Civilian Warriors: The Inside Story of Blackwater and the Unsung Heroes of theWar on Terror (47 page)

“He had a reputation as a bit of a cowboy”
: Ned Zeman, David Wise, David Rose, and Bryan Burrough, “The Path to 9/11,”
Vanity Fair
, November 2004.

At the start of the decade, government agencies
: Tim Shorrock,
Spies for Hire
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008), p. 19.

By 2003, a snowballing dependence on contractors
: Ibid.

Even the VIP lot was full
: Suzanne Simons,
Master of War
(New York: HarperCollins, 2009), p. 150.

“Cofer can open doors”
: Dana Hedgpeth, “Blackwater’s Owner Has Spies for Hire,”
Washington Post
, November 3, 2007.

“We’ve got more generals per square foot”
: Esther Schrader, “U.S. Companies Hired to Train Foreign Armies,”
Los Angeles Times
, “April 14, 2002.

Black’s son was a lieutenant in the Army
: Kevin McMurray, “Cofer Black, Out of the Shadows,”
Men’s Journal
, October 17, 2008.

FOB Tillman sat along Afghanistan’s rugged
: Quil Lawrence, “For U.S. Troops, Fighting Starts at Afghan Border,” NPR, December 13, 2011.

“The reason I came to Blackwater was its mission”
: Kevin McMurray, “Cofer Black, Out of the Shadows,”
Men’s Journal
, October 17, 2008.

CHAPTER 8:
FALLUJAH

Pentagon rotated in and out
: Lawrence J. Korb, Sean E. Duggan, and Peter M. Juul, “How to Redeploy,” Center for American Progress, August 2008.

“a logistics feat that will rival any in history”
: “Defense Department Operational Update Briefing,” U.S. Defense Department, www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=2788, captured August 2, 2013.

That turbulence, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
added
: Ibid.

attacks across Iraq numbered in the dozens per day
: Michael E. O’Hanlon and Jason H. Campbell, “Iraq Index,” Brookings Institution, October 1, 2007.

More than two hundred American troops had been killed
: “Iraq Coalition Casualties: Fatalities by Year and Month,” iCasualties, www.icasualties.org/Iraq/ByMonth.aspx, captured August 3, 2013.

some 80 percent of all guerrilla attacks
: Frank Smyth, “Hasty Elections Could Divide Iraq,”
Newsday
, October 7, 2004.

2005 analysis by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy
: Michael Eisenstadt and Jeffrey White, “Assessing Iraq’s Sunni Arab Insurgency,” Washington Institute for Near East Policy, December 2005.

largely left to police itself thanks to DoD planning
: Charles Swannack, “Lessons from the Sunni Triangle,” Washington Institute for Near East Policy, July 20, 2004.

The 82nd Airborne shot back
: “U.S. Troops Shoot Iraqi Protestors,” PBS
NewsHour
, www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/shooting_04-29-03.html, captured August 3, 2013.

Townspeople danced on the wreckage
: “Fifteen Killed as US Helicopter Shot Down,”
Taipei Times
, November 3, 2003, http://taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2003/11/03/2003074408.

lead contractor being paid through that massive Army LOGCAP
: Walter Pincus, “U.S. Pays Steep Price for Private Security in Iraq,”
Washington Post
, October 1, 2007.

the subcontracted security provider for ESS
: Ibid.

a restructured deal with Regency
: Ibid.

provide a squad of thirty-four men
: Ibid.

“This was refused both times”
: “Private Military Contractors in Iraq: An Examination of Blackwater’s Actions in Fallujah,” Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives, September 2007.

upon losing the contract, CRG promptly announced
:
Blackwater Security Consulting, LLC et al. v. Nordan
, Case Number 2:2006cv00049, December 20, 2006.

On March 30, the four men of Blackwater Team November 1
: Blackwater’s Response to “Private Military Contractors in Iraq: An Examination of Blackwater’s Actions in Fallujah,” Majority Staff report, October 2007.

They delivered the principal without an issue
: Ibid.

Could the four-man Blackwater team leave right away
: Ibid.

The silver-haired forty-eight-year-old
: Kevin Dayton, “Ambush Victim from Big Island Was a Soldier’s Soldier,”
Honolulu Advertiser
, April 7, 2004.

