For months now, right-wing media outlets and the Taliban (these days it’s hard to tell the difference between them) have pounced on the Blackwater issue. The alleged presence of operatives of the controversial private security company had enraged many and they were even being blamed for the wave of terrorist attacks in Peshawar.

Now it appears there may have been a lot of truth in these stories. Jeremy Scahill, writing in The Nation — the leftist US magazine, not the rightist Pakistani newspaper — has reported on the extent of Blackwater involvement in Pakistan. Impossible as it is to verify reporting that relies exclusively on unnamed sources, there is reason to believe that Scahill is on to something here but to refrain from accepting his findings as Gospel truth.

Scahill is the undisputed authority on the shady company and his book, Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, while clearly written from an anti-Blackwater perspective, is full of revelations that were subsequently proven true. One of the claims made by Scahill in his article — that Blackwater is involved in drone attacks — had also been hinted at by The New York Times, which adds to its credibility. Scahill does mention the NYT report in his story but seems to believe that Blackwater involvement in the drones programme is wider than previous reported.

But when quoting people anonymously, journalists should always pinpoint the possible motivations of their sources. Scahill has relied extensively on a “former senior executive” at Blackwater but has not indicated why he desired anonymity. Since he is no longer working at Blackwater, fear of losing his job could not be a consideration. The source may be afraid of legal reprisals since the information he has given is not in the public domain and is supposedly classified, but in that case Scahill should have said so in his article.

It is also interesting that Scahill quotes a source as saying, “Blackwater is also working for the Pakistani government on a subcontract with an Islamabad-based security firm that puts US Blackwater operatives on the ground with Pakistani forces in counter-terrorism operations.” Interior Minister Rehman Malik had recently confirmed that another US private security company, DynCorp, had been given a license to work with local security firms, like the recently shut-down Inter-Risk. It is not clear why Pakistan would admit to allowing one group of mercenaries to operate in the country while denying the presence of the other. It is possible that Scahill has got his facts wrong although it is more likely that the vitriolic local media coverage against Blackwater has frightened the government from being completely honest.

While it is difficult for Pakistani journalists to judge the reliability of Scahill’s sources within Blackwater and the US government, we can safely disregard his citation of Hamid Mir, a noted conspiracy theorist who has never been able to back up his assertions about Blackwater.

Keeping in mind the cliché about smoke and fire, Scahill’s report serves as further confirmation that Blackwater is involved in Pakistan. There are some issues with what he has to say, some which are mentioned by Changing Up Pakistan, but the onus is now on Interior Minister Rehman Malik, who promised to resign if Blackwater’s presence in Pakistan was proven, to provide proof one way or the other.

Note: I had previously written on Blackwater here and here.