WHY LOOK AT FACTS WHEN YOU CAN INDULGE YOUR VISCERA?:

An Ally Betrayed (Harold Hutchison, 15 Mar 2006, Tech Central Station)

This is a country that has been a long-standing ally of the United States since 1971. The UAE was part of the coalition to liberate Kuwait in 1991, and also has supported the United States in the War on Terror (including, among other things, providing access to a deep-water berth that can accommodate aircraft carriers, use of a training facility for air-to-air training, airfields, and logistics support). It is a country that has proven largely inhospitable to al-Qaeda (instead, the focus is on business), sent forces to Afghanistan to protect the construction of a hospital that they donated and built, and sent humanitarian assistance to Iraq while providing a location for training Iraqi police.

In 2002, the UAE also captured a major al-Qaeda figure, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who was involved in the attack on the USS Cole in 2000, and handed him over to the United States despite threats from the terrorist organization. After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, the UAE donated $100 million for the relief efforts. Both Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and General Peter Pace have described the relationship the United States has with United Arab Emirates as "very close" and "superb". General Tommy Franks (who commanded Central Command during the liberation of Afghanistan and the liberation of Iraq) praised the UAE for providing first-rate intelligence.

One of the things that has been frequently ignored in the anti-UAE diatribes is the fact that the United Arab Emirates is a Middle Eastern country where religious tolerance is the rule. The UAE's constitution guarantees freedom of religion (albeit it declares Islam as the official religion), and largely permits religious freedom. In 2003, the UAE shut down the Zayed Center for Coordination and Follow-up, which was publishing material that promoted anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. Isn't that the kind of behavior the United States is trying to promote in the region? [...]

In another fact ignored by the scare campaign, the UAE has the only port in the Middle East that is part of the Container Security Initiative run by Homeland Security. Dubai Ports World agreed to mandatory participation in other programs to improve security and to prevent the illegal shipment of nuclear materials, will provide documents on internal operations on demand and has agreed to cooperate in future investigations.