For the Bush administration, national security takes a back seat to corporate interests. Saudi Arabia and, to a lesser extent, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), export terrorism with every barrel of oil they sell. Saudi and UAE militants have been waging war in Afghanistan, in Kashmir, in Iraq, and in the Philippines. The Saudi and UAE royalty are officially opposed to terrorism, but they are reluctant to crack down on Islamic maximallists, including those who support terrorism, for fear of a conservative backlash within their own countries. Muslim clerics in Saudi Arabia and the UAE indirectly provide aid to terrorists by legitimizing Jihad, and they provide direct aid in the form of funding. At the same time that they were doing business with American companies, and hosting US Military bases and Navy ports, the UAE was tolerating terrorists. As long as American companies are getting rich on the arrangements ($6.5 billion for Lockheed-Martin alone), the administration is willing to accept the lackadaisical Saudi and UAE opposition to terrorism.

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