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tv   Inside Story  Al Jazeera  February 21, 2021 8:30pm-9:00pm +03

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statistically engine failure is rare but pilots are trained to fly with just one engine the national transportation safety board and federal aviation administration are investigating what caused the incident they've asked residents to report but not touch any debris they find kristen salumi al jazeera. this is al jazeera and these are the headlines the presidential election has been disrupted by an explosion which is left at least 7 dead and happens in the tula burying region a vehicle carrying officials from the electoral commission at a roadside bomb military says more from a butcher in neighboring nigeria to nobody region which borders mali but get a fossil and been a republican seen several attacks in the past and devastating attacks for that
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matter where dozens of people have been killed in the last 6 months or so including of course military targets that were hit by groups that have been crossing the border from mali but you know fossil attacks like this work have been way expected actually by officials in the. a lot of concerns were raised previously or even before the elections that these groups may try to disrupt these elections. iran's representative to the un's nuclear war still exist talks with the head of the i.a.e.a. in teheran have been fruitful well fell gross's visit comes on the day of a deadline set by the iranian parliament for the u.s. to lift economic sanctions. libya's interior minister has survived an assassination attempts firstly bashar has convoy came under fire near tripoli it follows a deal last month was seen rival administrations to form an interim government ahead of elections in december. thousands of people are it's on the streets in
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myanmar after the worst violence in more than 2 weeks of demonstrations a military brigade accused of atrocities against the ranger is reported to be in command of a crackdown against protesters. thousands of a ball of vaccines are expected to arrive in getting capital konar crazy after the country declared an break last week on thursday the world health organization announced it was sending more than 11000 doses a military aircraft has crashed in nigeria's capital killing all 7 people on board the plane reported engine failure shortly before going down near a bridge or airports the air force is now investigating the cause of the incidents . and that's you up to date to keep it here on our jazeera inside story is coming up next.
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soldiers for hire private security firms are increasingly being used in conflicts around the weld someone accused of doing the work states don't want to do what is that accountability to make sure they're following international law. inside story . hello welcome to the program. addict brains the former had of private security firm blackwater whose forces killed 17 iraqi civilians in 2007 has long
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faced accusations of profiteering from conflicts is now once again under scrutiny for his role in libya's conflict a confidential united nations report obtained by the new york times has found prince violated an alms embargo. impossible the report which says brain sent following message to raise and weapons to libyan war in 2019 the time huffed out was fighting to overthrow the internationally recognized government in tripoli breaching the arms embargo expose us brains has a staunch ally of former u.s. president donald trump to a possible u.n. sanctions the report raises many questions about the secretive welds of private security firms. private military contractors have grown into a global industry it's estimated to be worth more than $200000000000.00
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a year defense experts say some of them are used by state leaders to deny involvement in conflicts for diplomatic or legal reasons a recent study said the pentagon spent more than half of its $370000000000.00 defense budget and contract in services in 2019 he also revealed that america hired 53000 contractors in the middle east compared to just 35000 of his own soldiers some mercenary armies like the wagner group have been accused of being proxies for russia the group has reportedly been active in libya ukraine and belarus the russian government denies any link to wagoner. i measuring in our guess in boston glenn carr former deputy national intelligence officer for transnational threats of the cia here in doha on what are sure professor of the studies of the doha institute in london and dress critic assistant
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professor at king's college london and author of commercializing cosmopolitan security welcome to your. glenn this is the work of investigators that was presented to the united nations security council about erik prince the man who has not been gaited through the shadowy well the military contracting has been involved in many parts of the world and it says the basically this is someone who was sending weapons messenger is providing significant assistance to a warlord general who was trying to end them undermine an internationally recognized government what repercussions are we likely to see here after this particular report well now that the administration in the united states has changed there may be some when trump was in office or as chris was a a an advisor to answer order our guard and in turn
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received support coverage encourage him and so on by car with biden in office and a more log returning to the united states government the situation may change but then. a certain person or is exists among a shadow world where our. governments choose to ignore. the law gave us. how much are we likely to see a consensus among members of the united nations security council that could lead to erik prince facing justice or possible sanctions. yes in this particular case is this possible but it's hard to predict how this will unfold with the with the d.m.c. specifically. it there's a complication of being. registered as a company that provides military service and have an actual contracts. with the
