overbilling the state department and manipulating personal records its guards were partying drinking and even crashed an armored car and saw themselves as quote above the law pretty damning the u.s. state department saying this but the company they've given contracts to over billing and manipulating we never paid any fines for anything like that and that's a fact you paid fines for a lot of things the only thing we paid a fine for it was a elation and i gave an example of the o.t. said the only thing you paid a fine for you paid $7500000.00 fine and 2012 to settle 17 criminal charges you paid a full $1000000.00 settlement are a department in 2010 for illegal arms sales. 2012 it already sold the business i sold it in 2010 but the cases go back beyond 2010 the criminal charges raided all sorts of things that went back years including south sudan you broke u.s. sanctions to try and sell weapons to south sudan knowing going to there's no weapons in south sudan there was a proposal on the mineral you never put a proposal on the table to salvage his government $100000000.00 actually the issue there was a satellite phone so you did put

a proposal on the table to sell the kids government no wonder what the state department complained about then that was back in 2005 was a point in actual a very dangerous satellite phone the same thing you can buy and he threw dutifully we can argue about the fines let's just deal with this report the u.s. state department said you were manipulating personal records over billing the state department and your gods were partying drinking and even crashed an armored car it was a state department best occasion in 2007. look we employed thousands of people and i would never say that the men were perfect we didn't employ angels we employed veterans who volunteered to serve their country again in a very dangerous place and like i said 41 of them paid the ultimate cost and hundreds more were seriously wounded it's amazing that when you say we didn't employ angels we employed veterans but right now you want to do it all again that's the problem is it not. well here's the thing after after 17 years of war ok where the united states is spending more than the entire you gave to budget defense budget just this year and still losing in afghanistan i think it's time to look at

a different way i want to talk about afghanistan but just before we get to your afghan plan i just want to get to what drives you when you kind of come up with these plans to do private security especially at these muslim majority countries because you yourself have referred to the people your men were fighting in iraq as barbarians who crawled out of the sewer you say in your memoir these were the chanting barbarians american troops have been sent to liberate sure if you people that think it's ok to drive a car bomb into the middle of a square in the middle market place while to attempt to kill an american and in doing so they kill dozens and dozens of civilians absolutely that's barbaric which is true i think if you're a terrorist you call them whatever you want but you said these were the chanting barbarians american troops have been sent to liberate you weren't sent to liberate terrorists sounds like talk about iraq yes. sir look this very day was for you remember the decision the decision of. the u.s. decision to go to. liberate iraq from saddam hussein who did

a lot more horrid things than we can even speak of here that was certainly the intent i certainly had no role in that policy decision ok but you don't you don't believe iraq is above areas of the snow but i believe that terrorists that car bombs in the city square certainly are ok you're proposing now to privatized the u.s. led war in afghanistan you suggested replacing almost $50000.00 nato troops and private contractors with 2000 u.s. special operators. and $6000.00 contractors and you want to cut spending there you think by $30000000000.00 a year which sounds great and i think one thing we can definitely grown as we both think the afghan war is not going well and has been a bit of a failure but given 140000 nato troops couldn't control that country would defeat the taliban back in 2011 what on earth makes you think that a few 1000 contractors are going to do it now under your command because after 911 and we take you back in the 5 days after 911 happened when president bush had a war cabinet meeting up at camp david the pentagon the best thing that the most

expensive military in the world came with was a missile and some bombing strikes and then a conventional invasion via pakistan the following april case literally while the headquarters of the pentagon is still smoldering the best the u.s. military came with was the most conventional and most cumbersome approach it was the cia that said money authorities the right people who were going after the taliban and that worked ok less than 100 special operators cia case officers paramilitary guys in s.f. guys backed by air power. and they smash the taliban and they are all peoples of them but that's fine you topple them you have control of the country because more than 6000 people sure wrecked but then the united states repeated the soviet battle plan so it's not i believe in battle plan that 6000 people can do what 140000 couldn't show i'm not an expert but that seems we did well here's the thing you have 15000 u.s. troops there now there's about 7000 nato and another 30000 contractors so i'm not

advocating a privatization of advocating a rationalization at a significant cost savings the way the u.s. has been deploying there they send a unit for 7 or 8 months they spend the 1st 2 or 3 months getting to know the area and then a couple of months they're very productive in the last month they're ready to pack up and they lift and shift and they go home ok and then you're rinse and repeat you do that again and we've done 30 plus rotations of troops like that and as you have no continuity instead i would take the same special forces veterans that have been working there from the u.s. from nato and the usa and not angels. these are the same people the u.s. military and nato has been spending sending there for the last 17 years but the difference is as a contractor they can go and attach to the same unit and live in the same valley and live and work and train and fight with those guys with afghan counterparts month after month for years so they have that continuity is that 2nd resume the afghan government they don't like your plan they say it's a nonstarter they said under no circumstances will we allow the war to become a quote private for profit business to form afghan president hamid karzai said even

when the opposes your proposal i think you would say differently if you asked him now i literally asked his office on friday and they said they're dead against it. well i've talked to other people i've talked to other people his office who disagree with that ok the current often government has a change their position is well. under no circumstance i doubt very much that ashraf ghani will win in the next election but you're waiting for a change of president to get your plan look here's the thing if they don't do a plan like this if there is not a skeletal structure support supporting the afghan forces the next president going to wind up like knowledgeable the did. the problem is the way you pitched it is giving was helpful to tell the afghans we're going to be quote the east india company which violently ruled india on behalf of the british empire in the 18th and 19th centuries was it wise to talk about having a viceroy in charge of the country i mean you know hiding the fact that this is a colonialist project when you use language but here's the thing the united states has no one person that's in charge of afghan policy there's nobody that the

