A campaign in sinai after two hundred thirty five people were killed in an attack on a mosque a bomb exploded gunman fired on worship as now president has promised to respond with brutal force with our board. The bomb and gun attack happened during friday prayers at the other old a mosque in bit aboud in egypts northern Sinai Peninsula local sources say the attackers planted explosives and then opened fire on worshippers while the sermon was underway. Looks like it was. Outside of a huge. Not really clear motive was i know its my responsibility yet but its very possibly. They have targeted suicide the last. Night the. President im going to put that has sisi convened an emergency meeting of Security Officials has that had this these tragic event act of terrorism will make us more robust more strong about battle against terrorism we cannot be intimidated i will result cannot be dented we would remain more united hello we need to vent your army would take revenge and they will restore order and security with an iron fist in the following day. Egyptian forces have for years battled armed groups in the countrys rugged and remote Sinai Peninsula attacks on Security Forces have been frequent like this car bomb explosion the targeted a Police Station in a lot in two thousand and fifteen so really this i know theres been a lot of. Fighting between isis and Security Forces there for years now. And so. A lot of. Area as shock sets in. And an investigation begins the Egyptian Government has declared three days of mourning. And so could some other headlines zimbabwes new leader. Has been sworn in he has promised to create jobs stamp out corruption and compensate white farmers whose land was seized during the role of now former president Robert Mugabe argentinas president says he expects search teams to find his navys missing submarine within days but he didnt say whether the navy expected to find survivors the san juan went missing nine days ago off the coast of southern argentina with forty four crewmembers on board it can only remain submerged however for seven days russia is sending a new search plane but hopes for any survivors are fading after the navy detected an explosion close to its last known position canadas Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau has apologized to people from the indigenous communities who were forcibly separated from their families were talking about twenty thousand children here who were taken from their homes during the one nine hundred sixty s. And nine hundred eighty s. And placed in either foster care or with nonindigenous families the u. S. Is deeply concerned at the release of a pakistani man accused of planning the two thousand and eight tax how saeed was freed after a Pakistani Court rejected the governments plea to extend his detention by another three months saeed who is the founder of the banned group lashkar e tayyiba has been under house arrest in the whole us since january south Africas Supreme Court has more than doubled the sentence for Oscar Pistorius the paralympian convicted of killing his girlfriend in two thousand and thirteen the court said the original six year sentence was shockingly lenient. Syrias main saudi backed Opposition Group has a new chief negotiator Moussa Hariri will lead the High Negotiations Committee in un back talks in geneva next week replacing riyadh his job who resigned last week the group is insisting Bashar Al Assad leave office and how do you see as everything is on the negotiating table in geneva and nigerias ailing leader mohammed to the horror he is facing a challenge for the twenty nine thousand president ial election from a former ally. A backer a former Vice President quit the ruling party and is now considering running against bihari who spend weeks in the u. K. Receiving medical treatment thats a look at your headlines on aljazeera child soldiers reloaded is next. We will maintain the finest fighting force of the world has ever known the world has ever known the world has ever known well never know whats up with another person we have any difficulty with my spirit i just dont like the image that it conjures up in most peoples mind. Its like any other thing in the Global Finance its just the military trade. And. Contractors dont like hard time around. My dad he could go to. This one young government perspective the iraqi coop and was considered i could deal. Not be the article you were on yeah its more like thirty years closely. We have a mismatch between the way we on magine war to be and the reality of the twenty First Century can we do a little or can we find someone that we do it for boardroom you know when you get what you pay for. B. B. C. World service and u. S. Troops have left iraq going to continue to maintain a high places in the country with the largest u. S. Embassy in the world the situation in afghanistan the center for crucial for the International Troops to go under control over to the Afghan Forces fish if youre just attrition really critical in the country. Since throughout America Today we are some time out for that stuff and youre right. This is a man who says he was. So young i thought if i was this other funds or friends one. Of them they are already out there and that. They know right now down there tonight here. How many of the persons that youre sending out. Your child soldiers and i can. I can tell you that i mean if you think i cant i cant. I can tell you dealing with the many people im going to. This and this and this. New president you inspecting you know mounted by you how do you recruit you