Blackwater Founder Forms Secret Army for Arab State
Bogotá alarmed by exodus of Colombian soldiers to UAE
By Michael Peel in Abu Dhabi and Andres Schipani in Bogotá is an article in the Financial Times titled: Bogota alarmed by exodus of Colombian soldiers to UAE. IT is a subscription only site. It states that 500 soldiers form Colombia have gone to the UAE.
Here is one from the NYTimes from May 2011:
BU 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 army is based in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, but will serve all the emirates.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.
More: Blackwater Founder Forms Secret Army for Arab State
and a blog post UAE: Former Colombian Soldiers Talk About Life In The UAE Military that is most interesting.