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pentagon that was the case in iraq and that's on one end but on the other and using these resources and logistics and to violate a u.n. ben u.n. in barbul on particular militias in the bia and these militias are attacking a u.n. backed government and basically acting as a spoiler. un backed an international community backed. peace process in libya so there are multiple dimensions there that i think the legal experts will. will have a hand full with all right under us when you look at the report itself it talks about prince's involvement but there is a legal and political aspect of a story 200-1000 is when there was this massive unprecedented push by hostile takeover areas in the worst part of the libya including tripoli he was pushed back
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what we learned after that was series of tragic events summary executions of civilians opposition members buried in our mosques graves we're talking about serious allegations here and people up we must concerned that the united nations security council may not be able to say to. prince you would have to face justice for this particular incident. right but the problem with this you know i wrote about this in my last latest book surrogate warfare it's about warfare by delegation and i think libya's is such a very typical sorry go war of the 21st century where there is a variety of different patterns who sponsor a variety of different actors on the ground and you know the u.a.e. being the most important spoiler in this conflict in the u.a.e. being the most important pattern in this conflict over the last since 2014 the u.a.e. has been the most important actor externally financing bankrolling and delegating
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warfare by a variety of different actors under the wider of the l n a and after so it's very difficult to really pinpoint out who is responsible for any of the of these specific atrocities that have been committed around tripoli in other parts of western libya in the in the latest operation that was started in 2019 by after the problem here isn't one of attribution the problem is one of of very specific attempts by the u.a.e. and its vast networks of surrogates on the ground to kind of you know muddy the waters of attribution and kind of find a way to to conduct warfare through deniability and discretion so that means particular for the u.a.e. to say we're actually not involved we're not doing anything despite the fact that there are bankrolling and supporting individuals like erik prince who is providing very important kept capacity and capability for them in western libya glenn was talking about an operation where. prince was providing medicine there is weapons
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sophisticated technology we're talking about an $80000000.00 operation that includes convincing digital players to support provide support a particular way of with with with with helicopters you are a former deputy national intelligence officer could this be just the work of a lone wolf or do you think you need to have key players here who would facilitate such things for you. oh i think the only thing that's lone about their prince is that he's a hostler but he's not a whole lot of that regard. well he he was acting it seems pretty clear with the passage or even direct encouragement by the trumpet ministration i can't imagine that he would but i can imagine that he would try to make a buck by selling soldiers and weapons to whoever wanted to purchase them but in this instance the united states under congress and then very conflicting messages of the formal institutions of government supporting the un backed.
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government in libya and then transcending these confusing signals with the u.a.e. and their parents i'd like to make one other quick though i think typically what happens with mercenaries and black operations and so on that become public is that it's that embarrassing people have a go on their faces as the spotlight is turned to them and so these operations through the people who have been revealed and outed and will be shocked out but. consequent legal consequences are far more problematic because you have in the un process the backing or protection or murky behavior of the u.a.e. in this instance of russia and even when it was trumped in the office of don't count so i would suspect. that this behavior continues all right of activity
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this is sort of the new model of surrogate warfare but prince in this instance will be shut down for a time and almost if we pull it off to put together elements of the libyan puzzle 2100 house the backed by the united arab emirates egypt jordan and russia rolls have bush to take over trip what if that particular moment when donald trump. made a phone call to him widely seen at that particular moment as a signal that the americas are in favor of how to which they see as the boardwalk against the extremists in the region is it safe looking i guess that particular backdrop to say that it could be easy for prince to use all those key players to his own political advantage stood in the ok donald trump being in the white house has facilitated this environment of basically promoting
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a warlord sensually who portrayed himself as a solution in the bia. and who was very beneficial politically to some of the regional players including the u.a.e. and some of the let's say military financial players embodied in the case of the prince and his camp. so that on one side but on the other side it was it to the detriment of also u.s. and perhaps other western interests one of the. of the. supposed. targeted. assassination was that act against. who is it mainly one of their main counterterrorism partners are the u.s. and all the you appear to be in against isis in libya in tripoli so basically suppose the warlord who is was in alliance with the president of the us at that time was permitted all given a green light allegedly by the president of the us at the same time. last trying to