president can turn to and say why is afghanistan after this a special envoy zalmay khalilzad yeah sure that doesn't help he doesn't control the military his intro the intelligence funding he doesn't control but if i agree with do you think you know wanting someone a vice or in charge of east india company is going to go down well with brown folks . look for 250 years that security model largely worked of mostly local forces with a few professional mentors only acting as a sick little structure support but the difference is i'm not there as a colonial power these these these mentors right the contractors the special forces veterans are serving as adjunct in the afghan forces accountable to the afghan ministry of defense and of course the president if they're flying aircraft we actually found to see the aircraft where the contractor never makes the weapons release decision it is always the afghan but he flies the plane. safety pilot ok in 2004 in afghanistan a blackwater pilot flying a plane with u.s. soldiers on board flew the plane into the side of a mountain he crashed the plane into the mountain killing 6 passengers on board

including 3 u.s. soldiers the captain's last words blackwater employee flying the plane his last words were i swear to god they wouldn't pay me if they knew how much fun this was you were paying him eric prince said only been in the country 2 weeks have you your employees learned any lessons from that horrific incident before you go back into afghanistan sure we operated 56 aircraft there safely for many many years we flew tens of thousands of missions safely the difficult thing is when the your customer asks you or tasks you to change your route so that the colonel onboard could go view an enemy area on the way to as a deviation from the planned navigation accidents happen that's right it's a danger and yes there is no guns in the safety board and the u.s. military both said the blackwater provided is sufficient oversight and guidance to the pilots involved in the crash the widow of that colonel says that there was gross lack of judgment in managing this company who was managing the company at that time in 2000 full i just told them the former operations officer of the former

operations officer 60 the most elite helicopter you know in the world so you have people that definitely understand aviation were in charge of the u.s. military the national transportation safety board criticized your company's role in the accident and they reinstated this and we were flying missions again within 5 days of that incident gray needed a very good job bush administration that's got nothing to do with the culpability that your company had for the deaths of those u.s. soldiers they didn't die at the hands of the taliban they died at the hands of blackwater they died at the hands of an accident made by a pilot flying in a very difficult area i mean blackwater executives were e-mailing each other at the time the e-mail came out said by necessity the initial group hired to support the afghanistan operation did not meet the criteria identified in e-mail traffic and had some background and experience shortfalls overlooked in favor of getting the requisite number of personnel on. told to start up the contract you're saying internally your own company's admitting to each other these guys on experience but need to get the contract up and running is this what you want to replicate in afghanistan now the pilots flying the mission that day had come from alaska they or

they were literally high country bush policies are not people that are flying in the over the swamps of florida they were flying on you when you were executives e-mailing each other saying that we have experienced shortfalls but we need to get the contract up and running what were they saying that because the transportation because the army material command was demanding the missions to support the missions here's the families felt no no no no trying to serve a customer in a very difficult place we flew tens of thousands in hundreds of thousands of missions after that safely and no incidents ok let's go to our panel here in the oxford union sean mcfate is a former private military contractor former officer in the u.s. army a professor at georgetown author of the book the new rules of war sean you've said u.s. generals have loft eric's plan for afghanistan you've called it unworkable and even magical thinking why blackwater if this was a job interview i would not give you the contract because blackwater was simply a body guard shop in iraq you've never raised or deployed

a military like you're advertising now i have in places and it takes hold it's a lot more sophisticated than just mentors in the field it doesn't quite up to political leadership in kabul and they've already had message that they don't support this this is a dead deal in my opinion well and that you're mistaken because we built the entire afghan border police that was 15000 people we did all the recruiting the training the vetting and we actually had mentors that went the field with them in the success rate of these units when our guys were allowed to go with them effectively as training wheels their success rate went very very high and it worked ok so you know i guess i'm the only guy that can say i've had 56 of my own aircraft in country doing that kind of work for the u.s. military ok ghaith abdul-ahad is an award winning guardian journalist. from iraq you've covered conflicts in iraq afghanistan yemen and beyond gate how do the iraqi people remember blackwater and erik prince in your view i mean it's amazing to kind of sit here and listen to eric and speak of

a block or so in the services they did in iraq because the word blackwater is synonymous with the worst of the american occupation of iraq that is not a single iraqi that i you know i mean i'm one of those barbarians that was liberated by a country but there is not a single who would you just mention the word black was as to who would not say corruption violence and i'm not talking only about the kind of massacre but i'm talking about the whole 10 years of the existence of these muslims and i think part of the failure of the american against project and out of was due to the using of the continent is it not is a major problem that you could concede that even if your plan is a good one you shouldn't be the one doing it given the legacy you've left behind with certainly here is the thing your your math is a little skewed because the us didn't invade iraq till 2003 i sold the company in 2010 so that's certainly not 10 years the company and the company traveling with it we we tracked all the vehicles where everybody was moving ok and there is dozens

and dozens of times that it was brought up there was a blackwater event here blackwater went there and we didn't have people within 200 kilometers of that location the sad thing is blackwater became likely next a big name wanted to know why because you became this because we were the largest one doing you know because you were very worthwhile mission is the reason i mean you gave the work i mean in iraq now or in yemen or any of these places they don't use the word contract or something they use blackwater in yemen in whatever in somalia they don't use mercenaries ok so you've been in afghanistan reaches all over if you're reporting to the afghans will welcome this plan eric is putting on the table. i've met administrator high security officials of the count of one of them astray sions opposition and some of your own friends in afghanistan and all agree on one thing it's not going to work and i agree with you totally the 17 years have been to 2 ways the fall of the you know copy. the soviet plan this is

