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Blackwater Founder Builds Foreign Force in UAE
WASHINGTON -- The crown prince of Abu Dhabi has hired the founder of private security firm Blackwater Worldwide to set up an 800-member battalion of foreign troops for the United Arab Emirates, The New York Times reported on Sunday.
Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater. The Times said it obtained documents that showed the unit being formed by Erik Prince's new company Reflex Responses with $529 million from the UAE would be used to thwart internal revolt, conduct special operations and defend oil pipelines and skyscrapers from attack.
The newspaper said the decision to hire the contingent of foreign troops was taken before a wave of popular unrest spread across the Arab world in recent months, including to the UAE's Gulf neighbors Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia.
The UAE itself has seen no serious unrest. Most of its population is made up of foreign workers.
Blackwater, which once had lucrative contracts to protect U.S. officials in Iraq, became notorious in the region in 2007 when its guards opened fire in Baghdad traffic, killing at least 14 people in what the Iraqi government called a "massacre."
One former Blackwater guard pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges in those killings, and a U.S. court reinstated charges against five others last month. Prince has since sold the firm, which changed its name to Xe. The firm denies wrongdoing.
The newspaper said the Emirates, a close ally of the United States, had some support in Washington for Prince's new project, although it was not clear if it had official U.S. approval.
Two UAE government officials contacted by Reuters declined immediate comment on the New York Times report, and the U.S. embassy in the UAE also had no immediate comment. It was not possible to locate Prince for comment.
The Times quoted a U.S. official who was aware of the program as saying: "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."
State Department spokesman Mark Toner told The Times the department was investigating to see if the project broke any U.S. laws. U.S. law requires a license for American citizens to train foreign troops.
Toner also pointed out that Blackwater, now known as Xe Services, had paid $42 million in fines in 2010 for training foreign forces in Jordan without a license, the Times said.
According to former employees of the project and U.S. officials cited by the Times, the troops were brought to a training camp in the UAE from Colombia, South Africa and other countries, starting in the summer of 2010.
They were being trained by retired U.S. military, and former members of German and British special operations units and the French Foreign Legion, the Times said.
Prince had insisted the force hire no Muslims, because they "could not be counted on to kill fellow Muslims," the paper said.
Former employees also told the newspaper the Emirates hoped the force could be used to counter any threat from Iran, which the Arab states in the Gulf consider a foe.
Although The Times said the documents it obtained did not mention Erik Prince, former employees had told the newspaper he had negotiated the contract with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.
Emiriati officials had proposed expanding the force to a brigade of several thousand if the first battalion was successful, the newspaper said.
Additional reporting is by Mahmoud Habboush
55 Comments so far
Show AllWhy didn't CD post the Times article? It was much more comprehensive.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/world/middleeast/15prince.html?hp
Mercenary and Malwart jobs aplenty.
I wonder....what if the ordinary people of UAE, taking a cue from Egypt, Tunisia etc revolted against the UAE government and the Blackwater mob (in defence of the UAE government) started 'killing Muslims' and marines arrived from the US to 'help' the revoltionaires where would Blackwater's allegiance then lie....with the highest bidder...I thought so, just checking. I bet Blackwater et al are a bit peeved they weren't invoved in the recent gun fight at the Abbottabad Corral. Just disgusting.
What are the values of a man that will go anywhere to kill anyone for the money??
Great post, Jill. I've been posting for some time about the dangers of these mercenary forces, particularly if the US dollar should falter. Some corporations have annual incomes that exceed those of entire nations, so what would stop one of these behemoths from contracting its own private army? Or, were Blackwater to receive a better offer than one paid in potentially worthless dollars, from setting its sights on targets inside our "Homeland Security State?"
Precedents have been put in place (and I do not have the links, but my memory is keen on this, and the data came from something read on CD) that suggest Blackwater operates outside of any nation's sovereign laws. It's essentially a gigantic 007 task team that acts on the presumption that it possesses a license TO kill.
