Jeremy Scahill Interview — The SCV Talk Archive

By Cal - I recently had the opportunity to interview Jeremy Scahill, an independent journalist and author of the bestselling book “Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army” (Nation Books, 2007). During the interview I had the chance to talk with him about the Mitt Romney/Cofer Black/Blackwater connection.

Scahill was in town to talk about the topic of his book as well as the role of unembedded independent journalists in occupied Iraq. He joined Dahr Jamail, Jamail's website one of the few unembedded journalists to report from the ground in Iraq. Jamail discussed his book “Beyond the Green Zone-Dispatches From an Unembedded Journalist in Iraq (Haymarket Books, 2007). Both men spoke about the important role independent journalists play in helping to keep the public informed-especially on matters dealing with the Iraq occupation. I spoke with Scahill about his book which was recently reviewed here on SCVTalk.com Book Review Cal: Very little has been written in the media about the connection between Mitt Romney and Cofer Black.(presidential candidate Mitt Romney- chose Cofer Black to assist him in his campaign efforts and has designated Black as a senior advisor on counterterrorism. Black currently serves as vice chairman of Blackwater USA Blackwater’s official website Jeremy Scahill: I don’t know why that connection hasn’t made it prominently into the mainstream media. If Mitt Romney were to become president, it would be very likely that Cofer Black would end up being one of his senior cabinet officials-even possibly his Secretary of State or Director of Central Intelligence. This guy (Black) is a straight thug. He is a 30 year veteran of the CIA. He was one of the people who helped to accelerate the use of the extraordinary rendition program. Definition. Cofer Black was a well-known spy and on 9/11 he was the head of the CIA’s counterterrorism center. He was the man who was put in charge of hunting for bin-Laden. On September 13 he met with President Bush in the White House Situations Room where he described to Bush how he (Black) was going to insert Special Forces inside of Afghanistan , and he says “Mr. President, when we’re through with them, they’re going to have flies crawling across their eyeballs". He became known as the “flies on the eyeball guy” within the administration. He goes over to Moscow with Colin Powell’s deputy and head of the invasion of Iraq - Dick Armitage- and they all meet with Russian diplomats. The Russians start to warn them about the Soviet experience in Afghanistan and Cofer Black shoots back at them, “We’re going to put their heads on pikes.” He is the man who told Congress that there was a “before 9/11” and an “after 9/11,” and that after 9/11, the gloves come off. He is now a senior executive at Blackwater and perhaps their most powerful behind-the-scenes operative Also, Cofer Black is heading up a private intelligence company that Erik Prince owns called Total Intelligence Solutions TIS official website which is marketing CIA-type services to the private sector. The fact that he is Mitt Romney’s senior advisor on counter- terrorism says a lot about the direction that Mitt Romney would want to take this country in the event he became elected president. C: What are some of Blackwater’s other political connections that you are aware of? JS: Bush has hired Fred Fielding (Blackwater’s former lawyer) to replace Harriet Miers as his lawyer. Fielding worked very closely in the past with both the Reagan and Nixon administrations . Joseph Schmitz , was the former Pentagon Inspector General. It was his job to police the war contractor bonanza. He leaves this post and goes on to work for Blackwater as Vice Chairman of the Prince Group. He serves as general counsel for Blackwater. Ken Starr, the former Whitewater prosecutor who led the impeachment charge against President Clinton, is now Blackwater's counsel of record and has filed briefs for them at the Supreme Court, in fighting against wrongful death lawsuits filed against Blackwater for the deaths of its people and US soldiers in the war zones. C: Why is the Bush administration so keen on hiring private contractors like Blackwater? JS:If we are going to look at the US war machine perhaps the most important thing for us to look at right now is the use of private forces because its not just about what is happening in Iraq right now. Let me back up for a minute. We have to look at the bigger picture. By using these private companies what the Bush administration is doing is subverting democratic processes in the United States. They don’t have to have a draft. They can simply hire the poor of the world to fight and occupy the lands of the poor of the world. This is the future .of warfare and I am trying to raise awareness on this shadow army because in some ways now it is more powerful than the actual army of the most powerful country on earth . Most people in the U.S believe that there are about 145,000 to 175,000 troops on the ground in Iraq right now. What’s almost never mentioned in the mainstream media is that there are 130,000 private personnel deployed alongside those 145,000 active-duty U.S forces. This is an effective doubling of the size of occupation force. Why does the current administration want to use these private personnel? Let’s look at it another way. We know that over 4,000 U.S soldiers have died in iraq. We know that at least 25,000 have been wounded. We have no idea how many mercenaries have been killed serving the occupation in Iraq. We know that at least 917 American mercenaries have died in Iraq since March 2003. Those numbers are not included in the official death count. They help to mask the death toll of the war. The reason we know that 917 have died is because their families have applied for federal death benefits under something called the Defense Base Act . So only from those personnel whose families have applied for these death benefits through the Department of Labor are we able to track these figures. I don't think it’s possible to put a fine point on the number of mercenaries killed, because the Bush administration has found a backdoor way to engage in an undeclared expansion of the occupation by deploying these private armies. C: What motivates you to do what you do? I daresay that your name may go down in journalism textbooks as an example of one of the most influential muckrakers in the 21st century because of the topic that you are working with and the quality of your writings. JS: No, No… I am just like everyone else. I believe that what it means to be a human being in the times in which we live is to be a resistor, a fighter, and all of us have our own ways of fighting. Look, I wrote a book that just happens to be getting a lot of attention right now. It will die down and I will go back t o doing what I’ve always been doing which is unembedded independent media and that is what I am happiest doing because what I believe is the most meaningful thing to do with our lives is to fight for truth and justice. We live in the most powerful country on earth and if we fail to resist in our own country then we are failing our brothers and sisters around the world who live on the other side of the barrel of the gun of our policies... Some interesting links… Media Matters . Article on how media continues to ignore Mitt Romney/ Cofer Black/Blackwater relationship Blackwater clothing Blackwater clothing for sale- including baby clothing and stuffed toys…(see Apparel-Youth and Gifts) Lobby group overview International Peace Operations Association Lobbying Group. This is the powerful private contractors’ lobbying group in Washington DC. The association’s website. Link Bill Moyers interviews Scahill October 19, 2007. One of the most informative interviews of the author conducted to date. Blackwater and US Congress Updated information as to what is happening in Congress right now in an effort to monitor and control how private mercenary companies like Blackwater operate. Excellent source in general, of Scahill articles regarding Blackwater-related activities. Petitions to stop Blackwater expansion in to California Citizens’ Oversight Courage Campaign

Comments (1)

CaroleLutnessNovember 19 at 10:21 AM PT
Excellent article, Cal. A very important subject. People need to be sending letters to the Signal as well as reading this on SCV Talk (which I fear is read by mostly progressive folk.) This move toward a mercenary army is very scary and another similarity to the U.S. and the Roman Empire in it's decline. Not only that, if we ever get another Right-Wing nut in the White House, they could easily declare Marshall Law using the mercenaries to control the people.