something we agree on however we're not getting government officials are not talking to the minister you're talking to all the letter either mistaken i meet with dozens of afghan officials both in and out of the government from all over the country be they go tariq back. and the warlords write all the people that are going to be voting in the afghan allies so we're going to get america right one more person one more level we need to come in colonel tim collins and tim you once commanded british troops during iraq you gave that famous speech that a lot of us remember in 2004 you quit the army and founded new century a private manager consulting company how would you evaluate what happened on his watch what's the hold it a different thing i think what we have to remember and indeed i've discussed this with that many times with the u.s. state department the u.s. military asked for services they encouraged they were enthusiastic to a point of hysteria that blackwater go into these missions when it went wrong they

ran a mile and so you have to look at those people and say at a point where there was chairman of the joint chiefs of staff were visiting the facility and encouraging more and more of these services to be privatized and that always and when things went wrong they turned their back on you saying the prince about what was scapegoated by the u.s. government well i think that as a result of the rather expensive court case that you've been through i think that was the conclusion in the end is that the criticism i as a contractor would level is that blackwater and the organization probably grew too fast there was people who went initially. we were of the highest delta force seal team 6060 some of the people who are coming in at the end of nowhere near and it's a question of who supervising them because the people when we look at them who were in court and convicted we're not of the quality we're not of the hue how did they get there how did they get there while we're hearing paul quality circle towards

the end of your beard in iraq well because there's literally not enough delta force or seal team 6 or even seals for that matter to do that mission you go to marine infantry or army infantry the one fair characterization that i will say is. blackwater did 2 types of missions you work for the state department they dictated you must drive a polished waxed suburban a big s.u.v. armored 11000 pounds lights and sirens down the road and when you drive the same route every day that the state department tells you to it's very easy for the enemy to set up an ambush you keep saying in gauge when ambushes just to be clear for the audience one study found that you blackhole to open fire 1st in 84 percent of the shootings is a little defensive because you're. ok but it's not just a matter of the enemy opening fire with a firearm to attack they open fire with a trigger switch and they drive up to you and destroy you mean literally but there's also you know a 1000000 strong as it's 9 year old children taken away for work whether it's hamas

in palestine in pakistan afghanistan iraq bad guys like ambulances with explosives and kill innocent people not in the cases i cited we're going to take a break in part 2 we're going to talk to erik prince about some of his work in china and his relationship with the trumpet ministration and we're going to hear from a very patient audience here in the oxford union join us for part 2. to strengthen the group you have to do court all the more with still fight against corruption. this for. heroes like no who are about to be refused a $15000000.00 brian the achievement of heroes like him to showcase by the international ace award it shines a light on these heroes because the best way to fight

a dark used to shine the way let's make a rule to bid to please nominate your anti corruption era. bodies on the line india's biggest. industry. performance. under one of the maids and women risking the bright lights of bali. hello again adrian finnegan here in doha the top stories on al-jazeera polling stations in afghanistan are closing in the country's 4th presidential election wanted 5 stations that failed to open the taliban had threatened to stop people casting their ballots in the been sent for bomb attacks the most serious was in kandahar where 16 people were injured donald trump special envoy to ukraine as

quick as could volcker was asked to give evidence about a call that's led to an impeachment inquiry into trump the president reportedly asked ukraine's leader to investigate his political rival. police have used pepper spray on protesters in hong kong while there are reports of people shining lasers at a helicopter saturday marks the 5th anniversary of the umbrella movement thousands marched in 2014 to demand the right for the territory to choose its own leader. zimbabwe's former president robert mugabe is being buried in his hometown on saturday the government had pushed for a burial at a national monument the family wanted a private ceremony in his village he was 95 when he died earlier this month police in nigeria say they freed more than $300.00 male students held in a building in the city of kut do know some were found with chains around their ankles they say that some of the students as young as 9 years old were sexually abused and tortured. because.

they were here. i use. protesters in haiti's capital looted shops and police cars on fire as anti-government demonstrations show no sign of letting up at least 4 people have been killed in port au prince in recent days as haitians protest over food and fuel shortages that amount of the resignation of president bush over an hour or more is they accuse him of failing to deal with deep rooted corruption and the 1st medals of in one of the world athletics championships here in doha kenya's ruth chapman get rich overcame extreme heat and humidity in doha to win the women's marathon it was held at midnight to avoid the worst of the high temperatures but still not precedented $28.00 of the 68 runners failed to

finish i'll be back with a news hour a little over 25 minutes from now let's get you to head to head. welcome back you're watching we head to head on al-jazeera english my guest today is erik prince the founder former c.e.o. of blackwater also a big supporter of and donor to president donald trump eric i want to talk to you about your relationship with president trump moment but before i do just very briefly your currently executive deputy chairman of frontis services group f s g a hong kong based security logistics firm that you found it why is f s g opening a training center for security guards in of all places province in china where up to a 1000000 muslim we are being held in basically concentration camps right now there is a lot of this reporting on that the company is not opening any training facility up there that was actually discussed at a board meeting the reporting got it wrong the only there was some kind of memorandum signed for construction services not training the company doesn't do any

