Hokay I figured a cool way to check the history ( Ctrl+H ) found the link to the New York Times article referenced in yesterday's post A MODERN MERCENARY ARMY.
Anyway if you'd clicked on the bold sub-headline it takes you right to the NYT article - D'oH!
If I had time right now I'd go on about the challenges Erik Prince faces in standing up indiginous armies, based on my twenty+ years of experience in this field - subject matter for a future post - all I'll say right now is the hardest thing I know how to do is to manage human beings; everything and anything under the sun will happen right before your eyes and you can take nothing for granted. Erik Prince wants to turn eight hundred Third Worlders into a sort of CAG-for-hire? To that I say good luck in finding eight hundred even if you recruited solely from the modern, industrialized FIRST World - it ain't the same as fielding a security force full of ex-Marine Corps Lance Corporals who actually know the basics of soldiering.
Having said all that, STORMBRINGER wishes the best to Erik Prince and his team in this endeavor.
SEAN LINNANE SENDS
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Showing posts with label mercenary army. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mercenary army. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
A MODERN MERCENARY ARMY
Secret Desert Force Set Up by Blackwater’s Founder
This story is amazing . . . S.L.
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — A plane carrying dozens of Colombian men touches down in this glittering seaside capital; whisked through customs by an Emirati intelligence officer, the group boards an unmarked bus and drives roughly 20 miles to a windswept military complex in the desert sand.
Entering the United Arab Emirates posing as construction workers, the Colombians are in fact soldiers for a secret American-led mercenary army assembled by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of Blackwater Worldwide, with $529 million from the oil-soaked sheikdom.
According to former employees on the project, American officials and corporate documents obtained by The New York Times, Prince resettled here last year after facing mounting legal problems in the United States. He's been hired by the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi to put together an 800-member battalion of foreign troops for the U.A.E.
“The gulf countries, and the U.A.E. 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 who knew of the operation. “They might want to show that they are not to be messed with.”
A satellite image of the camp in the United Arab Emirates built to train an 800-member military unit.
Still, it is not clear whether the project has the United States’ official blessing. Legal experts and government officials said some of those involved with the battalion might be breaking federal laws that prohibit American citizens from training foreign troops if they did not secure a license from the State Department.
Mark C. Toner, a spokesman for the department, would not confirm whether Mr. Prince’s company had obtained such a license, but he said the department was investigating to see if the training effort was in violation of American laws. Mr. Toner pointed out that Blackwater (which renamed itself Xe Services ) paid $42 million in fines last year for training foreign troops in Jordan and other countries over the years.
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.
Prince has masked his involvement with the mercenary battalion. His name is not included on contracts and most other corporate documents; company insiders refer to him by the code name “Kingfish.” Three former employees, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of confidentiality agreements, and two people involved in security contracting said that in recruiting the Colombians and others from halfway around the world, Mr. Prince’s subordinates follow his strict rule: hire no Muslims.
Muslim soldiers, Mr. Prince warned, could not be counted on to kill fellow Muslims . . .
Read the rest of it HERE
Today's Bird HERE
.
This story is amazing . . . S.L.
Erik Prince has a new project.
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — A plane carrying dozens of Colombian men touches down in this glittering seaside capital; whisked through customs by an Emirati intelligence officer, the group boards an unmarked bus and drives roughly 20 miles to a windswept military complex in the desert sand.
Entering the United Arab Emirates posing as construction workers, the Colombians are in fact soldiers for a secret American-led mercenary army assembled by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of Blackwater Worldwide, with $529 million from the oil-soaked sheikdom.
According to former employees on the project, American officials and corporate documents obtained by The New York Times, Prince resettled here last year after facing mounting legal problems in the United States. He's been hired by the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi to put together an 800-member battalion of foreign troops for the U.A.E.
“The gulf countries, and the U.A.E. 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 who knew of the operation. “They might want to show that they are not to be messed with.”
Still, it is not clear whether the project has the United States’ official blessing. Legal experts and government officials said some of those involved with the battalion might be breaking federal laws that prohibit American citizens from training foreign troops if they did not secure a license from the State Department.
Mark C. Toner, a spokesman for the department, would not confirm whether Mr. Prince’s company had obtained such a license, but he said the department was investigating to see if the training effort was in violation of American laws. Mr. Toner pointed out that Blackwater (which renamed itself Xe Services ) paid $42 million in fines last year for training foreign troops in Jordan and other countries over the years.
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.
Prince has masked his involvement with the mercenary battalion. His name is not included on contracts and most other corporate documents; company insiders refer to him by the code name “Kingfish.” Three former employees, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of confidentiality agreements, and two people involved in security contracting said that in recruiting the Colombians and others from halfway around the world, Mr. Prince’s subordinates follow his strict rule: hire no Muslims.
Muslim soldiers, Mr. Prince warned, could not be counted on to kill fellow Muslims . . .
Read the rest of it HERE
Today's Bird HERE
.
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