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act as a spoiler using weapons given by a private but it was private contract that. weapon and assistance military assistance to undermine and spoil a u.n. backed peace plan and assassinate some of the counterterrorism partners and got insurgency partners against isis on the other side it just it tells you that the u.s. is playing against itself it's going in no way ok all or part of the white house parts of the u.s. government were turning against other parts of the u.s. government and were and this is. joe i want to get things even for the sure under the sort of adequacy is fascinating this is someone who was the the c.e.o. of blackwater that was forever tarnished after the incidents the shooting of civilians in iraq he then created another company z. it was rebranded after the same company went into massive international criticism
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now and then back to another company academy you get a sense that the international community does not seem to be willing to enforce sanctions against iraq brings because perhaps he has very strong connections in the united states of america. yes and no i think we do we need to be very careful to kind of all tarnish the entire industry based on blackwater or based on the activities of someone like gary prince i think there's a we need to draw a very clear line between contracting which takes place in the security realm not in the military realm which is defensive in nature and the vast majority of all d.o.d. d.o.'s contracts u.k. m o t contracts as well are taking place in a realm of private security companies they provide defensive security they don't take part in active in military combat operations the thing with erik prince and blackwater was they were on the absolute end other end of that spare they were pushing the envelope trying to get with their own contracting into the realm of of
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military contracting becoming mercenaries becoming mercenaries the issue here is most terrorism is something that has been outlawed and but making a case as the gentleman colleague from the united states said making the case and also holding someone to count based on international law for most reason is highly highly difficult so erik prince was someone who has branded brant himself as one of the rebranded many of his companies it's not only one company has been rebranded after blackwater we shouldn't forget reflex limited which was a step or at sea which was established in the u.a.e. in 2010 which morphed into another entity then he had an entity to conduct and to piracy operations somalia in the 20020112012 again bankrolled by the u.a.e. the point here is it's not just backing from the united states of or foreign players the thing is he operates in a realm of when no one can control and there's a very important element here and after the operation and in in somalia he actually fell out with my bins out of the u.a.e. because he kind of you know took some of the money that was intended for other
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operations there were some issues with finances he's not a trustworthy character and he's been he's been basically going behind the backs of all of his patrons all of his clients and that makes him entirely dangerous all right like think it should be should keep a clear warning for people to actually go into business with the. let's move forward to different angles of this particular story glenn the use of mess in eries you have any concerns that this could particularly in the near future shape. armed conflicts around the world private companies benefiting from massive financial support from key players internationally that could influence the outcome of conflicts in different parts of the work but typically in sub-saharan africa and in the middle east. well i know that it's in the car is the way you framed the issue in the question is sort of the temporary the. at this moment perspective that the internet's community and and followers are taking but i take
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a bit of exception to it because that frames characterizes what's happening is somehow really different than what has happened before and i don't really see that as being the case except in one form the whales are the bugs of the 2nd mercenaries and surrogates have always been used and. the cia has done this the russian intelligence service has done this and both continue to do this as do other countries and this is been the case since ancient times so that's not really new it provides a way for companies countries to claim that they're not involved they'll have control of oil some consequence muddy the waters make it more difficult to denounce a country or to prosecute the perpetrators so this has gone on and will who do you want to change is that the international system that we all live in is has fallen apart or
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a new one is the english emerging and in this contest where the great power conflicts are murkier or less clear if you call the zation is not done. the conflicts lend themselves more to secondary level kinds of activities that are easier to deny and harder to control so that is just a change in the system but not in the practice itself that has always existed almost when you have president former president trump paul doing full american men were convicted of the killing of iraq if a video that's a 1007 and working full blackwater of a time when the international community thing they say about time to scrutinize some of those activities to. this is sending the wrong message to the international community to the advocates who are trying to put an end to this process. i don't think i just reconfigure with glenn it won't stop i mean you can you can challenge
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it legally you can convict some of the. of the persons who committed by relations but it will it is very beneficial both for the states and for the g.m.c. for the private benefit contractors and for also for also militias that are in alliances with their would states it's it's convenient put it dick lee there is not attribution element that is can conduct limit or warfare in a much better way the body count there's not a political responsibility for anybody conks because they are in a private country well if they're from the same nationality maybe but sometimes they're not from the same nationality. they are the case of hezbollah and iran and this is basically it and that's that's i know it's a different kids it's a logical dimension there but it's still a militia sponsored by a state. there's an economic benefits it's very clear in the case of the excellence but also that increase in something like the back of a group which at which point it's control there's basically made made significant they can keep the spoils of war in any event the ancient way but also that i think