Here we have an individual like Eric Prince, easily qualifying as one of the most dangerous people on the earth, who purports to be a devout Chrisitan, while literally making a killing on killing. If this is not indicative of the bankrupt ethos, "Mars Rules," I know not what (apart from US budgetary priorities lavishing huge sums onto our MIC while social programs addressing GENUINE human needs are simultaneously, mercilessly cut) would qualify.
When a society exalts its warriors above all else, it makes war holy... and that inversion of Divine Law and human (as well as natural) resources, tears apart what no man owns the right to tear asunder. Nor can military might EVER put the living pieces back together again.
The god of war, death, and destruction granted high status is the enemy to security. This understanding must be broadly disseminated, if it's not already too late (to do so).
Indeed, Sioux!!!
The use of Mercenaries has a long and bloody history. It has always lead to the most corrupt of regimes . The time of the Borgias in Italy was a time of the mercenary Captains as was the duration of the 30 years war where the population of Europe plummeted.
Human rights are of absolutely no concern to the mercenary. All they care for are profits and the peoples drawn to their ranks are amongst the most venal persons in the world.
Our own apologist for Empire one Likeitornot will rail against the mercenaries but herein is the underlying problem.
It is not simply a mistake in policy easily corrected by electing another administration to power. It is the symptom if a nation state that has sunk so low that it beyond salvation and reflects the true "Nature" of said state. A nation state can not sink much lower then when it hires mercenaries. A person can not sink much lower then when they become one.
GW NORTH: I am aware of the historical use of mercenaries, but there are a few differences darkly associated with our particular era.
First, no previous army had access to nuclear weapons or drones. Asymmetric warfare is now the RULE.
Second, I believe the statistics are fairly certain that it's now civilians that constitute the greater numbers of war's "collateral damage." And the statistics are so heinous as to mock any concept of the Law of War, or rules of fair engagement. It's mass murder, plain and simple.
Third, while religion and various forms of primitive media worked to forge consensus, there has never been a mass media endowed with as many subliminal programming devices as that which presently exists to manufacture consent (for even the most dire of state policies).
So, you see, there WERE mercenaries, and now there ARE mercenaries, and we're talking dark evolution on steroids!
RITA: Thank you.
OLD GOAT: I hear you and you make an excellent point. Fortunately, thanks to the understanding held sacred by South America's shamans, Evo Morales is making headway in getting the rights of Mother Nature (and natural communities) to be taken into account when worldwide decision-making bodies draw up treaties, trade agreements, and so forth.
That is a beginning, if a very late one.
Great posts, here and throughout CD, Siouxrose! As for me, I'm bogged down with it all. It's depressing to pay any attention to what is afoot, and it's always the same bad news, nothing but lies and deception, a barbarous nation, outright murder masquerading as "war," as you say, and environmental atrocities. Plus, who is there to talk to? As even you say, you're dating somone who doesn't give a fuck. Sad. I prefer celibacy.
Hello, Elizabeth. Thank you for the head's up. I think an astrological metaphor is useful here, and it helps me. This time of transition, viewed as End Times by Christians, is seen as the end of an astrological age, by astrologers. We are, as a collective humanity, emerging from the 2200-year phase characterized as the Age of Pisces, the fish. Pisces is the sign of the sea kingdoms, and that's where the oil beds originated. It is also the sign of sleep, dreams, illusion, drugs, escapist behaviors, the unconscious mind, hospitals, jails, detox centers, and ashrams.
Since it relates to sleep, dreams, and illusion, at the conclusion of my book, "Neptune and The Final Phase of the Piscean Age," I present the rhetorical question, "How does the dreamer come to RECOGNIZE the awakened state." I think that premise touches on the key psychological issue of our time.
Many of us in this forum, thanks to a sort of daily boot-camp/work-out found here for our minds, have learned to see past the lies, dominant illusions, and out-right media driven deceptions. So we are the Awakened Ones. Yet many of our friends, family members, neighbors, and work acquaintences are NOT there.
It is awful for me to feel powerless (one reason why I spend time here and write books) in the knowledge that so many are lost in ignorance, repeating behaviors the way Pavlov's dogs were trained to perform a trick for a meal or treat.
