by Noah Shachtman | Oct 2, 2012 | Monitor
A picture of the British ambassador’s convoy after it was attacked in Benghazi. Photo: House Oversight Committee They might as well have painted a target on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. During the spring and summer, militants attacked the American diplomatic...
by Spencer Ackerman | Sep 21, 2012 | Monitor
Blackwater guards at the Republican Palace in Iraq, undated photo. The reincarnated security firm, now called Academi, just received a contract to train the Defense Department’s intelligence operatives in self-defense. Photo: Wikimedia Commons Now that the...
by Spencer Ackerman and Noah Shachtman | Sep 17, 2012 | Monitor
Demonstrators in Benghazi hang the ex-dictator Moammar Gadhafi in effigy, February 2011. The State Department later hired a private security firm, Blue Mountain, to help protect the U.S. consulate in the city — before it was attacked on Sept. 11. Photo:...
by Noah Shachtman | Aug 14, 2012 | Monitor
Stratfor executive Fred Burton. Photo: AP Updated 3:48 p.m. Ever since WikiLeaks began releasing a series of documents about the surveillance system Trapwire, there’s been a panicked outcry over this supposedly all-seeing, revolutionary spy network. In fact,...
by Spencer Ackerman | Aug 8, 2012 | Monitor
Security contractors in Baghdad. Photo: courtesy of Robert Young Pelton. Depending on how you look at it, the world’s most notorious mercenary firm just got away with misleading the government about arming and training foreign governments — or the company...