Mercs, R2, Blackwater And The UAE

Posted on 17 May 2011.

NOVANEWS

modernityblog

This is an informative article on a successor to that terrible company, Blackwater.

R2, a creation of Erik Prince, are essentially upmarket mercenaries, who will work for anyone with money and are finalising a deal with the UAE, according to the Nation:

“Erik Prince did leave the US, but he isn’t teaching high school and is certainly not out of the mercenary business. In fact, far from emerging as a neo-Indiana Jones, the antithesis of a mercenary, Prince is more like Belloq, offering his services to the highest bidder. Over the weekend, The New York Times revealed that Prince was leading an effort to build an army of mercenaries, 800 strong—including scores from Colombia—in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. They would be trained by US, European and South African Special Forces veterans. Prince’s new company, Reflex Responses, also known as R2, was bankrolled to the tune of $529 million from “the oil-soaked sheikdom,” according to the Times, adding that Prince was “hired by the crown prince of Abu Dhabi” Sheik Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan. Erik Prince is not mentioned by name in corporate documents outlining the deal, but is instead referred to as “Kingfish.”

The contract between R2 and the UAE kicked in last June and is slated to run through May 2015. According to corporate documents on the private army Prince is building in the UAE, its potential roles include “crowd-control operations,” defending oil pipelines from potential terrorist attacks and special operations missions inside and outside the UAE “to destroy enemy personnel and equipment.” Other sources said the Emiratis wanted to potentially use the force to quell potential rebellions in the country’s massive labor camps that house the Filipinos, Pakistanis and other imported laborers that fuel the country’s work force. Prince also has plans to build a massive training base, modeled after the 7,000 acre private military base Blackwater built in Moyock, North Carolina.
…

When Prince moved to the UAE last summer, he said he chose Abu Dhabi because of its “great proximity to potential opportunities across the entire Middle East, and great logistics,” adding that it has “a friendly business climate, low to no taxes, free trade and no out of control trial lawyers or labor unions. It’s pro-business and opportunity.”

The timing of Prince’s move was auspicious to say the least. It came just month after five of Prince’s top deputies were hit with a fifteen-count indictment by a federal grand jury on conspiracy, weapons and obstruction of justice charges. Among those indicted were Prince’s longtime number-two man, former Blackwater president Gary Jackson, former vice presidents William Matthews and Ana Bundy, and Prince’s former legal counsel, Andrew Howell. The UAE does not have an extradition treaty with the United States. “If Prince were not living in the US, it would be far more complicated for US prosecutors to commence an action against him,” said Scott Horton, a Columbia University Law lecturer and international law expert who has long tracked Blackwater. “There is a long history of people thwarting prosecutors simply by living overseas.”

Posted in UAE, USA0 Comments

Blackwater to form secret army in UAE

Posted on 17 May 2011.

NOVANEWS

 

The UAE has hired Blackwater mercenaries to quell possible uprisings (file Photo)

The founder of the notorious security company Blackwater is reportedly hired by the crown prince of Abu Dhabi to form a secret mercenary army in the UAE.


The billionaire Erik Prince, who relocated to the UAE in 2010 in the wake of mounting legal problems in the United States, received over USD 500 million to organize an 800-member battalion of foreign troops in the Persian Gulf state, the New York Times reported on Saturday. Posing as construction workers, dozens of Colombian men entered the UAE last November and were stationed in an Emirati base called Zayed Military City. 

The Colombians, along with South African and other foreign troops, are recruited and trained by retired American soldiers and veterans of the German and British special operations units and the French Foreign Legion, the daily said.

Documents show the force is intended to conduct special operations missions inside and outside the country, defend oil pipelines and skyscrapers from terrorist attacks, and quell possible uprisings across the state, it added.

The UAE is a close ally of the US and officials in the Obama administration said that Washington was informed about the program.

“The [Persian] Gulf countries and the UAE in particular, don’t have a lot of military experience. It would make sense if they looked outside their borders for help,” said one Obama administration official.

