BLACKWATER

March 31, 2004: Four American mercenaries are ambushed in the Sunni hotbed of Fallujah, their jeeps set ablaze with the men inside. An angry mob drags their charred corpses through the streets, hanging them from a bridge overthe Euphrates River. "Fallujah is the graveyard of the Americans!," the mob declares in front of the cameras. Within hours, the images spread across the world. The ensuing US slaughter in Fallujah would fuel the fierce Iraqi resistance that haunts US occupation forces to this day. Who were the mercenaries killed in Fallujah and who sent them there to die?

Meet BLACKWATER USA, the world's most secretive and powerful mercenary firm. Based in the wilderness of North Carolina, it is the fastest growing private army on the planet with forces capable of carrying out regime change throughout the world. Blackwater protects the top US officials in Iraq and yet the world knows almost nothing about the firm's quasi-military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and inside the United States. Blackwater was founded by an extreme right-wing fundamentalist Christian mega-millionaire ex-Navy SEAL named Erik Prince, the scion of a wealthy conservative family that bankrolls far-right-wing causes.

This is the dark story of the rise of a powerful mercenary army, ranging from the blood-soaked streets of Fallujah to rooftop firefights in Najaf to the hurricane-ravaged US gulf to the chambers of power in Washington DC, where Blackwater executives are hailed as new heroes in the war on terror. This is an extraordinary expose by one of America's most exciting young radical journalists.

Jeremy Scahill, 32, is an unembedded, international journalist. He is a correspondent for the national radio and television show Democracy Now! and a frequent contributor to The Nation magazine. He is currently a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute.

BLACKWATER
Aufstieg der maechtigsten Privatarmee der Welt
Deutsch von Bernhard Jendricke und Rita Seuss, Kollektiv Druck-Reif
[HC: Kunstmann 01/2008]