when the power goes out. then one humanity. local hero to many. but keeping the lights on is dangerous. as your forces cracked. by speaking to. a witness documentary. this time on al-jazeera. has the problem and don't harbor the headlines on al-jazeera south korea's president has chaired a national security meeting after the u.s.

has detected at intercontinental ballistic missile launch from north korea japan says the rocket reached the highest altitude yet for a north korean missile before land again its forces the u.n. security council will hold an emergency meeting on wednesday a missile was launched. a while ago. you take care of it. and go on discussion about it it is a situation that we will hear. kathy novak has more from seoul. so this our launch happened in the middle of the night at about quarter past three a.m. seoul time president moon j. in chaired an emergency meeting of the national security council he condemned the launch and said that it escalates tensions here on the korean peninsula also threatens the peace and safety of the international community now south korean

armed forces responded almost immediately just over five minutes after the missile launch was detected there was a life fire drill taking place between the army the navy and the air force three missiles were launched at a simulated target simultaneously the message from south korea there to north korea that it is watching moves in north korea and that it has the capacity to retaliate if necessary as it happens with this missile launch it did not immediately threaten any territory instead it was launched at a lofted trajectory reaching we're told by the south korean joint chiefs of staff an altitude of about four and a half thousand kilometers before splashing into waters off of japan analysts at the union of concerned scientists have extrapolated from the figures we see from this launch that theoretically if this missile work to be launched at a normal trajectory that would put the whole of the u.s. mainland within range now the u.s.

president donald trump held a phone call with the prime minister of japan shinzo ave those leaders agreeing to burst boost their deterrence capabilities and also agreeing that china must do more . in other news the man accused of masterminding the two thousand and twelve benghazi attack has been acquitted of the most serious charges against him. as captured by american forces in two thousand and fourteen u.s. ambassador chris stevens and three other americans were killed in the attack on the u.s. diplomatic compound now the u.n. security council has held an emergency session on human trafficking in libya evidence has emerged of hundreds of people being auctioned for as little as four hundred dollars france's call for sanctions to be imposed on the traffickers. u.s. vice president mike pence says president donald trump is actively considering when and how to move the u.s. embassy in israel to jerusalem in june trump signed a legal way with that keeps the embassy in tel aviv palestinians say that moving

the embassy from tel aviv would pre-judge one of the most sensitive issues in the conflict the status of jerusalem undermining america's role as a mediator and while for the past twenty years congress and successive administrations have expressed a willingness to move our embassy as we speak president donald trump is actively considering when and how to move the american embassy in israel from tel aviv to jerusalem. now the u.s. federal reserve chair nominee john paul says he expects andrus rates to rise gradually he made the remarks during his senate confirmation hearing powell also defended the need to potentially ease regulations on the financial sector. the most news agency is reporting that a senior saudi prince has been released after more than three weeks in detention over corruption charges prince with a bit of below was reportedly freed after reaching what officials called an

acceptable agreement he's reported to have paid more than one billion dollars in settlement with abe who was the national guard minister the son of the late king abdullah and was once considered a contender for the throne. those are the headlines on al-jazeera produced stay with us child soldiers reloaded that's coming up next thank you for watching. we will maintain the finest fighting force of the world has ever known the world has ever known the world has ever known the world it's ever known. and i don't personally have any difficulty with most of it i just don't like the image that it conjures up in most people's much. like any other thing in the global finance it's just the military trade. contractors

don't like hard time around. one guy because if you. miss one young government perspective the iraqi troop and was considered a good deal. not be the article you were on yeah it's more like thirty years closely. we have a mismatch between the way we are maj and the war to be and the reality of the twenty first century can we do a little or can we find someone that we do it for boardroom you know when you get what you pay for.