yeah. Yeah yeah. Really whats. The real thing well. Enough look at your. Door for a while and i will too. This is our tradition if you dont know for it with a stick from the spear with our own. Thats the tradition so if youre trying to simulate this from a disoriented them say well it could im sure but that isnt the case so maybe critical of people who used to be fighting when they were very young that they all go to war youre busy thats a problem not us not a problem for us mother from. The particulars not from an absence of us have. And even if they had started when they would fulfill it another thirty but thats not a problem wasnt a roman mts thats the job as they are here his car yeah yeah. Let me send guys whatever yes were fast in print and they got the school fees hes got freddy. I mean never got my summit on resorted to using a gun i because of the ideas being that people go isnt what you tell me this is what they do i need to understand english. Gun to shoot those who won five. Good Companies Risk on common contract as we saw my mom wanted them. For example i didnt remember it was for someone time. The private military industry is a part of how the country is in fights wars today. U. S. Government doesnt track the number of contractors it uses in places iraq or afghanistan we know its a lot we dont really know exactly how many. I spent several years working within the industry i have a military background and one of the differences between being a soldier i found and being a private military contractor is that when you work for the u. S. Military or any military you take a sacred oath that youre going to serve and fight for your country and necessary die to protect a way of life one that you believe in i am an american soldier im a warrior and a member of a team. That will never accept defeat. At least i will never win ill never leave a fallen comrade its the complete opposite in a private military world you look at the budget first the loyalty of these companies and these business men and change depending on market forces. We operate in the worlds challenging complex emerging markets the middle east is absolutely the core for other business today. The sooner we can are in palin we perform and do the right thing on. This industry is not just what you see is what you get. When you see a company you dont know exactly whos working for them they hire and they sometimes create what we call subs sub contractors. Theres been commanders in afghanistan who just simply say we dont know who the subs of the subs subs are. So you have all these like layers of a contract. A level of Quality Control starts to fade quickly the deeper you go from the top to the bottom. United states army and the military in general is so reliant on the private sector i would call it a dependency but we dont know whos the on the ground presence of these Companies Overseas we just dont know. Crazy or not surely its really crazy in iraq. Because since the feds the ice that my fits in iraq every did that was a bomb and they bombed a village that is iraq its. Every day we have rockets fired. Every day how to gunshots every day a bomb in income in income in oh my good if someones you know lets use damage for all of our god for all of the civil union guys well trained guys. As soon as i originally rock i called my mom i said mom im in iraq she said oh whats i said im in iraq no no youre kidding i said no moment not kidding im in iraq i said mom just watch the number whats the number and she watched the number. She was she was just she was yellin oh tell you what you could yeah i said no mom there is no problem here we are saved we are not using a weapon we are you here is does our convinced my mom i said we are doing just domestic walk in iraq she told all the neighbors around so my son is in iraq you know hes doing. Cooking job not knowing that we were born. Just after the war and surveil you know i couldnt make it up because there was no job by then. And my friend calls me its all me thats a. Very civic and see they were recruiting guys socalled so its also iraq if you just use weapons and we are well trained and it come. Comply on. The first time i arrive to to this Training Camp compline iraq together with that two white men fan from the security company. Driving out in this small truck and whats towards the camp through this forest a landscape not so far away from from the airports and when we enter the camp and get out of the car the first thing we see is this a gun an instructor was and shouts of the training out there making the recruits lined up in order to receive these guys from the past security company. Came from iraq. With mike in from iraq you said that he needed. A shallow fighter or supposed to go to europe. You know. This is only people that. Are fighting between iraq. From his young government is there in. Equipment was considered a quite good deal in the sense that they could actually take no good troublemakers something away to back for a couple of years and then returning them after two years with money and from the overseas deployment this could surf to stabilize security. And the beginning of the training cost of another real weapons presence so theyre using the wooden sticks. It was first after a couple of days into the training that the weapons and arrived in their well being lined up at wooden tables within in the middle of the big camp. It was this tension and excitement those attention mainly because now its actually getting into something very real. For many of the recruits isnt the first time holding a weapon