Looks like all the big dogs at Fox News are lining up in a neat little row on the UAE ports debacle.  Consider a sampling of what’s on tap over there:

Bill O’Reilly has declared:

The USA cannot win the War on Terror without the help of moderate Arab nations. "Talking Points" believes we will actually lose the terror war unless we build alliances in the Middle East. Right now, there's no reason to fire the Arab company, except that they are Arabs. Isn't that racism? Can America afford to send that message to the world?
 
Think about the unintended consequences of that. They're staggering. There's nothing bin Laden would like more than for the USA to alienate the United Arab Emirates.
 
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,185673,00.html
 

John Gibson has advised his viewers not to bother getting worked up about it, because:

Here's the bottom line: The port deal is going through.
 
When I said that it wouldn't go through and that the president's underlings who approved it should be fired, I was wrong. They're considered the smart guys who made a smart, globalizing deal, and the port deal is going to be pushed through.
 
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,186365,00.html
 

Brit Hume countered administration critics:

I don’t recall them having that concern when the foreign operators were British. I don’t recall them having that concern until it turned out that an Arab country was going to have operational control of or at least partial operational control, any way, of six U.S. ports.
 
Is there not an element of ethnic discrimination here?
 
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,186755,00.html
 

Likewise, Neil Cavuto has accused critics of the deal of “country-profiling” and suggested nixing the deal would make the U.S. “look like scaredy-cats.” 

http://www.newshounds.us/2006/02/22/do_gop_leaders_oppose_port_deal_hard_to_tell_on_fox_news.php

To an ordinary observer, this might appear to be just another example of the talking-whores in Rupert Murdoch’s house-of-ill-repute lining up to service the President.  But on closer inspection, there may be more going on here than meets the eye.

In fact, it turns out that there is ample reason why Fox News would fear a public backlash against a corporation owned by the UAE, where two of the 9/11 hijackers were born and raised.  Because guess who owns a big chunk of Fox News?  It’s the Saudi royal family, rulers of the country where fifteen of the 9/11 hijackers were born and raised.

In particular, its Prince Al-Walid bin Talal who owns a 5.46% interest in News Corp., parent of Fox News, according to Forbes.  Lest any one speculate that Saudi-ownership of News Corp. is actually affecting news coverage on Fox News, Prince Walid helpfully resolved the issue in a December 2005 interview in which he was discussing the recent riots in France.  He recounted:

I was in America watching Fox News when I saw a news report being labeled as Muslim riots.  I immediately called up [Rupert] Murdoch and informed him that it was wrong to label any riot caused by whatever reason as Muslim.  After a short while, there was a change, and the news report about Muslim riots was simply labeled as riots.

And it’s no wonder that Prince Walid carries so much clout.  According to Forbes, he has become a critical ally to Murdoch in recent boardroom brawls. 

FYI, Michel Gurfinkiel, the editor of  Valeurs Actuelles, has reported of the rioters in France that, “most of them explicitly pledge allegiance to Islam and such Muslim heroes as Osama bin Laden, [and] the Islamic motto - Allahu Akbar - is usually their war cry.”

One more note on Prince Walid: he was the Saudi royal who Rudy Giuliani told to go to hell after 9/11, when the Prince publicly suggested that the U.S. change its policy in the Middle East if it wanted to avert further attacks.  Here’s what Giuliani had to say about his encounter with Prince Walid at Ground Zero in his book Leadership:

In the month since the attack, I had accompanied many world leaders to the site.  Without exception, seeing Ground Zero up close overpowered them, as it had me.  When the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, visited, he had tears in his eyes.  Jacques Chiraq, Tony Blair, and Vladimir Putin all were devastated—Putin whispered, as if to himself, “This could happen in Moscow.”

           

When Prince Alwaleed arrived he was wearing an opulent gold robe and headdress, along with seven or eight aids in black robes.  He gave me a cashier’s check for $10 million, for the Twin Towers Fund.  Looking at the site from the small podium, the Prince was saying the right things. . . . But something wasn’t quite right.  I thought there was a smirk to his face, which seemed to carry over to his entourage.  He was the only visitor who was unmoved by what he saw.

 

No wonder they’re sweating bullets over at Faux News country.

Sources:

Forbes on Prince Walid:

http://www.forbes.com/2005/09/06/alwaleed-murdoch-billionaires-cx_gl_0906autofacescan02.html

Prince Walid Interview:

Michel Gurfinkiel on the French Riots:

http://www.nysun.com/article/22671?page_no=2&access=759097

Giuliani on Prince Walid:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0786868414/104-4293507-0398305?v=glance&n=283155