CIA Hires Blackwater for Assassinations

By Democracy Now

August 20, 2009

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In this two-part video Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist for The Nation, and author of a bestseller on Blackwater, talks about the possible involvement of the private contractor's owner Erik Prince in the assassination "one or more persons who have provided information, or who were planning to provide information, to the federal authorities about [Blackwater's] ongoing criminal conduct." Scahill analyzes the "chicken and egg relationship" between Blackwater and CIA and points out that with the hiring of Prince, who views himself as a "Christian crusader," the US got America's most seasoned paramilitary operatives to run a black program in Afghanistan and Pakistan "off the books, off the map." "I doubt very seriously that if Blackwater was involved no one got killed," concludes Scahill. Despite the allegations the US extended its contract with Blackwater in Iraq and raised the company's payment by $20 million.

Watch the second part of this interview here

--Olga Razumovskaya

Check out more great Nation videos on our YouTube channel.

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