since the ending of the civil war. Many were starting to shake and some were even starting to cry when the when the su got the weapons not being able to to handle a. Compliant backing for iraq. I mean what is coming. From because i thought that weve sort of to know when im seeing this and something. Most of the from now. On my device. Ive. Walked on. Weapon. This young and what has been flipped mainly by young converts and. If youre looking for young men super flow military. The chances are quite good that they have also been. Owes it to. Mean i think that actually. It took my father i remember him putting on this love. As a nice metaphor that i will grant you i will close my heart to. Two people or holy shouldnt do you do on look like just want to know what. You know as he wished it was me oh video together he would give you a poem they found which was personal i dont know whats right whats he talking about. So i was sure enough to keep. Right. On. No. Need to which you all could and i got sure you died to have in my time the person if not god every day remember me to not have you my father whom i want i who next i get i would keep. This its little from going to. Go. I said no i dont want a tree so i start to i go to this thats a used in this. Stuck in my boat. My boat is that bond and i. Can drop just as it is crying for water but the gun makes you forget about you or your motor so i start says. Cool in my heart. When i was young. At a lot of things that ive been seeing there. A lot of day which is no good for you monday. Because. Of the job you have you come on down. On her before you have to go to my daddy dont you to have been killed. When we think of war and the war youre right so we have this image mark now of a man and uniform. And uniform means theyre fighting as part of a military serving a nation because if they fight for their force political patriotism and yet when you look at the wars of the twenty First Century they dont match those assumptions anymore now we have outsourced a lot of our warfare to private military companies. The background of this changing nature of war and fights that dates back to the very start of the private military industry itself as. Up until the early ninetys the private Security Industry is it dr mackey industry. Out right most of these who are bringing down governments for the cash can you explain what exactly sound fine internationally is mchugh doing. Sunline. Is a company that provides military Consultancy Services for governments or large corporations. At the time the idea was to get very posh english officers on top of these private military companies and tim spicer was an officer in the military British Military he got out and was asked to come help with a Company Called sandline. To spices a rival gave an almost instant sense of respectability to what had previously been a mess in the world and i dont personally have any difficulty with what must be i just dont like the image that it comes out in most peoples mind the first time i met tims vice i was interviewing him for a newspaper he ditching in charming Public School educated gods office and that really wasnt massively a feature of the construe before then it changed the agenda of the global agenda almost a prophet you company was. Tim spicer was considered a respectable head of a mercenary organization but at first his Business Affairs didnt go to well it was dogged by failure for example he got a phone call from a fellow indian with a tie passport who was under house arrest. For a financial scandal and he contacted tim spicer and wanted him to restore the president of sierra leone. Once the president surely and was back in power this guy would then get his contracts for diamonds and be able to make money. But it didnt work out that way. The Company Started life run by chip spicer for the army colonel hundred fifty patients by customs and excise that is accused just smuggling weapons illegally. When a private firm gets involved in foreign politics for the benefit of a criminal you have to stop and ask ok this really happened or is this a fictitious you know james bond type story but it was a true story. These things tended to happen to some spies or government and that hed always somehow managed to get signed the recently retired british cannot do that a band of ministers is safely back in this country so has this put him up his new career as a hired gun going to continue with this new new business of yours Sandline International well i think weve got to a number of lessons to learn from this particular. Episode i think that we will continue to try and develop our business as long as we can do it in a. Sensible way. Sandline eventually collapsed on the way to bad publicity. Was that to say yes in the short term you can say that was not a Successful Company in terms of delivering enormous amounts of money to a shelter and so forth to firstly. It launched him spice on a career where he was able to found what would then become one of the most significant problem if your company is in the world. It is. Our. Goal. Was. Told. Africa is going through seismic changes few country stands out because its considered so successful why is the. President of ghana nanako full auto talk to walsh is here. At this time. December on aljazeera we look back at twenty seventeen through the eyes of five families have been affected by some of the big stories of the year in an increasingly polarized world people in power sheds light on the darkest abuses of Authority Ten days of comprehensive coverage about Nuclear Arsenals