Ripping yarns for a rainy summer evening! This is serious business, but it’s hard not to think that both Erik Prince and Sheik Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan should’ve picked more sophisticated philosophical wellsprings than Atlas Shrugged and the Indiana Jones movies. From the excellent NYTimes report on the “Secret Desert Force Set Up by Blackwater’s Founder“:
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Late one night last November, a plane carrying dozens of Colombian men touched down in this glittering seaside capital. Whisked through customs by an Emirati intelligence officer, the group boarded an unmarked bus and drove roughly 20 miles to a windswept military complex in the desert sand.
__
The Colombians had entered the United Arab Emirates posing as construction workers. In fact, they were soldiers for a secret American-led mercenary army being built by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of Blackwater Worldwide, with $529 million from the oil-soaked sheikdom.
__
Mr. Prince, who resettled here last year after his security business faced mounting legal problems in the United States, was hired by the crown prince of Abu Dhabi to put together an 800-member battalion of foreign troops for the U.A.E., according to former employees on the project, American officials and corporate documents obtained by The New York Times.
__
The force is intended to conduct special operations missions inside and outside the country, defend oil pipelines and skyscrapers from terrorist attacks and put down internal revolts, the documents show. Such troops could be deployed if the Emirates faced unrest in their crowded labor camps or were challenged by pro-democracy protests like those sweeping the Arab world this year. […] __
For Mr. Prince, the foreign battalion is a bold attempt at reinvention. He is hoping to build an empire in the desert, far from the trial lawyers, Congressional investigators and Justice Department officials he is convinced worked in league to portray Blackwater as reckless. He sold the company last year, but in April, a federal appeals court reopened the case against four Blackwater guards accused of killing 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007.
__
To help fulfill his ambitions, Mr. Prince’s new company, Reflex Responses, obtained another multimillion-dollar contract to protect a string of planned nuclear power plants and to provide cybersecurity. He hopes to earn billions more, the former employees said, by assembling additional battalions of Latin American troops for the Emiratis and opening a giant complex where his company can train troops for other governments. […] __
To bolster the force, R2 recruited a platoon of South African mercenaries, including some veterans of Executive Outcomes, a South African company notorious for staging coup attempts or suppressing rebellions against African strongmen in the 1990s. The platoon was to function as a quick-reaction force, American officials and former employees said, and began training for a practice mission: a terrorist attack on the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai, the world’s tallest building. They would secure the situation before quietly handing over control to Emirati troops.
__
But by last November, the battalion was officially behind schedule. The original goal was for the 800-man force to be ready by March 31; recently, former employees said, the battalion’s size was reduced to about 580 men.
__
Emirati military officials had promised that if this first battalion was a success, they would pay for an entire brigade of several thousand men. The new contracts would be worth billions, and would help with Mr. Prince’s next big project: a desert training complex for foreign troops patterned after Blackwater’s compound in Moyock, N.C. But before moving ahead, U.A.E. military officials have insisted that the battalion prove itself in a “real world mission.”
__
That has yet to happen…
Much more T.E.-Lawerence-meets-Bill-Kristol swish- swashbuckling at the link, including a copy of the mercenary contract, double-columned in English & Arabic.
Suffern ACE
Criminies. It’s Zartan.
Frankensteinbeck (The ex-Uloborus)
This can only end well.
Xboxershorts
I’d be really surprised if the American Gov’t did NOT have a hand in this.
Just Some Fuckhead
It’s wonderful to see a fine evangelical Christian like Erik Prince helping to lead Muslims to the Lord over in the United Arab Emirates.
lamh34
Johnathon Chait from TNR just retweeted this:
twitter.com/#!/EWErickson/status/70283012272685056
Anyone believe it?
spartacus
That gives me Reflux responses.
And barfing.
Bnut
This is the least revolting thing Prince and his people have done in the big scheme of things.
On another note, I’ve met and been friends with plenty of Special Operations servicemen. Not a single one would have ever been a party to this kind of thing. Makes me wonder where they find all these former door kickers who want this type of work.
mr. whipple
Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.
benintn
Colombians?
benintn
On a related note, there’s another Pirates of the Carribean movie coming out.
Omnes Omnibus
@Bnut: I wonder if they get a lot of SF washouts, wannabes, the kind who went to Airborne School but did not make it through the SF Q-course. I am not making a direct comparison, but Timothy McVeigh fit that profile.
cinesimon
What makes me really sick about this, is that the majority if America’s right wing see Prince as a heroic patriot.
