coming up on r t the private security firm blackwater is once again at the center of attention 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 as group has declared the establishment of a new islamic state extending from syria to rock more on this development coming up . and eastern ukraine continues to experience bouts of violence a russian camera man was fatally shot while riding a bus packed with journalists and mothers of ukrainian soldiers more on those events later in the show.

it's monday june thirtieth five pm in washington d.c. i'm manila chan you're 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 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

a thing about it because of where we're at now that's according to richard official statement of course and donald thomas corroborated his story and said in his own statement that blackwater 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 comptroller 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 that the u.s. government is engaging in business with here's what she had to say 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 nunnally their conduct book what was done about it by the u.s. government what it found 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 let me read off to you what they found here changing of the staffing of security details 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 absent 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 a u.s. government investigator but we haven't heard the other side so let's just make sure that we understand these charges 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 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 peril they came to life 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 if they don't abide by what u.s. military code of conduct is do 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 this 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 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 question about whether that's the right approach and it raises another question as to when 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 a lot of changes since its founding back in one thousand nine hundred seven by erik prince most notably its name prince sold the company in two thousand and eleven when the name was changed to a cattle me that's with an eye the firm continues to operate across the middle east through u.s. government contracts then in june it merged with its rival company called triple canopy and is now called can stella's holdings but despite the change in the name the company has had a hard time shaking its controversial reputation artie's meghan lopez 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 below 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 claimed 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 will rule that the sniper operated within his rights since he claims he was fired on on christmas eve two thousand and six of 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 so i do not was a thirty two year old gold guard who attempted to stop noonan from passing through a security area when he was shot three times and killed moon and claimed 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. erik 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 me 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. . and the isis crisis continues across iraq the group is claiming now that parts of

iraq and syria are now an islamic caliphate isis spokesman. nonny said this move i'm sure is in a new era of international jihad and that they would now simply be called the islamist state muslim extremist groups have long dreamed of recreating an islamic state to rule the region as it did in the middle east for hundreds of years artie's marina portnoy has more. then you don't care if you're going to be seeing your own advice is overtaking al qaeda had rain as public enemy number one sunni islamic militants are only seeing through taliban and bloodshed in iraq but it's next door in syria during a three year civil war where the if stream a screw 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 in two 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 our allied with isis in syria that is the real contradiction to this whole following according to reports the u.s. government may have inadvertently played a direct role in strengthening extremists you know also allegations that the united states may have been involved and some of the training isis insurgents when at a training camp and jordan selling you the saudis the capacity all those are directly involved in this regime change policy in syria and 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 re 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 al 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 terrorist is growing stronger and gaining more ground throughout the arab world there are safe haven remains in

syria where the white house is promising to send more weapons with the goal of establishing peace green a port 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 of donetsk along with other journalists were on a bus with a group of women traveling to a military base to demand that their sons be released from duty take a look at the minutes following the shooting. was.

tough to watch the artes arena has more on this journalist who filmed the attack and other journalists 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 then to safety but the shooting continued and that's when i was hit by some of the bullets that were piercing the bus now this is how those who were on the bus along with him other journalists had described the event. there was

a panic i didn't know what to do i just laid on the road face down. to save myself from the constant shelling that loss of the. you know it was very scary especially for a person who isn't in time. but we were trying to find a car to get him to hospital and when we started taking him out of the bus to turn around and his last words were the camera the camera then in the car he was conscious for a while but he lost consciousness when we got near the accident and emergency station they tried 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 with a warning and they were shooting to kill the warning activists who later examined the boss told us that one of the bullets was from a sniper rifle as it again 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 he's called leagues describe the man that they used to be working with. he knew his work he always held the correspondence by the 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 it has to. take his job was his lawyer i saw him in the nets he told me that when you get back from his assignment in ukraine he would go fishing in september. i've known him since one thousand nine hundred seventy two he was not standing cameraman cheerful sympathetic but this is a great loss and now russia is demanding an investigation into the death of the russian cameramen and there's a number of human rights groups which are also seeing 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 avoid harming civilians during law enforcement operations journalists unless they are taking a direct part in the hostility of a civilian and on the 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 are reporting now the death of a journalist is a 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 map 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 don't have to reinvent that show and i think that's going to be difficult to do now the camera man's death has gotten some attention online here in the u.s. but not on the cable news channels and the russian government is offering to let the organization for security and cooperation in europe put observers at russian checkpoints along the eastern border of ukraine russia says the observers will add transparency and help ease tensions meanwhile there is hope that a cease fire between kiev and fighters will be extended artie's maria if an ocean a reports on how residents in eastern ukraine are coping months into this crisis. those we have been able to speak to here in the city of lagos going to three have been telling us that if the rain relative calm there's a noise became more solemn so that finally people now could leave but of course we

