West.”
A phobia is when you're inappropriately afraid.
Hughes arrived in Dubai on Sunday after a two-day visit to Doha Qatar, where she attended the US-Islamic World Forum and implored regional leaders to wipe out terrorism. Hughes, who greeted reporters with a few words of halting Arabic, wore a necklace inscribed in Arabic calligraphy.

She spoke out Monday against caricatures of the Prophet Muhammed (PTUI PBUH) that have sparked deadly protests across the Muslim world. “The cartoons were offensive. I can understand why Muslims are offended by them,” she said.

Americans, Hughes said, refrain from using racial and ethnic slurs not because they are outlawed, but because of a general sense of decency. “I think that could be a model” for the mainly European newspapers that printed the offending caricatures, she said.
Except for the American Left, which doesn't mind slurring Evangelicals, Mormons, Jews, Catholics, Southerners, Kansans, Koreans, Cubans, ...
Posted by:Steve White

#5  The UAE is running out of oil; hence the last minute splashy developments (that they won't be able to pay for). No oil: no leverage; no interest; no need for public diplomacy.

Can't wait for my electric car.
Posted by: CaziFarkus   2006-02-21 19:23  

#4  I dunno, RC. I think they're at least mildly offensive, too.

I just think the muslims need to get over it.
Posted by: too true   2006-02-21 18:26  

#3  
She spoke out Monday against caricatures of the Prophet Muhammed (PTUI PBUH) that have sparked deadly protests across the Muslim world. “The cartoons were offensive. I can understand why Muslims are offended by them,” she said.

Fire her. She's not representing us overseas; she's abasing herself to her future paymasters.
Posted by: Robert Crawford   2006-02-21 10:30  

#2  The cartoons were offensive? C'mon Karen, get real.
Posted by: doc   2006-02-21 09:11  

#1  You think the lefties would stop if some masked Catholics kidnapped Chuck Schumer, gave him a Nick Berg haircut, and sent the videotape to Fox News?
Posted by: mac   2006-02-21 07:08  

00:00