training of any police or security forces why did i say that at all why did your company say it was establishing training facilities it was going to sign him or you for construction without a press release march the 2nd with your name on it for contract now my name we are going names on the press release your names on the press to me several times and it says i've got the press release. china establishing training facilities and buying security equipment in vehicles. again it was for construction services this training facility if you look at the actual translation from mandarin to english it was a production service the only other is we don't need only as your company's english press release. only training services the only thank you. is for people like bank of china employees or china airlines employees because they travel the world and they go to dangerous places inside you or where any people in should know their presence was wrong there is the company has 0 footprint in china

so it's not establishing the training facility it said it was establishing a much as i can 20 in english language press release. the board has discussed this twice in there is not $1.00 or r. and b. allocated for anything like that ok and you've got nothing to do with what's going on with the week of muslims and 0 ok but you do have a lot to do with the chinese government so for someone who sees himself as a great american patriot veteran navy seal america 1st donald trump support isn't all that you do so much security business with the chinese government which is seen by many including by president trump as a major geopolitical adversary of the united states in that way it is not a conflict again the company doesn't do any security perceval it does some training for people to avoid being a victim of a terror of a terrorism is that if there is no blackwater sorry no no. you're right there is no way no official employee that's armed doing that kind of secure working in china you hong kong based the majority of you're certainly going to come to me as a chinese owned is it known it's well it's retail investors everything from mutual

funds in their currency chinese own yes or no i don't know if it's a majority but there's a lot of chinese ownership sure how much the company or the executives deputy chair no it's a publicly listed it's all publicly disclosed tell us the fact is the company does grocery delivery trucking all through southern africa we do medivac we're the biggest medivac provider but there's no conflict between working for the chinese and working for the u.s. if you want to do now in afghanistan you don't need there's a conflict there a lot of american patriot acts veteran look america is a big trading partner of china and helping china connected logistics lines for better trade i think countries that trade together tend to not fight together but against sure it is a form of private military contract to form officer in the u.s. army professor at georgetown university author of the book the new rules of war short is there a conflict of interest it is a concern do you think in washington d.c. where you are based yes there is a big interest so last year the national defense strategy which is the pentagon's strategy for the world shifted the 1st time in years away from counterterrorism

counterinsurgency into the threats of russia and china and we all know that china. uses its economic instruments of power to you know it's to look at they did to sri lanka they took over a port as if they were a mafia don so it's not just economic trade there's also a darker aspect to it and many in washington see you as one of their sort of weapons of war and you're a chinese weapon of will absolutely not and because we're not doing any kind of training building their tactical what about the leverage shown the ability and about the economic leverage the fact is what does the company do now it does trucking in transportation from southern africa you can deliver groceries from cape town all the way up to the d.r. see we medivac we fly people all over the continent and we do significant air operations out of malta supporting hopefully oil operations in countries like iraq or pakistan or the hydro dams look at countries around the world with china shows

up a lot of money a lot of people to do infrastructure projects the russians are showing up with muscle and weapons the united states is largely missed the boat the one positive change the trump administration has made is that change the law changed last october for opec the overseas private investment corporation the only part of the u.s. government that actually makes money and now they're shifted a huge budget away from the state department of opec so that it is managed and it allows more investment also a little bit of trade with china which might put you into different comes at the same time let me also colonel tim collins this question is here you are a famous officer in the british army now you're chairman of your own private security consultancy new century how do you respond to critics who say when you run these private for profit companies you're only loyal to yourselves or to your bottom lines you're not loyal to a national government and that's a problem that's what makes you conflicted what's your response to people who say that well in the day there's a thing called international law nobody does anything on that side and if they do them then the the must be held accountable the difficulty is the only people who

will subject to a law themselves to be regulated all the good guys there are meshing reactivity. all over the world the reality is that many people in this room don't realize that many governments in the world particularly in pakistan india around the middle east maintain people who they pay and deploy as contractors and these are people who are committing atrocities they won't be regulated ok so let me put that point very briefly sean very briefly what's your sponsors point about regulation do you think companies like erik's are as regulated as they should be while i'm a little bit more skeptical about the power of international law in general about mercenaries because the thing about you know who is going to go into yemen and arrest all those mercenary at the u.n. and if so the mercenaries can shoot back right they can kill your law enforcement and i'm not suggesting that erik's that would be eric's plan but eric as part of a broader trend of the rise of mercenaries what word is this and you know private

wars wars without states that's of and what if the u.s. to partake in this area let me ask you this you're a big supporter of donald trump you've been questioned by special counsel robert muller over the russia gate investigation he looked at your laptop and your phones i believe you've also testified to congress in november 27th and you told congress under oath that you played quote no official or really unofficial role in the trump campaign what you didn't tell congress is that on august 3rd 2016 you were at a meeting during the campaign at trump tower with don junior trump son which stephen miller then a campaign advisor to trump with george nader a former blackwater colleague of yours who acts as a back channel to the saudis there moralities you're supposed to be convicted paedophile and also joel zemo an israeli expert on social media manipulation how come you didn't mention that meeting to congress given it's so relevant to their investigation. i did as part of the part of the investigations i certainly disclosed in the ne meetings the very new i had on in the congressional testimony

you gave to the house we went through you didn't mention anything about august 26th meeting in trump tower they specifically asked you what context you have and you didn't answer that. i don't believe i was asked that question you asked whether any community for communications or contact with the campaign you said apart from writing papers putting up yard signs know what you said i've got the transcript of the conversation here. i might have been i think it was at trump headquarters or the campaign headquarters probably 2016 usable and israeli do a back channel to the emirates on the saudis don't junior and even militant were there to talk about iran policy who lives about iran policy i don't think that's something important to disclose to the house intelligence committee while you're under oath he did he didn't we just went through the testimony there's no mention of the trump tower meeting because 2016 were not i don't know if they got the transcript wrong. or they got the transcript wrong so we could i don't know i remember i remember certainly does dismiss it that we didn't hear you because we

