Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi visits Camp David
By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer Thu Jun 26, 6:42 PM ET
CAMP DAVID, Md. - President Bush gave a leader from an oil-rich Persian Gulf ally a plum reward on Thursday: a stay at the Camp David presidential retreat.
Bush welcomed Sheik Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, to the rustic wooded retreat in the Maryland mountains in typical fashion.
As the crown prince's helicopter landed on a large hilltop meadow on the property, the flag of the United Arab Emirates was hoisted along side the American flag. Bush, wearing an open-collared blue dress shirt, greeted the crown prince, in an untucked golf shirt over khakis, at the white-topped helicopter's steps and they walked down a double phalanx of Marines and Navy sailors.
This visit was a return favor for Bush's stay in Abu Dhabi in January, during which he traveled to the crown prince's desert playground, a remote encampment where he raises horses and prize falcons. Bush was feted there with a lavish feast of dishes ranging from bread with honey to grilled meats and sweets.
It came as oil prices hit another milestone, with light, sweet crude rising $5.09 to close at a record $139.64. OPEC's president said prices could reach between $150 and $170 this summer, all part of an expectation for gasoline prices to continue their upward march.
After chatting and posing for cameras, the two leaders climbed into a golf cart and Bush squired his guest off for a tour of the grounds. They were having a picnic dinner of fried chicken, corn on the cob, deviled eggs, potato salad and slaw. Their official meetings — all private and closed to any media coverage — were scheduled for Friday morning, followed by a lunch of hamburgers, french fries, onion rings and ice cream.
The crown prince was leaving Camp David Friday afternoon.
Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates and, with the lion's share of the country's oil resources, the richest of the seven semiautonomous emirates that make up the country.
The UAE also is a deeply undemocratic country, making Bush's courtship of its leaders somewhat awkward in the face of his "Freedom Agenda" to seed democracy around the globe, particularly in the Arab world.
In the UAE, an elite of royal rulers makes virtually all the decisions. Large numbers of foreign resident workers have few legal or human rights, including no right to protest working conditions.
Some human rights groups have accused the Emirates of tolerating virtual indentured servitude, where workers from poor countries like Sri Lanka are forced to work to pay off debts to employers, and have their passports seized so they can't leave.
A State Department report last year found what it called significant human rights problems in the Emirates including: no citizens' right to change the government and no popularly elected representatives of any kind; flogging as judicially sanctioned punishment; arbitrary detention and incommunicado detention; and restrictions on freedom of speech and the press.
The crown prince's overnight stay at Camp David puts him in an elite class of world leaders who have been awarded visits to locales prized by Bush, including the presidential retreat and his own ranch in Central Texas.
