Blackwater
-
ICH 26 February, 2010: Weekend Edition – An American Cry for Help
A “Good” Terrorist Captured by Iran By Ray McGovern If this kind of scenario is allowed to play out, hostilities with Iran will make the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan look like volleyball games between Mount Saint Ursula and Holy Name high schools. Can President Obama be so naïve as to be unaware of the Continue reading
-
US "Security" Companies Offer "Services" in Haiti By Jeremy Scahill
The Orwellian-named mercenary trade group, the International Peace Operations Association, didn’t waste much time in offering the ‘services’ of its member companies to swoop down on Haiti for some old fashioned humanitarian assistance disaster profiteering. Within hours of the massive earthquake in Haiti, the IPOA created a special web page for prospective clients, saying: ‘In… Continue reading
-
The Rise of Mercenary Armies: A Threat to Global Security By Sherwood Ross
The growing use of private armies not only subjects target populations to savage warfare but makes it easier for the White House to subvert domestic public opinion and wage wars. Continue reading
-
Global Poverty and The Economic Crisis – Selected Articles 22-27 August, 2009
Global Poverty and The Economic Crisis. Selected Articles 22-27 August, 2009 Continue reading
-
US Still Paying Blackwater Millions By Jeremy Scahill
Just days before two former Blackwater employees alleged in sworn statements filed in federal court that the company’s owner, Erik Prince, ‘views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe,’ the Obama administration extended a contract with Blackwater for more than $20 million for ‘security services’ in… Continue reading
-
Video: Blackwater and other misdeeds of Empire
Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the Worlds Most Powerful Mercenary Army, discusses the dwindling ranks of antiwar Democrats in Congress, the cruise missile liberals that support war in Darfur without questioning the aims of U.S. imperialism, the mercenary surge accompanying the troop surge in Afghanistan, the history of bipartisan executive assassination programs… Continue reading
-
Iraqis speak of random killings committed by private Blackwater guards
Guards employed by Blackwater, the US security company, shot Iraqis and killed victims in allegedly unprovoked and random attacks, it was claimed yesterday. A Virginia court also received sworn statements from former Blackwater employees yesterday alleging that Erik Prince, the company’s founder, ‘views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic… Continue reading
-
Pirates’ Strike a U.S. Ship Owned by a Pentagon Contractor, But Is the Media Telling the Whole Story? By Jeremy Scahill
The Somali pirates who took control of the 17,000-ton ‘Maersk Alabama’ cargo-ship in the early hours of Wednesday morning probably were unaware that the ship they were boarding belonged to a U.S. Department of Defense contractor with ‘top security clearance,’ which does a half-billion dollars in annual business with the Pentagon, primarily the Navy Continue reading
-
Cost And Scope Of Iraq Contract Operations Escalates
According to a recent government audit, first reported in The New York Times, at least 310 PSCs from around the world have received contracts from U.S. agencies to protect American and Iraqi officials, installations, convoys and other entities in Iraq since 2003, at a cost of about $6 billion. Continue reading
-
Blackwaters run deep By William Bowles
24 September, 2007 Mercenary armies are not new. Before conscription most wars were fought with hired hands, often consisting of soldiers from many countries serving under a single flag, so the use of mercenaries in Iraq, Afghanistan and the former Yugoslavia (and let us not forget the hired killers who fought under the South African Continue reading
-
Propaganda and Reality: The media’s onslaught on our senses and sensibilities By William Bowles
The BBC this morning on Radio 4 (28/04/04) carried two reports on the (ongoing) US attack on Fallujah. One by an ’embedded’ reporter with all that that means and the other, an interview with US commanding officer Brigadier-General Kimmitt, who informed us that attacks on the city were performed using “incredibly precise weapons system” that… Continue reading
-
Soldiers of misfortune: One story, two takes By William Bowles
So went the headline in the Independent on 1 April 2004 and the story (penned by ‘anti-war’ journalist Robert Fisk) occupied the entire front page and ran onto page 2. The four Americans, described by Fisk in the article as “contractors” were actually mercenaries or Private Military Contractors who worked for Blackwater Security Consulting and… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 