around the globe and the impact they have on the diplomatic stage a special program dedicated to this years Nobel Peace Prize laureates i can and their pursuit of a Nuclear Weapon free world and we look ahead to the big stories that could dominate the headlines in twenty eighteen. December on aljazeera. Over a hundred and sixty years ago a musician started a band in an arty street in cairo. The brass band was so popular it gave birth to an entire musical genre. Century and a half later the sound still resonates with many egyptians today. The peoples music at this time on aljazeera. Im come out santamaria these are your headlines now on aljazeera egypt has launched a military campaign in sinai after two hundred thirty five people were killed in an attack on a mosque a bomb exploded and gunman fired on worshippers president of the father of sisi has now promised to respond with quote brute force. This this tragic event act of terrorism will make us more robust more strong in our battle against terrorism we cannot be intimidated i will result cannot be dented we will remain more united will win this event the Egyptian Army will take revenge and they will restore order and security with an iron fist in the following days. In other news in barbaras new leader emerson man and god has been sworn in promising to create jobs to stamp out corruption and compensate white farmers as well whose land was seized during the rule of former president Robert Mugabe argentinas president says he expects search teams to find his navys missing submarine within days but he didnt say whether the navy expected to find survivors the san juan went missing nine days ago off the coast of southern argentina with forty four crewmembers on board and hopes for any survivors are fading. Canadas Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau has apologized to people from the indigenous communities who were forcibly separated from their families but twenty thousand children were taken from their homes between the one nine hundred sixty s. And nine hundred eighty s. And placed a need to foster care or with nonindigenous families the trumpet ministration has decided to allow the palestinian Diplomatic Office in washington d. C. To remain open and had previously said the officer would be shot because palestinian leaders called for the International Criminal court to prosecute prosecute israel over illegal jewish settlements the us said the statement was a breach of its laws in response the p. L. O. Threaten to cut all communication with washington functions of the office will be limited both in ninety days and the jury is ailing leader Mohamed Bihari is facing a challenge for the twenty nine thousand president ial election from a former ally. Who is a former Vice President and quit the ruling party but is now considering running against bihari spent weeks in the u. K. Receiving medical treatment for an undisclosed illness back with you a news hour in about twenty five minutes time here on aljazeera right now that we return to child soldiers reloaded. When i live in a kurd everything changed. The contractor content of the armed forces went up astronomically at this hour american and Coalition Forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm iraq. Ideologically republicans my party wanted every single Public Function to be scrutinized analyzed evaluated and if possible privatized general shinseki the head of the us army at the time testified to congress and said if were going to do iraq its going to take several hundred thousand u. S. Troops and very quickly the rest of the Bush Administration reacted negatively and hes absurd thats crazy its not going to require those amount of troops and they actually simply drummed him out of the military it turned out he was right we did deploy several hundred thousand forces it was just through private military. So in the early days of iraq it was a gold rush you had companies coming out of nowhere including blackwater who was really like a cowboy a wild wild west where nobody had any control anybody doing anything with firearms in this country could say their private military company. Was an a. T. M. For these companies well the basic idea of a contractor versus recruiting. Training in supporting military vets is that there is room hiring a prostitute or getting married. So instead of a soldier who has an extra cost of a year now being a contractor whos being paid eight times ten. Well what has happened is that america has basically married a prostitute and has been active in them for a very long period of time theres a lot of this you. Want. You to keep with you its not invade a country is going to be a good thing. But none of you know right you just go to run the government im working with you on this and we will get a real mummys or its a. Contractors offer some gray area benefits to politicians everybodys concerned like we have a thousand boots to the ground nobody ever asks how many contractors there is dont like our boots on the ground. Here so if the u. S. Military wanted to put one thousand boots on the ground and theres four thousand contractors its a way of you know having force of five thousand but without politically risk. That. Should mean. Theyre shooting at you next to you yes yeah it was not. Intended and bang bang so did did you get a skirt shoot for that shine for you know a ricochet to his car. And thats exactly. What i might do something right once. The Security Companies had the sensitivity of something as civilians would often if not always. Get caught in the crossfire. What