b.b.c. world service and u.s. troops have left iraq that it continues to maintain a high passes in the country with the largest u.s. embassy in the world the situation in afghanistan the center crucial for international troops to go and get control over to the afghan forces fish if you're just attrition really critical of the country. says throughout america today we are stuck by my father and son in iraq. this is a man who says he was. so young i thought if i was this other fans or friends. some of them they are already there and that. they know right now down there tonight here. how many of the persons that you're sending out

to. your child soldiers and the like on seven i can't i can tell you that i mean if you think i can't i can't. i can tell you dealing with the many people i'm going to do. this and this and this. new president you inspecting you know. if you. do you report to you yeah. yeah yeah. really what's. the real thing well. enough look at your. door for us and i will too. this is our tradition if you don't know for it with

a stick from the spear with our own. that's the tradition so if you're trying to simulate this from a disoriented them say well it could i'm sure but that isn't the case so maybe critical of people who used to be fighting when they were very young that they all go to war you believe that's a problem that's not a problem for us mother from. the particulars not from an absence of us have. and even if they had started when they would fulfill it another thirty that's not a problem was not a problem just does the job as they are here his car yeah yeah. let me send guys whatever yes we fasted for him and they got the school fees for

his training. i mean i never got my summit on resorted to using because of the ideas being that people coming isn't what you tell me this is what they do i need to understand english. gun to shoot those who won five. companies risk on common contract as my mom wanted them. or example i didn't really get it for someone time.

the private military industry is a part of how the country is in fights wars today. u.s. government doesn't track the number of contractors it uses in places iraq or afghanistan we know it's a lot we don't really know exactly how many. i spent several years working within the industry i have a military background and one of the differences between being a soldier i found and being

a private military contractor is that when you work for the u.s. military or any military you take a sacred oath that you're going to serve and fight for your country and necessary die to protect a way of life one that you believe in i am an american soldier i'm a warrior and a member of a team. that will never accept defeat. at least i will never win i'll never leave a fallen comrade it's the complete opposite in a private military world you look at the budget first the loyalty of these companies and these businessmen and change depending on market forces. we operate in the world's challenging complex emerging markets the middle east is absolutely the core for a business today. the sooner we can be in pal and we perform and do the right you know. this industry is not just what you see is what you

get. when you see a company you don't know exactly who's working for them they hire and they sometimes create what we call subs sub contractors. there's been commanders in afghanistan who just simply say we don't know who the subs of the subs subs are. so you have all these like layers of a contract. a level of quality control starts to fade quickly the deeper you go from the top to

the bottom. united states army and the military in general is so reliant on the private sector i would call it a dependency but we don't know who's the on the ground presence of these companies overseas we just don't know. crazy or not surely it's really crazy in iraq. because since the feds the ice that my fits in iraq every did that was a bombing they bombed a village that is iraq it's. every day we have rockets fired. every day how to gunshots every day

a bomb in income in income in only good if someone's you know let's use damage for all of our god for all of the civilian and guys well trained guys. as soon as i originally rock i called my mom i said mom i'm in iraq she said oh what i said i'm in iraq no no you're kidding i said no moment not kidding i'm in iraq i say mon just watch the number what's the number and she watched the number. she was she was just she was yellin oh tell you what you could yeah i said no mom there is no problem here we are saved we are not using weapons we are you here is does our i convinced my mom i said we are doing just domestic walk in iraq she told all the neighbors around so my son he's in iraq you know he's doing. cooking job not with weapons. just after the

war and surveil you know i couldn't make it up because there was no job by then. and my friend calls me it's all me that's a. very civic and see they were recruiting guys so-called so it's also iraq if you just use weapons and we are well trained and it come. comply on. the first time i arrived to to this training camp compliant iraq together with that to white men from from the security company.

driving out in this small truck and swats towards the camp through this forest a landscape not so far away from from the airports and when we enter the camp and get out of the car the first thing we see is this a gunman instructor who isn't shots of the training out there making the recruits lined up in order to receive these guys from the past security company. came from iraq. with knocking from iraqi said that he needed. it was a shallow fighter who supposed to go to iraq. you know. what weapon this is only people that. are fighting between iraq. from his young government is there in. couldn't was considered

a quite good deal in the sense that they could actually take no good troublemakers something away to back for a couple of years and then returning them after two years with money and from the overseas deployment this could surf to stabilize you. in the beginning of the training cost of another real weapons presence so they're using wooden sticks. it was fast after a couple of days and so the training that the weapons and their well being lined up and wooden tables with in the middle of the big camp.