know that robert muller he hasn't been able to establish collusion it but he has got a lot of guys for lying to the authorities and not telling the whole truth is that a problem now even if you accidentally didn't tell them that could come back and haunt you fully cooperated i haven't heard anybody i haven't heard from anybody in more than 9 months i mean i mean members of congress after they discover this media have talked about certain witnesses not telling the truth but you believe you told congress about this meeting even if not in the transcript just to be clear i believe so ok you had another meeting which they did talk to you about in the seychelles on the 11th jahnu 2017 a week before trumps inauguration where good old george nader was there again on behalf of the amorality as was top russian oligarch cheryl dimitri of a close ally of blood amir putin's the emirates he stole that meeting as a as a way of creating a back channel between putin's guy dimitry of and trumps you didn't they. i don't think so i was there to talk to the iraqis about somalia and some of the other problem areas that we didn't help with before was also about iran you know

and it was so how did you end up with a with a russian oligarch who runs the russian direct investment fund and is seen by the admiralty as the messenger to putin they call him well i say recall the who are investors in that fund and any fund manager fun any fund manager tends to travel to where their lp their investors need them to be but what we chatting about with the russian dude. i've talked about in testimony and that's all i mean to say. but it was just a kind of accidental meeting yes even though georgia nader your fund raising like i said before it lasted one beer which doesn't take me very long. so you flew halfway around the world to a secret meeting in the seychelles to have one beer with. i was there to see the american leadership that's not what george nader seems to be telling the mother folks right now does that worry you that nader's country where you are a former colleague i think it's amazing for you to try to view into the miller testimony that it's my impression to i mean ok that's that's what that's what's

being reported ok. i want to bring in you mentioned iran interesting enough to bring in very briefly before we move on and i know the audience are waiting ghaith abdul-ahad is an award winning guardian journalist from iraq you've covered conflicts across the middle east when you hear about the emerald t.'s and trump and the saudis and the israelis what is that all about i mean mentioned iran is this all about iran i mean of course we're living kind of people say it's a cold war it's not a cold war anymore between their morality so these are the israelis and the iranians on the other side and what the minorities are doing for example in yemen and i think you work with iraqis and you advise them at one point they are actually implementing you are of understand plan so if you see the morality war in the air and it is tens of thousands of most reason. forces with skeleton troops from the immoralities a war that is being followed so viciously with no accountability whatsoever with then the big arch of fighting the iranians who did exist in yemen have you

advocated using private private contractors to take on iran to the trumpet ministration you know you have people have accused of advocating the past you've talked about using private contracts to confront iran no no you see no role for blackwater s.g. in any relation to iran ok just to check before going to tell you what i've got asked one question last question you are part of a group of high profile trump supporters including steve bannon sheriff david clarke and others who are planning on raising private money to build a wall along the us mexico border you even have a go fund me paige. what i don't get though is i'm pretty sure i heard donald trump say that mexico would be paying for the war. don't discount mexico actually paying for the wall i think most of us have but yet more and more news on that look there's a lot of places where it's federal land and go fund me individual effort is not possible but there's a lot of places where u.s. ranchers or u.s. landowners own land right up to the border they're sick of their farms effectively being massive transit spots for drug and criminal activity and so they would

welcome that the guy who started that is a triple amputee a military veteran who started it and he's raised more than $20000000.00 and the cost per the you for the loss so you people for money when mick when trump told us more than $100.00 times people have counted that mexico would pay for the wall so why do we need you in this guy and it's so funny page from lied to will because again don't discount mexico actually paying for part of the world. there are things that may happen that mexico end up paying he want is entitled to the will hurt can say they are going to pay for paul to the wall part very explicitly said mexico will pay for the wall the last chapter is not written on that mark my words you will pay for the wall so then why are you fundraising. you want it both ways there is only the little bit to raise money because people are frustrated they're sick of not a frustrated that the president can't get mexico to pay for the wall 2 years into his presidency after claiming there it is

a national security issue when you have thousands of people crossing the border with a lot of drugs look america has a huge opium and you know the majority that in fact come through legal points of entry i'm talking about the funding trumps of mexico and from the wall did he lie to people when he said what used to be a bipartisan issue the democrats have made items that are to say that you didn't lie to us when he said mexico to pay for the well given your now trying to get americans to pay if i don't believe the president is lied then like i said the last chapter of mexico paying for the wall is not done yet ok mark my word i will wait for them ok in the meantime americans are going to pay for it through your fundraiser let's go to our audience who's been waiting very patiently i'm going to go to the front here and we're going to the back gentleman here with the band. being originally iraq and having spent some time in iraq i've seen how iraqis still shudder at the name blackwater reminded of the endless aggression the use of weapons as call homes or even the use of tear gas as call traffic control do you not think that blackwater has a role to play in perpetuating violence in iraq as well as laying the foundation for the creation of al qaida in isis there's 110000 iraqi civilians have died after

