Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army [Revised and Updated] - War in Iraq

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Manufacturer: Nation Books

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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 355.3540973
EAN: 9781568583945
ISBN: 156858394X
Label: Nation Books
Manufacturer: Nation Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 560
Publication Date: 2008-05-27
Publisher: Nation Books
Studio: Nation Books

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Editorial Reviews:

On September 16, 2007, machine gun fire erupted in Baghdad's Nisour Square leaving seventeen Iraqi civilians dead, among them women and children. The shooting spree, labeled "Baghdad's Bloody Sunday," was neither the work of Iraqi insurgents nor U.S. soldiers. The shooters were private forces working for the secretive mercenary company, Blackwater Worldwide.

This is the explosive story of a company that rose a decade ago from Moyock, North Carolina, to become one of the most powerful players in the "War on Terror." In his gripping bestseller, awardwinning journalist Jeremy Scahill takes us from the bloodied streets of Iraq to hurricane-ravaged New Orleans to the chambers of power in Washington, to expose Blackwater as the frightening new face of the U.S. war machine.

* Winner of the George Polk Book Award
* Alternet Best Book of the Year
* Barnes & Noble one of the Best Nonfiction Books of 2007
* Amazon one of the Best Nonfiction Books of 2007

Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating:

Summary: Blackwater
Comment: Received within a week of ordering. Haven't had a chance to read it yet but I'm looking forward to after reading inside the dustcover. Great service.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Missed Potential
Comment: I was really interested to see this book on the shelf and find out more about Blackwater and what they have been up to.

I was interested in finding out about their involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan and New Orleans, but apart from maybe 3 specific incidents there's not a lot of ground-level substance to the book. A lot of it is about the forming of the company, how it has developed (at the higher levels), which prominent people they have recruited and how they have branched out into other areas.

I found the "no liability" element very interesting, concerning the actions of contractors in Iraq vs the seemingly endless obligations of the military, but for such a thick book (and I give credit to the many references and sources documented at the end)there just wasn't that much that really grabbed my interest.

I'm glad I read it, but I wouldn't call it a page turner by any means.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Liberal bias and not much about Blackwater!
Comment: This book is not worth reading unless you are a liberal looking for more of the same biased opinions seen on CNN. You can easily see right through this garbage because the author does even try to make it sound like he is giving an open-minded factual account of the owner Erik Prince or Blackwater. I have more respect now more than ever for Blackwater, Erik Prince, Christians, Conservatives, Rebublicans, President Bush, and our national military forces. This is a very polarizing book and not worth reading if you are looking for information about what good has come of the private military subcontractors paid to protect our country.

Customer Rating:

Summary: A "must read"
Comment: The statistics make some of it a little dry, but they are necessary. This should be required high school reading. Scahill is a details-oriented genius

Customer Rating:

Summary: blackwater
Comment: This was an excellent read from start to finish. Some of the information is shocking but not surprising. Do you trust the people in power? Read this book and it will definitely open your eyes to some of the hijinks that go at the highest level of government. I certainly don't believe everything i read, but the evidence here is pretty substantial.

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