Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12874 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 480 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Scahill, a regular contributor to the Nation, offers a hard-left perspective on Blackwater USA, the self-described private military contractor and security firm. It owes its existence, he shows, to the post–Cold War drawdown of U.S. armed forces, its prosperity to the post-9/11 overextension of those forces and its notoriety to a growing reputation as a mercenary outfit, willing to break the constraints on military systems responsible to state authority. Scahill describes Blackwater's expansion, from an early emphasis on administrative and training functions to what amounts to a combat role as an internal security force in Iraq. He cites company representatives who say Blackwater's capacities can readily be expanded to supplying brigade-sized forces for humanitarian purposes, peacekeeping and low-level conflict. While emphasizing the possibility of an "adventurous President" employing Blackwater's mercenaries covertly, Scahill underestimates the effect of publicity on the deniability he sees as central to such scenarios. Arguably, he also dismisses too lightly Blackwater's growing self-image as the respectable heir to a long and honorable tradition of contract soldiering. Ultimately, Blackwater and its less familiar counterparts thrive not because of a neoconservative conspiracy against democracy, as Scahill claims, but because they provide relatively low-cost alternatives in high-budget environments and flexibility at a time when war is increasingly protean. (Apr. 10)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
The dark, largely unknown, story of Blackwater, the world's most secretive, powerful, and fastest growing private army, is chillingly told in Jeremy Scahill's exposé. Fact by fact, Scahill demonstrates the widespread outsourcing of military tasks to private companies bankrolled by right-wing millionaire Eric Prince, the scion of a conservative dynasty (founded, ironically, on the invention of the lighted car visor and the car cup-holder). Tom Weiner has precise diction and a rumbling, authoritative delivery. Listeners might detect a slight jarring note when his masculine voice attempts women's voices, but nothing detracts from the saga of self-regulated profiteering armies being entrusted with U.S. foreign policy and U.S. lives. A.W. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Review
“A crackling exposé of the secretive military contractor Blackwater.”—The New York Times Book Review

“[Scahill] is a one-man truth squad.”—Bill Moyers

“[An] utterly gripping and explosive story.”—Naomi Klein, The Guardian

“The biggest book of the year…an amazingly researched and well-told story.”—Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive

“Scahill’s page-turning collection of intrigue and insight into the underworld of privatized warfare is well researched, thoroughly documented, and as a result extremely frightening.”—The Globe and Mail

“Scahill provided me information…which I have not been able to get from the U.S. military…I have read more from Mr. Scahill, than I’ve got from our own government.”—Representative Marcy Kaptur, Defense Appropriations Committee

“[T]his is no uninformed partisan screed…Meticulously documented and encyclopedic in scope…it’s a comprehensive and authoritative guide…this book serves as a provocative primer for advancing the debate.”—Bill Sizemore, Pulitzer-prize nominated journalist, Virginian-Pilot

“Andy McNab couldn’t have invented this prescient tale of the private army of mercenaries run by a Christian conservative millionaire who, in turn, bankrolls the president. A chilling exposé of the ultimate military outsource.”—Christopher Fowler, The New Review’s “Best Books of 2007”

“Fascinating and magnificently documented…Jeremy Scahill’s new book is a brilliant exposé and belongs on the reading list of any conscientious citizen.”—Scott Horton, International and Military Law Expert, Columbia University Law School

Customer Reviews

The Real Disaster in Iraq
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...
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
tHE BOOK IS THOUGHT PROVOKING AND FRIGHTENING,IT NEEDS TO BE READ BY AMERICANS AND FELLOW CITIZENS OF THE WORLD!