Jeremy Scahill authour of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army (Hardcover) on Blackwater:



"The privatization of war". That sums it up in a nutshell.

BTW just announced: Oversight Committee to Hold Hearings on Blackwater

The previous hearings in the You Tube video were partly on account of this infamous incident in Fallujah.


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some excerpts from the link:

 Quote:
The families' two-year quest to hold those responsible accountable has taken them not to Falluja but to the sprawling Blackwater compound in North Carolina. As they tell it, after demanding answers about how the men ended up dead in Falluja that day and being stonewalled at every turn, they decided to conduct their own investigation. "Blackwater sent my son and the other three into Falluja knowing that there was a very good possibility this could happen," says Katy Helvenston, the mother of 38-year-old Scott Helvenston, whose charred body was hung from the Falluja bridge. "Iraqis physically did it, and it doesn't get any more horrible than what they did to my son, does it? But I hold Blackwater responsible one thousand percent."

In late 2004 the case caught the attention of the high-powered California trial lawyer Daniel Callahan, fresh from a record-setting $934 million jury decision in a corporate fraud case. On January 5, 2005, the families filed the lawsuit against Blackwater in Wake County, North Carolina. "What we have right now is something worse than the wild, wild west going on in Iraq," Callahan says. "Blackwater is able to operate over there in Iraq free from any oversight that would typically exist in a civilized society. As we expose Blackwater in this case, it will also expose the inefficient and corrupt system that exists over there."

Scott Helvenston was a walking ad for the military. He came from a proud family of Republicans; his great-great-uncle, Elihu Root, was once US Secretary of War and the 1912 Nobel Peace Prize-winner. Scott was tall, tan and chiseled and, by all accounts, a model soldier and athlete. At 17 he made history by becoming the youngest person ever to complete the rigorous Navy SEAL program. He spent twelve years in the SEALs, four of them as an instructor, and then tried his luck with Hollywood. He trained Demi Moore for her film G.I. Jane and did a few stints on reality television. In one, Man vs. Beast, he was the only contestant to defeat the beast, outmaneuvering a chimpanzee in an obstacle course. Once the cover boy on a Navy calendar, he also had several workout videos.

If it had been up to Katy Helvenston, her son wouldn't have been in Iraq at all. "We had argued about him going over there," she recalls. "I believe that we should have gone into Afghanistan, but I never believed we should have gone into Iraq, and Scott bought the whole story about Saddam Hussein being involved with Al Qaeda and all that. He believed in what he was doing.


I'm still just fascinated by this phenomena. This ability to get swept up in patriotic fervor to the point where you end up dead for something that just wasn't so.

As far as Blackwater is concerned. If we're not winning hearts and minds, I think they play some role in that. Sure atrocities happen in all wars and we're no different. Odds are though that if any misconduct from military personnel is found out, chances are good that there will at least be an investigation and/or trial. With these mercenaries, theyr'e free to wield force with impunity and no accountability to anyone. I think in the long run that contributes to getting real soldiers dead.

So glad Waxman is going to hold hearings. Accountability is good.