blackwater and involvement in iraq blackwater was not the problem in iraq a very sick tarion government dominated by iranian units that have been pounding on the sunni's and now pounding on the kurds is probably the thing that led to the crop of basis but even if that's part of it most military experts into the us military experts agree that high profile incidents whether it's abu ghraib did help act as a recruiting sergeant for groups like isis that didn't exist before the us invaded iraq so something like the missile square massacre that is still remembered in baghdad may well have done helped people say you know what i'm going to go join an insurgent group that's how americans treat of private contractors shoot 9 year old kids in the street shoot mothers with their children i think massive unemployment and an iraqi government that is you know when i'm not disputing that i'm agreeing with you i was saying when you discount them in iraq you sitting at home seeing the missile square massacre didn't think you know what i might as well go join the

insurgency this is how americans treat as innocent people no that's not you know look there is a justice a process that served there is actually accountability lots of investigation for that but like i say that's what i always want to ask that you don't answer the question as if iraq you sitting at home sees the missile square massacre you don't think that might incite him to join in a surge in there of course bad news travels fast and irritates people really about news is what this gentleman suggesting but we did not create 110000 iraqi civilians that were murdered ok. xabi and the iranian said let's go back to the audience gentlemen here in the red tide. i'd like to ask what you thing some of president trump's greatest for and policy achievements have been thus far and what he should focus on for the next 2 years to secure reelection well you know the president he campaigned against endless wars and the pentagon look there is a real military industrial complex but he's trying to stop that he is trying to

remove or reduce the u.s. presence in afghanistan and in syria he's been getting the north koreans to the table and if you can actually go she and to the korean war it will be a magnificent 1st step and i think if that's if that's the case then the u.s. should be willing to pull all troops out of south korea and end the u.s. presence in korea which we've been which we've had for 77 years you're not a fan of iran is going to briefly should you negotiate with iran to why is it that iran is the evil regime nobody should talk to them but north korea i send them love letters he sends me love letters. to my knowledge i think there certainly is still back channel negotiations with the iranians as well but you know they continue to do. you know questionable things in syria ok let's go to let's go to the lady here in the gentleman there. hi this is also with regards to the august 3rd meeting of the 16 you said that you mentioned it in your testimony to the house intelligence

committee i have the transcript right here of the testimony on the 30th of november 2016 you did and i could read from it if we don't have time for you to read the transcript so why didn't you why why are you saying you did when you could have another go answering this question why didn't you mention it in your test and there was nothing to hide not all the discussion that there was transcribed and that's a fact ok your answers to the questions suggest that there was no involvement that they asked you for example have you had any me any meetings with the u.a.e. delegation prior to the official meeting and the august 3rd meeting was prior to say to our meeting georgian there is a representative of the m.p. that was one like i said not everything was transcribed from that discussion. you weren't there. you've been very kind of i admire you be very forthcoming to on this issue you're very don't want to say much are you worried they are worried about milo no not at all now ok. let's go back to the audience let's go to the gentleman there. i was caught up in this was going back to move till covering the story at

the time was mayhem as you know we saw people getting killed money on drugs it was in good mood we've discussed this with you before but just going back one listens have you. done things differently then if you knew what you know i'm sure i wouldn't have i wouldn't ever do security for the state department again it just wasn't worth it it wasn't worth the damage or the horror of the company if we were going to do it i would have insisted like we did for any n.-g. o. work that we did is that we have cameras ok because the camera serves as a 3rd party neutral observer because it's very easy to 2nd guess something that happens you know days ago or weeks or months ago but it's very different and you have to make us please that i don't see you saying cameras that the implication being that you don't accept you did anything wrong that i had there been cameras your men would be vindicated if that was not what you're saying to be explicit about look because i've been found guilty in american courts and in the courts you

don't like but they've been found guilty in american courts after the 4th time of trying ok they've been found guilty in american court and we had numerous other incidents where there was a shooting and we were accused and when it was all square and we believe young men did anything wrong and when law enforcement authorities viewed the tapes. there was no preview believe in the square human did anything wrong so very simple question in hindsight sure if it's an innocent civilian every innocent civilian that's killed is a tragedy is a horror and we try very hard to avoid that that's why 40 when 41 men died doing that mission shielding other people from enemy bullets who are trying to kill them and slaughter them or hang them to burn they're going to some more questions lady with a hand up do it for my friend to come to you yes i was a u.s. television journalist in iraq during and after the invasion i saw blackwater people humiliate and terrorize iraqis they were hostile to journalists and they were hostile to n.g.o.s why should you get

a contract to do the same thing in afghanistan thank you thank you thank you thank you how did you know that they were black or personnel very very clearly walking around not just driving cars walking around they were blackwater as journalists we knew who blackwater was let us know they were not soldiers they were blackwater if they were there are literally i am i'm sorry there was hundreds and hundreds of companies employing u.s. nato and other country veterans difference between the between blackwater and nato i'm sorry by saying i don't think you're that sharp that you can tell the difference between a polish guy a french guy or you need a yard and sharp to tell the difference well thank you i've always wanted. to do was always

a very very retract if you're going to agree before this because i would carry on with your i carry on with your audience will go to the debate with the tie in the suit. so i've got to be. on one fighting 20 international terrorist groups since 2014 the afghan national security forces have been doing this by themselves so how do you justify that you'll get a contract and go and do the war in afghanistan given that you're making money out of this business and you don't ever want to conclude this business there and one point please do us a favor and have a bold line between the centers of the democracy and it's totally up to the people of afghanistan to decide who is their next president thank you are you ready for. you after yourself and you believe the afghans don't want nothing like that's definitely not going to deal with the 1st question about that you have a self-interest in perpetuating the conflict as you get paid here's the thing the of the $62000000000.00 right now the u.s. spends $5000000000.00 supporting the afghan security forces $57000000000.00 is the

