[Mb-civic] UAE Gave $1 Million to Bush Library By Wendy Benjaminson The Associated Press

[Michael Butler]

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    UAE Gave $1 Million to Bush Library
    By Wendy Benjaminson
    The Associated Press

    Thursday 23 February 2006

    A sheik from the United Arab Emirates contributed at least $1 million to
the Bush Library Foundation, which established the George Bush Presidential
Library at Texas A&M University in College Station.

    The UAE owns Dubai Port Co., which is taking operations from
London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., which operates
six US ports. A political uproar has ensued over the deal, which the White
House approved without congressional oversight.

    The donations were made in the early 1990s for the library, which houses
the papers of former President George Bush, the current president's father.

    The list of donors names Sheik Zayed Bin Sultan al Nahyan and the people
of the United Arab Emirates as one donor in the $1 million or more category.

    The amount of the gift grants them recognition on the engraved donor
wall in the library entrance or on the paving bricks that line the library's
walkways, according to library documents.

    Roman Popaduik, chairman of the Bush Library Foundation that collects
donations, said he could not discuss details of the gifts except to say the
amount category and whether it was before or after 1997.

    The chief executive of the Dubai company, Ahmed bin Sulayem, did not
donate individually.

    The hundreds of large donors include longtime Bush associates, including
Vice President Dick Cheney and other administration officials as well as
business titans - such as Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay - and big
Republican donors.

    Other Arab donors include the state of Kuwait, the Bandar bin Sultan
family, the Sultanate of Oman, King Hassan II of Morocco and the amir of
Qatar. The former Korean prime minister and China also gave tens of
thousands of dollars to the library.