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the main difference and you are different from from what clinton said is they military and the combat effectiveness of some of these on month state actors whether they are pm sees or militias or or other kind of groups like like isis for example they have the they not only have change the character of or in a way but also they change the end results of some of the battles of the operation that there was conducted about this event in ways that i don't think was seen was seen before jim and i see your point i saw this in new deficit but this is the this is the concern that it let me go to under yes we're talking about. actors who are operating in countries of the outcome for they are doing is not only undermining the lives of civilians it is changing the narrative is is hijacking the right of the people to the point where it could leave behind
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a permanent chaotic situation where the international community would have to grapple with i give you just a simple example so we're talking about prince we're going to grow up is been scrutinized criticized but because of the link with the russians everybody doesn't seem to be willing to move forward when and rest of. pushed to put an end to the practice. what should the international community do about this particular case. very important to halliburton a group is part of the same nexus and that's something we need to highlight erik prince is not separate from batna group we shouldn't you know don't forget the says shell meeting in in 2017 where erik prince a very instrumental bring in the russians the trump campaign and as well as the u.a.e. together and in libya we see this unpack unfolding and you're absolutely right there is a problem me a normative problem because in many ways that the liberal values have been undermined by using contracting and obviously outsourcing warfighting to to
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to jews to mercenaries and we've given it and the time ministration test that he has given approval to these sort of operations and it's a slippery slope that we're going down on. obviously a lot more has to be done but nobody seems to be interested as. rightly said nobody has an interest to do this because both sides winning back the group is obviously been stigmatized because they're russia but let's not forget erik prince is working with the russians in directly there and the russian operation was bankrolled by the u.a.e. this is part of the same nexus so i think when we hold to account the russians we need to hold around hold to account erik prince and we have all the account the emirates as well glenn we have a point in history just look of north africa and the middle east there is a conflict polarization to 2 key players backing members from opposing sides of the americas of the europeans ultimately we have to take sides and we don't seem to be really willing to tackle the problem of the key regional players
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who have become part of the problem because they are providing significant financial military support to actors who are stabilizing the international order. well resulting yes that is true and that's not new we all remember from the from callers who are those who are staying clear core theories of what's called a 1000000 dialogue from 2400 years ago from 2 cities that the strong do if they wish and the weak suffer what they must. this is tragic the horrendous reality that international un belief system normative system attempts to regulate and to stop. certain so long as countries pursuing their national interests clay they will do with they can get away with based on their their strength so the weak countries such as libya. we can choose an almost
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infinite number of other examples are the constant victims of the great power conflicts this was france turkey united states russia the all tearing libya apart the fact though in this instance to advance their own interests this will all rights not change. all my under andrea the less than 40 seconds what is it that which we need now change of legislation a different approach for this particular issue on the 1st i don't think the change of legislation is either possible or anybody if it was possible it would affect things on the ground in i would say in the near future many of the states have a vested interest in having either militias in alliance with them to do the job of that army so that it is less of costs politically socially economically sometimes
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even meet in. a meeting on the ideological liberal logical level and many of these militias are i'm kind of at the contractors and all of us they doctors are also benefiting from the situation so it's very difficult on the mine it's by a clause on an international one draft. so i am fairly pessimistic as well but on the on the bright side though we have several going to regimes in western countries that kind of say what a private military and security company can and cannot do and most of these companies abide by it i think we need to draw a line between what is contracting and supplementing some of the rules to support war fighting but making sure that war fighting itself should be that and remains to progress even under full control of the of the state and should remain the monopoly of the state glenn call obama short andrius a reader appreciate your insight thank you and thank you to for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website dot com for further
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discussion go to our facebook page that's facebook dot com for us last a.j. inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is a j inside story from the hash and the entire team here in doha i don't know. i. since its inception in 1961 the kuwait fund has been supporting people's livelihoods in over 100 countries by funding projects in an array of sectors.
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