...take the criticism about the UAE being one of only a handful of countries to recognise the Taliban as a legitimate government, for instance (one of the criticisms being used to argue against the Dubai Ports World deal).

People are conveniently forgetting that the US government at one time also recognised the Taliban as a legitimate government, and even gave them money. Now why would someone want to misrepresent that particular factoid? Why would they be pointing fingers at the UAE for something even the government of the US has done? I think it's because they've got an axe to grind that has nothing whatever with port security or human rights issues.