When David Beckham and Michael Owen stroll out on to their private beaches to gaze over the azure seas of the Arabian Gulf, it will seem as if they own a little slice of Eden. Like nine other members of the England World Cup squad who visited Dubai on their way to Japan last summer, Beckham and Owen are the proud owners of luxury five-bedroom villas under construction on the Palm Jumeirah, the world's largest man-made island.However, naturalists claim this exclusive earthly paradise, shaped like a vast palm tree, is threatening the marine environment it exploits.They argue that this retreat, now rising from the sea, is wrecking fragile coral reefs, devastating local fish stocks that support endangered sea birds, and destroying the seabed. "There is a huge sense of shame in the Hindu community if you are declared bankrupt, and he must have been in dire need of money," Mr Patel said."He would sell anything he could put his hands on," says Mr Lakhani's former accountant, Rajni Shah, who likened him to the Arthur Daley TV character.. "The guy would never say Americans are bastards - I believe he was trying to impress his contacts," he added.Mr Patel sees extreme financial desperation, not politically motivated opportunism, as the cause of Mr Lakhani's problems. Tom Mangold, the BBC journalist who broke the news of Mr Lakhani's arrest last week, is suing Newsweek after the US magazine claimed his scoop had ruined the FBI's attempts to penetrate al-Qa'ida. The magazine claimed that officials in the US Justice Department believed the report had scotched plans to get Mr Lakhani to work for them.In Britain, the shock over Mr Lakhani's arrest and alleged arms-dealing activities has given way to disbelief."I believe he had been going from bad to worse in business," says C B Patel, the London-based publisher of Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar newspapers, who has known Mr Lakhani for 30 years.

It's not a genuine case of terrorism - I think he was set up."The missile that Mr Lakhani is alleged to have tried to smuggle into the US could easily bring down a jet airliner. However, Mr Raman said that the weapon was not difficult to obtain over the internet.The case has been further muddied. It was watched by security services until collected by Mr Lakhani.Mr Lakhani has been charged with "attempting to provide material support for terrorism", though the name of Air Force One - the US President's jet - began to be mentioned in news bulletins within hours of his arrest.Last week, a senior intelligence expert and associate of Mr Lakhani, who was born in Bombay, presented a picture of a man who had no political leanings. Instead, he was desperate to solve his financial problems following a string of bankruptcy orders in the UK.

Mr Lakhani, believing he was talking to terrorists interested in buying the missile, allegedly made his now infamous observation that Americans were "bastards" and praised the 11 September attacks.During some of the huge number of phone calls monitored for months by the FBI, Mr Lakhani is alleged to have talked freely with his "clients" about the technical prowess of the Igla S missile, as if he were reading aloud from a brochure.Indeed, in May last year he allegedly faxed a brochure for the missile to his "clients". Apparently arriving in the US by ship, this "missile", or something akin to one, found its way to a warehouse in Baltimore, Maryland. Others called him an "idiot".The 18-month security services stake-out of Mr Lakhani - during which his phone calls and movements were monitored by the FBI, and which ended with his arrest in New Jersey on Tuesday - has been hailed as a triumph of co-operation between the FBI, Russia's FSB and British intelligence.Yet the apparent ease with which Mr Lakhani was so comprehensively compromised, and for so long, points to an intelligence "triumph" that is more Carry On than John le Carr?r Lakhani is alleged to have paid about £50,000 for the missile, buying it from what he believed were rogue elements with connections to the Russian arms industry, saying he could lay his hands on another 50. She is currently developing a series, "The Three Passions of Bertrand Russell". "Affable", "an Arthur Daley", "never interested in politics", "sell anything he could put his hands on", "Mr Average", "quiet". By the time Mars rose, the grid was returning, up the Eastern seaboard to about a block away, and the stars had faded.