Batalona was part of the first invasion force
: Sean Flynn, “The Day the War Turned,”
GQ
, October 2006.

retired the year after, moved back to Hawaii
: Jaymes Song, “Tragedy in Iraq Shakes Community on Big Isle,”
Honolulu Star-Bulletin
, April 4, 2004.

took a job as a security guard
: Sean Flynn, “The Day the War Turned,”
GQ
, October 2006.

Zovko, a Cleveland native
: Thomas J. Sheeran, “2 Slain Civilians Memorialized,”
Deseret News
, April 11, 2004.

served six years, starting out as a military policeman
: “Fla. Native Among Dead Civilians,” Associated Press, April 2, 2004.

The Croatian-American saw action in Bosnia
: Joseph Neff and Jay Price, “Chapter 3: A Private, Driven Man,”
Raleigh News & Observer
, July 28, 2004.

six foot three and built
 . . . He spoke
: Sean Flynn, “The Day the War Turned,”
GQ
, October 2006.

reported to Iraq in the summer of 2003
: Joseph Neff and Jay Price, “Chapter 3: A Private, Driven Man,”
Raleigh News & Observer
, July 28, 2004.

In February 2004, he and Batalona signed
: Sean Flynn, “The Day the War Turned,”
GQ
, October 2006.

The giant Tennessean was a former Night Stalker
: Michelle E. Shaw, “Iraq Atrocity Hits Close to Home,”
Tennessean
, April 2, 2004.

He’d signed up just after his seventh wedding anniversary
: Ibid.

“He was aware of the conditions”
: Lauren Howard, “Local Man Among Four Slain in Iraq,”
Leaf-Chronicle
, April 2, 2004.

donated his time to help out
: Ibid.

“Mike, from the men of Task Force DAGGER”
: “Goodbye Mike Teague . . . Killed in Fallujah,” http://forums.gunbroker.com/pop_printer_friendly.asp?TOPIC_ID=103270, captured August 3, 2013.

Helvenston had dropped out of high school
: Sean Flynn, “The Day the War Turned,”
GQ
, October 2006.

the youngest SEAL in naval history
: Ibid.

The Florida native was deployed by the SEALs
: “History,” SPECWAROPS, www.specwarops.com/html/History.html, captured August 3, 2013.

when his canopy malfunctioned during a jump
: Abby Goodnough and Michael Luo, “Families of Men Slain by Mob Focus on Their Lives, Not How They Died,”
New York Times
, April 3, 2004.

he started a fitness company, Amphibian Athletics
: “Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder of Witnesses Against Them,” AnandTech message board, August 6, 2009.

“I’m just damn glad to be here!”
: Sean Flynn, “The Day the War Turned,”
GQ
, October 2006.

“His feeling was, ‘If your time is up’”
: “Former GIs Were Used to Danger,” Tribune News Services, April 2, 2004.

November 1 didn’t have the heavy-duty squad automatic weapons
: “Private Military Contractors in Iraq: An Examination of Blackwater’s Actions in Fallujah,” Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives, September 2007.

The contract that Blackwater and Regency had initially signed
: Blackwater-Regency contract, “Agreement for Security Services,” March 12, 2004.

Earlier in 2004, nine men had been killed
: Jim Michaels, “9 Die in Copter Crash in Iraq,”
USA Today
, January 8, 2004.

insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades
: “Abizaid Convoy Attacked; Timing of Elections Still Uncertain,” PBS
NewsHour
, February 12, 2004.

A mission to Camp Ridgeway and back
: Sean Flynn, “The Day the War Turned,”
GQ
, October 2006.

Batalona determined that even without the fully armored vehicles
: “Consolidated Report: The 31 March 2004 Fallujah Ambush,” Coalition Provisional Authority, April 2004.

To avoid the city, another route
: Sean Flynn, “The Day the War Turned,”
GQ
, October 2006.

U.S. intelligence reports have determined
: “Post-Incident Investigation: Ambush of BSC Team 31 Mar 04 in Fallujah,” Blackwater.

“there’s no doubt that terrorists and insurgents”
: David Barstow, “Security Firm Says Its Workers Were Lured into Iraqi Ambush,”
New York Times
, April 9, 2004.

