Politics & Power Quote by Bart Gordon

The line walks a tightrope that every post-9/11 politician learned to master: praise the partner, then tighten the screws. Gordon grants the UAE the credential Washington cares about most - “ally since” the attacks - and immediately undercuts it with a darker, stickier claim: harboring and aiding al Qaeda operatives tied to 9/11. That pivot is the point. It’s not just an accusation; it’s a rhetorical trap that makes continued deference to the UAE sound naive, even negligent.

The most loaded phrase is “the American people know.” It’s an appeal over the heads of diplomats and intelligence briefers, invoking a public common sense that can’t be argued with because it’s framed as already settled. Gordon isn’t merely describing evidence; he’s manufacturing political permission. If “the people” know, then lawmakers can act - investigate, restrict arms sales, demand financial transparency - without seeming partisan or paranoid.

Context matters: this is the era when “ally” stopped being a binary label and became a conditional contract. Gulf states were indispensable for basing rights, counterterror cooperation, and energy markets, while simultaneously serving as nodes in the informal ecosystems - charities, banks, permissive residency - that militants exploited. Gordon’s sentence compresses that contradiction into one breath, signaling that alliance doesn’t equal absolution.

Subtext: the UAE may be useful, but usefulness doesn’t buy silence. By tying the charge directly to 9/11, he attaches maximum moral gravity, turning a foreign policy dispute into an argument about national memory and accountability.