Not everyone is ready to wake up. Many cling to the illusions that once gave their lives meaning, and trying to pry them loose is dangerous. Because I live in a Bible belt area I do not talk to locals openly about my beliefs. There are only a few people I can relate to, and even these types do NOT understand what's going on with things like Osama's head delivered as symbolic trophy, the feeding of inordinately atavistic, primitive impulses in the masses in lieu of properly educating them with respect to what's going on.
As for the person I see, he's the best carpenter I've ever known and since I've gotten into purchasing property in need of rehab, we're a very good team. Every once in a while he'll say something real socialistic... like "The problem with this world is that a few have too much and everyone else has too little." On the medical issue he said he didn't see why everyone couldn't get (medical) access. I've tried to show him that Obama is repeating Bush's policies. He knows how much I hate Bush because I'd yell for him to change the channel any time Bush came on. I have no TV, and I need not tell you that in a man's house, the TV controls remain in HIS hands...
My best friend remains caught in that spiritual jijitsu that tells her you're not supposed to talk about anything negative... which puts today's truth (and any discussion associated with it) at a decided disadvantage.
In any case, what she taught me is that during difficult times, one must be good to themselves. For me that means pouring a decent glass of red wine and eating a healthy salad, bike riding, writing, and being alert to those opportunities where I might impart some idea that makes a difference to someone. Or even helps their awakening process.
I think it is VERY natural to be bogged down. The moon is nearly full in Scorpio, the sign of breakdowns that leads to rebuilding, of death and rebirth. I feel the weight of things that are dying, in disrepair, and/or in need of therapeutic regeneration. The forces of nature are so powerful... I felt a natural kinship with the shamans of Peru because they live with this understanding. The so-called civilized white man/woman holds the conceit that they're somehow intellectually superior to those who speak directly to and with the natural world's forces. In the name of progress, the vast reserves LENT to us all have largely been depleted, poisoned, left tattered and worn.
As a grandmother, I ache for the world those little ones may inherit. Like many in this forum, I am conscious of my foot print, drive little, eat little, use very little electricity, and regard water as a sacred resource. I do what I can to inspire others to live more simply... but that's my voice against an entire media machine manufacturing the mantras of more, bigger, faster, better... ad nauseum.
Nice chatting... It's time to pick a gardenia from my garden and allow it to perfume my little office. Seems like a tricky squirrel confiscated EVERY peach from my tree. My sister caught the little spy in action.
*"If this is not indicative of the bankrupt ethos, "Mars Rules," I know not what "
It's called Capitalism.
What is the difference between a state employed mercernary, ie, a soldier, an a mercernary, also employed by a state, but through an intermediary?
For all the talk of human rights, where the heck was the concern for human rights during WW1, or WW2, or countless other wars? You think that the armies of the Roman Republic, or the Roman empire, gave a rat's flying ass about human rights?
"The use of Mercenaries has a long and bloody history. It has always lead to the most corrupt of regimes . The time of the Borgias in Italy was a time of the mercenary Captains as was the duration of the 30 years war where the population of Europe plummeted.
"
The 30 years period was more accurately part of the around 100 year war of religion period. The mercernary captains were hardly responsible for any of that idiocy.
Soldiers == mercernaries.
>>The 30 years period was more accurately part of the around 100 year war of religion period. The mercernary captains were hardly responsible for any of that idiocy.
I suggest you read more on the causes of the 30 year war and more particular how the mercenary outfits kept that war going.
The Common soldier does not change sides on a whim in order to perpetuate a conflict. This is what happened in the 30 years war. Every time it looked like there would be an end due to the exhaustion of the population a mercenary would sell their units to the side that was losing so as to turn the tide of said war.
When Germany and Japan were about to fall one did not see US marines or Russian soldiers join the side of The Germans and Japanese as as to ensure the war kept going.
And I suggest you read more on the wider events surrounding the 30 years war. The 30 years war was not started by the mercenaries, it was started by nation state territorial ambitions, it was started by territorial ambitions of kings and princes, it was started by religious idiocy, it was started by the ambitions of different religious sects. Nor is it correct to view it separately from what was going on, what had happened, in the rest of Europe, the wars of religion in France, the wars of religion in the Low Countries, the Reformation.
