U.N.: Blackwater contractors are ‘mercenaries.’

“Private security companies operate without supervision or accountability in war zones, including Iraq and Afghanistan, and represent a new form of mercenary activity,” according to a new U.N. report. As Spencer Ackerman points out, Blackwater CEO Erik Prince recently said that he didn’t like his employees being called “mercenaries,” which he coined “a slanderous term, kind of an inflammatory word [used] to malign us.”