Good riddance to bad rubbish. Had the deal gone through, it would have compromised our national security.
Bill Clinton must be very sad right about now. His pet project has blown up in his face.
The deal IS going to go through, just not in the originally-proposed form. Any possible compromise to national security represented by this deal is entirly dwarfed by our daily negligence of our own southern border. Bluntly put, we've got FAR LARGER fish to fry in the "National Security" category.
While there were questionable events involving UAE officials and al-Quaeda in the late '90's, after 9-11 all that crap ended. They have expressed regret that they ever recognized the Taliban as the ligitimate government of Afghanistan, and have sought to distance themselves from radical Islamist groups, focusing on strong diplomatic relations with the US and collaborative operations with US intelligence and teh US military.
I've heard much of "the dirt" on the UAE, and it dates predominantly from the pre-9-11 era. My gut-level is that the UAE saw 9-11 and recognized a defining moment -- a line in the sands of history -- when they had to make a serious choice about which side of that line they wanted to stand on. From all subsequent appearances, they have chosen to stand on our side of that line. None of that excuses shabbiness in how accountability is set up to secure port operations, but it supports the deal, in principle.
We cannot say to the Middle East, "Leave the 14th Centruy behind and join the civilized world," then turn right around and bar their attempts at participation in the civlized world.