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Ken Silverstein is the Washington Editor for Harper's Magazine. In addition to contributing to the print edition of Harper's Magazine, Silverstein publishes a weblog entitled "Washington Babylon" on the magazine's website.

In 1993, Silverstein started Counterpunch, a political newsletter.

He resides in Washington, D.C.

Newest Book

Private Warriors

As the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed a decade ago, military hawks around the globe were instantly seen as obsolete. But as journalist Ken Silverstein documents in his new book, Private Warriors, the end of the Cold War has only seen many of the best and brightest Cold Warriors move behind the scenes.

Silverstein, who’s contributed to Harper’s and Mother Jones, establishes that many defense experts who once served in official ranks now roam the world as think-tank advisers, mercenaries and private arms dealers. More often than not, the American government, "as a means of strengthening foreign alliances and propping up domestic manufacturers," ends up hiring these self-stylized renegades.

We’re introduced to a motley assortment of fighters. The gallery includes Nazi military hero Gerhard Georg Mertins, whose clients have included Klaus Barbie, Saddam Hussein and Oliver North’s freedom fighters (one of his contacts rationalizes working with him by saying, "In this business, you don’t ask about politics or religion"); Ernst Werner Glatt, another former Nazi turned American-backed gun dealer to Afghani rebels ("Western civilization required his services," says an American colonel); and ex-Secretary of State Alexander Haig, now sucking up to Chinese leaders as a lobbyist for an American defense contractor.

Private Warriors ultimately comes across as a collection of magazine profiles instead of a sustained book; the chapter on SDI, for example, can’t compare in sophistication or outrage to Frances FitzGerald’s recent "Star Wars" history Way Out There in the Blue. But Silverstein has a sharp enough ear to capture the casual duplicity and amorality of these gentlemen, who survive outside constitutional checks and balances. His book shines a much-needed light onto the dark side of contemporary foreign policy.

External links

• http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ken_Silverstein
• Washington Babylon, the blog of Ken Silverstein

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