Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army | 
 enlarge | Author: Jeremy Scahill
Publisher: Nation Books
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  231 reviews
Sales Rank: 5909
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 480
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.9
ISBN: 1560259795
Dewey Decimal Number: 355.3540973
EAN: 9781560259794
ASIN: 1560259795
Publication Date: March 7, 2007
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Product Description
Meet Blackwater USA, the powerful private army that the U.S. government has quietly hired to operate in international war zones and on American soil. With its own military base, a fleet of twenty aircraft, and twenty-thousand troops at the ready, Blackwater is the elite Praetorian Guard for the "global war on terror"-- yet most people have never heard of it. It was the moment the war turned: On March 31, 2004, four Americans were ambushed and burned near their jeeps by an angry mob in the Sunni stronghold of Falluja. Their charred corpses were hung from a bridge over the Euphrates River. The ensuing slaughter by U.S. troops would fuel the fierce Iraqi resistance that haunts occupation forces to this day. But these men were neither American military nor civilians. They were highly trained private soldiers sent to Iraq by a secretive mercenary company based in the wilderness of North Carolina. Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army is the unauthorized story of the epic rise of one of the most powerful and secretive forces to emerge from the U.S. military-industrial complex, hailed by the Bush administration as a revolution in military affairs, but considered by others as a dire threat to American democracy.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 226 more reviews...
 It is sad September 6, 2008
"Blackwater: The rise of the world's most powerful mercenary army" is nice book. It's really biased, but it calls up for a problem that doesn't appears in the media: the private military contractors. Few people knows about Blackwater and other firms, its ideologies, beliefs, associations, etc. It's a company, so its primary objective is profit, with its business, but its business is war. Sounds creep, but this is the true, and it's not only in Iraq. Many humanitarian organization rely on these companies for security in risk areas and failed states.
Scahill begans his investigation narrating the incident in Nisour Square, with morbid details, and how the perpetrators were not punished. The first chapter is to make clear that this book won't be nice with Blackwater. After talking about Rumsfeld plan's to increase outsource in the military industry, he describe the life of Blackwater's founder, Erik Prince, its family, home and influences and how he started Blackwater. AS a critic of the war in Iraq, he writes about the situation of the country and the job of the PMCs. He dedicates two chapters for Scott Helvenston and describe the ambush, which resulted in his death and his teammates. Then he descibres the battles of Najaf (which Blackwater employees were giving orders to US soldiers, acting like commanders) and Fallujah. The next chapters, is about lobbying, operations in Azerbaijan, lawsuits, the "air force" of Blackwater. Then the targets are the executives: Black e Schmitz, with the death squad between their chapters. Then he talks about the operation in Katrina and other charities. And ends with a discussion about the power of the industry and the future.
When I finished the book I was astonished of how can this happen. This industry doesn't need to be a devil, but Bremer's rules are transforming they in a demon. Without regulation, since they will not simply become extinct, there will be no limits of what their soldiers can do. They don't need to answer to anyone. It's very dangerous stimulate the corruption in the human being, and it is necessary put some limits imediatily in their job.
And I didn't understand very well the connection that Scahill makes with Blackwater and the Christian right. But, I must confess that I don't understand how a man self declared Christian can make war and death his business and give glory to the Lord. I am Christian and some kind of conservative, but I don't believe in the American Christian right. See for example, this quotation: "Many Christians in Southern Sudan desire to break free form international handouts and learn free-market principles, useful skills and technologies that will move them form depence to independence". I couldn't belive that this was written. I was looking for the original article, but I didn't find a free version in the net. If it's true then I understand what Stiglitz meant with "free-market fundamentalism". Free-market is not the Gospel. It's disgusting how our brothers in Darfur are dying and nobody is doing anything, because it's just about oil, the cursed oil. China let the Sudanese government kill Christian just for the oil. If the US strike, they will only go after the oil. But it's equally disgusting how Scahill and other members of the left show no compassion with the people that are dying there. Someday everybody involved in this tragedy will receive their judgements.
Scahill also writes about the use of PMCs to protect humanitarian NGOs but, here he just relate the situation, perhaps because he understood the gravity of the situation, and let the reader decide.
Last advice: read with open mind, whether you are a conservative or liberal.
 Badly Written, Badly Reported August 23, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
So what is reporter Jeremy Schahill's problem with the mercenary company Blackwater? Well, it's run by Christian conservatives who are rigorous supporters of the Bush presidency, and it enables the American government to pursue an imperialist agenda, without the support of either the American people or military. And sometimes Blackwater mercenaries kill innocent civilians, and with their lax safety standards Blackwater permits their own soldiers to be killed.
Jeremy Schahill reports for the Nation magazine and Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now!" so he's used to preaching to the choir. Mercenaries? Christian right? George Bush? Imperialism? Well, that's an open and shut case: Blackwater is evil, and must be stopped now.
