Steven Emerson: Mixed UAE Record on Terrorism, With Hamas Still Supported

Steven Emerson appeared on Rita Cosby's MSNBC program last night to discuss the UAE's record on terrorism and container security. You can see his appearance on the Investigative Project on Terrorism website (Windows Media). Here is the discussion on the UAE and terrorism:

RITA COSBY: Joining us now is terrorism expert, Steve Emerson. Steve, are they [the United Arab Emirates] an ally or not?

STEVEN EMERSON: Well, they are an ally of sorts. It depends who the "they" is. There are some members of the kingdom there- it's a federation- that are really close allies of the United States. Others aren't. So it's hard to say. I would not put them in the same category of an ally as a European nation would be. But they certainly have exhibited some pro-U.S. policies since 9/11. Though, I must point out that two of the 9/11 hijackers came from UAE and also there were even Hamas couriers as late as last year that were sent to the West Bank or Gaza that came in with UAE cash. So there is still a problem of terrorist supporting operations.

COSBY: In fact, you mentioned two of the hijackers were from there. Eleven actually traveled through Dubai and about 125,000 dollars, that's about half of the money spent on the 9/11 attack, was wired from banks in Dubai. Separately, also, terrorism analyst Bob Newman called me right before the show and he found some testimony- this is during the 9/11 commission, Steve, I don't know if you have heard this- but apparently there was supposed to be a strike on Bin Laden in February 1999. It was averted because apparently there were members of the UAE royal family with Bin Laden at that point, showing some pretty strong ties with Bin Laden and at least the royal family of the UAE. What do you say, Steve?

EMERSON: Well, in fact, they were one of the three of the regimes to recognize the Taliban and as you correctly noted some of the princes there had friendly relations with Osama Bin Laden himself. Look, the question is whether they have changed since 9/11. Let's be fair. I have been looking at this for the last several days and I still don't have an opinion one way or another other than to say that it's not clear that they are one hundred percent an enemy or that they are so porous in terms of their security net that they are allowing terrorists to operate all the time. They have done some very pro-American things. On the other hand, there still is a problem in terms of their policies of allowing some Hamas networks to survive or to flourish, to allow themselves to be bank couriers, and they are not cracking down a hundred percent in terms of the money laundering that is suspected to go to Islamic militants.