it was this tension and excitement those attention mainly because now it's actually getting into something very real. for many after the cruisers in the first time holding a weapon since the ending of the civil war. many were starting to shake and some were even starting to cry when the when the sioux got the weapons not being able to to handle. any. compliant backing for iraq. and what has

gone by from the past is that we've been sort of up to no one on the scene this went on to. the most notable for now it's. my device. so i was supposed to whip on again i said this is not my idea they were quite good what bonded. i survive and i live where point. this young and well husband's work mainly by young converts and.

if you're looking for a young man to perform military jobs the chances are quite good that they have also been. i was it's at thirteen. but you never can mean i think that actually. it took my father my mother and putting on this rough. ground. to leave. me. they fought with us you know i don't know what's right what's he talking about.

right. now no. need to. show you my. if not every day remember. we turned out he my father i've seen my way out who next i get i would keep. this it's little i'm going to. have to go. i said no i don't want a tree so i start to i go do this that's a used unless. stuck in my boat. my boat is that bond and i. can drop. this in private for more to get the

comic you forget about you or your motor so i start says. when i was young. at a lot of things that i've been seeing there. a lot of. which is no good for you monday. because. of the job you have your command on when does it go the people you have to go to by denny don't you to have been killed.

when we think of war and the war you're right we have this image. of a man and uniform. and uniform means they're fighting as part of a military serving a nation the cause that they fight for therefore is political patriotism and yet when you look at the wars of the twenty first century they don't match those assumptions anymore now we have outsourced a lot of our warfare to private military companies. the background of this changing nature of war and fights that dates back to the very start of the private military industry itself as.

until the early ninety's the street is a document king street. to bring down governments for the cash can you explain what exactly sound fine internationally is and what you doing. it is a company that provides military consultancy services for governments or large corporations. at the time the idea was to get very posh english officers on top of these private military companies and tim spicer was an officer in the military and british military he got out and was asked to come help with a company called sandline. to spices a rival gave an almost instant sense of respectability to what had previously been

a mess in the world and i don't personally have any difficulty would mostly i just don't like the image that comes out in most people's mind first time it seems vice i was interviewing for a newspaper. in charming public school educated god's office and that wasn't massively a feature of the construe before then it changed the agenda of the global agenda and what a problem that your company was. tim spicer was considered a respectable head of a mercenary organization but at first his business affairs didn't go too well he was dogged by failure for example he got a phone call from a fellow indian with a thai passport who was under house arrest for a financial scandal and he contacted tim spicer and wanted him to restore the president of sierra leone. once the president sierra leone was back in

power this guy would then get his contracts for diamonds and be able to make money . but it didn't work out that way. the company started life run by chip spicer for the army colonel hundred distribution by customs and excise and he's accused just smuggling weapons illegally. when i. i would firm gets involved in foreign politics for the benefit of a criminal if you have to stop and ask ok this really happened or is this the fictitious you know james bond type story but it was a true story. these things tended to happen to some spies or government titans that he'd always somehow managed to get signed the recently retired british guy who had a band of mercenaries is safely back in this country so has this put him up his new career as a hired gun are you going to continue with this new new business of yours sandline

international well i think we've got to a number of lessons to learn from this particular. episode i think that we will continue to try and develop our business as long as we can do it in a. sensible way. sandline eventually collapsed under the weight of bad publicity. was that to say yes in the short term you could say that was not a successful company in terms of delivering enormous amounts of money to its shelves and so forth to firstly. it launched him spice on a career where he was able to found what would then become one of the most significant for the movie companies in the world. it is.

