coming up on our sleeve the private security firm blackwater is once again at the center of controversy a new report reveals that a top manager threatened the life of a government investigator in iraq the latest on this scandal just ahead. and the iraq crisis expands with an announcement from isis militants the jihad us group has declared the establishment of a new islamic state extending from syria to iraq more on this development coming up . and eastern ukraine continues to experience with outs of violence a russian camera man was fatally shot while riding with a bus pass a journalist in leathers of ukrainian soldiers more on these events in ukraine

later in the show. it's monday june thirtieth four pm in washington d.c. i'm military and your watching r.t. america. like a scene out of a movie just weeks before blackwater guards killed seventeen iraqi civilians in baghdad back in two thousand and seven the government security contractor was under investigation and investigation that was cut short new revelations of a death threat against the government's chief investigator have now emerged according to documents obtained by the new york times blackwater manager daniel carroll met with special agent john ritter and a state department manager. analyst donald thomas jr to discuss their investigation into the firm's sub standard dining hall facilities and that's when carol allegedly

said i can kill you right now where you sit and no one's going to do anything about it because of where we're at that's according to richter's official statement now donald thomas corroborated his story and said in his own statement that the blackwater manager went on to say i could shoot you and kill you here in iraq and no one would do anything about it because that's the way it is here he also went on to compare iraq to the wild west such as the ok corral now i was joined earlier by elizabeth holtzman a former congresswoman of new york and cup troll or of new york city i first asked her about a government official alleging that a blackwater manager threatened his life during an on site review and whether we should question the types of people the u.s. government is engaging in business with. absolutely i mean this is a security for blackwater they were supposed to protect americans not to threaten their lives so that's already crazy and serious questions have been raised about

their conduct in iraq and this front page story raises many many more issues about their conduct and not only their conduct book always done about it by the u.s. government when it found that right and now the government investigators were reporting on some pretty damning findings much more than what they had originally gone out for which was just these dirty dining halls i let me read off to you what they found here changing of the staffing a security detail for american diplomats without clearing it with the state department blackwater guards were storing automatic weapons and ammunition in their bedrooms where they were found to be partying and drinking heavily with female guests blackwater guards were carrying weapons that they weren't certified to use there were incidents of drunken blackwater guards driving one hundred eighty thousand dollar vehicle to a party and then eventually crashing it they were overbilling the state department

and falsifying records and blackwater affiliated firm even forcing low paid foreign workers to live in filthy conditions with something like three people packed into a tiny room with no bed how well are these sorts of contractors even vetted before we give them millions of dollars in contracts. well i think there's a very big question about whether we should be outsourcing security at all to anybody aside from u.s. government employees i course this raises serious questions about how they were vetted and screened beforehand but what these charges raise is the question about what happened once they knew of these charges and i think we need to point out that these are the charges these are this is a report by u.s. government investigator but we haven't heard the other side so let's just make sure that we understand these charges but once these charges hit the state department i

mean actually this is by a state department employee an investigator what was done about it and what's most disturbing thing about this report is not only the allegations of misconduct cheating stealing and so forth on the part of blackwater we don't know if they're true or not but the allegations are very serious but when these were reported to the state department nothing was done about them and that is even more serious because it suggests either a cover up a willful failure to to know what was going on closing the eyes or just keeping a very questionable contractor on the payroll it's it's staggering i mean it's it's so it's so insane to have someone providing security threatening american investigator with his life i'm appalled at that and i'm appalled that no action was taken at the time and

a poll that nothing has been done up to this point right it's taken all these years for that to come to light now what does well apparently came to light through a private lawsuit and that's not a good thing either because it shows that the government was not able to act on its own knowing of these serious serious charges now do groups like blackwater have their own corporate codes of conduct if not they don't abide by what u.s. military code of conduct is that they have their own. you know i don't know anything about blackwater aside from what i've read in the papers but i don't know what kind of code of conduct they could have if these are the charges against them now when you were serving in congress. the use of third party contractors such as blackwater i mean it's something that's been in use for decades upon decades and really blackwater has kind of been the the the big name i guess in recent times anyway. do you have any any knowledge of how the government chooses

these contractors no i don't i mean there's there's supposed to be a process but i think the real deeper question is why are we outsourcing a primary government responsibility to private firms the government needs to protect its own employees i mean we have an f.b.i. we have a marshal service we have the military i mean there are marine guards at every embassy we don't outsource that why we outsourcing this kind of protection and i think that the article today raises a very serious question about the extent to which we are outsourcing i mean we've been caught up in this whole ideological idea that the government can't do anything so we need to hire private contractors to do basic government business i think this raises serious questions about whether that's the right approach and it raises another question as to as the government was still covering up the bad deeds as alleged of blackwater and that's very very serious congresswoman thank you so much

