Mercenaries in America

I was stunned when I read Jeremy Scahill's "Blackwater Down" in The Nation. Scahill gives a first-hand account of how the government has hired private security firms (what we used to call "mercenaries") such as Blackwater USA to patrol the streets of New Orleans. In addition to describing how heavily armed Blackwater soldiers are roaming the streets and taking over buildings, the story reviews the serious implications for democracy when private firms start doing the work once handled by the police and government troops.
www.thenation.com/doc/20051010/scahill