UAE Media Reaction: New TSA Security Screening

UNCLAS DUBAI 000014

SIPDIS
STATE FOR NEA/ARP, NEA/PPD, NEA/PI, INR/R/MR, NEA/SA/EX/PMO
LONDON FOR NEA WATCHER
PARIS FOR NEA WATCHER
FOREIGN PRESS CENTER FOR NEA WATCHER

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OIIP KPAO KMDR AE
SUBJECT: UAE Media Reaction: New TSA Security Screening


1. SUMMARY: Emirati editorials this week express anger and
disappointment over new TSA air screening measures of U.S.-bound
passengers from 14 specific countries. While acknowledging a need
to address terrorist threats, the recent screening measures are
widely decried as discriminatory and racist. END SUMMARY.



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Racial Profiling and Xenophobia

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2. On January 5, Dubai English daily Gulf News (circulation
100,000) published an editorial that protested the new security
screening measures, accusing the United States of xenophobia and
racial profiling:



"...authorities in the US have reacted in a knee-jerk manner,
tarring all with the same brush. Under strict new security
guidelines, all air passengers bound for any US destination will be
subjected to extra, random screening measures. All too often in the
past, these random screening measures are predicated upon
xenophobia and racial profiling...This blacklist of 14 targets
primarily people from Muslim nations. On that basis alone, it is
xenophobia and must be rejected by all right-thinking peoples."



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STOPGAP MEASURE, NOT SOLUTION

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3. Abu Dhabi English daily "The National" (circulation 60,000)
published an editorial on January 5 that took a more moderate
approach, while still lamenting the new measures. While
acknowledging that "there is, unfortunately, some merit to the US
case for profiling based on country of origin...it is
incontrovertible that disproportionate numbers of extremists do
come from countries such as Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, and
Afghanistan", it also pointed out that "recent terrorist plots
against the United States have often been hatched within the
country itself".




4. Calling the increased screenings a "stopgap measure" that would
not go far in protecting the United States, it called for the
United States to address the underlying problems fueling terrorism,
specifically "misled ideology, social unrest, political turmoil,
economic stagnation - require far more comprehensive solutions."




5. In a nod to the strong bilateral US-UAE relationship, the
editorial notes that "significantly, the UAE is not on the list, a
sign of bettering relations between the two nations."



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DRACONIAN LAWS AND EXTREME MEASURES

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6. Sharjah-based English daily "Khaleej Times" (circulation 90,000)
warned that "draconian laws and extreme measures do not lead to
security":

"As it is, since the September 11 attacks, Arab, Muslim and Asian
travelers to the United States have been increasingly complaining
of hostile and often humiliating security checks and body searches.
Predictably, the latest US move has evoked strong protests from
human rights groups and Muslim Americans...While the world
understands the US concern for its security after the Detroit
flight incident, it would be a tragedy if this leads to the kind of
paranoid, extreme actions for which the Bush administration is
remembered. In fact, if there's any lesson that is to be drawn from
the previous administration, it is that draconian laws and extreme
measures do not lead to security. They have only earned the US more
enemies."



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"IF YOU LOVE UNCLE SAM YOU ARE WELCOME"

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7. The largest UAE Arabic language daily "Al Khaleej" (circulation
90,000) laments the new security measures as the start of an
Orwellian world where the United States screens potential visitors
by the books they read, paintings they view, and movies they watch
to determine whether they love or hate America.



"In this time of cloning and other scientific advances, we can
expect someday soon to see X rays that reveal intents...One of the
many consequences of 9/11 has been a return to a time that people
thought they departed for good. The culture of violations and
listening to other people and looking for suspects of ready
charges. In fact the prophecy of George Orwell was realized,
adding to it what did not exist in the 1940s - the technological
tools used for torture and other communication means...As an Arab
or Muslim, are suspect till you prove the opposite.



If a traveler loves Uncle Sam he is welcome, but if proved he hate
America he must return back...If a passenger hears a conversation
that indicates that he does not like America, he must pay the price
if he does not inform such a suspect to the nearest American
Embassy, Consulate, or CIA station.



It is likely that American security will distribute to those
heading to the U.S., or the so-called paradise, a lists of what is
allowed and what is banned. On this will include all the books the
passenger read during his life, or the movies he watched, the
paintings he saw or the music he listened to. If he read Miller,
Chomsky or Steinbeck before he changed, he should not take the risk
to reach to the airport. If he watched "Fahrenheit", "This is
America", "Deer Hunter" of "They Kill Horses" he then should not
expose himself to dangers. If he saw drawings of Naji Al-Ali or
paintings of Gaza children or Lebanon, he should not even think of
getting an entry visa to the paradise."
SIBERELL