Now Blackwater is a very interesting topic and a lot of readers who are not knee-jerk liberals -- such as myself -- will want to read up on it, and so Jeremy Schahill needs to articulate his case against Blackwater better -- and unfortunately he doesn't even try.
Blackwater, after all, is merely a company that is meeting market demand. George W. Bush decided to invade and occupy Iraq, and he needed a reliable mercenary company to protect American diplomats -- and Blackwater has maintained a perfect record in the protection of "high value targets." Violence is a brutal, subjective business, and now and then Blackwater mercenaries will over-use force in order to protect American officials and diplomats -- resulting in the wanton killing of civilians. But, again, they're just doing their job, and they're doing it very well.
Another of Jeremy Schahill's concern is the Bush cabal's -- as best represented by Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney -- push to privatize the military. Donald Rumsfeld has consistently argued that privatizing the military would make it more efficient and cost-effective, and permit America to fight the asymmetrical wars of the 21st century. Again here Jeremy Schahill takes it on faith that this is a very bad idea -- but Mr. Rumsfeld could well be right -- there just isn't enough history and evidence to ascertain who is right and wrong.
Now and then Mr. Schahill tries to explain why Blackwater is bad for the American republic. Remember Rome, and its use of mercenaries? Well, eventually these mercenary armies turned against Rome -- but this a point that Mr. Schahill doesn't really articulate.
But besides the trite and over-used example of Rome Mr. Schahill could have also used the example of Britain and the East India Company. In the beginning of the 19th century East India Company officials or "nabobs" were getting filthy rich in India, returning to Great Britain, spending their wealth lavishly to cultivate political connections, and became a strong lobby for Britain's imperialistic drive which ultimately corrupted its republican virtues. America's nascent mercenary lobby is extremely close to the Bush presidency, and there's very good reason to believe that Erik Prince, Blackwater's king, will enter the political arena one day.
If Mr. Schahill were to delve deeper and conduct true investigative journalism he may well discover that his case against Blackwater is a lot stronger than mere speculating and complaining. Mr. Schahill tells us that Blackwater mercenaries are responsible for protecting the top American officials in Iraq and have immunity from prosecution -- and so what's going to happen when you give professional killers a lot of power and nothing to restrain them?
When I was in Afghanistan working for the United Nations I would hear now and then of international soldiers involved in the drug trade and in smuggling cultural relics out of the country. It made perfect sense for these soldiers to engage in these activities because they had the means -- the planes, the weapons, and the time -- and there was little risk of them actually getting caught. By now we know that Blackwater mercenaries stand accused of selling guns and weapons to insurgent groups in Iraq -- and why not? We are talking about extreme risk-takers put in a situation where they can make a lot of money with little risk, and so why wouldn't Blackwater mercenaries sell guns to their enemies? And why wouldn't they sell drugs and smuggle relics?
"Blackwater" runs to almost 500 pages, and if the author spent as much time actually investigating what Blackwater is doing in Iraq as he did in writing the book he would have done his country a great service.
 The Real Disaster in Iraq August 8, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Liberals love to push and fight over who was first to be against the war in Iraq. This distracts from the far more interesting questions that books like this seek to expose. The triumph of private mercenaries who discredit this great country and are allowed to operate unchecked by the noble traditions of military justice is unpatriotic and criminal. How this terrible "business" arose is well worth investigation and exposure. It is irrelevant whether one supports the war or not. Both sides should agree that turning over our national dignity to Mcmilitary operations is a scandal. Democrats and Republican should decry our loss of civilian and military control. That Democrats against the war are silent on this outrage shows their hypocrisy. This is pure profiteering at its worst, but more outrageous is the shame and national dishonor brought to our nation in the eyes of the world who see these incompetent criminals murdering people in cold blood in the name of the USA.
Blackwater : Right-Wing Conservative America, Whether You Like It Or Not... August 1, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I loved this book for what it had to say about Blackwater, and it's extremely right-wing leanings.
I post on a "Conspiracy Theory" Forum, and received "Blackwater Expert" rank because of the information I read and conveyed based on this book, as well as my insight into all things military, and the countless other topics I investigate for my own personal interest.
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread352934/pg1
I hope everyone who reads this book finds it intriguing and informative, to say the least. It's not that it's right-wing, so much as the current Administration has abused power so much, that it has left a bad taste in anyone who loves Democracy, can see the writing on the wall towards shredding the United States Consitution that is supposed to protect us as citizens from our Government becoming too powerful, and becoming a tyranny.
Blackwater:The Rise of the World's Most Powerful MERCENARY August 1, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
tHE BOOK IS THOUGHT PROVOKING AND FRIGHTENING,IT NEEDS TO BE READ BY AMERICANS AND FELLOW CITIZENS OF THE WORLD!
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