such. you are making remarks whether on line the u.s. response to drug use and the drug trade over the last fifty years has been criminalized or if you join us on sad to know you will first just wakes up in the morning and says i want to cover the world and this is a dialogue could be was leading to some of the confusion online about people saying they don't actually know what's going on join the colobus conversation at this time on al-jazeera when the news breaks it was an announcement you were expecting to hear by announce my resignation as prime minister from the lebanese government and the story builds i can't stop thinking about it my life when people need to be heard a mass exodus hundreds of thousands of injured have fled ethnic cleansing

a million more for bangladesh al jazeera has teams on the ground to bring you more award winning documentaries and live news on air and online. and. here. the headlines on al-jazeera south korea's president has chaired

a national security meeting after the u.s. detected and to continental ballistic missile launch from north korea japan says the rocket reached the highest altitude yet for a north korean missile before land again it's what it is the u.n. security council will hold an emergency meeting on wednesday. it went higher frankly than any previous they paid for research and development effort on their part of building ballistic missiles that could threaten. everywhere in the world basically and in response to the south koreans have fired some pinpoint missile out into the water to make certain north korea understand that they could be taken under fire by our ally but the bottom line is that the continued effort to build threat with big missile threat that endangered world peace regional peace and sort of united states the man accused of masterminding the two thousand and twelve benghazi attack has been acquitted of the most serious charges against him. as

captured by american forces in two thousand and fourteen u.s. ambassador chris stevens and three other americans were killed in the attack on the u.s. diplomatic compound. the u.n. security council has held an emergency session on human trafficking in libya evidence has emerged of hundreds of people being auctioned there for as little as four hundred dollars from his call for sanctions to be imposed on the traffickers. now the roses news agency is reporting that a senior saudi prince has been released after more than three weeks in detention of a corruption charges prince with a been a fellow was reportedly feet off to reaching what officials called an acceptable agreement he is reported to have paid more than one billion dollars and settlement whatever was the last known god minister is the son of the late king up the law and was once considered a contender for the throne. u.s. vice president of my pen says president donald trump is actively considering when

and how to move the u.s. embassy in israel from tel aviv to jerusalem in june trump signed a legal waiver that keeps the embassy in tel aviv palestinians so that moving the embassy would pre-judge one of the most sensitive issues in the conflict the status of jerusalem those are the headlines on al-jazeera child soldiers reloaded continues next. when i live in a kurd everything changed. the contractor content of the armed forces went up astronomically at this hour american and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm iraq

. ideologically republicans my party wanted every single public function to be scrutinized analyzed evaluated and if possible privatized general shinseki the head of the us army at the time testified to congress and said if we're going to do iraq it's going to take several hundred thousand u.s. troops and very quickly the rest of the bush administration reacted negatively and he's absurd that's crazy it's not going to require those amount of troops and they actually simply drummed him out of the military it turned out he was right we did deploy several hundred thousand forces it was just through private military.

so in the early days of iraq it was a gold rush you had companies coming out of nowhere including blackwater who was really like a cowboy a wild wild west where nobody had any control anybody doing anything with firearms in this country to say their private military company. was an a.t.m. for these companies the basic idea of a contractor versus recruiting. training in supporting military vets is that there is room hiring a prostitute or getting married. so instead of a soldier who has an x. cost of a year now being a contractor who's being paid eight times ten. well what has happened is that america has basically married a prostitute and has been active in them for a very long period of time it's almost as you do the things. you did see you it's nothing but

a country is going to be the real thing. but none of you know right you just go to run ok i'm working with you on this and we will get a real mummy's or it's a. contractor's offer some grey area benefits to politicians everybody's concerned like we have a thousand boots the ground nobody ever asks how many contractors there is don't like our boot on the ground. here so if the us military wanted to put one thousand boots on the ground and there's four thousand contractors it's a way of you know having for some five thousand but without politically risk. that. should mean. they're shooting at you next to you yes yeah he was. just trying to bang bang

