“Suzanne Simons is a masterful storyteller. But make no mistake—Master of War is not a work of fiction….A powerful and true account.”
—Wolf Blitzer, anchor, CNN’s The Situation Room
Master of War is the riveting true story of Eric Prince, the ex-Navy SEAL who founded Blackwater and built the world’s largest military contractor, privatizing war for client nations around the world. A CNN producer and anchor, Suzanne Simons is the first journalist to get deep inside Blackwater—and, as a result of her unprecedented access, Master of War provides the most complete and revelatory account of the rise of this powerful corporate army and the remarkable entrepreneur who brought it into being, while offering an eye-opening, behind-the-scenes look at the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The world first learned ofBlackwater USA in March2004 when several of its menwere ambushed and killed inFallujah, Iraq. Their bodieswere badly beaten, and twowere then hung from a bridge as a sign ofIraqi resistance to the U.S. occupation. Inthe years that followed, Blackwater grew tobecome one of the U.S. government’s mosttrusted partners in Iraq and Afghanistan,despite headline-grabbing controversiessuch as the shooting of Iraqi civilians byBlackwater guards in a Baghdad trafficcircle in 2007.
Based on her extraordinary access toBlackwater founder Erik Prince and dozensof his key executives, author SuzanneSimons offers a riveting, eye-openingportrait of the former Navy SEAL andthe company that became the face ofprivate warfare in the twenty-first century.Prince sat atop an empire that not onlyincluded a massive training complex formilitary and law enforcement but alsocomprised an entire aviation division thatcatered to military needs in the world’smost dangerous locations and a privatespy company run by former top CIA men.Master of War is an intimate look at the riseand fall of an extraordinary company—ledby a contemporary prince, unaccountableto American voters, with the instrumentsof war at his disposal.
