Main Story
Blackwater security contractors in Iraq have been involved in nearly 200 “escalation of force” incidents in Iraq since 2005, including several previously unreported killings of Iraqi civilians, congressional investigators reported this week.
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
From the magazine
Blackwater security contractors in Iraq have been involved in nearly 200 “escalation of force” incidents in Iraq since 2005, including several previously unreported killings of Iraqi civilians, congressional investigators reported this week. Blackwater has been under intense scrutiny since a recent shootout in Baghdad that left at least 17 Iraqis dead. That incident, it turns out, was hardly an isolated one. The firm’s 1,000 employees have engaged in “frequent and extensive” use of force, the report said, usually without provocation. Blackwater, along with the State Department, is also accused of covering up several ugly incidents, including the 2005 murder of an Iraqi bodyguard by a drunken Blackwater employee.
Blackwater CEO Erik Prince, testifying before a House subcommittee, cautioned against a “rush to judgment.” Prince acknowledged that mistakes had been made, but said Blackwater was being unfairly demonized. “They call us mercenaries,” said Prince, “but we’re Americans working for America protecting Americans.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
This is what you get for trying to contract out a war, said the San Francisco Chronicle in an editorial. The White House didn’t want to face the “political risks” of deploying the massive number of troops truly needed in Iraq. So at least 160,000 private contractors were brought in—cowboys with no accountability and “no incentive to win hearts and minds.” Now it’s obvious that they are “undermining the U.S. effort in Iraq.”
And getting rich in the process, said The New York Times. Blackwater was making less than $1 million a year in federal contracts back in 2001. But since the Bush administration came to power, it has raked in more than $1 billion, mostly in “lavish no-bid contracts.” Is it a coincidence that Blackwater’s Prince has donated $225,000 to the GOP in recent years, or that his sister raised $100,000 for Bush-Cheney in 2004? Congress should investigate those contributions, and look into the broader issue of America’s reliance on these guns for hire.
But let’s not throw out the baby with the bath water, said Max Boot in the Los Angeles Times. It’s easy to dismiss these private security forces as “men in black” who sell their killing skills to the highest bidder. But in truth, most are talented, patriotic, and responsible ex-soldiers, and they’re helping America win this war. Are some of them overaggressive? “Of course. But so are some soldiers.” Until and unless we’re willing to vastly expand our conventional army, we’re going to need them all.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
-
Fernando Botero obituary: artist of 'whimsical rotundity'
Obituary Colombian painter and sculptor was known for his 'exuberant style'
By The Week Staff Published
-
Protective order
Cartoons
By The Week Staff Published
-
Astronauts return after circling Earth thousands of times while stuck in space
Speed read The astronauts were stranded on the International Space Station after their return capsule was hit by space junk
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Putin’s threat to fracture Ukraine
feature Fears that Russia was building a pretext for an invasion of eastern Ukraine grew, as pro-Kremlin protesters occupied government buildings in three cities.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Curbing NSA surveillance
feature The White House said it will propose a broad overhaul of the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Downsizing the military
feature A new budget plan for the Pentagon would save hundreds of billions of dollars by taking the military off its post-9/11 war footing.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Putin ratchets up pressure on Ukraine
feature Russian President Vladimir Putin put 150,000 troops at the Ukraine border on high alert and cut off $15 billion in financial aid.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Ukraine on the brink of civil war
feature Ukraine’s capital was engulfed in flames and violence when hundreds of riot police launched an assault on an anti-government protest camp.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Ukraine at the breaking point
feature An alliance of opposition groups vowed protests would continue until President Viktor Yanukovych is removed from power.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Dim prospects for Syrian talks
feature A long-awaited Syrian peace conference in Montreux, Switzerland, quickly degenerated into a cross fire of bitter accusations.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
The fight over jobless benefits
feature A bill to restore federal benefits for the long-term unemployed advanced when six Republican senators voted with Democrats.
By The Week Staff Last updated