that was a little bit holtzman a former u.s. representative from new york thanks for your time thank you. now blackwater has undergone lots of changes since its founding by erik prince back in one thousand nine hundred seven most notably its name prince sold the company back in two thousand and eleven when the name was changed to a cademy the firm continues to operate across the middle east through u.s. government contracts then in june it merged with its rival company triple canopy and is now called can stella. holdings but despite the change in the name the company has had a hard time losing its controversial reputation artie's mag and brings us more on the infamous contractors for over a decade the u.s. state department and military have relied on contractors to help fill security gaps abroad one of the most trusted companies is formally known as blackwater but this

group's troubled history might be catching up to it here are a few of the most questionable incidents blackwater is involved in march two thousand and four ambush by iraqi insurgents on blackwater s.u.v.s resulted in the bodies of four contractors being burned beaten and hung on a bridge over the euphrates river in fallujah with iraqi civilians cheering blow these are the images that outraged americans and pave the way for the first battle of bull lucia however what was an unquestionable tragedy for the security firm turned into a scandal when the house oversight committee released a congressional report in two thousand and seven declaring that blackwater had intentionally impeded an investigation into those deaths the congressional report claim that the company trying to hide documents by declaring them classified in february two thousand and six blackwater sniper opened fire from the roof of an iraqi justice ministry building and killed three guards working for the state

funded a rocky media network witnesses say the guards never opened fire and an iraqi police report described the shootings as quote an act of terrorism the state department however ruled that the sniper operated within his rights since he claims he was fired on on christmas eve two thousand and six blackwater contractor unnamed moon it was accused of opening fire on one of the iraqi vice president's guards after a heavy night of drinking were him saadoun was a thirty two year old gold guard who attempted to stop newman from passing through a security area when he was shot three times. and killed moon claims it was self-defense ultimately the u.s. attorney's office in seattle close its investigation without filing charges moonen was eventually fired and blackwater paid the victim's family twenty thousand dollars a common practice within the company now according to former c.e.o. eric prince just as of two thousand and ten his contractors racked up over three

hundred counts of violations while following clients orders each time the company paid the fine and then moved on then to add to the scandal in two thousand and twelve the firm agreed to pay seven point five million dollars in fines to the justice department in addition to a two thousand and ten forty two million dollars settlement with the state department for violating u.s. gun laws and for gun smuggling in the middle east that could have resulted in seventeen criminal charges the fines however wife that slate clean these are just a few of the myriad of incidents blackwater has been accused of over the years the company has changed its name from blackwater to z. to a kind of need and now it is called holdings but no matter the numerous name changes a history of controversy and question and never to believe follow this group wherever it goes reporting in washington meghan lopez r.t. . to rock the isis crisis continues across iraq as the group is claiming that parts

of iraq and syria are now an islamic caliphate isis spokesman abu mohammad al add nonny said this move in a new era of international jihad and that they would now simply just be called the islamic state muslim extremist groups have long dreamed of recreating and islamic state true to that region as it ruled for hundreds of years. marina has more. thank you knew this terrorist organization known as isis is overtaking his brain as public enemy number one sunni islamic militants are unleashing brutality and bloodshed in iraq but its next door in syria during a three year civil war where the extremist group got its start we are where we are because we armed the syrian rebels we have been fighting alongside al-qaeda fighting alongside isis isis is now emboldened into countries but here's the

anomaly we're with isis in syria we're on the same sort of the war so those who want to get involved to stop isis in iraq are allied with isis in syria that is the real contradiction to this whole policy according to reports the u.s. government may have inadvertently played a direct role in strengthening extremists they're also allegations that the united states may have been involved and some of the training that isis insurgents went at a training camp in jordan so the saudis the qataris are directly involved in this regime change policy in syria and in iraq and united states has helped and created these conditions and this will cause chaos and expanding war in the region according to german magazine der spiegel americans were still in jordan in march of last year training up to twelve hundred members of the free syrian army