"The Common soldier does not change sides on a whim in order to perpetuate a conflict. This is what happened in the 30 years war. Every time it looked like there would be an end due to the exhaustion of the population a mercenary would sell their units to the side that was losing so as to turn the tide of said war.
"
Yes. So? Someone was paying those mercernaries.
"When Germany and Japan were about to fall one did not see US marines or Russian soldiers join the side of The Germans and Japanese as as to ensure the war kept going.
.."
No. One just saw US and Russian soldiers committing all manner of human rights atrocitities, just as one saw German and Japanese soldiers committing all manner of human rights atrocities before them.
As for not keeping the war going, how long did it take for another war to start, after WW2 ended? What was the next war that those US marines were involved in?
I have been saying for quite some time, that nation states have outlived their used by date. I think we either completely re-envision or hold our breath and go down with the ship.
The nation-state has been the "safe haven" for the commoners against the bankster imperium for the past thousand years( that is, the bankster imperium has been around as such, for at least a thousand years, supplanting the old-fashion empires of legions and flags and such. The nation-state is newer & created as a cure for the imperial disease gripping humanity). They have been "breached" and undermined from within, by the bankster imperium. The correlation of forces in what may be termed "the final war" will be these rogue, stateless merc armies Vs. the greatly impoverished citizens' militias of some united nations, fighting to slay this "dragon" for the sake of humanity & the world, both man-made & the natural; mother-empress gaia.
You're probably right that a new era with a new set of constitutional/organizing principles will evolve from this current dying era. Maybe something like continental confederations of little city-states and large "green zones" that will be not so much "wilderness areas" as it will be something more like "sacred groves" where the other "denizens" of Earth are met with and cooperated with, in living upon the Earth (something like findhorn). Might as well start working on that new vision now.
"A nation state can not sink much lower then when it hires mercenaries. A person can not sink lower then when they become one."
Absolutely true!!
You have summed it up in excellent fashion, Jill.
"Is this all there is for these people--cruelty and money? I do not know why anyone would wish to live this way."
If you grew up with North American desensitising TV and killer games -where the model of the lone warrior ruled by emotion prevails and overcomes all, have no education in critical thinking, have had no other training except as a soldier to kill, if you enjoy the heightened adrenalin plus the added feeling of power and domination over others, if you are an empathy-lacking fundamentalist Christian with a Crusader mentality -or at least hang around with these types and feel you need to 'belong', and if you can get paid far more than you would otherwise as a national army grunt, why would you not join an outfit that rides roughshod over sovereignty and breaks all the rules?
This is the desirable role model as demonstrated by North American TV and, as a bonus, what better way to pay less taxes and have less government?
We are going full circle back to tribes if you extrapolate this.
JILL: It hardly could escape an astute analytical mind like yours that Bush's base, and in fact that of many Republican right wing crusades (and related causes), is composed of an estimated 50 million plus Evangelical Christians. The majority of this ilk has been force-fed the idea that Muslims are intent upon taking over the world, and that they (via their religion) are all committed to a dangerous ethos based on violence. Of course there are principled Christians, largely found in the Unitarian sect, that hold fast to the HIGH teachings of Jesus. The problem is that the church is itself, a highly efficient instrument when it comes to indoctrinating people. Furthermore, due to its rules, it's by design, authoritarian.
Chris Hedges ("American Fascists") and John Dean ("Conservatives Without Conscience") are but two of the important authors who chronicle the relationship between modern American Christianity, and very dangerous political incursions into semi-fascist orders.
Ignoring this voting block, or minimizing what it largely teaches (on the basis of the more evolved and sincere beliefs of a small number of enlightened members) misses a very important dimension of what supports American foreign policy today.
Sure, the elites design the policies, but if they didn't have a fake moral argument in place to project it, all the killing that's going on might be found objectionable. When Chris Hedges lumps the church under the banner of liberal institutions, what he likely (and rightfully, in my view) is protesting is why the church has not stood up against policies of genocide.