governments have always done is they would do two things at once. You fight and you win hearts and minds. Private and she took it didnt do that. Try this comes on the ground opening fire they were very very noticeable they would play rock music that you know this was not there was no subtlety to this this is not a even the military with most discreet than the five Security Companies and so they were as they were very very public slap in the face for the average iraqi on a daily basis. To a real problem for the military so we sell the contractor presence in iraq in particular but afghanistan too was becoming contrary to what the mission was for the armed forces there for their presence was more danger than it was help. How we do it. And we turned around the traffic circle. Their truck trying to get away with. The problem was that we had all of these different private military Companies Running around we outsourced to quickly and they work or needed both in contract terms but also in on the Ground Operational terms so what is your answer to a problem of outsourcing. Outsource more we outsourced it to a private military company to coordinate. These uses contracts in iraq and was to oversee the communication coordination for all of the privacy of your companies on the ground. In effect it meant that they were the general in charge of all of the private contractors. Now that point the u. S. Military was the largest machine presence in iraq but he added together all of the private military contractors spies was effectively in charge of the second Largest Armed force in iraq. The prisons in iraq was relatively stable for years one. Video which was posted on you tube from a contract so who is. Following a gun while playing rock music. On its way. But no legal actions were taken. Very rapidly each is such a machine huge company. And it made to spy certain extremely healthy man. The majority of americans now think it was a mistake to go to war in iraq public support for the war is falling war americans want the troops to come home. In a brief ceremony on a base on the edge of baghdad the United States took down the flag of its command here to mark the end of the military mission. The u. S. Money was starting to be pulled out of the iraqi. Field operations and the industry had to go through a very complicated reset. Those companies had to realize that they werent going to get that level of money again and so they had to offer different. Deals. That meant they would have to hire cheap the soldiers. Would move to move. One of the long haul to war. Yeah. I. Dont want to go so mad. And. Already use you. And if youre hardly going to show. You would have done it. By witnesses. Im going in and. Out. Of my. Whats. The story could. It be long sleeve could see. Them. Better than. I did. Before harm. Innocent people. Or for us to. Drop bits. Sometimes they will give you just my church which is not shop we are by even if you can. See it will whatsoever depressing can feel it more than the experts in here you know the. Story the life. That i think when i was just. Work undertaken but he just is carried out to high standards of functional competence and integrity when we first started into theater we were briefed on peruvian and colombian guards and the natural question you ask is so what do you pay for these folks and you know at the time and im playing off memory cells but im pretty good at that that was about a thousand to twelve hundred dollars and them oh i dont know six months a year ago it became. God and guards at about eight hundred dollars a month and we douse the question of Security Companies because of those lowest price technically acceptable rushed to the bottom thats what some call. White whale gone its now versus proving some columbia im sorry so we dont have a chance to get the award unless we use a god and because there are two to four hundred dollars less and now on this most recent trip the company that is winning all the awards that had this lets first start heard of well weve got a good strategy were using Sierra Leonean just so you ask the question so what are we paying informants but two hundred fifty dollars a month. You know i guess rhetorically i dont expect to be answered you know to come and go lower can we find someone its like well do it for boardroom you know that has such a terrible country that maybe theyll just go out of the country and be a Free Security guard i mean thats pretty inexpensive i say that it sounds facetious but its real. No you get what you pay for. The original goal was not to bring soldiers or exogenous from the poorest countries on earth but the u. S. System requires that you pick the lowest bidder so that became the status quo in iraq to have multiple layers of foreigners as long as youre in the army and you meet certain criteria and sometimes you dont have to be in the army to meet this criteria. Companies self interest is different than National SelfInterest Companies are profit maximizes what they do thats not trolling. Right now. What do you do if you know you have somebody from the philippines working for an American Private military company in afghanistan who kills somebody what jurisdiction does that person fall under we dont know. In about fifteen countries ive been involved in programs to reintegrate children who have served in armed forces. Its a contradiction in terms on the one hand western countries have pumped large sums of money into the reintegration of former child soldiers but now we have governments like us supporting these socalled Security Companies that