Calls for boycotting the UAE are escalating around the world at all levels as a pariah state. The last of then were in the UK, where Abu Dhabi has been described as a hostile country with a dark human rights record.
The Tactics Institute for Security and Counterterrorism urged to prevent former British spies from working with what it called hostile governments involved in technological espionage, led by the UAE.
In a report, the institute attacked the unorganized market of former spies who sell their services to the highest price, whether they are companies or systems with poor human rights records and a history of suppressing their political opponents, including the UAE.
In the area of technology selling, the report said that the UK government and the European Union should deal with the export of knowledge and technology with strict restrictions just as it does the export of conventional arms.
The authors of the report warned that selling technology and knowledge to countries that use it against their opponents or to sabotage democracy entails great risks that may affect the West.
The report cited examples of cyber operations such as the Raven project, sponsored by the UAE, where an American company was tasked with hiring former spies to train Emiratis to penetrate the apparatus of politicians in the UAE and abroad. The targets included British and American citizens and critics of the regime, such as British journalist Rory Donaghy.
The International Institute called on Britain to take the lead in addressing the threat of cyber-attacks and using technology to spread misleading information by hostile forces, which “does not include only Russia and China, but the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.”
The UAE has a long record tainted by intelligence espionage scandals, internally and externally.
The Reuters international news agency revealed at the end of last year an American investigation into an Emirati intelligence program that targeted Gulf officials, activists and diplomats at the United Nations.
The investigation stated that former White House and Defense Department official Richard Clarke assisted the UAE in large-scale espionage operations accompanied by former US security officials.
They set up an intelligence unit named Raven, while the program’s work included hacking e-mail addresses.
The documents showed that the Emirati intelligence program began in 2008. The UAE had previously launched four satellites for espionage. The last of them, last July, was called “Eye of the Falcon”.
The UAE shone in the world of classic espionage and then became the pioneer of electronic espionage.
The UAE paid former CIA officers to build an espionage empire and bought advanced espionage technologies from Israel for billions of dollars.
The state imposes strict control on all communications in the country, and its espionage activities extend to regional governments and international organizations.