The fact he’s doing this should show them what he really is, but of course, all he’d need to do is fire off a fax to the GOP HQ telling them their only function is defend oil pipelines, nothing else, and that will be more than enough for the right wing base. Because of course, they need no evidence when it comes to ‘proving’ what they already believe true.
Of course if he admits what he’s really doing, they’ll simply make something up to keep themselves within the ethical boundaries they’ve convinced themselves they still stand behind.
No torture! We DO believe Arabs and Persian are human beings and not animals deserving of being put down if they won’t stay slave-like, work for nothing and smile sweetly when their oil and other resources(such as their children and females – let alone natural resources) are being stolen…
As soon as they object, they become labelled as terrorists by their dictator, Eric Prince will massacre them and make millions, and America’s right wing will celebrate th deaths of thousands of ‘terrorists’.
Sickening.
lamh34
@benintn: God, I hate myself for wanting to see this movie, but I love Johnny Depp. He’s the best thing about all the “Pirates…” movies anyway. Can’t stand Orlando Bloom or Keira Knightley.
I think I read somewhere that Johnny Depp said he’s def be willing to make more Pirates movies…can you say easy money!
Bnut
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, the merc community used to be filled with South Africans (think Executive Outcomes) and former Foreign Legion types. It just fucks with my head that someone who could pass the Q-course and be a member of the community is the same person who could work with Prince. Special Operations guys are smart as hell and even though many are very conservative, they wouldn’t whore out their skills to a Middle Eastern government for money.
Fuzz
This is pretty common over there, the army in Bahrain has a lot of foreigners too apparently, and armies in KSA and other oil rich Arab states are almost always drawn predominantly from certain tribes or sects. These idiots in Dubai just weren’t very discreet or subtle about it. Then again subtlety isn’t one of their strong points, with their 6 star hotels and indoor ski areas and world’s largest whatevers being built constantly.
Bnut
@benintn: Relevant: hulu.com/watch/239640/saturday-night-live-digital-short-jack-sparrow
cinesimon
Fuzz the difference with Eric Prince’s outfit though, is none of them have any ties or loyalties there – be it tribal, political, familial, whatever.
Prince specializes in putting ethics aside and killing for money. Having a team he now does, based in that location, will come in very handy – as locally sourced fighters actually have ethical standards – in comparison to Prince’s lot, anyway…
Omnes Omnibus
@lamh34: What do you have against Keira Knightley?
Fuzz
@cinesimon:
I agree, definitely. The article even mentioned that one of the most important things for the royals was that the mercs not be Muslims.
Bnut
@Omnes Omnibus: I personally don’t like when a woman’s ribs stick out further than her boobs.
jefft452
“mercenary captains are either capable men or they are not; if they are, you cannot trust them, because they always aspire to their own greatness, either by oppressing you, who are their master, or others contrary to your intentions; but if the captain is not skilful, you are ruined in the usual way.”
–Niccolo machiavelli
lamh34
@Omnes Omnibus: purely superficial. She way too skinny for me lately, and I kinda hate the way she purses her lips when she’s trying to look pensive or thoughtful. I think she’s an okay actress, but there is not one movie of hers that I can actually say I liked. Well that’s not totally true, I did like “Bend It Like Beckham” and “Love Actually”, but both roles could have been performed by any other reasonable actor.
ETA: What @Bnut said.
JPL
OT…Tonight’s episode of Chuck was fun to watch. Even if you haven’t seen Chuck in awhile, watch it. Next season is gonna be great with the jeffsta and morgan. I for one can’t wait.
maya
How do you say, Achtung! in Columbian?
Origuy
¿Como se dice «Janissary» en Español?
stuckinred
@maya: You just rack a round, it’s the universal language.
Bnut
@stuckinred: I read this and thought, Nazis like snooker?
Mike in NC
There you have it: he’s bold! he has a plan! Why aren’t the Villagers rushing to declare Prince a Very Serious Person?
cinesimon
@maya: I think it goes: “yessir Mr Prince!”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Jeremy Scahill on TRMS right now
stuckinred
@Bnut: No but Colombian mercenaries like shotguns.
gwangung
So, basically, we’re seeing the creation of a Bond super villain right before our eyes…
arguingwithsignposts
Erik prin Laden?
stuckinred
@Bnut: It’s one nasty economy out there.
Veritas78
This vile creature has brought nothing but death and pain to the planet, while enriching himself immensely.
No muslims among his hired killers, so his muslim overlords can kill their citizens at will. Nice. These are our allies.
