Blackwater

Busted Business Bureau

Do you ever have a years-long hyperfixation with a company no one's heard about?

Blender Bluid and Amy Do continue our millions-years-long season about private military contractors. This time, I'm telling them about the worst of the worst: Betsy DeVos' brother Erik Prince's rich kid lodge! Blackwater! Clean off your guns and meet me at the lodge - we're in for a real effing doozy.

Fair warning, this episode does brush over some truly horrific stuff. As mentioned mid-episode, my podcast isn't really the appropriate place to regale those stories in full detail, so only some of the key informational facts are mentioned out of respect for those who suffered cruel, pointless deaths during this war. Jeremy Scahill's book is a fantastic read to get the full picture on the politics, events, and horrors of Iraq, linked below.

Jeremy, if you're listening, I'm so sorry sweetie please look away - this is a comedy podcast by a clown. But THIS clown loved your book!

Follow @blenderbluid and @helloamydo. Thanks to the WONDERFUL Casey Synsael for fully editing this episode! Audio engineer and tastemaker, methinks.

SOURCES:

1. Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army - Jeremy Scahill, March 2007 (I read the revised 2008 version tho)
2. Firearms training centers on schools under assault - Jon Frank, The Virginian-Pilot, Oct 1999
3. Tycoon, Contractor, Soldier, Spy - Adam Ciralsky, Vanity Fair, January 2010
4. Erik Prince: An American Commando in Exile - Robert Young Pelton, Dangerous Magazine (originally published in Men’s Journal), November 2010
5. Blackwater founder takes aim at his critics in memoir - Bill Sizemore, The Virginian-Pilot, Nov 2013 (the “Field of Dreams” quote is in this)
6. Falluja lawsuit: Blackwater families settle case - BBC News, 2012
7. The Dark Truth about Blackwater - Peter Singer, Brookings Institution, October 2007
   
8. I scraped the Nisour Square legal timeline just from the Nisour Square Massacre wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisour_Square_massacre

Other recommended reading from the pod is Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

Thanks for listening. Plz feel free to leave a review, and some extra stuff is on Patreon.com/bustedbizbureau