Experts in counter-terrorism call it “ the interface” while the police refer to it as “ staging post.”

In both cases the place in question is a city or a country where terrorists can contact their leaders, obtain money, rest, even receive medical treatment when necessary, and then easily slip back into targeted societies. During the Cold War Vienna often played the role. For a good part of the 1970s and 1980s Beirut was a key “ interface.” During the Afghan war against the Soviet Union, the Pakistani city of Peshawar was “ the staging post.”

The FBI has confirmed that it already has a special team in Dubai to investigate “ the exact place of the city-state on the global terror jigsaw puzzle.” Two French investigators have also been in Dubai since last month looking for connections between Algerian terror groups and the networks linked to Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda.

Western intelligence experts have for years tried to find out which city or country played that role for the neo-terrorism allegedly launched by the Al-Qaeda organization from 1992 onwards. They now point the finger at the Gulf emirate of Dubai.

The current view is that while Yemen is host to the largest number of Arab “Afghans” outside Afghanistan and Pakistan, it is not a place of “ current activity.”

“ Those in Yemen are quiet, just chewing qat and waiting,” says Naomi Eisenstein who is writing a special study on the subject.

“ They may be reactivated one day and be asked to go somewhere to do something. In Dubai, however, the elements concerned were extremely active.”

Since the Sept. 11 tragedy in New York and Washington an estimated 800 people have been arrested in the United States, Canada and Western Europe. A surprisingly large number of them appear to have passed by Dubai for varying length of time.

“There certainly is a Dubai connection,” says a French source close to judges handling the terrorist cases. “ Many of the suspects have traveled there on more than one occasion.”

Dubai’s attractions are obvious. In a region of often hermetically closed frontiers, Dubai is a haven of openness. Many people obtain visas at the airport or through hotels where they have a booking. Immigration procedures are perfunctory and no one is looking for forged passports.

“Dubai has built its immense commercial success on its openness,” says Ellen Crane, a travel specialist in London. “People know they can go there and get the modern comforts of the West plus a bit of Oriental exoticism. In other Arab countries every new arrival is suspect and is often subjected to questions that could at times be offensive. In Dubai no one is suspicious, no one asks questions. As long as you spend money you can do virtually whatever you like.”

According to British sources many of Al-Qaeda’s contacts in Europe used Dubai as a staging point before travelling by air to Pakistan and thence, over land, to Afghanistan. Abu Zubeida, an alleged Al-Qaeda big shot who has gone under ground in Britain since Sept. 11, is said to have visited Dubai eight times in just three years. The German security service, the BND, is actually using travel to Dubai as an important element in hunting down possible terrorists.

“ We have dug out evidence that at least 100 fundamentalist militants from the Hamburg area alone had paid frequent visits to Dubai, “ says a BND source. “ It is unlikely that they went there to shop or to have fun or water-ski. Nor could they have gone to Dubai for religious pilgrimage. We want to know what they were doing there.”

Although citizens of other states of the United Arab Emirates, especially Abu Dhabi and Ras Al-Khaimah, are among those arrested in the US and Europe, no Dubai citizen is involved. This shows that the Dubaiotes may have unwittingly hosted terrorists but in no way collaborated with them. Hiding in Dubai is easy, especially for Arabs, Pakistanis and Afghans.

At any given time the emirate’s own citizens account for no more than 20 percent of the total population present. Estimates vary but Dubai is host to some 1.5 million tourists each year. A further 2.8 million pass through the city-state while travelling top and from Europe to various points in Asia and Australia. “Dubai is the busiest air travel hub between Europe and Japan,” says Ellen Crane. “In many cases passengers can spend a night, often for shopping, before resuming their journey.”

Such stopovers could, of course, provide ample time for terrorists to make contact, receive instructions and funds, cool their trail and head for their ultimate destination.

Western sources say Dubai has also been a haven for regional intelligence services. Iran is estimated to have over 600 active agents, many of them members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in civilian clothes. At least nine Iranian dissidents, including a former army colonel, were murdered in Dubai, allegedly by Iranian agents, in the 1990s. Iraq, which had for years maintained a presence in Ras Ali Khaimah moved its “assets” to Dubai after the 1991 invasion of Kuwait. The tiny intelligence force that Dubai has is often busy watching the Iranians and the Iraqis, which leaves little time to keep an eye on individuals linked to private terror organizations.

Dubai’s attractiveness is also partly due to the modern facilities it offers. It has the best telecommunication systems in the region plus a highly developed banking sector. A model of the free market economy, Dubai asks no questions about money. It organises annual exhibitions where anyone, including private sector terror groups, can see and acquire the latest gadgets. The annual arms exhibition in the UAE is another attraction.

Dubai authorities have been quick to promise full cooperation in the fight against terrorism. They have also taken measures to tighten control on suspicious movements.

Some Western analysts, however, believe that Dubai should remain an “ interface.”

“If we close down Dubai as an interface the terrorists will develop another one,” says a British counter-terrorism analyst. “ What we need to do is to have our own presence in Dubai and use it as a marvelous window into the world of terror. An interface can face both ways. The campaign against terrorism could take years and would require penetrating the terror groups at all levels. We could use Dubai for infiltrating the targeted organizations.”

For the time being, however, Dubai is one of the destinations that have been hit by the current fear of air travel. British Airways has cut its services to Dubai by 50 percent.

London travel agents say Dubai cancellations are “ at peak levels.”

“We had hoped to send masses of people for Christmas shopping to Dubai,” says Brian Maher of Thomas Cook travel agency. “ But all we get now are cancellations. “ People are just confused and prefer to wait and see.”

Having built its wealth on tourism and shopping Dubai may have some rough moments ahead. It may have to tighten its visa rules, organize more effective police surveillance, expel hundreds, may be thousands, of suspicious individuals, and allow Western intelligence services to establish a stronger and more permanent presence.

Analysts, however, believe that the emirate can weather the storm and regain its position.

“ The Dubai people have commerce in their blood,” says Christian Jung who is writing a travel book on the Gulf. “ Also, Dubai offers freedoms that no other country does in the region. That freedom itself will continue to attract many people to the emirate.”