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Torture Video Derails US-Emirates Nuke Deal
By Harry Kimball
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Posted May 1, 09 3:45 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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Video of a member of the UAE’s royal family brutally torturing an Afghan salesman threatens to sink a nuclear trade deal between the UAE and the US, the Times of London reports. Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, a brother of the UAE president, is shown beating the trader and running him over with a truck. Those close to the Obama administration say the video is directly responsible for stalling the deal.
Then-President Bush signed the agreement, promising civil nuclear technology provided the Persian Gulf nation did not develop nuclear weapons. Rep. Jim McGovern, who is demanding the US halt trade with the UAE until the matter is investigated, calls the tape “one of the most horrific things I have ever seen in my life.” The UAE has acknowledged that Issa is the man in the video, but his lawyer says his client had been “unduly defamed.”