Jeremy Scahill

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Jeremy Scahill is an American investigative journalist with expertise on a number of global issues, most notably the recent rise of private military companies (PMCs).^{[citation needed]} He serves as a correspondent for the U.S. radio and TV program Democracy Now!. He is also a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute and a frequent contributor to The Nation.^[1] Scahill and colleague Amy Goodman were co-recipients of the 1998 Polk Award for their radio documentary "Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship", which investigated the Chevron Corporation's role in the killing of two Nigerian environmental activists.^[2]

Scahill has reported from post-invasion Iraq; the former Yugoslavia, where he covered the 1999 NATO bombing;^[3] and from post-Katrina Louisiana.^[4] He has been a vocal critic of private military contractors, particularly Blackwater Worldwide, the subject of his book, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.^[5] The book was the focus of a two-part interview and discussion with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! in March 2007.^[6] The book received numerous accolades, including the Alternet Best Book of the Year Award, a spot on the Barnes & Noble and Amazon lists of the Best Nonfiction Books of 2007, and another Polk Award.

Up until 1998, he was a regular contributor to the Catholic Worker. He campaigned vigorously against US policy towards Cuba, arguing that the Helms-Burton Act "discards ... sovereignty ... and attempts to supersede International law with US law" and "creates a legal framework authorizing financial and military support for armed subversion of a sovereign nation".^[7]