recruit people and continue their exposure to violence and their identities as perpetrators of violence and as soldiers that make it impossible to ever reintegrate into civilian life. At one time when the came into account kill a lot of. Hours on top of the time. Looking down we had to explain. I think about doing when people are dying on the street. Explosions all over the city and i. Had a gunshot had a bomb all watch a very explosion i think about my going to watch happens every four. When we brought you not. The first team for. Iraqi. And intended to become. Full force. The. The. Shut down and i remember. The wall and this is whats happened in sudan you see. You know. If youre running to come you cant do. That fighting for what our lights are what they want to fight you for you that. I feel is that you often dont use you know this is not good well because the one. Justice you dont have. It may seem like an actor for a while it is not young people in sierra leone have no jobs theyre desperate to feed themselves and their families and result is that it becomes harder and harder to ever find their way back into civilian life and saying they plant seeds of violence wherever they go. It is well known that young people who have extensive histories of violence and being fed drugs and manipulated over time to develop problems of impulsivity high levels of aggression. You know we pride ourselves on being a moral people trying to do the right thing what were doing is were exploiting people using young people who have been child soldiers the lubberly sung them into the jaws of combat and further violence nothing could be worse for these young people nothing could be worse for security. Theres a close connection between this industry and policy makers. These private military firms really poach retired general officers and from the armed forces. Because they have connections. I say that it sounds. Its real. You get what you pay. For the Security Industry will continue to act. Youre going to see five companies. That. People care a lot when and if a dead soldier or dead marine shows up in this country and we start asking ourselves why did they die why what were they fighting for nobody bothers to ask about that contractors. Every american who serves joins an unbroken line of heroes im awed by their sacrifice. When in good time and not allow anything im going to im i am going to im not im not you when you bag you in kind of men have thermal coming in the family unit. Who to be got in on me what they need a guide. Theres no one going to go out and protest in the streets of a contractors kill. Country still exercises its Foreign Policy the use of force and violence in these four regions but is using proxies contractors third Country Nationals and in obscurity their role. You think it is that you get into that in the record i did some missions here well end up in afghanistan its really your money and your tax money. Doing it but make sure the politicians dont get in trouble. Private military contractors make a decision to go to war a lot easier. As part of ending a war responsibly is standing by those who fought it. The new era in television news. And those insights into to do things in secret that are on the list we had actual victims who had survived torture detention and saying this was the cause of my arrest if you could. Just stay with us. I got this conviction that everyone has a deep reservoir of time im going to have to give them the opportunity and wonderful things start to look at the actual distance theres at least twenty thousand for him to refugees who live here we badly need at this moment leadership and so theres an interesting about that as resides donald trump is going to be the next president retaliation were going to go. Back shes very canisters of gas subsidies i believe it best to prevent the media getting anywhere just give her a call that. He achieved something that never happened before. Welcome to look at the weather across the americas in north america weve got some snow across eastern parts of canada but otherwise weather conditions are generally quite at the moment pleasant enough down in Miami Florida highs of twenty six draw and ok temperature wise for this time of the year for new york and washington we have got an active frontal system pushing towards the Pacific Northwest some snow over the rockies some rain there for seattle hasnt quite strong winds further south it should be dry for San Francisco fine conditions across the southwest there with twenty five years of my so in los angeles theres a head down into Central America here weve got fine conditions across much of mexico extending down towards cost amala how many losing the rain which is hit jamaica weve seen vast amounts of rain coming down here three months of rain in the space of twenty four hours still some showers around but nowhere near as heavy as weve seen heading through into sunday still showers affecting jamaica also some heavy showers for western parts of cuba and also the bahamas so head down into brazil ten to showers around the amazon basin at the moment also this frontal system just affecting more southeastern parts of his ilk clearing through rio de janiero this area of rain there becomes more i have across parts of paraquat but further south it should be fine in buenos aires with a maximum temperature of twenty seven. Young rich and famous in china one of the news goes behind the great chinese fire wall to meet the cyber celebs of a booming multibillion dollar business. But this time on aljazeera. This is aljazeera