The lobbying effort has been conducted by Gump and DLA Piper, which so
far received more than $1.5 million. The two consultants have hired such
congressional veterans as former House Majority Leader Richard Armey and Vic
Fazio, who served 10 terms as a Democrat from California.
On Sept. 10, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan concluded his
four-day visit with a meeting at President Barack Obama in Washington. The
two men were said to have discussed cooperation in energy and security.
Congress has been critical of the UAE nuclear program. In May, members
of Congress attended the screening of a videotape of a UAE sheik beating and
torturing a naked Afghan merchant. The screening took place as the Senate
began a review of the U.S.-UAE nuclear accord.
"We, of course, are very concerned by this video," State Department
spokesman Ian Kelly said.
The UAE lobbying campaign, overseen by ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba, has
been
responding to reports by the Justice Department that Dubai served as a
gateway for illegal U.S. dual-use exports to Iran. In 2006, Congress, citing
Abu Dhabi support for Taliban and Hamas, torpedoed the UAE purchase of a
British
company that operated the six leading U.S. ports.
"I recognize that the UAE is a strategically important country," House
Human Rights Commission chairman Rep. James McGovern said. "But at some
point, human rights have to matter."
Abu Dhabi has also signed contracts with several U.S. firms, including
Good Harbor Consulting. Good Harbor has been operated by former White House
counter-insurgency adviser Richard Clarke.
The UAE royal family, which has signed nuclear cooperation agreements
with France and Japan, has also come under spotlight. British and U.S. media
have accused members of the royal family of torturing business partners and
failing to stop the laundering of money from piracy in the Arabian Sea and
Red Sea.
"We did not receive any report about money laundering taking place in
the UAE," Dubai deputy police commander Maj. Gen. Khamis Mattar Al Mazinah
said.
In May, the nuclear cooperation agreement was approved by President
Barack Obama. Congress, with 90 days to review the accord, did not block the
president's decision.
Still, senior members of the Congress, including the chairs of the House
Foreign Affairs Committee and Senate Relations Committee, have demanded that
Abu Dhabi block the flow of U.S. and Western dual-use equipment for Iran.
Dubai has been deemed as the leading waystation for components for Iran's
ballistic missile and nuclear program.
"A country where the laws can be flouted by the rich and powerful is not
a country that can safeguard sensitive U.S. nuclear technology," Rep. Edward
Markey, a Massachussetts Democrat, said.