This is why, in my mind, the modern TV-promoting, Evangelical Christian church constitutes the anti-Christ. Its teachings are anything BUT based on peace or tolerance of others. (And this is where the uber: Zionist protection of Israel also joins in with policies of naked aggression taken against a number of Arab lands.)
Exceptions can be found to any rule, and as stated, there ARE exceptions... but by in large, Bush's voting base consisted largely of this ilk. Today's liberals, going along with Obama in promoting similar poliicies of destruction and despair follow that more secular religious institution: the television. Its hypnotic powers now demonstrate that perfectly sane minds can get caught in a sea of deluded deception, with innate intelligence tossed under the waves.
JILL: You are missing my point... until you understand how the mega-churches are using their pulpits to fabricate a desire for holy war, your comments about the Bible, left hating right, and any other examples just serve as diversions.
Those with liberal/progressive leanings believe in a live and let live ethos, one supported by Just Law. The Christian Theocratic Right believes that it alone, has the God-given right to tell people what they can do. One tolerates the other, yet its ideological opponent is bent upon abolishing its freedom to do so... or do much of anything, really.
History has very potent examples of what happens when church and state merge.
Media divides reality into digestible sound bites, so that many never connect the dots. They jump from issue to issue.
Given the influence right wing politicians now wield, they ARE turning back the clock on not only abortion, but ACCESS to birth control! This has a DIRECT impact on real persons' lives, persons NOT of that particular religious persuasion.
When the church and its millions, many of whom believe in End Times and thus expect (perhaps even want) a holy war in the Middle East support policies of militarism, this becomes a HUGE problem.
Studies of Christians in other nations demonstrate that the breed here is an altogether different bunch... far less educated, far more interested in Biblical rules, and far more prone to warfare. They largely view religious affiliations as teams fighting for God's will. (Kurt Vonnegut said something along those lines a long time ago).
Your post completely dismisses the significant point I made, and it's one that has been hammered in by Chris Hedges and John Dean and Morris Dees, of The Southern Poverty Center, and likely the organization devoted to maintaining a separation between church and state.
I find it baffling why a poster would use peripherally relevant examples to try to make light of the far greater significance of those sinister trends (well underwy) that I've pointed out... and these observations are backed by the scholarship of respected figures, statistics included in their works.
Jill, thanks for the reply; is not often I get the chance to debate. I used the word 'education' in the broadest sense of the word not just the often narrow academic variety. Some of the sharpest minds I have met have little formal education and I could suggest that hierarchical, institutionalised education often warps and dulls critical thinking. Speaking out against that which is expected of you can be detrimental to academic progress unless you are exceptionally brilliant.
That said I think one of the greatest antidotes to mass media/corporate/government/religious power type spin, short of not giving it an audience, is critical thinking but sadly it is not taught in any worthwhile amount at an early age or any age for that matter. Give TV up for a month or two and then go back and watch it and you will be amazed at, stripped of its addictive facade, how bad it really is and you will wonder why you ever wasted your time watching it.
As far as armies go, the training is pretty much the same the world over, whether rag-tag terrorists or immaculately dressed troops. Boot camp is designed to break you down both physically and mentally, weed out those that think too much or question orders, and build you up again into a machine that follows orders without question. Some armies build some ethics and humanity back in again and also expect you to think, but not all will succeed here.
Institutionalised religion has the same problem -it is hierarchical and a power structure expecting obedience so there is little or no room for individuality. Questioning is largely a contra-indication.
By taking a literal translation approach (with conspicuous cherry-picking to fit the expected ideology) to the Bible, rather than explaining it with metaphors, Evangelical fundamentalists come up with 'the world is 6,000 years old and man scampered about with Tyrannosaurus Rex' nonsense and worse.
Religion is rarely the cause of conflict; power, greed, economic disadvantage are the root causes, religion is the bonding mechanism and tool or excuse to implement conflict.
Blind religion can unfortunately be the vehicle by which otherwise good people rationalise and promote very bad deeds.
