itsmytuberculosis's review against another edition
4.0
i explained this book to my mom in line as the post office and her reaction was, "that does not sound like something we should be doing. that sounds like bad guy behavior".
Blackwater: The Rise of the Bad Guy Behavior
This books starts with the rise of Blackwater and Eric Prince the founder. A guy who turns out to have help fund Hope College, where my parents both graduated. As well as Hillsdale College, the crazy libritarian college my grandpa donates to and wanted me to go to so badly. I tried to ask casually if maybe the reason my grandpa was so rich is that he was an investor in Blackwater but he seemed to not get my cues of asking, "What do you think about military contracting company Blackwater in Iraq" and then looking at him really dramatically.
Blackwater as a company is trying to create a private army that you as a company or nation state can hire a la the likes of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. Since this books publication in 2007, Blackwater has changed their name several times, but for the sake of this review I am going to keep calling them Blackwater.
The rise of Blackwater really has to do with the Conservative Christian connections that Eric Prince had inside the Bush administration as well as with Paul Bremer, the secretary of the DOS, who was in charge of the occupation in Iraq. What I did not understand before this book is that the US was leading an occupation in Iraq and the lack of medical, educational, and all around rebuilding efforts by the US is what lead to an increase in anti-American rhetoric among the people in Iraq. Bremer was, "an expert at profiting from the war on terror and at helping US multinationals make money in far off places where they are unpopular and unwelcome. In other words, he's the perfect man for the job".
Starting off on a great foot in Iraq. It was Bremer's all around unpopularity which lead to him needing a large security detail and Bremer, who was a Christian zealot, thought Blackwater would do a better job protecting him then the US military because if he died, Blackwater as a company would die with him. The private market takes care of itself! Just like Reagan always said!
The fervor and rampant need for Blackwater to prove that they can get things done, faster, cheaper and easier then NATO or the US military is what lead to the tragedy that occurred in Fallujah where four Blackwater contractors died a gruesome death escorting kitchen equipment. Instead of armored vehicles they were driving around in Jeeps which a metal "bulletproof" plate SCREWED ONTO the back of the vehicle. Instead of a minimum of three people per car, driver, navigator, and gunner, there were two people per car AND they were driving without directions through the most dangerous and anti-American city in Iraq. RIGHT AFTER the USMC came in, occupied a middle school, and then shot at bunch of civilians who were protesting that the school was being closed to accommodate the US military. Never mind the war crimes the USMC committed by shooting at civilians and shooting at people trying to give aid to civilians - the revenge Blackwater and the US military took on Fallujah after the killing of the four contractors was described as "gross collective punishment".
In order to justify the gross violence committed in Fallujah, Blackwater starts to lobby for the increased use of military contactors in Iraq, the occupation, instead of being handed over to Bremer's Iraqi government, is now extended, and the US continues to occupy Iraq in order to "clean out the rat's nest of terrorists" still within the boarders. And who is going to do this cheaper, easier, and faster then the US military - Blackwater.
Now in order to compensation for the shortage of manpower to fulfill the millions of dollars worth of military contracts Blackwater turns to recruiting ex-Chilean commandos who served during the dictatorships of Pinochet. These commandos where trained by the US Army School of the Americas (SOA) in the 1970s to topple the elected socialist government (which didn't want to bargain with the US for natural resources) and install Pinochet into power (who was thankful the US helped him throw a coup).
Back in the US these contractors are being hailed as heroes while Blackwater is simultaneously lying to their families about what they were doing in Fallujah and how the negligence of Blackwater caused their deaths. The eeriest part is one of the contractors calling his mother before his deployment to read her his life insurance policy number because she would need it soon. These families eventually laid a lawsuit against Blackwater for causing the deaths of their sons which were preventable if they hadn't been negligent.
Now this is where Blackwater argues that it can't be sued because it is part of the "total force" of the US military, and much like you can't sue the military for dying, you can't sue Blackwater. If Blackwater has to worry about the deaths of its operators then it can't go and do 'what it needs to do in Iraq'.
This leaves Blackwater in an ungovernable unlawful place where its operators are acting overseas (and eventually domestically during Hurricane Katrina) without any regulations. They aren't subjected to being court marshaled the way a soldier would. And you now who eventually started sneaking in legislation (that would end up not being upheld) to govern military contractors? LINDSEY GRAHAM.
As of the books publication, no military contractor has ever faced legal ramifications for crimes committed domestic or abroad.
The book then takes a turn to talk about the people who worked for the Federal Government who were eventually poached by Blackwater. People like Cofer Black (no affiliation to the name) who the the CIA director on counter terrorism who says shit like, "If you don't violate someone's human rights some of the time, you probably aren't doing your job".