“They might want to show that they are not to be messed with.”

However, legal experts doubt that the project has the US official blessing as the company is already enmeshed with a series of scandals related to operations in Iraq, Afghanistan.

Blackwater, which was later renamed Xe Services, came to spotlight after its forces killed over a dozen civilians and injured many more in Iraq’s capital Baghdad in 2007.

Blackwater mercenaries were hated by the Iraqis as they were able to kill many civilians with impunity.

Posted in UAE, USA0 Comments

HIZBULLAH & UAE

Posted on 21 March 2010.

NOVANEWS

When I was in Lebanon last January, I learned so many things that I forgot to report on so many things. I will be there in late May, so I will learn more. Here is another one that I forgot about. I was talking to a friend the other day, and he reminded me of the story that I had told him in Beirut in January (in light of the Dubai assassination and the high-profile role of the Dubai chief of police.) Months ago (in 2009), the UAE sent a very high envoy to Beirut on a secret mission to meet with Hasan Nasrallah. The man met with Hasan Nasrallah for several hours.

His message from UAE rulers was that they want Hizbullah to use its influence among the Shi`ites of the Gulf to prevent disturbances in the event of an Israeli/US war on Iran. I am told, that what the man heard from Nasrallah left him terrified and he told aides that he is not comfortable in relaying the message to UAE rulers. I am told that the message said in effect that those countries would suffer if they host an attack on Iran, and a reference was made to the high rises in Dubai. The man was shaking when he left to the airport to leave on his private jet.

Posted in Lebanon, UAE0 Comments

UAE MIRACLES

Posted on 07 March 2010.

NOVANEWS
“At only one point in his story did Naji Hamdan cry. Sitting in an office chair as he recounted how he was arrested, tortured and ultimately convicted of terrorism charges in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), his voice barely wavered. Only when he described how Emirati interrogators threatened to rape his wife in front of him if he did not confess to charges of supporting Al Qaeda did he lose control, pausing to accept a fistful of Kleenex before he continued his story.”
Posted by As’ad at 10:38 AM

Posted in UAE0 Comments

MU-BARAK FOR A 6TH TERM

Posted on 07 March 2010.

NOVANEWS
The brave Egyptian journalist, `Abdul-Halim Qandil writes on Mubarak’s sixth term in office. PS I am disappointed that Qandil has endorsed Al-Baradi`i (or Baradeeh as it is pronounced in US TV news) for president, and told him my opinion. PPS The widely circulated email to the effect that Qandil is missing is a hoax. Please stop sending it to me and stop asking me about his condition.
Posted by As’ad at 6:26

Posted in UAE0 Comments

DUBAI ZIONIST CORRUPT ROYAL FAMILY

Posted on 07 March 2010.

NOVANEWS

I watched an interview with Dubai’s police chief on Aljazeera TV. The man does not deserve to be lionized or admired or praised. He did the minimum of his job and he was very effective indeed against the dumb Zionist Mossad hit team. In the interview, he strikes you as competent and intelligent and is fully aware of investigative work. He also challenged the view that the investigation was all based on electronic surveillance and said that there is a human investigative element, and said that he has Hebrew speakers among his staff. But what is bothersome is the extent to which he views himself as subservient, politically speaking, to the Sons of Zayid and to Sheikh Mo.

He was so careful in everything he said not to offend the Zionist regime in ‘Israel’. He made it sound that this was the sole deed of the head of the Mossad. He even said that the Zionist public would not approve of such methods ??.

 He repeated the lousy statement that Zionist and others should settle their scores elsewhere, i.e., Zionist can kill but not under his watch. He was so afraid and careful and deliberate about everything he said about Zionism, which only confirms that I was told (based on a conversation with him) regarding political pressures on him to avoid embarrassing the Zionist. He spoke against the killing of Zionist soldiers.

All in all, this skillful and dogged police commander is a tool of a lousy corrupt royal family which would sell its children to please Zionism/US. Dont make this man a hero. He is not.

Posted in UAE0 Comments


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