I agree 100% on your comment about Michael Moore; no great surprise here as he plays an excellent game with his 'opponents' but he is more expedient entertainer than moral philosopher.
You are an obvious thinker on this forum and it's fun to read as are the few others here who can express themselves and welcome debate. Ad hominem attacks are far to "common" here. If I might add my observation about what people are up to with religion, or politics or whatever belief system of mind control we can point at (they are always oddly against the "other") - there are two fundamentally different interpretations of what freedom is - Freedom OF Choice and Freedom FROM Choice. One is messy and allows for many different ideas and approaches to the physical and mental environment, but generally is inclusive of differences - the big tent. The other is for non-thinking individuals and groups who want a set of rules that everyone abides by and these people are threatened by ideas and actions that don't follow those rules; so threatened that the difference must be dehumanized and eliminated. They gladly give their power over to the higher authority (usually people who somehow are closer to divinity and truth than the "common" person) and are comfortable in their rightness and don't have to think of the contradictions between what they say is right and what they do.
Jill, Aliensoup, first off I'd say I am agnostic with a leaning towards atheism. I have experienced something higher than my body, something that for want of a better word I will call a sort of power that I have tapped into unwittingly on several occasions. I'd hesitate to connect that with established religion though.
Secondly, I will happily support what I consider as good deeds by any church that isn't judgmental or have a predatory approach to gaining converts. That said, I intensely dislike any authoritarian body that tells me how and what I should think. By all means discuss it but I will ultimately decide what I want to believe. That lets out all churches I know about. Churches exist because people feel a need to belong and also wish to give themselves up to an acceptable higher power that will relieve the need to explain the abject misery and cruelty of life and their cognitive dissonance in explaining their part in it. Church hierarchy is happy to use that power over people and at times to abuse it.
So you give yourself up, with full support of peers, and immediately feel the relief of no longer having to think about the horrors and inconsistencies of life. It's all explained by "God works in mysterious ways". That doesn't work for me as I consider it convenient cowardice. It also leads to blinkered thought, rejecting anything that doesn't fit the adopted religious model. Everything is viewed through a binary lens that allows for no nuance; good vs. evil, if you are not for us you are against us, etc.
In reality, the world is a tapestry of grays but if you never get past the headlines then you will only see black and white. The Religious Right are famous for this, but it also applies to the extreme left and I tend to think they are both in practice, if not words, similar in more ways than not. They are at 5pm and 7pm on a clock face. The true middle is not at 6 pm but 12 pm.
"I don't know about saying people are non-thinking individuals" - I'd modify that to restricted, blinkered thinking rather than non-thinking. You can go into amazing vertical depth on a constrained thought that is devoid of any horizontal component and that is what happens when you give unconditional support for a religious or political leader.Without the horizontal thought component, empathy and understanding wither, replaced by authoritarian blind obedience and all its ugliness.
You are correct on fascism if you take Hitler's Germany as an example. It had mixtures of socialism blended in with the totalitarian fascist state.
Interestingly if you use Mussolini's definition of fascism:"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power" then we are living that today in North America.The only difference is that it has happened incrementally and in reverse -corporations lobbied government to the point where they possess de facto proxy political power.
Fear sells and fear hypnotises, fear grows on itself. It is easy to give authority everything it wants in order to gain relief from that fear. Again you need to think it through critically, remove the emotion, shine some light on the darkness and determine what exactly is the fear and how unrealistic it really is.
Unfortunately mass media and government feed our fears while ensuring we lack the ability to discern their game.
The US, Germany, the UK--all partners in crime. This mercenary army will be used "to thwart internal revolt." Is that the kind of "democracy" the West is exporting?
Short answer: Yes.
As I've said before, these rouge, quasi nation-state/corrpo "armies" are on the way to becoming their own private states without borders. One they get nukes, then its really over. Perhaps it already is.
Thanks for the NYT report. That should be required reading. This is some twisted messianic hyper-control power trip that the prince of armageddon is on.
