Blackwater

Below, an excerpt from a review of a new book. Remember the four civilian workers in Iraq who were killed, burned, and their body parts hung up on a bridge? They worked for Blackwell, an American corporation specializing in private armies.. Jeremy Scahill's new book, "Blackwater" tells the story.Here's a link to the complete review: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/25/112857/665

by SusanG

Sun Mar 25, 2007 at 08:34:30 AM PDT

Blackwater
The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army
By Jeremy Scahill
Nation Books, Avalon Publishing
New York, 2007

"The Blackwater corporation is quickly becoming one of the most powerful private armies in the world, and several of its top officials are extreme religious zealots, some of whom appear to believe they are engaged in an epic battle for the defense of Christendom. .... For its vaunted American forces, Blackwater has expanded the mercenary motivating factor (or rationalization) beyond simple monetary gain (though that remains a major factor) to a duty-oriented, patriotic justification. Naturally the MSM is ignoring this.

"Jeremy Scahill’s Blackwater would be a masterpiece of the genre of futuristic sci fi were it not so regrettably real. It’s got all the twists and turns and secret corners of a Hollywood thriller: records and contracts that can’t be traced, shady characters recruiting other shady characters in violent Third World nations, extremist religious figures lurking in the background of a mysterious unregulated company that uses PR tactics worthy of Orwell. Unfortunately for America, we’re living the plot in real time.

[Snip]

"The use of these contractors raises an even more alarming prospect, if followed to its logical conclusion: why not cut governments out altogether? As multi-national corporations continue to grow and exercise a power greater than that of many nations, what’s to prevent them from employing their own private armies – as they do now with smaller, more passive security forces – and ignoring all laws of any country, the ones they’re occupying or the ones they’re at least nominally registered in?"

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