Lie down with dogs, wake up with fleas. This is one big flea. It ain’t gonna end well.
soonergrunt
Well, it seems the leaders of the UAE learned a lesson from Egypt, where the Egyptian Army refused to attack Egyptian citizens because they saw their role as protecting the nation and not the regime, the UAE have hired a foreigner to hire other foreigners to protect them, those foreigners’ only allegiances being to their paymasters.
stuckinred
@soonergrunt: Sorta like the Mongolian grunts in Tiananmen square.
Bnut
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: My man crush. What a badass.
Redshift
On the bright side, if someone’s going to be serving the free-market demand for mercenary armies, I’d rather it be someone as apparently incompetent as Prince.
Martin
Well, that’s something of a groundhog shadow on Arab Spring, innit?
Villago Delenda Est
@Bnut:
Probably scrub wannabees, who couldn’t make the grade for SF or the other ultra elite outfits. Plenty of them out there.
Villago Delenda Est
@arguingwithsignposts:
Bingo.
He’s a non-muslim bin Laden. Pure terrorist shit.
Silver
Wait, you people really think a group of professional trained killers are too moral to kill for a paycheck instead of Jesus and the USA?
C’mon…
Special Patrol Group
Jesus Motherfucking Christ in a Basket.
Seventeen.
17.
One Seven.
XVII.
Mother.
Fucker.
burnspbesq
@Special Patrol Group:
I have to say that I don’t quite take your point. Would your outrage be reduced by 88.2 percent if they had only killed two unarmed Iraqi civilians for no apparent reason?
Liberty60
…Aaaand last week, our local congressman, Dana Rohrabacher, who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was attending a fundraising dinner at the private estate of Erik Prince in Virginia.
Special Patrol Group
No, it would not.
Gozer
I’m sorry, but Mr. Blackwater/Xe/Acid Reflux/Whatevs seems like just the kind of merciless, power-mad, over-privileged, shitstain that we recently dispatched in Pakistan. Seriously, when is this fucker going to get into trafficking nukes and/or decommissioned Russian subs.
And Colombian mercs? Are they FARC? AUC? I’d bet anything this dude is into all sorts of fucked endeavors.
Firebert
Has Erik Prince started referring to himself as Cobra Commander yet?
Chris
Sounds oddly reminiscent of the flypaper strategy.
Or, from the American perspective, a really bad action film. From the perspective of your average Middle Easterner, a really bad action *life*.
Bnut
@Firebert: LOL, thank you for that. Kudos.
burnspbesq
@Special Patrol Group:
Good to know.
burnspbesq
@Liberty60:
Having Surfin’ Dana as your Congressman is the price you pay for living at the beach. Move inland and you can be represented by that paragon of virture, Ed “too stupid to be corrupt” Royce.
Silver
@burnspbesq:
Ohh, Ed’s mine. Pretty standard mouthbreather OC Christian Conservative. Probably too stupid to wipe his ass, but he believes that Jesus licks it.
Xenos
@Special Patrol Group: Reggae Fi Peach?
That takes me back…
“The SPG them are murderers (murderers),
We cant make them get no furtherer,
Cos they killed Blair Peach the teacher,
Them killed Blair Peach, the dirty bleeders.”
Sophist
Oh great, Myrmidons-R-Us, that’s exactly what we need in the region.
balconesfault
All I know is that I damn well hope that the FBI starts keeping a very close eye on any groups of men traveling to the US from the UAE. Particularly if they’re using Columbian passports. Prince strikes me as the kind of guy who doesn’t forget old grudges too easily, and has some lists stashed away of business left undone.
ET
I never like Little Mr. Prince but this just takes the cake. He is an utter menace.
Tuttle
He is hoping to build an empire in the desert, far from the trial lawyers, Congressional investigators and Justice Department officials …
It’s easy to get far from them. Harder to get far from tomahawk missiles and strategic bombers. Just give the man a daisy cutter or two for his troubles.
bjacques
If these goons think counter-insurgency-for-hire is going to be one big festival of kicking down doors, speeding through city streets and lighting up hadjis, they’re in for a nasty surprise.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@gwangung:
He’s got the name for a Bond villain, Now let’s see him pet a cat like a Bond villain.
HyperIon
“Ripping yarns”…
was a pretty funny series starring a few Pythons.
WhyKnot241
Is spelling expendable?
Humber Dinglepencker
Erik Prince…is that a strong whiff of Sejanus I smell?
Paul in KY
@lamh34: I’m quite fine with Ms. Knightley. She’s very easy on the eyes.
Paul in KY
@Tuttle: Mr. Prince may get his comuppance there. If you are in a lawless country, what’s to stop the rulers from bringing you in one day & then slitting your throat for whatever reason?