cost of u.s. presence there that's going away ok the support for the afghan security forces the airlift the medivac which is wholly inadequate right now because afghan soldiers are dying at a rate of $30.40 per day if there is not a skill to support supply provided to them how many cars i'm sorry ashraf ghani himself said the afghan forces will collapse in less than 6 months i say it's more like 6 weeks ok so there has to be some kind of capability to keep the afghan security forces operate and able to function so that afghanistan can actually have a free election and they should be totally free to choose their next leader i agree let me ask you this despite all the things you and black would have been accused of some of which we've discussed tonight but this much more you said in 2007 quote i sleep the sleep of the just i'm not feeling guilty just wondering is that still the case today you still have no regrets no guilt no ruined sleep at all over all those innocent lives taken by blackwater employees. look the fact is the company did what

it was asked to it was asked to protect protect we saved thousands and thousands of people we saved many many wounded u.s. soldiers well beyond the scope of the contract. ok we did what we're asked any any injury any civilian that's injured in a car crash or actually having your 9 year old children shot in the correct and still since long after blackwater was involved 110000 iraqi civilians have been killed in that same conflict by isis so by incompetent government i want to have george bush on the show last about his sleep i'm asking about the people your guys killed does it keep you awake at night we were asked to do a job and we performed very very well we'll have to leave it there thanks to our audience here in the oxford union thanks to our panel of experts who have come tonight and thanks to erik prince for joining me on head to head that's our show head to head will be back next week. international trade would you support of having free trade with nazi germany or the

japanese or chinese nazi germany controversial immigration policies that you want to as a well founded euro persecutory should be able to come as a last minister from syria he's closer to the syrian refugees like the president maybe his son goes head to head with c.e.o. trump advisor stephen moore this year the trump deficit cost a trillion dollars a rule not to reelect him with no other times out of the amount you say. hello the. northern sections of south america maybe just

a passing shot along these as one of the next couple of days really up to will solve joe but where we have got some real warm weather is across into power 36 ounces in 37 as we head into sunday these temperatures 10 degrees above the average for this time of year the caribbean is so widely unsettled out of thunderstorms and what we have got is very persistent rain into most southern sections of mexico now this area here this could develop into a tropical storm but even if it doesn't it will continue to do some very heavy amounts of rain over the next few days already falling on saturated ground so we could have some localized flooding and then we've got winter weather in play across much of the southwest of canada these northern sections of the united states the winter storm warnings in place it's very wet heavy snow we could house and tree damage and look at the time which is 0 in calgary 6 in when he. it doesn't get any warmer either on sunday these touches 50 degrees below the average for this time of

year very widespread that snow in a cool some severe travel disruptions meanwhile thunderstorms across the central plains meanwhile into the southeast is warm and dry at $33.00 in atlanta. sponsored by catalona. i really felt liberated as a journalist from iceland getting to the truth as i was that's what this job. this is al-jazeera. hello i'm adrian for the good and this is live from doha coming up in the next 60 minutes polls close in afghanistan's president presidential election after a day that seen several attacks. protests in hong kong to mark the 5 year

anniversary of the umbrella movement into another chance to send a message to china. the u.s. envoy to ukraine resigns as the impeachment inquiry into president donald trump intensifies. and zimbabwe's former leader robert mugabe is p is to be buried shortly after a dispute about where he should be laid to rest. the wall back then except championships don't have the stadium heat and humidity forced the runners to pour out of the women's marathon and the huge upset that the rugby world cup but hosts japan asop island the back of the action coming up and. polls about closed in afghanistan's 4th presidential election where voters have had to brave violence to cost the ballots at least 5 attacks were reported the polling

centers across the country on top of that many stations didn't even open al-jazeera as tony berkeley has the latest from kabul. a city in lockdown the streets of kabul almost deserted on election day as polling stations open the biggest and tightest security operation ever in the capital was under way the taliban had warned people not to vote and it didn't take long before the group carried out its threats. and a mortar round was fired in the grounds of a school where voting was taking place a number of people were injured it was one of a series of taliban attacks around the country 2 north of kabul one in helmand and one in one province no casualties were reported but some people were injured in a blast at a kandahar polling station it didn't deter some others from voting. people shouldn't let fear stop them from voting it's important to vote and choose our leader a lot of which despite all the hardships and violence we haven't lost hope we have

to vote and think about future generations this is afghanistan's 4th presidential election 9000000 people are registered to vote but estimates suggest less than half that number will actually cast their ballots government officials maintain the use of advanced technology and highly trained personnel are making these the freest elections to date that one sample we're asking the people of afghanistan to come a vote because this is a start day a day to let's the candidate of their own choice but there were reports of some polling stations failing to open and voters complaining that they hadn't been registered i came here to choose a person who can help the poor of this country but they say i'm not registered to vote it's not right. at the last presidential election 5 years ago there were queues of people waiting to vote at this polling station in central kabul on saturday it was a trickle with less than 200 voting in the 1st 2 hours. the security

situation is making it difficult but we are hoping for more people to come later but as well as in security people have also become disillusioned with politics in afghanistan and the broken promises in failure to tackle corruption poverty unemployment and security international agencies say the situation today is worse than 5 years ago though not everyone agrees there is improvements being made we cannot deny that but there are some traits in our taliban decrease increase their attacks you know. there are other factors that affect it there are so many other factors that affect it more in bigger taliban attacks had been expected perhaps an indicator the group may be keeping its hard core element of peace while at the same time pushing a diplomatic strategy for a resumption of peace talks with the u.s. they were abruptly canceled by president trump this month election results will be announced on november the 7th but it's not just important who wins but whether the