so did did you get a skirt shoot for that shine from. a ricochet to his car but. that's exactly. what i might do something right. the security companies had the sensitivity of something as civilians would often if not always. get caught in the crossfire. what governments have always done is they would do two things at once. you fight and you we know hawks and mines. private and she took it didn't do to. try to come join the ground opening fire they were very very noticeable they would play rock music that in this was not there was no subtlety to this this is not

a even the military with most discreet than the top security companies and so they were as they were very very public slap in the face for the average iraqi on a daily basis. to a real problem for the military so we sell the contractor presence in iraq in particular but afghanistan too was becoming contrary to what the mission was for the armed forces there for their presence was more danger than it was help. oh yeah. every turn around the traffic circle. they're probably trying to get away. from the problem was that we had all of these different private military companies

running around we outsourced too quickly and they weren't cord needed both in contract terms but also in on the ground operational terms so what is your answer to a problem of outsourcing. outsource more we outsourced it to a private military company to coordinate. deduces contracts in iraq and was to oversee the communication coordination for all with the promise of your companies on the ground. been effective meant that they were the general in charge of all of the private contractors. now that point the us military was the largest machine presence in iraq but if you added together all of the private military contractors spies was

effectively in charge and second largest on force in iraq. the presence in iraq was relatively standard for years one. video which was posted on you tube from the contractor who is. following a gun while playing rock music. on its way. but no legal actions were taken. very rapidly each is such a machine huge company. and it made to spy certain extremely healthy now and.

the majority of americans now think it was a mistake to go to war in iraq public support for the war is falling war americans want the troops to come home. in a brief ceremony on a base on the edge of baghdad the united states took down the flag of its command here to mark the end of the military mission. the u.s. money was starting to be pulled out of the iraqi. field operations and the industry had to go through a very complicated reset. those companies had to realize that they weren't going to get that level of money again and so they had to offer different. deals. that meant they would have to hire cheap the soldiers.

let me. know when the loophole to war. yeah. i'm. so mad. and. all the usual. and if you're hardly going. to get it i.

would miss this in june. and. i'm going in and. out. of my. angst. in the street. if you don't sleep with. me. and you're the.

courts before harm. innocent people. in front of plastic. bits. sometimes they will give you just my church which is not some shop we are by even if you can do it on a little whatsoever depressing can feel it more than you expect to hear you know that. you've. destroyed your life. i think when i was just.

work undertaken but he just is carried out to the highest standards of fresh will competence and integrity when we first started into theater we were briefed on peruvian and columbia and go arts and the natural question you ask is so what do you pay for these folks and you know at the time and i'm playing off memory cells

but i'm pretty good at that that was about a thousand to twelve hundred dollars and them oh i don't know six months a year ago it became. god and guards at about eight hundred dollars a month and we douse the question of security companies because of those lowest price technically acceptable rushed to the bottom that's what some call. white whale gone it's now versus proving some columbia i'm sorry so we don't have a chance to get the award unless we use a condom it's because there are two to four hundred dollars less him out on this most recent trip that the company that is winning all the awards that had this let's first start herd of well we've got a good strategy we're using sierra leonean so you asked the question so so what are we paying informants but two hundred fifty dollars a month. you know i guess rhetorically i don't expect to be answered you know to can we go lower could we find someone it's like we'll do it for boardroom you know that has such a terrible country that maybe they'll just go out of the country and be

a free security guard i mean that's pretty inexpensive i say that it sounds facetious but it's real. no you get what you pay for. the original goal was not to bring soldiers or exogenous from the poorest countries on earth but the u.s. system requires that you pick the lowest bidder so that became the status quo in iraq to have multiple layers of foreigners as long as you're in the army and you meet certain criteria and sometimes you don't have to be in the army to meet this criteria. companies self interest is different than national self

interest companies are profit maximizing what they do that's natural. right now. what do you do if you know you have somebody from the philippines working for an american private military company in afghanistan who kills somebody what jurisdiction does that person fall under we don't know. in about fifteen countries i've been involved in programs to reintegrate children

