Blackwater Seeks Gag Order

It became common practice during the Iraq occupation for the US State Department to work with private security companies like Blackwater to help facilitate giving what amounted to hush money to the families of Iraqis shot dead by private security contractors. In fact, Blackwater's owner, Erik Prince, discussed this practice when he testified in front of Congress in October 2007 and admitted to paying $20,000 to a Blackwater victim's family and $5,000 to ... Full Story »

Posted by Kaizar Campwala - via Jamal Dajani, Publish2 (U.S.), The Nation
Tags Help
Stats Help
# Diggs: 13 (as of 2009-07-23)
Editorial Help
Posted by: Posted by Kaizar Campwala - Jul 22, 2009 - 12:05 PM PDT
Content Type: Article
Edit Lock: This story can be edited

Reviews

Show All | Notes | Comments | Quotes | Links
Derek Hawkins
3.7
by Derek Hawkins - Aug. 3, 2009

Revealing story. If they couldn't get Blackwater, which is to be expected, why not go to a source in the DOD for comment?

Blackwater/Xe/US Training Center did not respond to a request for comment. More »

See Full Review » (12 answers)
John Louden
3.7
by John Louden - Aug. 3, 2009

The author has written a book on Blackwater and his reporting is credible -- this story may be marginally biased but doesn't " cross the line".

Another interesting line to emerge in Blackwater’s motion is that the company now prefers to be called by one of its recently created alternate identities, “US ... More »

See Full Review » (7 answers)

Comments on this story Help (BETA)

NT Rating | My Rating

Ratings

3.9

Good
from 3 reviews (41% confidence)
Quality
3.8
Facts
4.3
Fairness
3.3
Sourcing
3.5
Style
4.0
Context
4.0
Depth
4.0
Enterprise
4.0
Relevance
3.5
Popularity
4.0
Recommendation
4.3
Credibility
4.0
# Reviews
1.5
# Views
5.0
# Likes
1.0
# Emails
1.0
More
How our ratings work »
(See these related stories.)

Links Help

No links yet. Please review this story to add some!