Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army

Jeremy Scahill

PublicAffairs, May 27, 2008 - History - 560 pages

On September 16, 2007, machine gun fire erupted in Baghdad's Nisour Square, leaving seventeen Iraqi civilians dead, among them women and children. The shooting spree, labeled "Baghdad's Bloody Sunday," was neither the work of Iraqi insurgents nor U.S. soldiers. The shooters were private forces working for the secretive mercenary company, Blackwater Worldwide.

This is the explosive story of a company that rose a decade ago from Moyock, North Carolina, to become one of the most powerful players in the "War on Terror." In his gripping bestseller, award-winning journalist Jeremy Scahill takes us from the bloodied streets of Iraq to hurricane-ravaged New Orleans to the chambers of power in Washington, to expose Blackwater as the frightening new face of the U.S. war machine.

"A crackling expose" - New York Times Book Review

"[Scahill] is a one-man truth squad" - Bill Moyers

"[An] utterly gripping and explosive story" -Naomi Klein, The Guardian

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - ASKelmore - LibraryThing

From my Cannonball Read V review... Just to make sure we're all on the same page: Blackwater is a horrible, horrible, horrible company, right? Like, everyone with a conscience is aware of that fact ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - ksimon - LibraryThing

Quick review: Blackwater is one of the leading corporate players in the growing privatization of American military might. This book is a timely study of Blackwater and, more generally, of America's ...

Contents

• THE FACE OF BLACKWATER: 1
• BAGHDADS BLOODY SUNDAY: 3
• MAKING A KILLING: 49
• LITTLE PRINCE: 65
• BLACKWATER BEGINS: 89
• FALLUJAH BEFORE BLACKWATER: 113
• GUARDING BUSHS MAN IN BAGHDAD: 125
• SCOTTY GOES TO WAR: 145
• THE AMBUSH: 155
• WE WILL PACIFY FALLUJAH: 169
• NAJAF IRAQ 40404: 181
• THIS IS FOR THE AMERICANS OF BLACKWATER: 197
• MR PRINCE GOES TO WASHINGTON: 209
• CASPIAN PIPELINE DREAMS: 231
• BLACKWATERS MAN IN CHILE: 245
• THE WHORES OF WAR: 275
• THE CRASH OF BLACKWATER: 305
• COFER BLACK THE GLOVES COME OFF: 329
• DEATH SQUADS MERCENARIES AND THE SALVADOR OPTION: 349
• JOSEPH SCHMITZ CHRISTIAN SOLDIER: 365
• BLACKWATER DOWN BAGHDAD ON THE BAYOU: 389
• THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE: 409
• BLACKWATER BEYOND BUSH: 447
• Acknowledgments: 465
• Notes: 469
• Index: 535

About the author

Jeremy Scahill is one of the three founding editors of The Intercept. He is an investigative reporter, war correspondent, and author of the international bestselling books Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield and Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army and coauthor of The Assassination Complex. Scahill has served as the national security correspondent for The Nation and Democracy Now! and was twice awarded the prestigious George Polk Award. Scahill is a producer and writer of the award-winning film Dirty Wars, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army
• Author: Jeremy Scahill
• Publisher: PublicAffairs, 2008
• ISBN: 1568584067, 9781568584065
• Length: 560 pages
• Subjects: History / Military / Iraq War (2003-2011); Political Science / Security (National & International); Political Science / Terrorism