Blackwater USA—with more than a billion dollars in federal contracts—was on the carpet today on Capitol Hill. Congressional investigators claim that Blackwater guards shot first in almost 200 shootouts and killed innocent Iraqis in incidents the State Department helped cover up. Company founder Erik Prince, a former Navy Seal who has rarely been heard from in public, today told the committee that the shooting was always defensive, that 30 of its men have been killed and that that none of the VIP's under guard has ever been lost. Are they skilled professionals who free up Marines and soldiers or rogue mercenaries who interfere with America's goals in Iraq?
Private Security Guards and the War in Iraq
Credits
Guests:
- Warren Strobel - national security reporter, Wall Street Journal - @WStrobel
- Robert Scales - US Army (retired)
- Stephen Schooner - former Administrator for the OMB's Office of Procurement Law
- Robert Young Pelton - President, IraqSlogger.com