Chase waited for him to finish his story.
“Unfortunately, it took the atrocities of September eleventh to spur major capital inflows to Dubai. For after September of 2001, your nation passed the Patriot Act. I was in America at the time. Not a good place to be an Arab during those days. But you see, in the 1990s, the oil-rich nations of the Gulf States would take their money and invest it in American ventures. After the Patriot Act, however, that became less appealing. Too much of a hassle for Middle Eastern investors. No one wanted to go through all of the paperwork and deal with the risk that the US government might decide to freeze his assets. So… what were the wealthy families of the Middle East to do with their money? Where could they invest?”
“They invested in Dubai.”
Waleed nodded. “They invested in Dubai. That peaceful land of shopping and tourism that I was just telling you about. But tourism could only take one’s money so far. And that’s all Dubai was at the time. Up until the year 2000, it was just a tourist destination. A very appealing one, sure. But with the amount of money that was beginning to pour in, we could do so much more than just tourism. Diversification was important to the Emirates. So was planning for the future.”
Waleed sipped his drink. He said, “Someday, the oil would either dry up or become obsolete. While Dubai didn’t make its money that way, many of our investors did. So how would we sustain ourselves when that happened? How would we ensure prosperity for our kingdom?”
Chase could see how proud Waleed was of this story. It was his family’s story, Chase realized. Elliot Jackson had told Chase that Waleed was related to the Dubai royal family. He continued to speak for a while about their great rise from the hot and barren sands of the Arabian Gulf.
Chase was impressed. He had seen the pictures of what this city had looked like only a few decades ago. Then it had been just a few buildings along a desert coast. But today’s Dubai was a masterpiece of modern architecture, and a rapidly growing center for several industries.
Waleed continued, “That was his stroke of genius. Sheikh Mohammed knew what ruled investors’ hearts: fear and greed. So he gave the world what it needed. Reassurance. Confidence. He carved out sections of land within Dubai and made them legal zones for certain types of businesses. They would be protected by Western-style laws. Entertainment companies. Technology companies. Real Estate. And — what is most relevant to this conversation — financial companies. We brought in McKinsey. Do you know McKinsey? The consulting firm?”
“Yes. It’s a very good company. I have a friend that works there. He’s one of the smartest people I know.”
“They helped us design the structure for Dubai International Financial Centre — not the buildings, but the actual financial and legal entity. Soon, all of the big banks came. This Financial Centre became the engine that pumped in more and more capital investment. In the 2000s, all one could see in this city was the miles and miles of skyscrapers with cranes on top of them. The real estate market was in a feeding frenzy. The Iraq war was increasing the price of oil. And all the while, the capital inflows were pouring into Dubai. It was a furious race to create the new capital of the Middle East. A peaceful, tolerant, and luxurious city. It was, and still is today, a symbol of hope for the region.”
Chase gave a polite smile as he washed down some falafel with a sip of scotch.
“Tell me, you have been to many places in the Middle East. Do you feel safe in all of them?”
He’d been shot at in four different Middle Eastern countries. “Sure. As long as I’m armed.”
Waleed smirked. “Well, let me ask you, do you feel safe in Dubai?”
Chase thought about it. “I do. It reminds me of a Western city. Clean and modern. Although this is more luxurious than almost any city in the West.”
“It is more luxurious than any city in the West. I’ve been to most of them.”
“You’re probably right.”
Waleed said, “I love this city. And I want to protect it. I raised my family here. My two sons know nothing other than the peace and prosperity of modern Dubai.”
Chase could feel that there was a tension in Waleed’s tone.
“The brilliance of Dubai’s design is the vision that our leaders showed. They knew that oil money could only take us so far. Someday, this world’s hunger for oil will dry up. Or the wells themselves will. When that happens, many cities, and even entire nations around this region, will suffer greatly. They are not prepared for that change.”
“But Dubai is?”
“Absolutely. Less than five percent of our economy is from oil income. The rest is from industries that are growing and bringing in the best and the brightest from all over the world. We have become self-sustaining.”
“Impressive.”
“I love what it stands for. It is much like America, in many ways. A symbol of hope in a troubled world. A place where leaders with great vision created something special. Something that could grow into greatness.” Waleed paused. His thick eyebrows narrowed as he leaned forward. “Now we must protect it.”
“Protect… Dubai?”
“Yes. Because I believe that Dubai as we know it is in great danger.”
“Why do you think Dubai is in danger?”
Waleed said, “Chase, tell me… are you familiar with the Iranian military unit known as the Quds Force?”
Chase knew of that unit very well. When he had operated with the SEALs in Iraq and Afghanistan, it was rumored that the Iranian Special Forces group known as the Quds Force was supplying and even assisting the anti-US militias.
A congressional hearing in 2015 revealed that as many as five hundred American deaths could be linked to Iranian-made explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs. While the US was trying to stabilize Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran was helping to kill American troops stationed in both countries.
One of the things that always bothered him about the media coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was that they seemed to pay little attention to the fact that Iran helped provide the funds and technical training to harm the US military.
Chase had witnessed the use of several of these EFPs during his deployments. One such explosive device had shredded a Humvee in a convoy that he was a part of, killing two of his brother SEALs that had been riding in it. They later found evidence that Quds Force personnel had supplied those weapons.
The anti-American militias that Quds Force had been equipping weren’t just Iraqi freedom fighters. They were a mix of jihadists from around the region. Some of the things that Chase witnessed these groups do were pure evil. They maimed and killed civilians they thought were cooperating with the Americans. These violent acts were often carried out in public, as a scare tactic, and as a way to demonstrate power.
There were stories of fathers being shot in front of their children. Wives stoned to death in front of their husbands. Chase had once seen a four-year-old boy without a hand. When he asked one of the locals about it, they had said that his father had shaken the hand of an American soldier, and that the boy’s injury was the result.
In Chase’s experience, only the weak and scared felt the need to prove their power by harming those without the means to protect themselves. His time in Iraq and Afghanistan made him realize that there were truly evil people in the world.
Before going to war, he had only read about atrocities like that in the news. But seeing a TV news report and reading about an incident online was one thing. Witnessing these brutalities was another. There were truly wicked men in the world. Everyone might have been born equal. But the types of people that would cut off a child’s limb to send a message to a village — these men were his enemy.