It also talks about Blackwaters participation as a contractor in the US intelligence agencies' "Torture Taxi" program. "Under this clandestine program, prisoners are sometimes flown to countries with questionable or terrible human rights records, where they are interrogated far from any oversight or due process." Blackwater would be contracted to pick up detainees and take them from one US military base to the other, not acting as the US military but as a third party. "The plane would have clearance to land at US military bases, Upon arriving in foreign countries, rendered suspects often vanish. Detainees are not provided lawyers and many families are not informed of their whereabouts".
The book closes with Blackwater creating "Greystone Limited" a company held in Barbados which is the amalgamation of every war crime that they have committed so far and rolled into one company that is offshored as to escape taxes. Greystone is a partner with International Peace Organization, a fucking sci-fi movie level of a fucking joke as Greystone says it provides, "peacekeeping and humanitarian aid to countries during war, natural or man made disasters." Peacekeeping obviously referring to private armed forces. This is to provide competition to the US MILITARY like it's a fucking MCDONALDS and we need a BURGER KING in order to keep prices low. Greystone is the final form to Blackwater, providing For Hire military options to the US who want to go secure US assets in countries without the permission from it's civilians or other peace keeping nations.
Schahill's book is well investigative and provides a whole look at the occupation into Iraq and how Blackwater played a vital role in the armed conflict there and also in extending the occupation. At some points it becomes overloaded with information and you lose the plot of how everything ties into each other. It also spent A LOT of time in the later half talking about ex-feds who worked for Blackwater which I felt distracted from the main point of the book.
And to Erik Prince's favorite quote of, "If you want to overnight something do you use the Post Office or Fed Ex?"
I'm OBVIOUSLY a Post Office girlie.
Blackwater: The Rise of the Bad Guy Behavior
This books starts with the rise of Blackwater and Eric Prince the founder. A guy who turns out to have help fund Hope College, where my parents both graduated. As well as Hillsdale College, the crazy libritarian college my grandpa donates to and wanted me to go to so badly. I tried to ask casually if maybe the reason my grandpa was so rich is that he was an investor in Blackwater but he seemed to not get my cues of asking, "What do you think about military contracting company Blackwater in Iraq" and then looking at him really dramatically.
Blackwater as a company is trying to create a private army that you as a company or nation state can hire a la the likes of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. Since this books publication in 2007, Blackwater has changed their name several times, but for the sake of this review I am going to keep calling them Blackwater.
The rise of Blackwater really has to do with the Conservative Christian connections that Eric Prince had inside the Bush administration as well as with Paul Bremer, the secretary of the DOS, who was in charge of the occupation in Iraq. What I did not understand before this book is that the US was leading an occupation in Iraq and the lack of medical, educational, and all around rebuilding efforts by the US is what lead to an increase in anti-American rhetoric among the people in Iraq. Bremer was, "an expert at profiting from the war on terror and at helping US multinationals make money in far off places where they are unpopular and unwelcome. In other words, he's the perfect man for the job".
Starting off on a great foot in Iraq. It was Bremer's all around unpopularity which lead to him needing a large security detail and Bremer, who was a Christian zealot, thought Blackwater would do a better job protecting him then the US military because if he died, Blackwater as a company would die with him. The private market takes care of itself! Just like Reagan always said!
The fervor and rampant need for Blackwater to prove that they can get things done, faster, cheaper and easier then NATO or the US military is what lead to the tragedy that occurred in Fallujah where four Blackwater contractors died a gruesome death escorting kitchen equipment. Instead of armored vehicles they were driving around in Jeeps which a metal "bulletproof" plate SCREWED ONTO the back of the vehicle. Instead of a minimum of three people per car, driver, navigator, and gunner, there were two people per car AND they were driving without directions through the most dangerous and anti-American city in Iraq. RIGHT AFTER the USMC came in, occupied a middle school, and then shot at bunch of civilians who were protesting that the school was being closed to accommodate the US military. Never mind the war crimes the USMC committed by shooting at civilians and shooting at people trying to give aid to civilians - the revenge Blackwater and the US military took on Fallujah after the killing of the four contractors was described as "gross collective punishment".
In order to justify the gross violence committed in Fallujah, Blackwater starts to lobby for the increased use of military contactors in Iraq, the occupation, instead of being handed over to Bremer's Iraqi government, is now extended, and the US continues to occupy Iraq in order to "clean out the rat's nest of terrorists" still within the boarders. And who is going to do this cheaper, easier, and faster then the US military - Blackwater.
Now in order to compensation for the shortage of manpower to fulfill the millions of dollars worth of military contracts Blackwater turns to recruiting ex-Chilean commandos who served during the dictatorships of Pinochet. These commandos where trained by the US Army School of the Americas (SOA) in the 1970s to topple the elected socialist government (which didn't want to bargain with the US for natural resources) and install Pinochet into power (who was thankful the US helped him throw a coup).