“The Ministry of Interior, concerned about a pattern”
: “The Continuing Challenge of Building the Iraqi Security Forces,” Committee on Armed Services, U.S. House of Representatives, 2007.

One boy put his hands on the passenger-side door
: Blackwater’s Response to “Private Military Contractors in Iraq: An Examination of Blackwater’s Actions in Fallujah,” Majority Staff report, October 2007.

They spoke to two men in their thirties
: Ibid.

Helvenston and Teague never even had a chance
: Ibid.

one terrified ESS driver would later report
: Ibid.

“There was no evidence of return fire”
: “The Continuing Challenge of Building the Iraqi Security Forces,” Committee on Armed Services, U.S. House of Representatives, 2007.

“Fallujah is the graveyard of Americans”
: “Violence Strike’s Iraq’s Sunni Triangle,” Associated Press, March 31, 2004.

brought to mind Somalia
: Anthony H. Cordesman, “Iraq’s Evolving Insurgency: The Nature of Attacks and Patterns and Cycles in the Conflict,” Center for Strategic and International Studies, February 3, 2006.

“They want to frighten us out of Iraq”
: Ibid.

“War is the province of danger”
: Carl von Clausewitz,
On War
.

Jerry’s brother, Tom Zovko, told mourners
: “Veteran Killed by Iraq Mob Is Buried,” Associated Press, April 11, 2004.

Joseph Neff, a reporter who would extensively cover
: Joseph Neff, “Private Military Contractors: Determining Accountability,” Nieman Reports, Summer 2008.

“What kind of people loot dirt?”
: Bing West,
No True Glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah
(New York: Bantam, 2005), p. 16.

insurgents began spreading leaflets around town
: Ibid., p. 51.

“Fallujah is probably our center of gravity”
: David Isenberg, “Fallujah: The First Iraqi Intifada,”
Asia Times
, January 8, 2008.

Conway would later explain
: Rajiv Chandrasekaran, “Key General Criticizes April Attack in Fallujah,”
Washington Post
, September 13, 2004.

“Somewhere out in this world”
: Colin Freeman, “Horror at Fallujah,”
San Francisco Chronicle
, April 1, 2004.

“deliberate, it will be precise and it will be overwhelming”
: John D. Banusiewicz, “Coalition Vows ‘Deliberate’ Response to Attacks,” American Forces Press Service, April 1, 2004.

“The president knows this is going to be bloody”
: Rajiv Chandrasekaran,
Imperial Life in the Emerald City
(New York: Random House, 2006), p. 274.

a condolence letter from Ambassador Bremer’s office
: “Letter from L. Paul Bremer III,” PBS
Frontline
, www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/warriors/contractors/bremerletter.html, captured August 3, 2013.

Operation Vigilant Resolve commenced
: Rory McCarthy, “Uneasy Truce in the City of Ghosts,”
Guardian
, April 23, 2004.

The 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment attacked
: Thomas G. Mahnken, Thomas A. Keaney,
War in Iraq: Planning and Execution
(London: Routledge, 2007), p. 172.

The 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment stormed
: Ibid.

helicopters fired Hellfire missiles
: Kenneth W. Estes, “Into the Fray: U.S. Marines in the Global War on Terrorism,” U.S. Marine Corps, 2011.

Fighter jets flew more than a hundred sorties
: Bing West,
No True Glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah
(New York: Bantam, 2005), p. 225.

originally built to shield their residents
: Richard S. Lowry, “Recording History Part IX—The War Never Really Ended in Fallujah,”
OpFor
, January 6, 2008.

bloody procession that led to the deaths of more than a dozen Marines
: “At Least 12 Marines Killed as Iraq Fighting Rages,” Fox News, www.foxnews.com/story/2004/04/06/at-least-12-marines-killed-as-iraq-fighting-rages/, captured August 4, 2013.

seven hundred insurgents were killed
: Gregg Zoroya, “Fallujah Brigade Tries U.S. Patience,”
USA Today
, April 13, 2004.

estimated total civilian deaths there
: Carter Malkasian, “Signaling Resolve, Democratization, and the First Battle of Fallujah,”
Journal of Strategic Studies
, June 2006.