to use anti-tank weapon mary we have spent a lot of time trying to work with a moderate opposition in syria now the white house is ready to spend a lot of money the obama administration has requested half a billion dollars to arm and train syrian rebels fighting to topple president bashar assad u.s. officials claim only appropriate that members of the moderate syrian opposition will receive american weapons and ammo problem is it's not always easy to differentiate between the moderates and. terrorist here's u.s. senator john mccain posing with members of isis the photo is now reportedly being circulated by the group as proof of their legitimacy not to be disputed the legitimacy of isis is gruesome behavior violence so horrific some report osama bin ladin looks like a gentle soul in comparison as the newest group of terrorists is growing stronger and gaining more ground throughout the arab world their safe haven remains in syria

where the white house is promising to send more weapons with the goal of a stablish increase marina porton i.r.t. washington d.c. . now to the crisis in ukraine a russian camera man for channel one t.v. was shot by military forces in the eastern region after netscape along with other journalists were on a bus with a group of women traveling to a military base to demand their sons be released from duty take a look at the minutes after the shooting.

took place. yes. i know you. are to go has more on the journalist who filmed the attack and the other journalist killed during the ukraine fighting. along with a number of other journalists were on a bus which was carrying mothers of ukrainian soldiers who were going to the army base in order to demand that their sons return home when the bus approached the army base shooting reportedly happened coming from the army base the driver then tried to turn the bus away in order to get the bus and the people on board on board and to safety but the shooting continued and that's when i didn't really ground was hit by some of the bullets that were piercing the boss now this is how those who were on the bus along with him other journalists have described the event. there

was a panic i didn't know what to do i just laid on the road face down or moved in short runs all to save myself from the constant shelling that lasted about two hours it was very scary specially for a person who isn't entirely prepared. but we were trying to find a car to get him to hospital and when we started taking him out of the bus he turned around and his last words were the camera the camera and then in the car he was conscious for a while but he lost consciousness when we got near the accident and emergency station they try to revive him for about half an hour but then they came out and said there was nothing more they could have done. the shooting started without warning and they were shooting to kill not as a warning activist who later examined the boss told us one of the bullets was from a sniper rifle or was it a car has spent forty years working for the very same channel where for which he

was fulfilling his job. in the southeast of ukraine he's been working there for almost half a century and this is how his colleagues describe the man that they used to be working with doesn't he knew his work he always held the correspondence until today i never knew how old he was i couldn't believe he was sixty eight it's really hard to talk about him as a past but i think his job was his life i saw him in the nets he told me that when he got back from his assignment in ukraine he would go fishing in september. it is not i've known him since one thousand nine hundred seventy two he was an outstanding cameraman cheerful sympathetic but this is a great loss now russia is demanding an investigation into the death of the russian cameraman and there's a number of human rights groups which are also wasting their frustration with the situation in ukraine where journalists have repeatedly come under attack this is a proud to do that must be fully investigated by ukrainian authorities the

government of ukraine should do more to reward harming civilians during law enforcement operations journalists unless they are taking a direct part in the still to a civilian and on doing international humanitarian law may never be targets or when you talk during unarmed conflict unfortunately this is just the latest in a string of attacks and journalists happening in the southeast of ukraine two weeks ago two russian journalists a reporter and a sound engineer from brasi a channel were killed in artillery shelling as they were trying to film refugees crossing the border last month a photographer an italian photographer and his translator were also killed in a mortar shelling in the same region and then of course there was the case with our producer for artie's ruptly news agency who was also gravely wounded in the city of mariupol in the beginning of may it took three it took several days for the ukrainian authorities to release him to allow him to be transported to moscow for

treatment unfortunately of course such a cases are not the only things that are happening to russian journalists there have been numerous reports of russian journalist being detained were handed. interrogated and even beaten and of course russian channels have numerous occasions voiced their frustration with the situation but so far they seems to be absolutely no reaction coming from ukrainian authorities. that was our tease irene ago louche go reporting the death of a journalist is usually big news here in the u.s. but the mainstream media has decided to focus on more pressing issues take a look but first did you see this amount lauer's interview the first female c.e.o. of general motors but there are some people who are speculating that you also got this job as a woman and as a mom matt is usually a very elegant interviewer and with that aspect of the interview he simply bubbled

it big implosion of the view what are they going to do barbara walters is gone and sherry is gone and now jenny mccarthy is gone they're going have to reinvent that show and i think that's going to be difficult to do. the camera man's death has got some attention online here in the u.s. but not on the cable news channels and the obama administration has agreed to discontinue the use of land mines in warfare and no longer produce them but has fallen short of signing the international ottawa convention banning them completely the u.s. announced last week that the u.s. will no longer produce landmines will not acquire new land mines and won't replace those that are expiring and while the administration says it's pursuing steps toward signing the man by treaty it's yet to do so and this announcement has humanitarian activists cautiously optimistic but optimistic all at the same time same that eventually the united states will join the hundred fifty other countries

