Abandoned island development in Dubai, United Arab Emirates [OS] [1474×1200].

I was there the day after the leader of Hamas was assassinated.

He was assassinated in my hotel, by a multi-national group of about 10 people.

The entire staff of the hotel knew, I later found out.

The Dubai/UAE police kept it completely secret for 10 days.

We saw lots of machine guns at the airport when we arrived, but weren't sure why. All luggage was being screened as it came IN.

The fact that they kept this secret for 10 days is unprecedented. The fact that no one said anything tells you a lot about the control the police have.

The second time I was there, a UK tourist was (allegedly) beaten to death in the police station for being drunk in public. I think I saw the guy get arrested. You just don't do certain things in certain places. If you do, you risk a lot.

One of my friends had an (innocent) encounter with them over photos she had taken. When they asked for her camera, it wasn't a request, lol. Those guys are pretty scary, and you realize that they have absolute authority.

Once when I was leaving, we were in the airport, had gone through security, and were ready to board. All of a sudden, we saw about 20 police with very large guns run into the area. They made everyone leave, set up a screening station, and searched/questioned every person, paying particular attention to the women. (There were not a lot of us) I saw them looking at me, and they came over, asked for my passport, and took me to a screening room.

I was really scared. There was a tiny woman in an abaya there, and she had a metal detector. They took my passport, questioned me about what/where/why, and she did a search. They were polite, but it was pretty frightening. My SO was upset. I was scared, but I was polite.

When they realized that I was part of an event, and, although I was flying to the UK, I was American, and my passport was real, they apologized and let me go. It probably didn't help that our group had passports from five or six different countries, but we were all flying to the UK.

I later heard that they were looking for an Irish woman that was part of a terrorist group, had slender wrists, had come in via the UK, and had a forged passport. I don't really fit the Irish part, but in Dubai I suppose I might, lol. Don't know if that part is true, a man on the plane heard them talking.

These are mild encounters, but it's pretty well-known that the police are very harsh when they want to be.

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