Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater (now Xe Services), the world’s most notorious private military contractor, is discreetly training an 800-man army capable of defending infrastructure, suppressing rebellions and battling regional state enemies for the UAE. For $529 million, Prince’s new enterprise, Reflex Responses (or R2), has been assembling and training a battalion of men from conflict-stricken countries in Latin America to fight in Sheik Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan’s private forces.
Some observers are concerned that U.S. leaders will privately support Prince’s efforts to strengthen the UAE’s military, since the troops could blunt the regional aggression of Iran. Federal law prohibits American citizens from training foreign troops without State Department permission.
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