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Gen. McChrystal following in footsteps of Erik Prince of Blackwater into an Advisory Job for the Royal Family in the UAE.
McChrystal Working for UAE-Owned Arms Brokerage
(Defense News) Dec. 13, 2012 – Corporate records show that Knowledge International was registered in Delaware in 2010 by Hussein Ibrahim Al Hammadi, the U.S.-educated CEO of EAI. Hammadi, according to one of the U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks, “is a retired Colonel with the UAE Special Operations Command and has close ties to the Abu Dhabi Al Nahayan royal family.” An email and a phone call to EAI were not returned.
C4AS Joint Ventures
Knowledge International LLC (KI): wholly owned by Emirates Advanced Investments (EAI) and was established
in Delaware in 2010 with a main business office in Washington DC to:- Create a bridgehead for EAI into the United States
- Facilitate EAI Group company Defense related transactions (products & services) with US supplier’s
- Provide a link to the US Departments of State and Defense in connection with such activities.
Knowledge International’s first mission has been to help reorganize UAE’s land forces along U.S. lines.
“We’re focused on doing a transformation — an overall transformation — of their armed forces. There are a number of companies over there doing that, but we are the first U.S. company that is Emirati-owned,” Monahan said in an interview.
A former Air Force pilot, Monahan served as senior military adviser to the assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, according to his company biography. Before that he was the deputy director of operations at the White House Military Office.
Monahan said that, so far, Knowledge International has had a limited role in UAE’s efforts to develop advanced technology.
“We don’t have anything ongoing with cyber yet,” he said.
Monahan said the firm tried to broker one deal for fiber-optic hardware for its sister company in the UAE, C4 Advanced Systems, but the transaction fell through.
As for the role of the strategic advisory board, Monahan said McChrystal, Brown and Conway meet every quarter and have taken one trip together to the UAE. Efforts to reach Brown and Conway were unsuccessful.
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Bahrain's Foreign Minister, Sheik Khalid bin AhmedI bin Mohammed al-Khalifa, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu and United Arab Emirates' Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan seenduring a group photo during the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Foreign ministers meeting in Istanbul, Turkey (AP photo)Flush with oil cash, and situated across the Persian Gulf from Iran, the UAE has been on an arms-buying spree, and it relies heavily on international manpower — including European and U.S. companies — for training and servicing.
Some of the training endeavors have brought scandal. In 2011, the New York Times reported on the nation’s $529 million effort, with the involvement of Blackwater founder Erik Prince, to train a battalion of Colombian mercenaries based in the UAE.
Inside Story – UAE Arming up with mercenaries (VIDEO)
The UAE is now the ninth-largest arms importer in the world, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, and it’s a major client for U.S. defense contractors. One recent high-level government-to-government deal with the U.S. was the $3.5 billion agreement to buy Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile systems.
The UAE is a U.S. ally; it is not free from controversy. When Dubai Ports World, which was owned by the UAE, sought to take control of six major U.S. ports in 2006, the deal generated an extraordinary political firestorm of opposition. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., called the development “deeply troubling,” and Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he had “deep concerns.”
“Building the Land Forces” project in the United Arab Emirates
Knowledge International, LLC is currently recruiting 125 retired or separated US Army Veterans for a 6-20 month “Building the Land Forces” project
in the United Arab Emirates. Leading the project is a recently retired US Army Lieutenant General.