The argument increasingly cogent that we're seeing the steep and highly greased slope of an empire (and use the term to distinguish it from broader legitimate society) so far out of balance it cannot even envision the concept of equilibrium.
The perversion of seeking a perfect capitalism based on extraction and denial, overstepping any legitimacy of social well being in a perverse idolatry of technology. Their last resource of extraction is the strategic reserve of the collective social imagination. Their task to make people think that the 21st century is better than previous and lumping concepts into a defecation of trauma 'terrorism', continually feeding the imbalances generating it.
In a tunnel vision of hyper-privilege, the leather-neck characterization of interactions is fully disengaged from natural life forces and knows only the great sucking noise of its version of anthropophagia (cannibalism).
The New York Times article that Reuters mentions in this piece gives a much more complete picture of this new Eric Prince christofascist mercenary business arrangement with the repressive government in the United Arab Emirates. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43036162/ns/world_news-the_new_york_times/
The New York Times article reported according to documents it obtained, "... (Prince's mercenary forces) 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 Times also mentioned that the Obama Administration approved of UAE's arrangement with the mercenaries, quoting a knowledgeable Obama administration official, “They might want to show that they are not to be messed with.”
This is a dress rehearsal for the US government's hiring of mercenaries to assist in coming brutal crackdowns on demonstrations that are likely as the reactionary austerity programs begin in earnest in the US in the coming months.
TOM: Thank you for the powerful post. It reflects my greatest fear.
Because the rise of the private mercenary force stands OUTSIDE of any nation's sovereign laws, and because such items as The Torture Statutes relative to The Geneva Conventions have already been breached to the point where the very law is seen as quaint (just like our Constitution), and because the uber: security-oriented arrangements amenable to the semi-fascist nation state essentially nullify those liberties contained in the Bill of Rights, there is little standing in the way of the outcome you describe. Its not as if morality is doing a particularly good job of governing on its own these days. Extending trust to "leaders" who have already done away with all of the restraints put in place over time specifically to avoid these outcomes, is beyond unwarranted.
Many of us may note another legally related issue: that any nation's law, labor-oriented and/or environmental, said to thwart a corporation's RIGHT TO PROFIT, may be viewed by the WTO as being a law unfair to trade. In other words, the corporation's right to profit can and often does supercede any law on a nation's books! And this is hardly fantasy. Some cases have already been executed that show who's got the muscle here, even without an iota of morally sound ground to stand upon.
Imagine if Eric Prince determines that his company's RIGHT TO PROFIT supercedes the sovereign law protecting any Amerikan citizen who may not have been formally placed on his covert hit list... yet due to a slight glitch in tactical aim, became another statistic in the way of collateral damage.
We are NOT a nation of laws. When the prez says torture is OK, when citizens are spied upon and this illegal activity is rendered RETROACTIVELY legal, when protests are forced into off-limit zones and protesters equated with domestic terrorists, when the prez determines he has a right to kill (via assassination of "enemy" order), then what can or does law mean? And I didn't even get to the economic aspect of this bankrupt equation... as seen in the money handed to the same banks that tanked our economy, while spreading enormous misery around the globe, to the stealing of children's lunch money to build yet more redundant weapons for underground bunkers... their designers always anxious to start wars to move inventory.
Our nation has been taken over by the Dark Side. It's no longer conjecture, the evidence speaks volumes for itself. (This explains my personal revulsion towards anyone in this forum who reinforces this dangerous, deadly status quo. They are not here for polite discourse, but rather, to normalize depraved indifference to life on all levels!)
The comments here have been on-point, especially those that delineate how blatant the Empire's shift to the Dark Side is. It seems there is no quarter. Especially when, as you pointed out, US gov't passes ex post facto decrees. I can't really call them laws as it would imply an orderly process per the Constitution. The hardships our people face are symptoms of this plague. Our household has been re-watching "I, Claudius" and my young adult children are horrified at the parallels. Now they appreciate what "conspiracy nut" Mom has been going on about over their youth when I made them do subsistence-type chores and had them each learn a trade, college bound or not. I caught two of them last week turning over the garden with forks and checking the rabbit fencing without prompts, which is just in time for planting. Up till now it's been hard to get my "grasshoppers" to "ant" on but even their naturally light hearts feel the heaviness of our times.
