Blackwater Opens a Retail Chain

Courtesy of <a href="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/images/2008/02/29/blackwaterhellokittylove_2.gif">Wired's Danger Room</a>

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Hey, remember when Blackwater killed all those Iraqis in Baghdad’s Nisour Square, and billed the government for prostitutes, and probably assassinated people was enlisted in an aborted US plan to maybe assassinate people, then got in trouble, then changed its name to Xe™ and attempted a rebranding campaign? To hell with all that, the company now says: It’s time to market the Blackwater brand of clothing! After all, as M.I.A. just told the New York Times, “The best sportswear is on Blackwater operatives!”

Noah Shachtman of Wired‘s Danger Room blog caught wind today of a company plan to open two retail stores—one in Salem, Connecticut, and one in Fayetteville, North Carolina, near Fort Bragg (home of the military’s Special Operations Command). Blackwater Pro Shops, as it’s being billed, already has an online store, selling firearms and beer coozies with the firm’s bear-paw logo. On the front page, there’s also a sale on T-shirts from the not-at-all-ironically-named Afghan outpost, Camp Integrity.

No word yet on when they’ll open. But I’m looking forward to perusing the “sale rack” of Afghan and Iraqi antiquities. Maybe I can even get a $400-an-hour job as a sales associate!

GREAT JOURNALISM, SLOW FUNDRAISING

Our team has been on fire lately—publishing sweeping, one-of-a-kind investigations, ambitious, groundbreaking projects, and even releasing “the holy shit documentary of the year.” And that’s on top of protecting free and fair elections and standing up to bullies and BS when others in the media don’t.

Yet, we just came up pretty short on our first big fundraising campaign since Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting joined forces.

So, two things:

1) If you value the journalism we do but haven’t pitched in over the last few months, please consider doing so now—we urgently need a lot of help to make up for lost ground.

2) If you’re not ready to donate but you’re interested enough in our work to be reading this, please consider signing up for our free Mother Jones Daily newsletter to get to know us and our reporting better. Maybe once you do, you’ll see it’s something worth supporting.

payment methods

GREAT JOURNALISM, SLOW FUNDRAISING

Our team has been on fire lately—publishing sweeping, one-of-a-kind investigations, ambitious, groundbreaking projects, and even releasing “the holy shit documentary of the year.” And that’s on top of protecting free and fair elections and standing up to bullies and BS when others in the media don’t.

Yet, we just came up pretty short on our first big fundraising campaign since Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting joined forces.

So, two things:

1) If you value the journalism we do but haven’t pitched in over the last few months, please consider doing so now—we urgently need a lot of help to make up for lost ground.

2) If you’re not ready to donate but you’re interested enough in our work to be reading this, please consider signing up for our free Mother Jones Daily newsletter to get to know us and our reporting better. Maybe once you do, you’ll see it’s something worth supporting.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate