First published 2007
Blackwater Worldwide operates as a private military company that emerged from North Carolina to become a major force in America's War on Terror. Award-winning journalist Jeremy Scahill investigates how this secretive organization gained unprecedented power and influence. The company's contractors opened fire in Baghdad's Nisour Square on September 16, 2007, killing seventeen Iraqi civilians including women and children in an incident known as Baghdad's Bloody Sunday. Scahill traces Blackwater's operations from Iraqi battlefields to post-hurricane New Orleans, revealing how private military forces have transformed modern warfare. The book examines the company's connections to Washington power brokers and its role in reshaping how America conducts military operations. Scahill argues that Blackwater represents a dangerous privatization of war that operates beyond traditional oversight and accountability.
Genres: politics, non-fiction, 21st-century, military-history, journalism, american-history
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: corruption, government-conspiracy
Setting: Baghdad, Iraq, New Orleans, North Carolina
Period: 2007
550 pages · Hardcover · Nation Books
Content warnings: graphic-violence