US embassy cable - 03ABUDHABI3817

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABU DHABI 003817 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NSC FOR AMB ELIOT ABRAMS 
 
NEA/FO AND NEA/ARP, CAIRO FOR HEGADORN 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/18/13 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, TC 
SUBJECT: AS ZAYED CENTER FLAP GROWS, UAEG WANTS USG TO 
INTERVENE WITH HARVARD 
 
Refs: A. Abu Dhabi 3801 B. 02 Abu Dhabi 4712 
 
1. (U) Classified by Charge d'Affaires, a.i., 
Richard Albright, for Reasons 1.5 (B) and (D). 
 
2. (C) Summary: In very frank terms during a meeting with 
the Charge and Polchief on August 19, UAE Information 
Minister Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan said President Sheikh 
Zayed "went the extra mile" when he decided to close down 
the Zayed Center for Coordination and Follow-up (ZCCF) 
because of its negative activities.  If the matter "turns 
sour," Sh. Abdullah warned, referring to Harvard 
University's possible decision to return Sh. Zayed's $2.5 
million endowment to establish an Islamic Studies Chair at 
the Divinity School, the first to be hurt will be America's 
friends in the UAE.  Meanwhile, the Arab League, Arab 
journalists, and the to be ousted director of the ZCCF are 
rallying to the defense of the Center.  Two UAEG emissaries 
are on their way to the U.S. to meet with Harvard 
officials, hoping to persuade the university not to return 
the endowment.  End summary. 
 
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UAEG: Frank talk on a sensitive subject 
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3. (C) UAE Information Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed 
Al-Nahyan met with Charge and Polchief August 18 and urged 
the Administration to intercede with Harvard to be sure 
that University officials understand the steps the UAE has 
taken to deal with the Zayed Center and urge Harvard not to 
return Sheikh Zayed's $2.3 million endowment.  Charge noted 
our appreciation for the steps being taken to halt the 
Center's negative activities and as he did with de facto 
Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamdan Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (HbZ) 
two days earlier, the Charge said that the continued 
presence of the ZCCF Web site (www.zccf.org.ae) with its 
negative content diminishes the impact of the UAEG's 
actions on the Zayed Center.  Sh. Abdullah was surprised to 
learn that the Web site was still active. 
 
4. (C) Sh. Abdullah warned that if Harvard returns Sh. 
Zayed's endowment, the first to be hurt "are your friends 
in the UAE," and "whoever has been supporting in whatever 
way the Zayed Center will end up being victorious." 
Everyone who has been "nasty" with the U.S. and with the 
UAE because of its desire to have stronger relations with 
the U.S. "will be laughing in our faces and saying, 'You 
deserve what you get.'" Nevertheless, Abdullah pledged that 
the UAEG would not change its policy toward the U.S. 
Charge agreed that a Harvard decision to return the 
endowment would be a very damaging development.  He assured 
Sh. Abdullah that his concerns would be communicated to 
Washington. 
 
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UAEG Emissaries to Harvard 
-------------------------- 
 
5. (C) The UAEG is sending Dr. Jamal Al-Suweidi, the 
director of the UAEG think tank Emirates Center for 
Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR), and Ahmed Mohammed 
Al-Humairi, an undersecretary for consultative and 
technical affairs at the Office of the President, to meet 
with Harvard officials (see reftel A).  Although he did not 
know details of their appointments, Sh. Abdullah said one 
of their meetings may be with Harvard theology student 
Rachel Fish who first raised the ZCCF issue with Harvard 
administrators. 
 
6. (U) Meanwhile, the ZCCF issue has been receiving front- 
page coverage in the local and Arab world press in the last 
two days.  London-based Arabic daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat 
reported August 18 that the UAE will close the ZCCF after 
the Center was accused of promoting conspiracy theories. 
 
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Center Ties to the Arab League 
------------------------------ 
 
7. (U) In a statement to the Associated Press, Arab League 
spokesman Hesham Youssef in Cairo said it would be a great 
loss if the Center's activities were reduced in any way. 
He termed accusations of anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism 
"absolutely baseless."  As reported in reftel B, the ZCCF 
was founded in 1999 as the result of a 1997 Arab League 
Symposium held in the UAE.  The symposium recommended that 
there should be a research center created to coordinate 
activities within the Arab League and promote Arab causes 
abroad.  The project was endorsed by the Arab League 
Council, which comprises the foreign ministers of member 
states, to become an affiliate of the League.  The ZCCF was 
set up under a decree by UAE President Sheikh Zayed. 
Although officially associated with the Arab League, the 
ZCCF is funded almost entirely by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. 
The Center has its own printing press, which churns out 
studies and lectures, and it features a Web site that 
carries summaries of recent presentations.  (As of COB 
August 19, the site was still up, and contained the same 
information that was supposed to have been eliminated, 
including a past guest speaker's lecture in which he 
questioned the Holocaust, which had caused the 
controversy.) 
 
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ZCCF Director Defends Center's Purpose 
-------------------------------------- 
 
8. (U) In Abu Dhabi, Mohammed Khalifa Al-Murar, the to be 
ousted Director General of the Center, strongly rebuffed 
claims that the ZCCF promotes anti-Semitic views.  The 
English-language daily "Gulf News," published an article 
Aug. 19 under the headline "Zayed Center hits back at 
Zionist campaign."   In it, Al-Murar asserted that the 
Center is exercising its right for freedom of expression, 
and it is a neutral institution that offers a platform for 
all scholars to air their ideas.  "Gulf News" also reported 
that the Center has received solidarity signatures from 
hundreds of Arab journalists who want to keep the Center 
open and who denounce what described as a "systematic smear 
campaign by Zionist circles in the United States and 
Britain against the Zayed Center because of its distinct 
cultural and civilized role."  The "Gulf News" article did 
not mention the anti-Semitic and anti-US content of the Web 
site. 
 
9. (C) COMMENT: Sheikh Abdullah's decision to go public in 
the August 18 Sharq al-Awsat with the ZCCF closure story is 
a significant departure from the normal practice of the 
close lipped Beni Fatima.  It appears that they have 
calculated that their private letters and messages had not 
proved effective and that they were going to have to enter 
the media fray to combat accusations against the UAEG that 
have been circulating for months.  Now that the debate has 
gone public, to be fired Zayed Center director al-Murar has 
been in the media defending himself and his Center; the 
Arab League is calling for the Center to remain open and; a 
collection of Arab nationalist "intellectuals" is crying 
that this is all a Zionist conspiracy.   It will probably 
take the UAEG some time to work through this, formally 
close the Center, shut down the website and deal with the 
Arab League. This debate, which erupted in the UAE media 
today, reflects a growing degree of press freedom that the 
UAE has tried to promote.  Sheikh Abdullah cited these 
concerns in explaining their hesitancy to close ZCCF's 
website. For now, the government has gone public and is 
taking the flak from the Arab world.  This step may help 
them with Harvard.  We recommend that Department officials 
meet with ECSSR director Jamal as-Suweidi to discuss these 
developments and next steps. 
 
ALBRIGHT