Outsourcing the War in Afghanistan

By MSNBC

September 4, 2009

  • Video: Blackwater's Youngest Victim

    Blackwater

    Jeremy Scahill: On September 16, 2007, Blackwater employees killed at least 14 Iraqis in the infamous Nisour Square massacre. The youngest victim was nine-year-old Ali Kinani. In this exclusive interview, produced for Democracy Now by The Nation's Jeremy Scahill and Richard Rowley of Big Noise Films, Ali's father Mohammed talks about his son, the shootings, and his struggle to win justice.

  • Blackwater's Youngest Victim

    Blackwater

    Jeremy Scahill: Nine-year-old Ali Kinani died from a gunshot wound to the head in the Nisour Square massacre. His father may be the one man standing between Blackwater and total impunity.

  • Noted. Subscribe

    Blackwater

    Robert Gates admits that Blackwater is in Pakistan; Air America signs off.

» More

Jeremy Scahill, Nation contributor and author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, appears on MSNBC's Morning Joe to talk about military contractors and the privatization of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Scahill says that this is "not a right or left story" and that it's impossible to talk about free-market competition and then give contractors no-bid contracts. He describes the blurring of lines between the military and companies like Blackwater, pointing out that the US paid for the training of many of the contractors, who came from the military, and are now being double-billed for them, and that these contractors are engaging in armed combat in the current wars. He also notes that the contractors create blowback against US soldiers, who are blamed for the actions of unaccountable "security" forces.

--Sarah Jaffe

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