Back in the US these contractors are being hailed as heroes while Blackwater is simultaneously lying to their families about what they were doing in Fallujah and how the negligence of Blackwater caused their deaths. The eeriest part is one of the contractors calling his mother before his deployment to read her his life insurance policy number because she would need it soon. These families eventually laid a lawsuit against Blackwater for causing the deaths of their sons which were preventable if they hadn't been negligent.
Now this is where Blackwater argues that it can't be sued because it is part of the "total force" of the US military, and much like you can't sue the military for dying, you can't sue Blackwater. If Blackwater has to worry about the deaths of its operators then it can't go and do 'what it needs to do in Iraq'.
This leaves Blackwater in an ungovernable unlawful place where its operators are acting overseas (and eventually domestically during Hurricane Katrina) without any regulations. They aren't subjected to being court marshaled the way a soldier would. And you now who eventually started sneaking in legislation (that would end up not being upheld) to govern military contractors? LINDSEY GRAHAM.
As of the books publication, no military contractor has ever faced legal ramifications for crimes committed domestic or abroad.
The book then takes a turn to talk about the people who worked for the Federal Government who were eventually poached by Blackwater. People like Cofer Black (no affiliation to the name) who the the CIA director on counter terrorism who says shit like, "If you don't violate someone's human rights some of the time, you probably aren't doing your job".
It also talks about Blackwaters participation as a contractor in the US intelligence agencies' "Torture Taxi" program. "Under this clandestine program, prisoners are sometimes flown to countries with questionable or terrible human rights records, where they are interrogated far from any oversight or due process." Blackwater would be contracted to pick up detainees and take them from one US military base to the other, not acting as the US military but as a third party. "The plane would have clearance to land at US military bases, Upon arriving in foreign countries, rendered suspects often vanish. Detainees are not provided lawyers and many families are not informed of their whereabouts".
The book closes with Blackwater creating "Greystone Limited" a company held in Barbados which is the amalgamation of every war crime that they have committed so far and rolled into one company that is offshored as to escape taxes. Greystone is a partner with International Peace Organization, a fucking sci-fi movie level of a fucking joke as Greystone says it provides, "peacekeeping and humanitarian aid to countries during war, natural or man made disasters." Peacekeeping obviously referring to private armed forces. This is to provide competition to the US MILITARY like it's a fucking MCDONALDS and we need a BURGER KING in order to keep prices low. Greystone is the final form to Blackwater, providing For Hire military options to the US who want to go secure US assets in countries without the permission from it's civilians or other peace keeping nations.
Schahill's book is well investigative and provides a whole look at the occupation into Iraq and how Blackwater played a vital role in the armed conflict there and also in extending the occupation. At some points it becomes overloaded with information and you lose the plot of how everything ties into each other. It also spent A LOT of time in the later half talking about ex-feds who worked for Blackwater which I felt distracted from the main point of the book.
And to Erik Prince's favorite quote of, "If you want to overnight something do you use the Post Office or Fed Ex?"
I'm OBVIOUSLY a Post Office girlie.
wayfaring_witch's review against another edition
3.0
A good look into Blackwater. Schahill did some good digging, and produced a readable book overall. Definitely a bias to it, but with the evidence to support it. Initially I was turned off to the large amount of background spewed out about the founders early on, but it later was great information to put the company into context with. I still think it could have started out with more overarching information about the company to help solidify the question of "What is Blackwater?" first.
If you are interested in the subject, definitely a to-read, but otherwise you can take it or leave it.
If you are interested in the subject, definitely a to-read, but otherwise you can take it or leave it.
simlish's review against another edition
DNF at 3 hours in. I'm not retaining any of this information. May return to it later.
millie_rose_reads's review against another edition
4.0
Fascinating journalistic investigation of the Blackwater group, a mercenary army contracted by governments (the United States specifically in this book) to meddle in international affairs too politically toxic to engage in more official capacities. Reading about the impunity such black-budgeted PMC's operate under is horrific and plainly criminal, and how ineptly the world stage adjudicates their activities with such cynical realpolitik is dispiriting to say the least. However, that doesn't stop Scahill's account from being an engaging excision of its great injustices.
oliverqueen201919's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
5.0
raingirlpdx's review against another edition
4.0
I learned a lot from this book about the big business of mercenary armies, covert operations, right-wing evangelist zealots with money, and ties between Blackwater and Big Politics. "The more you know, the more you wish you didn't know." Reviews have dinged this book for being "lefty" but stepping outside the bias this is basic stuff every American tax payer should know about how we operate overseas (and sometimes at home).
The book is now quite outdated, as Blackwater has morphed into a least two new companies since 2009.
The book is now quite outdated, as Blackwater has morphed into a least two new companies since 2009.