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Sep. 27th, 2007 07:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
clayhornikYesterday I worked an offsite event at the Naro for a lecture/discussion by Jeremy Scahill for his book Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.
I live in a really weird place. When the book came out back in March, yeah, we carried it, because Blackwater is based in Moyock, NC, less than a ninety minute drive from here. At the mall, you'd see guys in t-shirts with the Blackwater logo all the time. For me, they were whitenoise, part of the background.
Then I went to WHC in Toronto. There on the new releases wall was the book. It was an "oh!" moment for me, realizing that there's more to the Boys from Moyock than I figured.
They've been in the news lately. Iraq wants them out beacuse of civilian deaths and they're being investigated for arms stuff are among the most recent things.
So it was pretty packed last night. Scahill was joined by the mother of one of the four Blackwater "contractors" killed at Falulajah. The q&a was fascinating, questions ranging from the sincere and impassioned to, well, crazy- like the establishment of the 500 secret FEMA camps run by mercenaries.
--
It's funny. Maybe it's the horror nerd in me, but I *still* think of Michael McDowell's novel Blackwater first, the Boys from Moyock second. I'm wondering if that's where they got their name. It's kind of a silly thought, a mercenary army getting their name from a horror novel, until you hear the name of their international division: Greystone, like the series of books edited by Charles Grant.
I live in a really weird place. When the book came out back in March, yeah, we carried it, because Blackwater is based in Moyock, NC, less than a ninety minute drive from here. At the mall, you'd see guys in t-shirts with the Blackwater logo all the time. For me, they were whitenoise, part of the background.
Then I went to WHC in Toronto. There on the new releases wall was the book. It was an "oh!" moment for me, realizing that there's more to the Boys from Moyock than I figured.
They've been in the news lately. Iraq wants them out beacuse of civilian deaths and they're being investigated for arms stuff are among the most recent things.
So it was pretty packed last night. Scahill was joined by the mother of one of the four Blackwater "contractors" killed at Falulajah. The q&a was fascinating, questions ranging from the sincere and impassioned to, well, crazy- like the establishment of the 500 secret FEMA camps run by mercenaries.
--
It's funny. Maybe it's the horror nerd in me, but I *still* think of Michael McDowell's novel Blackwater first, the Boys from Moyock second. I'm wondering if that's where they got their name. It's kind of a silly thought, a mercenary army getting their name from a horror novel, until you hear the name of their international division: Greystone, like the series of books edited by Charles Grant.