can teeter here here in their boats or radek bar or often resulted in fatalities including two months to be the population we heard that the city off the balance could be at the center of what he is called and patellar of the ration repeatedly came under fire with residential area attacked and a woman killed a church was also at the car when during mass was happening there there were also a series of explosions at the nonstate internets no soldiers were there at the time we've been hearing ukrainian military repeatedly that the checkpoints were attacked by self-defense forces well we can say that unfortunately whatever peace the reason in these parts of the country remains very very for a job and of course people very tired they are exhausted of the situation of months of clashes and months of tensions many fled already the country with many stay here

and who have been hearing from many of them that their plan is that in case of emergency in case of need they will use them shelters and we visited some of them and here's my report about that this is a bomb shelter watch out it was built decades ago when ukraine was part of the used to store at the height of the cold war and it seems these dog times are returning to these parts of the world the enemy may be different but these abandoned sons are now coming back to life. as they see if you want peace prepare for war the d.m. as a resident volunteered to clean up soviet era bunkers they could provide a crucial to funds against on the air raids and to refine he says. we speak to the dean during what is supposed to be a ceasefire there is a bombing us which is why we're working here the infrastructure is destroyed so we're taking the most important first steps to fix it and allow people to shelter

here similar work is currently underway at many similar stories all over the city about one hundred bomb shelters already open. brazil is a rubber arm of the euro this morning this vote on the role of rather be sure and i just hope that there were about the last one more but the board there is the row with the government who are not a group of religious but i must say. the way i am that boy in the longer works but i feel awful for them up for me with their will it be appropriate this program or in your mother's a. group with come out of. there is also a kitchenette with some basic food and cursed kids you know because i'm more than. suddenly we're here with sounds like distant shooting daughters organization not government only a form of a. fortune after which more but at

least. have a keyboard. when we film retaliates daughter nast or stops by. she also heard what we did. but the sky was lit up with explosions when we were walking home through a filter than there were sirens and everyone started running away it was terrifying the same thing happened later that night the ceasefire expires in just a few hours time and no one can say for sure whether these long abandoned bomb shelters will be needed a gun brief notion r.t. in lugansk eastern ukraine. now another day another new planet discovered seems like that's the case right while researchers say they've found an earth like planet that might be able to support life it's being called gleason eight thirty two c

it's a super earth coming in at least five times bigger than the planet that we call home downside it's sixteen light years away and international team of astronomers say police a thirty two c. appears to have a bit of bull's own and water so that could mean there could potentially be life there and if it seems we hear often about new planets you're right take a look at this we have bit of all exoplanets catalog which now includes twenty three objects of interest that appear to be very similar to earth so again we have to ask the question are we really alone in the universe only time will tell that doesn't for us for now i'm manila chan i'm happy martin the stories we cover here are not in your new right story the facts are about why there's a reason they don't want you do not. want to. know let's break the set

. i take my studies like i take my polls and patristic with skepticism while these tools can be used to enrich our collective knowledge and understanding of the wacky world we live in they can also be unscientifically weaponized to support bunk theories and agendas which ends up hurting our intellectual growth more than helping this story concerns the latter's marial you see a new study was just released out of stanford university the findings were detailed in a journal called organizational behavior and human decision process researchers titled

their findings thinking that one is attractive increases the tendency to support inequality in other words the research draws the conclusion that if you consider yourself a hot person you are more likely to support inequality what's more the research concludes that if you think you're an ugly person you are more likely to protest inequality how's that for bunk for the study researchers asked about five hundred study participants about their own attractiveness and their ability to empathise then they were shown a video about the occupy movement after that participants were asked whether or not they wanted to donate a prize of a fifty dollar lottery ticket to occupy the researchers found that participants who perceive themselves as less attractive were almost twice as likely to donate to the movement conversely researchers found that participants who thought they were hot

were less likely to donate to social causes but deal with. peter bellamy one of the researchers told the organization campus reform that they found cues to suggest that people who think of themselves as more attractive they belong to a higher social class and so are therefore less concerned with inequality because they found that from it people who think of themselves as ugly associate themselves with a lower class and therefore have a stake in fighting inequality now back to why studies like this can actually do more harm than good this study asked five hundred arbitrary people some questions and drew conclusions that fact one of the worst arguments used by the one percent today that the poor are just jealous of the rich that occupiers just wish they were wealthy that the ninety nine percent is just bitter because they don't have jet skis that the ugly are just jealous of the beautiful that is exactly the kind of aid.