Celebrating the 4th in a Foreign Land

Warden Message # 16/2008 - 4th of July and Worldwide Caution
To All American citizens in the UAE:
As we enter the busy summer travel and holiday season, including plans for 4th of July celebrations around the UAE, Embassy Abu Dhabi and Consulate General Dubai wish to remind American citizens about the general security situation in the Middle East, as outlined below in the current Worldwide Caution. The Embassy and Consulate General wish to advise Americans that potential exists for terrorists to plan and carry out violent actions in the region, including the UAE, and for this reason Americans should maintain a high level of personal security awareness at all times, particularly in public places.

With the security level heightened, you may wonder how we celebrated the 4th of July in the Middle East. Low key and in a top secret location so as not to blow our alias as Canadians??? Well no. What we did was to dress in red, white and blue and piled into a local hotel that was decorated with red, white and blue. We had Uncle Sam and Pocahantas in a buckskin bikini and that probably threw some suspicion our way. But just in case Al Qaeda didn't know where to find us, we had a giant fireworks show (thank you Exxon) that could be seen all the way to Iran. Having said that, there was a metal detector and it was turned on and we did have to wear american flag stickers (aka targets) for "security". I hope Mahmoud Ahmadinejani enjoyed the show.