Blackwater : the rise of the world's most powerful mercenary army

Title:

Author:

Scahill, Jeremy.

ISBN:

9781846686306

Personal Author:

Scahill, Jeremy.

Publication Date:

2007

Publication Information:

London : Serpent's Tail, 2007.

Physical Description:

xxvii, 452 p. ; 24 cm.

Abstract:

Meet Blackwater USA, the world's most powerful mercenary firm. Blackwater protects the top US officials in Iraq. This is an explosive account of Blackwater's mercenary involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. Meet BLACKWATER USA, the world?s most powerful mercenary firm. Based in the wilderness of North Carolina, it is the fastest-growing private army on the planet with forces capable of carrying out regime change throughout the world. Blackwater protects the top US officials in Iraq and yet we know nothing about the firm?s quasi-military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and inside the US. Blackwater was founded by an extreme right-wing fundamentalist Christian mega-millionaire ex-Navy Seal named Erik Prince, the scion of a wealthy conservative family that bankrolls far-right-wing causes. Blackwater is the dark story of the rise of a powerful mercenary army, ranging from the blood-soaked streets of Fallujah to rooftop firefights in Najaf to the hurricane-ravaged US gulf to Washington DC, where Blackwater executives are hailed as new heroes in the war on terror. This is an extraordinary expose by one of America?s most exciting young radical journalists.

Corporate Subject:

Blackwater USA.

Subject Term:

Mercenary troops -- United States.

Fallujah, Battle of, Fallujah, Iraq, 2004.

Warfare and Defence.

Warfare & defence

Mercenaries

Military history: post-WW2 conflicts

Politics & government

Military history

Iraq

Early 21st century c 2000 to c 2050

Copies:

Available:*

Library	Shelf Number	Material Type	Item Barcode	Status
Searching... Mayfair Library	XX(1376364.1)	Book	30117030641134	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Meet BLACKWATER USA, the world?s most powerful mercenary firm. Based in the wilderness of North Carolina, it is the fastest-growing private army on the planet with forces capable of carrying out regime change throughout the world. Blackwater protects the top US officials in Iraq and yet we know nothing about the firm?s quasi-military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and inside the US. Blackwater was founded by an extreme right-wing fundamentalist Christian mega-millionaire ex-Navy Seal named Erik Prince, the scion of a wealthy conservative family that bankrolls far-right-wing causes. Blackwater is the dark story of the rise of a powerful mercenary army, ranging from the blood-soaked streets of Fallujah to rooftop firefights in Najaf to the hurricane-ravaged US gulf to Washington DC, where Blackwater executives are hailed as new heroes in the war on terror. This is an extraordinary expose by one of America?s most exciting young radical journalists.

Author Notes

Jeremy Scahill is an unembedded, international journalist. He has reported extensively from Iraq through both the Clinton and Bush administrations. He reported from Yugoslavia during the 1999 NATO bombing and spent years covering the downfall of Slobodan Milosevic's government and the rise of a neoliberal regime backed by the United States. He has also reported from Nigeria, where he and colleague Amy Goodman exposed the role of the Chevron oil corporation in the massacre of protesting villagers in the Niger Delta. Traveling around the hurricane zone in the wake of Katrina, Scahill exposed the presence of Blackwater mercenaries in New Orleans and his reporting sparked a Congressional inquiry and an internal Department of Homeland Security investigation. Scahill has won numerous awards, including the prestigious George Polk Award for Foreign Reporting and numerous Project Censored Awards. He was among the only western reporters to gain access to the Abu Ghraib prison when Saddam Hussein was in power and his story on the emptying of that prison won a (US) Golden Reel for "Best National Radio News Story" of 2002. Blackwater is his first book.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Scahill's liberal horror story is about the company that has deployed many of the "private contractors" who have assisted the U.S. military in Iraq and been responsible for more than its share of death and disorder. Scahill, a regular contributor to the Nation, amps up the scare language in his study of both Blackwater and the wealthy, ultra-conservative Prince family that founded the company, but luckily, Weiner does not. With his booming baritone reined tightly in check, Weiner coolly and calmly delivers the bad news. The parade of scaremongering may grow wearying, but Weiner maintains his composure throughout, offsetting Scahill (to a degree) by virtue of his unyielding temperateness. Simultaneous release with the Nation hardcover (Reviews, Feb. 26). (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Guardian Review

Blackwater being rarely out of the news lately, this is a very useful survey of modern mercenaries - or, as they prefer to be called, "private security contractors" in the "peace and stability industry". Blackwater's founder, Erik Prince, opened its first private range (on North Carolina's appropriately named Great Dismal Swamp) in 1998, offering firearms training to law-enforcement officials, but the real stroke of luck was 9/11, after which Dick Cheney's long-cherished military-privatisation programme gained pace, and mercenaries came to make up a significant proportion of the US force in Iraq. Jeremy Scahill is a sharp investigative writer, and notes in particular the interesting fact that Prince and other mercenary operators are evangelical Christians. Even so, there is apparently not enough charity to go around, as their own employees are often sent out undermanned and without maps or armour. (Hence, as Scahill details, the four deaths that sparked the first assault on Fallujah.) Luckily, mercenaries are guaranteed immunity from prosecution in Iraq, and are not subject to US military justice either. So there's still time to fill your boots. Caption: article-etc03.1 Blackwater being rarely out of the news lately, this is a very useful survey of modern mercenaries - or, as they prefer to be called, "private security contractors" in the "peace and stability industry". - Steven Poole.