Pratap Chatterjee

Pratap Chatterjee (b. Birmingham, United Kingdom) is an Indian/Sri Lankan investigative journalist and progressive author. He is a British citizen and grew up in India, although he lived in California for many years. He serves as the executive director of CorpWatch, an Oakland-based corporate accountability organisation.^[1] He also works for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism^[2] in London. He writes regularly for The Guardian^[3] and serves on the board of Amnesty International USA^[4] and of the Corporate Europe Observatory^[5]

Previously he was a producer and radio host at KPFA-FM in Berkeley, California^[6] and a Visiting Fellow at the Center for American Progress^[7] Chatterjee has also served as a community advisor to KQED, the San Francisco public radio and television station. He was a member of the board of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network from 2001 to 2005, and was an Environmental Commissioner for the city of Berkeley from 1998 to 2003.^[8]

His first book was a critique of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, written with Matthias Finger, titled The Earth Brokers: Power, Politics and World Development (Routledge Books, 1994) that analyses the United Nations response to global environmental crises.^[9]

In the late 1990s, Chatterjee did a great deal of research surrounding the 1849 California Gold Rush and how it affected Californian American Indians^[10] which resulted in a booklet titled Gold, Greed & Genocide which he later turned into a DVD with a 16-page classroom activities and discussion guide distributed by Oyate.^[11]

Chatterjee has travelled extensively in Central Asia and the Middle East to investigate the role of private military contractors working in Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2004, Chatterjee published the well-received Iraq, Inc.: A Profitable Occupation (Seven Stories Press).^[12] His footage was used in Michael Moore's 2004 film Fahrenheit 9-11 and he was interviewed in Robert Greenwald's film Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers^[13]

In February 2009, Chatterjee published a detailed history of the role of Texas companies Halliburton and KBR titled Halliburton's Army: How A Well-Connected Texas Oil Company Revolutionized The Way America Makes War (Nation Books).^[14] In March 2009, he published several videos and an article of the failure of development aid in rural Afghanistan that was circulated via TomDispatch and on Salon.^[15] He followed this up with an article on the poor treatment of Afghan translators working under contract with Ohio-based Mission Essential Personnel for the US military.^[16]

He has been published in a number of popular media, including the Financial Times, The New Republic, The Guardian, and The Independent. He often appears as a guest expert in a wide variety of media ranging from Fox TV to Democracy Now!.^[17] His writing has won a number of awards, from the National Newspaper Association and Project Censored, among others.

References

External links

• KPFA's Terra Verde Weekly environmental affairs program founded and co-hosted by Pratap Chatterjee; airs Fridays 1:30–2:00 p.m., with audio of previous programs archived at website
• Pratap Chatterjee – Halliburton's Army: How a Well-Connected Texas Oil Company Revolutionized the Way America Makes War, 18 February 2009, talk at Powell's City of Books in Portland, Oregon, from recent book tour.