that have signed the audible convention joining me now though to discuss this as adults hey i equate international advocacy director at amnesty international usa thank you sir thanks for joining us now the united states has stated it will not produce any more land mines they've signaled that the devices are not essential to the u.s. security anymore however the u.s. still has yet to sign the treaty why do you think the u.s. is taking that step to not sign well i think it's important to remember that they said that they would preserve their right to use land mines should they need to and that's one of the things that makes this announcement a little bit disappointing because even though they're not going to produce more and they're not going to extend the life of the existing landmines they've not as you said either decided to ratify and signed the treaty and they have not completely banned their right to use it and i think it's because the department

defense has not yet. accepted the fact that there's no place for these kinds of weapons and modern day the modern day world and that it really. he is not essential to u.s. national security so we're stuck with the same political lack of political will to actually move the u.s. into the right side of the battle on the right and besides that i mean this is obviously a very old technology no you know it's not useful when we have other more accurate ways of attacking the enemy per se why do you think the u.s. might be so keen on continuing to have these in general why why keep them well there the argument is that the in terms of critical defense lines for the united states. these landmines are the most economic and efficient way in that because you don't need men to actually protect the border for example the tree is usually referred to as the critical area where land mines are important so i think that

that's one of the reasons that they want to continue to use have that right to use them. ok now each year approximately twenty six thousand people fall victim to land mines right because they are unmonitored they they just kind of lay their dorm it with many of them being children and they become severely disabled what are the dangers of having landmines continue to exist that you're going to have more child amputees you're going to have more dislocated populations because they can't farm where the maps of the land mines are no longer accurate or up to date you're going to have incredibly bad human rights violations linked to the destructive consequences of these mines that know no distinction between a friend or for child or adult right now. just say on the u.s. side though there there is they are one of the biggest spenders on humanitarian

mine action in as far as removal what are some of those efforts can you tell us about what the u.s. has done well the u.s. as you said is a leader in the mining activities and funding those kinds of programs programs and cambodia programs and gola in parts of. somalia where these mines were used the u.s. isn't the providing the technology in their expertise but one has to argue that if the mines weren't being used in the first place we wouldn't have such a big problem so it's almost a catch twenty two that they are not solving the problem but they are addressing its consequences and that's why they should just join the treaty they should comply and they should be a leader on this and both the demining aspect as well as in the behavioral change. that's sounds like that's a call to action has to be obama administration by you are definitely british for that it's awesome thank you so much that was added to

a international advocacy director at amnesty international usa thank you for your time your insights are thank you now talk about sore losers a g.o.p. candidate for congress in oklahoma is making a strange claim after he was transferred in last week's primary now let me explain this is g.o.p. congressman frank lucas he won the primary with about eighty three percent of the vote and he'll be on the ballot this november and as expected to be easily reelected to walk this now let me introduce you to his challenger timothy ray marie he got about five percent of the vote last tuesday but he claims he should be the winner and the reason he says congressman lucas is not really congressman lucas he wrote a letter on his website and sent it to some members of the media saying quote it is widely known representative frank de lucas is no longer alive and has been displayed this place by

a look alike representative lucas's lookalike was depicted as sentenced on a white stage in southern ukraine on or around january eleventh two thousand and eleven so needless to say congressman lucas was stunned to learn that he was dead as for the man who had been said about me. complained this is the first time other been accused of being the body will be. and as for the man making the claims timothy murray has gotten shy on the issue and is not talking to the media at this time and boom bust is coming up next right here on r t n erin a joins us for a quick preview hey erin what's going on that i know of thank you know coming up on boom bust facebook's latest shenanigans arm. making headlines and if you're feeling pretty crummy about it that may be because you spent too much time one hundred facebook we explain coming right off and in today's big deal edward harrison and i

are discussing the hardest places to live in america it's all coming up so stay tuned ari thanks aaron think that does it for now i'm an electron. and. i would rather ask questions to people in positions of power instead of speaking on their behalf and that's why you can find my show larry king now right here on our t.v. question for. well

you like me don't want your comedy news with some t.v. once a comedy news to be a bare fisted no holds barred fight to the dad. the truth vampire fighting into the necks of the corporate only billionaire freaks while they're going rather. well that's what you get with my new show project in the night. as a new physician i swear to abide by the hippocratic oath. to the best of my ability and judgment. i will prescribe for the good of my patients. i will not give deadly doses to anybody. or advise of those to.