AL QAEDA'S SUICIDAL BOMBING:

9/11 seen as sparking Arab economic boom (Jim Krane, August 27, 2005, ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks are increasingly viewed in the oil-rich Arab countries of the Persian Gulf as the catalyst for an economic boom when Arabs divested from America and reinvested at home.

Arab investors pulled tens of billions of dollars out of the United States. They were angered by perceived American hostility toward Arabs. They worried their assets would be frozen by U.S. counter-terrorism measures. And U.S. markets happened to be plummeting while economies in the Persian Gulf were on the upswing, buoyed by rising oil prices.

The results have been spectacular.

Since late 2001, economies in the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries -- Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia -- have soared, with stock markets up a collective 400 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 24 percent over that period.

By setting off a wave of forcible regime from without and political liberalization, religious Reformation and economic development within, Osama doomed what little chance his cause may ever have had. That the main beneficiaries of 9-11 have been the Shi'ites is an especially delicious twist.

MORE:
Natural gas of Gaza to profit Palestinians (David R. Sands and Joshua Mitnick, August 27, 2005, THE WASHINGTON TIMES)

Major natural gas fields off the coast of the Gaza Strip may prove a vital lifeline for a beleaguered Palestinian economy that has few other resources to exploit.

Israel's withdrawal from Gaza settlements this month has heightened international interests in exploiting the fields, first discovered more than five years ago.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 27, 2005 8:45 AM