The UAE Is Paying Ex-CIA Officers to Build a Spy Empire in the Gulf

[Trajan]

Former CIA and government officials were drawn to the Gulf nation by the promise of interesting work and, perhaps even more importantly, lucrative careers.

“The money was fantastic,” one former employee told FP. “It was $1,000 a day — you could live in a villa or in a five-star hotel in Abu Dhabi.”


The key figure behind this growing intelligence training operation, according to multiple sources, is Larry Sanchez, a former intelligence officer who helped kickstart a controversial partnership between the CIA and the New York Police Department that tried to pre-empt the radicalization of potential terrorists by tracking people — many of them Muslims — in mosques, bookstores, and other places around New York. Sanchez, a veteran of the CIA clandestine services, has been working for the crown prince of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates for the past six years to build large pieces of its intelligence services from the ground up, six sources with knowledge of the matter tell FP.

But Sanchez is just one of many former Western security professionals who has made his way to the Gulf nation to provide security training. Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, famously moved to the UAE to create a battalion of foreign troops serving the crown prince, details of which were first revealed by the New York Times in 2011. And Richard Clarke, the former White House counterterrorism czar, is also a longtime top advisor to the crown prince of Abu Dhabi as the CEO of Good Harbor Security Risk Management.

Sanchez’s role in providing a blueprint for the UAE’s intelligence operation, making it from whole cloth, shows just how far private contractors have gone in selling skills acquired from decades spent working for the U.S. military and intelligence community. That sort of work is also now raising legal questions as the U.S. government struggles to decide how laws govern highly trained intelligence officials hawking their skills abroad.

During his tenure at NYPD, Sanchez developed “an ongoing relationship” with high-level Emirati officials, including Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler of Abu Dhabi, according to a former law enforcement source.

The Emiratis were unfamiliar with “the world of intelligence,” the source explained, and Sanchez went to them and said, “‘Listen, I’m not going to be like some of these other U.S. entities who fly in and then leave, I will be here for you all the time. Call me at 3 a.m., I’m here.’ … He won them over by his commitment to them.”

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Deep Pockets, Deep Cover: The UAE Is Paying Ex-CIA Officers to Build a Spy Empire in the Gulf

 

[Kings County]

1000 a day

 

[ORDER_66]

This is what the U.S. military apparatus has become rent a mercenary after your time is done...

But I can't be mad at these contractors making that money...$1,000 a fukking....day... :deadman:

Trust me if I had the skillset and went through Langley I would be out there making bank too...

 

[delta]

1000 a day

thats "only" $240 a year but im sure they get other shyt

 

[Jhoon]

Those guys are the country equivalent of Sean Kingston — a lick for some hoe.

 

[50CentStan]

thats "only" $240ka year but im sure they get other shyt

Coke and hookers on the house

 

[Moich]

Profligacy they name is Arab

 

[Trajan]

thats "only" $240 a year but im sure they get other shyt

Sanchez received a luxury fishing boat from the Crown Prince as a gift

 

[Meta Reign]

How is this NOT illegal?

 

[ORDER_66]

How is this NOT illegal?

Any former govt agent has free choice to play his skills in foreign units or any govt agency... Some former military members are hired as security detail, mercenaries shyt like that. I thought all of this was public knowledge to you guys here look at the pmc called Blackwater... They changed the name but they get these fat govt contract for military work overseas.

I assume people who worked for the agency or mi5 use their skills in other places.

 

[ill]

Any former govt agent has free choice to play his skills in foreign units or any govt agency... Some former military members are hired as security detail, mercenaries shyt like that. I thought all of this was public knowledge to you guys here look at the pmc called Blackwater... They changed the name but they get these fat govt contract for military work overseas.

I assume people who worked for the agency or mi5 use their skills in other places.

There needs to be reform in defense contracting. Our intelligence officers should never be allowed to work for foreign nations (unless it’s a joint program approved at the top).

 

[ORDER_66]

There needs to be reform in defense contracting. Our intelligence officers should never be allowed to work for foreign nations (unless it’s a joint program approved at the top).

Too bad the govt doesn't care.. this is an oligarchy not a true democracy...

 

[Trajan]

Too bad the govt doesn't care.. this is an oligarchy not a true democracy...

Lol the CIA was pissed they were teaching CIA material ...wtf


But they reassured them they're teaching them a basic version