Knowingo
Try 7 days free
The cover of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army

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

Jeremy Scahill

What happens when a government hands core military work to a private company, and who answers when something goes wrong?

Get the app Read on the web

At a glance

Author
Jeremy Scahill

Why read it

  • You will see how a government can come to depend on a private firm it also investigates
  • You will be able to ask who answers when a private contractor harms civilians
  • You will learn to follow the money in war and see how contracts keep flowing despite scandal

Who it is for

  • A taxpayer curious where defense money goes
  • A reader of business or investigative journalism
  • A student of how modern wars are staffed and paid for

Contents

  1. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  2. THE FACE OF BLACKWATER
  3. INTRODUCTION
  4. A Deadly Pattern
  5. “Blackwater Provides a Valuable Service”
  6. Prince of the Hill
  7. Nothing You Say Can and Will Be Used Against You in a Court of Law
  8. “War Crimes” and “Extra-judicial Killing”
  9. “If the Government Doesn’t Want Us to Do This, We Will Go Do Something Else”
  10. War Is Business. Business Is Good.
  11. CHAPTER ONE - MAKING A KILLING
  12. CHAPTER TWO - THE LITTLE PRINCE
  13. CHAPTER THREE - BLACKWATER BEGINS
  14. CHAPTER FOUR - FALLUJAH BEFORE BLACKWATER
  15. CHAPTER FIVE - GUARDING BUSH’S MAN IN BAGHDAD
  16. CHAPTER SIX - SCOTTY GOES TO WAR
  17. CHAPTER SEVEN - THE AMBUSH
  18. Like “Slaughtered Sheep”
  19. CHAPTER EIGHT - “WE WILL PACIFY FALLUJAH”
  20. CHAPTER NINE - NAJAF, IRAQ: 4.04.04
  21. 04/04/04
  22. CHAPTER TEN - “THIS IS FOR THE AMERICANS OF BLACKWATER”
  23. The War on Al Jazeera
  24. Collective Punishment
  25. CHAPTER ELEVEN - MR. PRINCE GOES TO WASHINGTON
  26. Blackwater’s Lobbyists
  27. Doing Kafka Proud
  28. Ambushed Again
  29. CHAPTER TWELVE - CASPIAN PIPELINE DREAMS
  30. Enter Blackwater
  31. CHAPTER THIRTEEN - BLACKWATER’S MAN IN CHILE
  32. Blackwater’s Plan Colombia
  33. Business as Usual
  34. CHAPTER FOURTEEN - “THE WHORES OF WAR”
  35. Contract Disputes
  36. “Whores of War”
  37. CHAPTER FIFTEEN - THE CRASH OF BLACKWATER 61
  38. The Political Question Doctrine
  39. The Feres Doctrine
  40. Exception to Federal Tort Claims Act
  41. Blackwater’s Curious Aviation Division
  42. CHAPTER SIXTEEN - COFER BLACK: THE GLOVES COME OFF
  43. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN - DEATH SQUADS, MERCENARIES, AND THE “SALVADOR OPTION”
  44. “There Continues to Be the Need for This Kind of Security”
  45. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN - JOSEPH SCHMITZ: CHRISTIAN SOLDIER
  46. CHAPTER NINETEEN - BLACKWATER DOWN: BAGHDAD ON THE BAYOU
  47. Blackwater and the Border
  48. K Street Collapse
  49. CHAPTER TWENTY - “THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE”
  50. Darfur Dreams
  51. Blackwater and the Sleeping Lion
  52. The South African Example
  53. Greystone
  54. “The Knights of the Round Table”
  55. EPILOGUE
  56. A “One-Stop Shop” for the Government
  57. Grizzlies and Polars
  58. Spies Like U.S.
  59. “I Sleep the Sleep of the Just”

More books like this