blackwater the world's most powerful drug a darling of the u.s. government they made a killing plugging holes in america's war on terror as soon as it is until. washington is accused of fighters to draw. guns really go out of control in the war zone were they just thrown under the bus by the white house or did they get what was coming to. the biggest u.s. private military contractor blackwater welcome to the program it's great to have you with us so i'm just going to start from the very beginning q created blackwater to train u.s. navy still so how did it become one of the biggest security contractors in the world. well you know i i guess i was an accidental tourist i got out of the navy out of the seal teams because my father died my wife was sick with cancer so i built a facility to stay connected to the seal teams you know the seal team special operations units in america had been using private this ill at ease really since the one nine hundred seventy s. and no one had ever done it on an industrial scale and so i did i was you know we had sold

going to start from the very beginning q create blackwater to train u.s. navy seals so how do you become one of the biggest security contractors in the world. well you know i i guess i was an accidental tourist i got out of the navy out of the seal teams because my father died my wife was sick with cancer so i built a facility to stay connected to the seal teams you know seal team special operations units in america had been using private the city's really since the one nine hundred seventy s. and no one had ever done it on an industrial scale and so i did i was you know we had sold my father's business i took some of the money from that and i built a facility and then you know one thing led to another there was a terrible tragic shooting in colorado called the columbine shootings and then the u.s.s. cole was blown up in yemen in two thousand. and then of course after nine eleven. you know we kept we kept saying yes when the u.s. government called the need our help for training or logistics support aviation support security one thing led to another and and

blackwater the world's most powerful drug. the u.s. government they made a killing plugging holes in america's war on terror as soon as it is until. washington is accused of its paid fighters to draw. really go out of control in the war zone were they just thrown under the bus by the white house or did they get what was coming to. the biggest u.s. private military contractor blackwater welcome to the program it's great to have

blackwater is still over there today. i haven't heard john boehner or anyone else address this situation. we went through libya and all this crap. what is blackwater still doing in iraq. that's my comment. host: thank you for the call. the story militants seize syria air base. the extremist group, islamic state capturing a major air base in syria driving out forces and gaining full control of an entire province for the first time since syria's civil war. the takeover of the base on sunday led to set backs. the full story available online at wsj.com. from florida, donald is on the phone. good morning. caller: i had a comment in general about the negative feedback we get from congress and senators mccaine and lindsey graham, whatever the president does. you know, he's aware of the, you know, the intelligence coming out of that area probably more than those two senators. what frustrates me is like a few weeks ago when the president was rescuing the yazidis from the mountain and hitting isis, they came out and said, well, you

blackwater the world's most powerful drug. us government they made a killing plugging holes in america's war on terror as soon as it is until. washington is accused of fighters to draw. really go out of control in the war zone were they just thrown under the bus by the white house or did they get what was coming to. the biggest u.s. private military contractor blackwater welcome to the program it's great to have you with us so i'm going to start from the very beginning q created blackwater to train u.s. navy seals so how did it become one of the biggest security contractors in the world. well you know i i guess i was an accidental tourist i got out of the navy out of the seal teams because my father died my wife was sick with cancer so i built a facility to stay connected to the seal teams you know seal team special operations units in america have been using private this elite is really since the one nine hundred seventy s. and no one had ever done it on an industrial scale and so i did i was you know we had sold my father's

and blackwater is back in the news but this time new information is discovered in their favor for blackwater private security guards are presently standing trial for the september two thousand and seven shooting at a source square in baghdad that left thirty iraqi civilians dead or wounded lawyers for the blackwater guards say they were firing. in self defense against iraqi insurgents in downtown baghdad seven years ago in closing arguments the defense attorneys accuse the iraqi national police of removing evidence that would have helped prove that it was insurgents that initiated the firefight other evidence they championed included photos of shell casings from a k forty seven that the defense team claims insurgents were using against the blackwater crew however the prosecution countered that a trail of bullet casings isn't enough to prove that insurgents were there stating that seeing shell casings are extremely common in the city now one defendant faces life in prison while the three others could face up to thirty years if found guilty by the federal jury. today the western world woke up

to sofia go on sophie shevardnadze and enjoy a fortune turd mercenary boss erik prince founded blackwater the world's biggest private military company scoring billions in government contracts in iraq and afghanistan.

blackwater the world's most powerful drug a darling of the u.s. government they made a killing plugging holes in america's war on terror as soon as it is until. washington is accused of paying its paid fighters to draw. guns really go out of control in the.

an interview with the founder of blackwater the blackwater we're bringing. a few weeks ago we discussed detroit's plans to shut off water to those who can't pay their bills logically what a basic human assessor he could get taken away some protesters gathered to give their opinion on the issue at our plaza and what is the response from the state maybe some sort of dialogue or explanation as to why they have to turn off the water you know they turned up on the high tech quote non lethal weaponry against the protesters they used an l. red system which basically blasted the protesters with sound which sounds unintended humane until you look into it and read that the weapon can cause permanent hearing loss the company even admits this is true at less than fifteen meters we see all across the country so-called non-lethal weapons being used to very harmful and even to well we thought ns but why does this happen because they make breaking up protests easy unsafe for the cops remember in the old days when you had to physically break up protests well things like el r