other candidates and all the other groups accept them and agree to work with them and in the fractured world of afghan politics that hasn't always been easy in 2014 it only happened because of the strong arm tactics of the united states tony berkeley al jazeera kabul let's take you live to kabul. is outside a polling station in the afghan capital so rob polls are now closed after a 2 hour extension some polling centers that didn't open at all today. absolutely it's a very mixed picture adrian across afghanistan as you mentioned that polls close half an hour ago we were outside one polling station here in the center of kabul that has been very tight security throughout the city well polling has taken place to ensure that 'd the give the best chance of a free and fair vote taking place here in the last few minutes at the election monitors have turned up and also people from the election commission to stop processing now this vote but it has been. said that

a very mixed picture across the country we have had attacks by the taliban in a number of places now the taliban has issued a statement saying that more than 300 attacks took place now they are prone to exaggeration the real figure is a lot that likely to be far less than that but they were significant attacks against polling stations and of course the bigger impact is on the general feeling of people whether they can feel secure about turning up to votes and undoubtedly many people will have been scared off there is also the threat in taliban controlled areas of course of reprisals from the taliban for having disobey them and having voted that people will be afraid of punishment but also as tony they described there is a general apathy i think in the country now as you mentioned these polls were kept open for a further 2 hours today saturday normally that's

a contingency to try to handle an upsurge in people people crowding around polling stations wanted to can't get their vote in be full and that deadline for the polling station to close well we didn't see any last minute surges in the opposite seem to be true i think the authorities here were so afraid of such a low turnout that they decided to keep the polling stations open an extra couple hours just to get the vote up. given the location of many of afghanistan's polling centers when are we likely to get the fast results in this fast round of voting. you know you know in a way holding a presidential election in one of the most conflict as feck to countries in the world actually was the easy bit now the difficult bit comes that means actually deciding who will be president we won't actually get a result from here there are no exit polls that give us an instant 10 years prediction of who is going to be president we won't get a result from this until the 1st week in november then if we don't get an outright

winner someone who gets 51 percent which is highly unlikely it goes to a runoff poll which kaplan's at some point after that and all of this of course will come with a different candidates accusing each other. gov stuffing ballot boxes etc so we can expect much more dislocation in the coming weeks which was always the argument for whether you should have an election or not some people say there's a further step towards a permanent kind of peace here in afghanistan for other people this just makes a precarious situation even worse rob many thanks i was in from abroad that live in kabul thousands of people on the streets in hong kong marking the 5th anniversary of the so-called umbrella movement police fired water cannon some of them some protesters tried to get through barriers blocking an entrance to the legislative council which has been evacuated some fires have been lit rallies are also showed

you in other cities including london and washington d.c. a show of solidarity with prominent hong kong activists joshua wong announced that he's running for local office in an attempt to bring the protest movement into the city's political system. i think in the family is the 1st is a truth you know men fought in the flat less. than some of the time since the summer all this whole time i'm home thank you that's my role to play host is essential. on the hong kong government and also to presidency. we have the time and place for the hospital to find them on universal suffrage which made for a good action let's take you live now to hong kong al-jazeera sara clock is that what's the situation sara this has been far from peaceful so far. in the last half an hour or so the police have moved in and cleared out if i tested the road surrounding let's prior to the let's accountability as well as government

headquarters and this was where we had a very peaceful rally had thousands of people i gather and assemble in front of time our pockets in front of those government headquarters but they protested the sorry time around and started to put up right at the entry to the right place have moved in and as you mentioned the that was the would have been like the blue dye which makes it easy to identify these protesters and as you can see behind me people are now playing the same simply to evacuate the sickness of the police somebody in from iraq had started to as was on the other side trying to discourage the put out a number of warnings to clear the space if it's a protest these protesters were 2 actually throwing her. at some stage something behind the government head course also quit and this helps you what aggravated those places for us a sponge provides a fog as well as take us all that crowd 'd that you can see other groups and other spirits and very quickly so i don't want to keep here if you yourself should be

moving out of that area but if you can very briefly explain the significance of joshua warms announcement that he's running for office. for 2 days of the 5th anniversary of the umbrella movement of from $24.00. tain of course joshua one with the face of that move that he was the face of those demonstrations that went on for months and paralyze this part of the city where we are in hong kong and that him announcing the fact that he's going to run for the local district election is certainly a very strong popular within the pro-democracy movement now he hasn't been able to run before simply because he was he had a coup was a co-founder of dem sister party but he's been in and out of jail over those 5 years one of his holy night the last student was democratically elected in the lips of council but he hasn't run before and last month there was also a surge in bunch of registration from the i t to 35 year old age group so they certainly shows the briefs all the the interest of the political awakening and the hong kong political situation at the moment what else is planned for this anniversary weekend sarah.

we have a number of protests planned in this is of course in the lead up to october 1 which is china's national die it's a public holiday and it's marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the people's republic of china we have private organize for tomorrow this is where they'll sing the national anthem and they're hoping to get thousands together in that particular assembly we also have a march on sunday afternoon that's being organized by the pro-democracy groups and they'll be much in from victoria park which is on my left a couple of plumbers why back to where we are now and of course on a type a one week the plates are preparing for potential body clashes between the opposing grades ceremony thanks i'm serious sarah clarke that lives in hong kong. the u.s. special envoy to ukraine has become the 1st casualty in a whitening impeachment inquiry quits after being named in a whistleblower complaint chooses the white house of trying to cover up a call between president talking trump.