who have served in armed forces. it's a contradiction in terms on the one hand western countries have pumped large sums of money into the reintegration of former child soldiers but now we have governments like us supporting these so-called security companies that recruit people and continue their exposure to violence and cement their identities as perpetrators of violence and as soldiers that make it impossible to ever reintegrate into civilian life. at one time indeed all kids came into account kill a lot of. hours on top of the time. looking down we had to explain. i think about doing when people are dying on the street. explosions all over the city and i. had a gunshot had

a bomb all wachovia explosion i think about my going to watch happens every four. when he brought you not. the first team for. iraqi. and intended to become. full force. the. the. shut down and i remember. the wall and this is what's happening in sudan you see. you. know. people running to come you can't do. that fighting for what's our lights or what have you fighting

for you that. i feel is that you often don't use you know it's not going well because the one. justice you don't have to. it may seem like an act of free well it is not young people in sierra leone have no jobs they're desperate to feed themselves and their families and result is that it becomes harder and harder to ever find their way back. and they may plant seeds of violence wherever they go. it is well known that young people who have extensive histories of violence from being fed drugs and manipulated over time they develop problems of impulsivity high levels of aggression. you know we pride ourselves on being

a moral people trying to do the right thing what we're doing is we're exploiting people using young people child soldiers deliberately send them into the jaws of combat and further violence nothing could be worse for these young people nothing could be worse for security. there's a close connection between this industry and policymakers. these private military firms really poach a retired general officer as an admiral from the armed forces. because they have connections. right.

i say that it sounds facetious but it's real. you know you get what you pay. for the security industry will continue to act for us you're going to see private companies in the tree engaging in warfare.

people care a lot a dead soldier or dead marine shows up in this country and we start asking ourselves why did they die why do what were they fighting for nobody bothers to ask about that contractors. every american who serves joins an unbroken line of heroes i'm awed by their

sacrifice. when in good time and not allowing the i'm going to i have got i've got i'm not a fool you bag you in kind of time are coming at the family unit. got in on me what they need a guide. there is no one going to go out and protest in the streets of a contractor's kill. country still exercises its foreign policy the use of force and violence in these four regions but is using proxies contractors third country nationals and in obscuring their role.

you think of that you gained it in the rack i did something for sierra leone and the mask instead it's really your money and your tax money. doing it but make sure that politicians don't get in trouble. private military contractors makes a decision to go to war a lot easier. as part of ending a war responsibly is standing by those who fought it.

however the weather is not looking too bad across eastern parts of the us east in the areas of canada as well hey we've got

a nice area of high pressure in china so that's keeping things reasonably settled central passed a little cloud coming through some places of cloud and right here already wet weather the area of concern remains up towards the pacific northwest pos of washington state western areas of washington state a state of emergency has been declared here because of the heavy and flooding rains that continue to paulo weigh in on the pineapple express whether that's a way to british columbia more of that as we go on through thursday. struggling to reach around eight degrees celsius for the south san francisco twenty five for light a little bit of cloud coming in that class stretches into central pa what's the weather over towards the last. across the eastern seaboard new york getting up to nine degrees celsius and optically woman at least it will be sunny. coming into central as of the caribbean on places say there's a fair amount of cloud at the moment of the fair weather ferocity the heavy rains that we've seen recently starting to ease for jamaica easterly winds will push

a little further west which as we go on through thursday weather coming back into cuba but a rash of shower as the central america. from mother to daughter an ancient craft kept alive by a bustling matriarchy. from start to finish. all traditions intertwined with new designs making this family's place unique into an easy as a rich tapestry. the threat at this time on al jazeera. we understand the differences and the similarities of cultures across the world. so no

matter where you call home al-jazeera will bring in the news and current of things that matter to you. al-jazeera. when the power goes out. there's only one man to turn to. local heroes to many he steals electricity. but keeping the lights on is dangerous work. as your forces cracked sparks begin to fly. powerless a witness documentary. this time on our jersey back. this is al jazeera.