Rattlesnake Ridge      

 
      BFF
“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 or were challenged by pro-democracy demonstrations in its crowded labor camps or democracy protests like those sweeping the Arab world this year. …… The Colombians, along with South African and other foreign troops, are trained by retired American soldiers and veterans of the German and British special operations units and the French Foreign Legion, according to the former employees and American officials……..”

The al-Nahayn clan of Abu Dhabi are moving up in the world. Not only are they the second biggest importer of weapons in the world (and aiming to be the absolute biggest) with a native population of only a few hundred thousand. They are also gathering an elite foreign mercenary force under former Blackwater executives. It is not clear what their goal is, but they can probably wreak havoc in places like Oman and some of the poorer emirates that are more likely to rebel. They can also start probing around the Persian-American Gulf in a way that could start a military conflict with Iran: that is very likely to draw in the United States. In other words, this despotic oil-soaked Abu Dhabi clan could force Americans to enter yet another war in the Middle East, just as the Wikileaks cables told us they had urged the USA to do. A very dangerous situation.
Cheers
mhg



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