Despite its long list of troubles, including federal investigations and indictments, the company formerly known as Blackwater has been awarded millions of dollars in contracts by the Obama Administration. The Nation’s Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, explains why.

Philip Hoare, author of The Whale: In Search of the Giants of the Sea, discusses why the international talks on lifting the whaling moratorium and proposed reductions on whaling by Norway, Japan, and Iceland have failed.

The emerging field of environmental forensics may be the best way to determine the impact that the oil spill will have on the gulf coast. Merv Fingas, former Chief of the Emergencies Science Division of Environment Canada, is a leader in the field and will explain what chemical fingerprinting is and how it can help us understand what will happen in the Gulf.

The attention being paid the Deepwater Horizon oil spill has many residents of Nigeria, Egypt, and Chile scratching their heads. Devastating oil spills in these countries in the past decades have gone relatively unnoticed by the mainstream press. Both Dr. Erich Gundlach, director of E-Tech International, an oil spill clean-up firm, and Richard Steiner, professor of marine conservation at the University of Alaska, have first-hand experience working with oil spills around the world. They'll discuss some of the largest oil spills that have gone unnoticed and what was done to clean them up.

Philip Hoare, author of The Whale: in Search of the Giants of the Sea , discusses this month’s International Whaling Commission meeting in Morocco. On the agenda is a repeal of the 1986 moratorium which outlawed the hunting of great whales.

Chemical dispersants are already being used to cleanup the Gulf of Mexico, but what about oil-eating bacteria?

In his film Crude: The Real Price of Oil, documentarian Joe Berlinger chronicled the story behind a law suit filed by thousands of indigenous Ecuadorians against Chevron for oil pollution in the Amazon river. Earlier this month, a New York judge ordered him to turn over hundreds of hours of outtake footage from the film to Chevron.

Alex Matthiessen, president of Riverkeeper, gives us an update on the Newtown Creek oil spill.

NPR’s Baghdad Bureau Chief Quil Lawrence discusses Iraq, the disputed election there, and what lies ahead as the U.S. military prepares to start drawing down troops over the course of the summer.

Erratic weather in Niger has disrupted production of millet, one the country’s staple food crops. Now, upwards of 60 percent of the population there is facing hunger. We’ll talk to Concern Worldwide’s country director in Niger, Niall Tierney about the crisis on today’s first Underreported segment.