Jim Geraghty has compiled a list of information and misinformation. Those serious about this debate should note two things:

I don’t begrudge someone for having concerns about this deal.

However, I do begrudge someone for not having their facts straight.

Actually, I ignore people who cannot get the facts straight on an issue. When I listen to warped or incorrect information spewing from somebody, information demonstrably false, all I see is someone yapping about how the Earth is flat. Sorry, but that is the image that pops in my head. The other one is blood letting to cure diseases. These are all massively incorrect assumptions made by the brightest people of their time. It is sort of a humility reminder for me not to do the same.

And on the intelligence angle, which is obviously a part of this arrangement, Jim has found some tidbits:

A former senior CIA official recalled that, although money transfers from Dubai were used by the Sept. 11 hijackers, Dubai’s security services “were one of the best in the UAE to work with” after the attacks. He said that once the agency moved against Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan and his black-market sales of nuclear technology, “they helped facilitate the CIA’s penetration of Khan’s network.”

That means the UAE put a stop to the possible transfer of nuclear WMD into terrorist hands. Does that mean ANYTHING to those running around crying ‘wolf’ about Ayrabs in our ports? And you can tell an ally by the enemies he keeps:

Dubai also assisted in the capture of al-Qaeda terrorists. An al-Qaeda statement released in Arabic in spring 2002 refers to UAE officials as wanting to “appease the Americans’ wishes” including detaining “a number of Mujahideen,” according to captured documents made available last week by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. The al-Qaeda statement threatened the UAE, saying that “you are an easier target than them; your homeland is exposed to us.”

Well, they must have ruffled someone’s feathers. I guess now the paraniod brigade will theorize the letter was a plant to give cover to the UAE – and the people caught were of little value. I wish I were omnipotent and could see into the hearts and souls of people like that.

One last additional thought brought on by this passage at Winds Of Change, referred to by Geraghty:

Or is it a problem inherent in Islam and Arabs generally? Hence Geraghty’s point re: “faith in the good sense or non-hostile nature of the Muslim world.” Once that sets as a “no” answer, the belief that “the only good Injun is a dead Injun” is a lot closer than it used to be. And so is a full-scale war, which now waits, primed, for subsequent events of sufficient magnitude to detonate it.

Very true.  We have gone into the Middle East to plant the seed of freedom and democracy.  If our allies get the impression (i.e., we allow them to believe in something else) we are there for control and imperialism, that we just want to kill, and then cut and run, that we have no honor and have no respect for anyone in the region, we will be in World War III.  Do the folks risking this future understand this?  If so, what motivates them to bring this terrible future into reality?  Those are legitimate questions and concerns too, you know.