The legion etrangere rides again! This time under the UAE label.
I'm afraid ther's very little difference between Our armed forces and paid mercenaries. Pay, of course is the biggest. Many professional soldiers, like politicians, move thru public service to private ambitions using the knowledge and connections they have aquired. I served in a regular army unit in Viet Nam. There was little or no patriotism evident then and a much brutal, racist destructioin of people and property. I suppose if you interviewed vets after the fact they would tell a more favorable tale, one that that supports their illusions of heroism. Would American soldiers fire on American citizens? I think that question has already been answered.
The wave of the future. Privatised warfare. Takes the old mercenary concept and build it into the most significant departure from civilised legal and moral norms to have emerged from the bush-cheney era. Guns for hire on wall street.
So what's happening here is extremely educational. Not the fact that they are in UAE and what the UAE story is, but that this engagement will serve as model for the future and in other places where the local rulers will have a different story. And so will business interests in the USA and elsewhere.
Will the US government support the local rulers for business reasons even though they know the peoples aspirations are the very same the USA extols and exports.
So this 'Prince' of a fellow is forming his second world wide terrorist organization?
How's that for Dick DeVos's brother-in-law? Is this the American Way or AmWay.
Eric Prince, with his quasi-savior like name, is the biggest crook around. He truly IS a mercenary, selling his "product" to the highest bidder, be they white or dark-skinned muslim types, he obviously held no loyalty to the good 'ole USA, getting out while the getting was good and before he had to account for those murders in Iraq. What a piece of neo-con crap this "warrior Prince" is.
It's amusing how liberals get their panties in a bunch at the mere mention of Blackwater or Mr. Prince
Are you a pixel persona or a drive-by troll ?
LOL, see what I mean
How dave_m makes us laugh with his articulate posts full of erudite argument.
"LOL" is the equivalent of the applause board held up for a televised audience to respond to a tightly orchestrated show.
If you need that crutch then your post is deficient.
LOL, panties are bunching all over.
France has had a Foreign Legions for a long time. They've been doing a pretty good job too. I guess Abu Dhabi figured out it was a good idea. Another selling point is that in case of a conflict some poor foreign dude no one cares about is gonna die instead of a UAE citizen.
These mercenary outfits can do whatever they want, primarily because the handlers of these outfits live in safety and comfort far away from the violence they inflict. What they need is some of this violence to be brought home to them. A people's legion that targeted the families of the higher up individuals within these mercenary outfits, like Prince, need to understand the violence they perpetrate on others. Murdering the wife or children of Prince or other higher ups in the mercenary outfits such as EO/Blackwater would be a good strategy and one that can be carried out by a small group of dedicated individuals. When Prince and his ilk have something to lose, then they may not be so willing to murder innocents.
Oh, just imagine if Eric Prince would learn how to play both ends to the middle to make more money in his amoral profit driven mercenary enterprise. Sales;.. clandestinely setting up false flag terrorist attacks on the one hand, to justify suppression of civilian unrest and imposition of draconian civil management on the other thereby fully satisfying the expectations and demands of his paying customers……
I wonder where he might learn such techniques allowing him to gain power and profit? I guess everything is being privatized these days, even state terrorism. And to hell with laws, human rights or justice. Nothing should stand in the way of power and profit.
It's What You Didn't Know You've Been Waiting For.....
PRIVATE ARMIES!!!
STARRING Former US Special Ops & A Cast Of Thousands of Foreign Mercenaries!
SEE The Best & Newest Weapons Money Can Buy!
BE AWED As They Operate Above The Law!
THRILL To Killing And Maiming With Impunity!
LAUGH as Eric Prince mugs "We don't need no stinkin' badges!"
-must be 18 or older to be shot unless accompanied by suspects-
Coming soon to a protest near you.
Hiring Blackwater is like filling your house with scorpions to keep out intruders.
Time to look for the headline: "US Chamber of Commerce Moves to UAE".