GalleyCat correspondent Amanda ReCupido swung by the Mercer Hotel Tuesday night for the paperback launch of Jeremy Scahill‘s New York Times bestseller Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army. “John Cusack‘s name floated amongst the evening’s headliners,” ReCupido reports. “His new project, War, Inc., opened late last week and aligns with the book’s goals, and Cusack himself is a large supporter of the book. Unfortunately, he was MIA and no amount of Peter Gabriel could lure him onto the scene.”

“Blackwater received tremendous praise when it was first published over a year ago,” she continues, “and referenced regularly in the Timesfor its coverage of the post-9/11 political and military scene. This new version of the book has about one-third more material than the original, according to Joe Duax (top left, with Scahill) from The Nation Institute, and gathers Scahill’s findings from interviews in over 40 towns.

“Scahill claims that his work is an ongoing process, and in the height of the election frenzy, emphasized that ‘with the new White House, I want to say that I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican, but a journalist first.’ Was Scahill surprised at all by the success of his book? ‘Commercially? Yes,’ he admitted. ‘In either sense, I’m glad that people are reading and are passionate about the issue.’”

Scahill will be reading at Town Hall next Tuesday, June 3, starting off a nationwide book tour.