UAE - as always, best avoided. Crown Prince Al Nahyan sets up mercenary army

It's long been the advice of Muscat Confidential that the UAE is 'best avoided'. A thin veneer of oil wealth supplied shiny stuff barely covers a culture of intolerance and expat exploitation. There is little true rule of law.

As recently commented in the previous post, The New York Times has just broken a big story that Sheik Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan has established a secret UAE based mercenary army in copperation with Blackwater founder Eric Prince. The outfit, staffed with mercs from Latin America to South Africa [but specifically no Muslims] is tasked with a mission scope that includes suppressing local riots, from expat labour camps or locals, plus defending islands from occupation by a few Iranians.

Photo: Effective ruler of the UAE, Sheik Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.

While the unit was set up long before the Arab Spring swept the region, old Ghaddafi has shown that when you're a dictator it's useful to have a few rentals on hand who have no qualms shooting the local civilian populace.

...
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.

The U.A.E.’s rulers, viewing their own military as inadequate, also hope that the troops could blunt the regional aggression of Iran, the country’s biggest foe, the former employees said. The training camp, located on a sprawling Emirati base called Zayed Military City, is hidden behind concrete walls laced with barbed wire. Photographs show rows of identical yellow temporary buildings, used for barracks and mess halls, and a motor pool, which houses Humvees and fuel trucks. 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.
...

It's a long article. You can read it in full here.


Meanwhile, a UAE man was busted in Thailand while attempting to board a 1st class flight to Dubai with carry on that contained a baby leopard, panther, bear and monkeys. He obviously wasn't too worried about being searched on arrival in the UAE...

Post-script: The smuggler was one Noor Mahmoodr, a 36 year old male from UAE, according to freeland.org. No word on who he was smuggling them for...

UAE: Best avoided.