Jeremy Scahill (born c. 1974) is an American investigative journalist and author whose work focuses on the use of private military companies. He is the author of the best-selling book The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, winner of a George Polk Book Award. He also serves as a correspondent for the U.S. radio and TV program Democracy Now!. Scahill is a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute and a frequent contributor to The Nation.
Jeremy Scahill started his career as an unpaid intern at Democracy Now. While at Democracy Now he learned the technical side of radio, and learned "journalism as a trade, rather than an academic study."
Until 1998, Scahill was a regular contributor to the Catholic Worker. He campaigned vigorously against US policy towards Cuba, arguing that the Helms-Burton Act "discards ... sovereignty ... and attempts to supersede International law with US law" and "creates a legal framework authorizing financial and military support for armed subversion of a sovereign nation".
Scahill and colleague Amy Goodman were co-recipients of the 1998 Polk Award for their radio documentary "Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship", which investigated the Chevron Corporation's role in the killing of two Nigerian environmental activists. Scahill has written extensively on national security issues and the military-industrial complex. His work appears frequently in Commondreams, Truthout, Huffington Post, Alternet and CounterPunch and many other news sites.
Scahill has reported from post-invasion Iraq; the former Yugoslavia, where he covered the 1999 NATO bombing; and from post-Katrina Louisiana. He has been a vocal critic of private military contractors, particularly Blackwater Worldwide, the subject of his book, The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army. The book was the focus of a two-part interview and discussion with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! in March 2007. The book received numerous accolades, including the Alternet Best Book of the Year Award, a spot on the Barnes & Noble and Amazon lists of the Best Nonfiction Books of 2007, and another Polk Award. He is the 2009 recipient of the second annual Izzy Award for Special Achievement in Independent Media. Scahill has appeared on ABC World News, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, CNN, MSNBC, PBS’s The NewsHour, Bill Moyers Journal and is a frequent guest on other radio and TV programs in the United States.
Scahill served as an election correspondent for HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher. Scahill has twice testified before the US Congress on the U.S. government's use of mercenary forces. On 19 April 2007, Scahill was a guest on The Daily Show where Jon Stewart was critical of Scahill's book. On 3 Oct 2007 Stewart then expressed some remorse for his attitude during his interview with Scahill.He also appears frequently on "The Rachel Maddow Show" on MSNBC.