Jeremy Scahill appeared on Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman this week to discuss the recent indictment of five Blackwater employees involved in the September 2007 Nisour Square massacre that left seventeen Iraqi civilians dead and over twenty more wounded. A sixth employee involved in the case pleaded guilty to charges this week and has agreed to testify against his colleagues. On the program, Scahill discussed the details of the indictment and the role the incoming Obama foreign policy team will play in re-shaping America’s presence abroad.

Scahill asserted that he hopes that US foreign policy will change, but noted that the current team is, as he put it, a “kettle of hawks.” In terms of Blackwater and other security contractor firms, Scahill said there might be cause of some optimism, as the typically hawkish Hillary Clinton has come out (on paper) in support of a ban on Blackwater. To read more of The Nation‘s coverage of the Blackwater indictments, click here.

–Marissa Colón-Margolies

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