Blackwater: Life (and Death) Above the Law

By Antony Loewenstein

Tuesday 9 October 2007

‘It may be worse than Abu Ghraib.’

Those were the words of an unidentified US military official in the aftermath of an incident in Baghdad in mid-September that saw the death of as many as 20 Iraqis at the hands of private military contractor Blackwater. The US-backed Iraqi Government labelled the actions as ‘criminal’ and talked of ‘the killing of our citizens in cold blood.’

The story has suddenly thrown a welcome focus on an industry that prefers to remain in the shadows; generally unaccountable organisations that have become essential for the US war machine to prosper. Author Jeremy Scahill told the Senate Democratic Policy Committee in late September that Blackwater’s actions were not uncommon and reminiscent of many other mercenaries operating in Iraq since 2003:

They have acted like cowboys, running Iraqis off the road, firing indiscriminately at vehicles and, in some cases, private forces have appeared on tape seemingly using Iraqis for target practice. They have shown little regard for Iraqi lives and have fuelled the violence in that country, not just against the people of Iraq but also against the official soldiers of the United States military in the form of blowback and revenge attacks stemming from contractor misconduct. These private forces have operated in a climate where impunity and immunity have gone hand in hand.

Scahill’s incendiary book, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, was a New York Times best-seller earlier in the year and it’s not hard to see why. It was released in Australia last week. His aim is not simply to expose the inner workings of a company that has won numerous no-bid contracts to protect US officials in Iraq, but to understand how such a group could thrive during the Bush years. In less than a decade, Blackwater has emerged from a North Carolina swamp to become, in the words of Scahill, ‘a sort of Praetorian Guard for the… “global war on terror.”’

Led by Christian fundamentalist Erik Prince, the company maintains more than 2300 private soldiers in nine countries, a private fleet of aircraft, gunships and surveillance equipment and maintains the world’s largest private military facility. One US Congressman noted that in military terms, Blackwater could overthrow many of the world’s governments.

Scahill explores the extraordinary decree issued in 2004 by Paul Bremer — the US's administrator in Iraq after the invasion — to immunise contractors in Iraq from prosecution. Private military contractors, paid for by the US taxpayer, could literally get away with....