Alan Ray (Guest Host): It's quite possible that the first you heard of a company called Blackwater was the end of March, 2004, when four of its employees were murdered quite brutally in the Iraqi town of Fallujah. But Blackwater had already had its own boots on the ground in Iraq, almost from the beginning of the invasion -- or occuapation -- or war. The conflict goes by different designations, depending upon your politics.
But Blackwater employees also seem to have different designations, also often dictated by the politics of the speaker. Mercenaries, private soldiers, contract combatants, paramilitary. And you may know Blackwater wants to put a large paramilitary training complex in Potrero in east San Diego County. So, what about Blackwater.
Guests
- Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army. He is a Polk Award-winning investigative journalist, a Democracy Now! correspondent and a contributor to the Nation magazine.
- Doug Brooks, president of the International Peace Operations Association, which is a non-profit trade association seeking to increase the role of the private sector in defense and peace related services. Blackwater's vice president is the chair of IPOA's board of directors.
