Dem. Now: Blackwater: From the Nisour Square Massacre to the Future of the Mercenary Industry

[babylonsister]

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/2/blackwater_jeremy_scahill_on

Blackwater: From the Nisour Square Massacre to the Future of the Mercenary Industry



The private military firm Blackwater has gone from being a relatively unknown contractor working in Iraq to a household name and the subject of multiple investigations, lawsuits and congressional inquiries. In the meantime, the company continues to reap millions of dollars in profits and was recently awarded a new contract from the State Department. Last year, Democracy Now! correspondent and Nation Fellow, Jeremy Scahill, published his book Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army. The book quickly landed on the New York Times bestseller list and helped frame the debate that was to come. With the book’s paperback release in a thoroughly revised and updated edition, Jeremy Scahill joins us for the hour.


At least three Iraqi witnesses appeared before a federal grand jury last week investigating the killing of seventeen Iraq civilians in September by Blackwater forces in Baghdad’s Nisour Square. On Wednesday, one of the survivors, an Iraqi lawyer who was shot several times in the back, is expected to testify in Geneva.

It’s been quite a year for Blackwater. The private military firm went from being a relatively unknown contractor working in Iraq to a household name and the subject of multiple investigations, lawsuits and Congressional inquiries. In the meantime, the company continues to reap millions of dollars in profits and was recently awarded a new contract from the State Department.

In March of last year, Democracy Now! correspondent and Nation Fellow, Jeremy Scahill published his book, “Blackwater: The Rise of the World”s Most Powerful Mercenary Army." The book quickly landed on the New York Times bestseller list and helped frame the debate that was to come. Now it’s out in paperback in a thoroughly revised and updated edition. Jeremy Scahill joins me now in the firehouse studio.

Jeremy Scahill, Author of the bestselling book Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, for which he received a Polk Award. The updated paperback version of the book is being published tomorrow.

[pocoloco]

1. Starting their own air force?

Could a navy be far behind?? How about a few ICBMs?

[midnight]

2. Is that were Washington has stuck that 2.3 trillion the pentagon

says they lost?

[Echo In Light]

4. ...interesting food for thought, that

[Echo In Light]

3. Fuckin' Hellmart will be selling "cool" Blackwater garb to kids pretty soon

[babylonsister]

5. On now; so sad, so disgusting if Blackwater gets away with this. nt

[pberq]

6. "without Blackwater, the occupation of Iraq would be untenable"

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/2/blackwater_jeremy_scahill_on

JEREMY SCAHILL: That’s right. And what I should say at the onset here is that what’s become very, very clear over the past year is that without Blackwater, the occupation of Iraq would be untenable. I mean, this is a company now that has become so central to the US occupation that it can be responsible for one of the single greatest killing sprees of Iraqi civilians and face basically no consequences for that action and in fact continue to win hundreds of millions of dollars in US State Department contracts. Blackwater in Iraq was awarded over $100 million in contracts just in the two weeks following the Nisour Square shooting. It’s had over a billion dollars in contracts from the United States State Department. And the men who were alleged to have been responsible for those killings at Nisour Square, to this day, are walking around as free individuals.

[pberq]

7. U.S. military investigation

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/2/blackwater_jeremy_scahill_on

JEREMY SCAHILL: . . .But what has gotten almost no attention is that a US military unit did respond right after the shooting, arrived on the scene. And Lieutenant Colonel Mike Tarsa and his men did an investigation, and what they found is that there was no evidence of enemy fire. They examined the shell casings on the scene and found no evidence that there were any shots fired at the Blackwater convoy. And they labeled it a criminal event and said that all of the Iraqis killed that day were killed as a result of unjustified and unprovoked gunfire. Now, this has gotten almost no attention whatsoever.