Samer Muscati of HRW on Blackwater Founder Erik Prince's Effort To Build A Private Army in the UAE

DemocracyNow.org - The United Arab Emirates has confirmed hiring a company headed by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of the military firm, Blackwater. According to The New York Times, the UAE secretly signed a $529 million contract with Prince's new company, Reflex Responses, to put together an 800-member battalion of foreign mercenaries. The troops could be deployed if foreign guest workers stage revolts in labor camps, or if the UAE regime were challenged by pro-democracy protests like those sweeping the Arab world. Prince has one rule about the new force: no Muslims. We speak to investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill and Samer Muscati of Human Rights Watch, May 18th, 2011.

To download the video/audio podcast, read the transcript, or for more from Democracy Now! on this breaking story, visit: http://www.democracynow.org/2011/5/18/jeremy_scahill_on_blackwater_founder_erik

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Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• amy goodman
• democracy now
• juan gonzalez
• samer muscati
• human rights watch
• blackwater
• jeremy scahill
• erik prince
• uae

[charlottepenna]

What a mercenary association on the forbes list.

[usy444u]

foreign guest workers = bengalis, Indians, Pakistanis, malays, indonsians, etc etc.

pro=democracy = Arabs wanting freedom.