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. -------------- Racial Profiling and Xenophobia -------------- ¶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." -------------- STOPGAP MEASURE, NOT SOLUTION -------------- ¶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." -------------- DRACONIAN LAWS AND EXTREME MEASURES -------------- ¶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." -------------- "IF YOU LOVE UNCLE SAM YOU ARE WELCOME" -------------- ¶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