closing arguments have wrapped in the trial of four blackwater operatives. the suspects are charged for the deaths of 14 of the 17 iraqi civilians who died when their blackwater unit indiscriminate lee opened fire. the case has lacked for years with prosecutors accused of dragging her feet in the lower court's dismissal of the charges in 2009. the trial featured testimony of those who survived the attack and sullivans gun down. prosecutors have blackwater guards had shot fleeing civilians and boasted of taking their lives. jury deliberations are set to begin next week. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. >> welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. president obama is reportedly seeking a nonbinding climate accord in lieu of a binding global treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. "the new york times" reports u.s. negotiators are crafting a proposal that would not require congressional approval and instead wo

he did it with blackwater. he did the fedex solution to the military, and so they let you believe in a military. we have to understand the purpose of the military is to secure the constitution of the free people. not to go into savage lands and throw lots of money at defense contract ares and waste money, get people killed and start blood wars... what they don't tell you in real life that guy for two years was selecting all of the drone parking so he was telling us to assassinate people who are against his tribe's interest. we were the garbage disposal service for one tribe against another. so it bothered me the most about that is our intelligence was so lacking. what i would say is for those of us who do believe in strong defense we believe that information is our most powerful weapon in the new age and i think coolidge understood that warfare was changing radically. he was one of the first people to understand the future of war would be fought from the air so he was friendly to people like mitchell and others

he did it, you know, with blackwater. he did the fedex solution to the military. those of us who believe in the military, we have to understand the purpose is to secure the constitution of the united states and to make sure we all live as free people, right? as a free people. not to go into savage lands is and throw lots of money at defense contractors and waste a lot of that money, get a lot of stuff wrong, get a lot of people killed and go and start blood wars. i'll give you a perfect example of this stupidity. you guys have seen zero dark thirty, right? who's seen it? a lot of people, right? there's a scene in which, you know, they're coming -- a lot of people have written about this. i know this is far afield from your question, but i'm trying to answer it in my round about, rapid-fire way. what happens is they go, there's a scene in which the cia woman is blown up by this guy who, you know, has explosives in his car. what they don't tell you in real life that guy for two years was selecting all of the drone targets. and so he was telling us to go assassinate

you can you see the image there i mean i'll have to say that blackwater you can see the image all of these characters have a need they have a personal psychological need to live that and so what we do is we further that we empower that when we give them this type of ridiculous government arms that the industry the arms industry loves to see happening in. this country right mel very good point that you make there so in a way in the thirty seconds we have look in a way this is also a remnant of nixon's drug war. i think it started there i think if you take a look at program ten thirty three it had to do with we want to give every little small cop operation ten thousand whether populations ten thousand fifteen thousand twenty thousand we want to give them stuff that they can play with toys ninja toys these are ninja cops these are dixieland ninja cops down here in the south and they are killing the race relations throughout the entire southern coast of this of this united states and it's happening in other places the country as well you know my pappa tonio always a pleasure having it wi

in the shade congress turns the crank and then out the other side pops money with halliburton or blackwater stamped on the face the only difference between the two machines is that the one of the rest up rarely kills hundreds of thousands of people sure there was one time in utah where the kid got his head caught in there but. that's rare and in a darwinian sense he deserved it. as howard zinn once said america does not have democracy when it comes to foreign policy the majority of americans are against these wars we don't want them we don't vote for him we don't want to see kids die for them but congress predictably turns that crank like the good little organ grinder monkeys they are in place of our vote on war we the people are handed a little yellow ribbon when we take that ribbon we tie it around our eyes it should come with a ball gag a support the troops ball gag. and if you take it out people go you don't suppose the. point is ninety percent of the people of this world are wonderful human beings who want peace nine point nine percent are douchebags and the last point one percent are

still to come we hear from the founder of the notorious security firm blackwater or if you're watching us from the u.k. undergoing underground with often returns. a few weeks ago we discussed detroit's plans to shut off water to those who can't pay their bills logically one of basic human the system he could get taken away some protesters gathered to give their opinion on the issue at heart plaza and what is the response from the state maybe some sort of dialogue or explanation as to why they have to turn off the water you know they turned up on the high tech quote non lethal weaponry against the protesters they used an el red system which basically blasted the protesters with sound will.

so we ended up one by one help being them overcome the obstacles, no such thing as blackwater and whiteer. take the signs down. if people don't want to drink, they don't drink. it was really very simple but only because we refused to cooperate with injustice. and in that noncooperation, we slowly but surely refashioned a society and that's about the time that the community relations service was born. it wasn't called that then but it was really burt marshall and bill van den hoofal and all of us from the justice department, while we were talking with business men on one side, they were talking with businessmen on the other side. it was not a children's crusade. the people going to jail were juniors and seniors. so for us it said stand for freedom in your own hometown because you're not going to have a choice. so the president of student body, captain of the football team and leader of the band, a key group of leaders from each high school went to jail early in april. they went to jail to have an experience. they had a religious experience. they went to jail with the ministers and member

chris heben, through all the tours you did and also your work with blackwater as a contractor, did nine ever train you? you're doing the training. you're helping these afghan soldiers to figure out what they do when coalition forces leave, but did anybody teach you how to recognize the prospect of an oncoming green on blue attack? >> it's very hard to identify. the training is very simple. you look at the behaviors of the individuals. you match them with the behaviors of the other individuals in the group. you can pick out some sort of loose disassociation between the 99% of the individuals in that group that are on board and that one outsider perhaps. so you can isolate this person and further question him. or pull him out of the training evolution altogether and look into it. you do recognize -- you do what's called behavioral profiling. it's not based on appearance. it's on behavior. there is a level of training that does go into identifying these individuals. it's still very hard. >> obviously, if they can get to someone this high, two generals, at least according to our early notes