Transcripts For ALJAZ Child Soldiers Reloaded 20240713

Loud to end an important caveat though as it seems that normal one residence if you dont have a specific reason for having to leave the city youre not going to be allowed to leave still so its not like were going to see a massive exodus but this is a significant significant change and it does signal some positive movements meanwhile south korea is still on high alert over the outbreak its announced another big jump in new coronavirus cases the number of deaths from the virus in south korea stands at 7 after 2 more were announced on monday the Israeli Military has carried out strikes on gaza and the syrian capital damascus after the Palestinian Group Islamic Jihad fired 21. 00 rockets into southern israel to the groups members were killed in the strikes the group said it launched its attack after Israeli Soldiers fired on a group of palestinians killing one of its members forces in west jerusalem he says the israeli airstrikes came as no surprise. Well certainly the strikes inside gaza are relatively standard for this kind of escalation the kind of which weve seen many times in the last couple of years certainly of rocket fire such as this is typically met with an israeli round of airstrikes inside gaza the Israeli Military saying dozens of targets belonging to palestinian Islamic Jihad have been hit also saying that they struck what they said was a rocket team in preparation potentially for a launch of the palace in Health Ministry inside gaza saying that a group of 4 people were injured by a drone strike and that among the injured were among the group were a man and his wife less typical though is the strikes that these women she is also rarely admitting to having carried out inside syria it did however in november at a time when it assassinated a a Rocket Team Commander inside gaza as well as trying to carry out a strike against a senior Islamic Jihad figure in damascus it said at that point there would be further strikes against Islamic Jihad leadership in in the syrian capital if rocket fire continued so the immediate thought for many was is this a sign that they were doing just that in response to this latest round of rocket fire so far the Israeli Military is just saying that it struck a site which its calling a hub for Islamic Jihad activity south of the syrian capital one used for weapons research. Long serving president for it nothing big has won a 4th term in office according to initial results is taken 72 percent of the vote far ahead of his main rival the opposition says there were acts of fraud during the election. An earthquake has killed at least 9 people in turkey the 5. 7 magnitude tremor struck just across the border in the northwest of iran dozens of people were injured in both countries after more than a 1000 buildings collapsed off Duty Police Officers in haiti have exchanged gunfire with members of the armed forces in the capital Port Au Prince the confrontation started during a demonstration by Law Enforcement officers demanding better wages at least 3 of the protesting policeman wounded a sandstorm blowing off the sahara has caused transport chaos in the spanish Canary Islands thousands of tourists were stranded after all flights were suspended to and from gran canaria because of bad visibility flights leaving tannery for also stopped the Regional Government has declared a state of alerts and people have been advised to stay indoors those are your headlines the news continues here on aljazeera after child soldiers reloaded i will see you very soon. We will maintain the finest fighting force of the world has ever known the world has ever known the world has ever known never ever united personally having to defend people who would most it just are not the image that it conjures up in most peoples money. Its like any other thing in the Global Finance its just the military trade. Contractors totally turn to tom the ground. Why did i do to go to. The missing young government perspective the iraqi troop and was considered a good deal. In the article you were on the. 30 years. We have a mismatch between the way we magine war to be and the reality of the 21st century can we do a little more could we find someone and we do it for boardroom dont you get what you pay for. B. B. C. World service and u. S. Troops have left iraq america continues to maintain a high passes in the country with knowledge of u. S. Embassy in the world the situation in afghanistan has ensured crucial for International Troops to go under control over to the Afghan Forces the security situation really critical to the country. Sees throughout america. We are now stuck by my own stuff in iraq. This is a cat as it will come out as it will. So yeah i know but if i was this other funds or even friends most of it is gary samore and day out were going to have advanced. They now father and son right now down there tonight yeah. How many of the persons that youre sending out. You should be your child soldiers an icon 7 i got i can tell you that when you think i cant. I can tell you dealing with the many people im going to say i this and it is this and this. President inspecting. The sense. Of what. It will be the look. Cool enough to look at here. For a while and i will too. This is a traditional if you dont know fight with sticks in the spear with arrows thats the tradition if youre trying to simulate this many disorients them say well it could im sure but that isnt the case some may be critical of people who used to be fighting when they were very young that theyd all go to war you do think thats a problem not thats not her problem was not her from. Yes that must have shown before take its not phone boxes yes it must have. And even if they had started when they would fulfilled or theyre not 13 but thats not a program was much of a problem just as the job as they are here is carry on. When you send guidance well yes we fasted and they got the school fees training. The army never got in the summit and resorted to using a gun on because of the ideas being that people who isnt what youre telling them it would be to andy and as an english. Gun to shoot those who want to fight need gun one. Not. That it. Will give Companies Risk on common on tract as we sometime on onto them. Are 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 quit ill never leave a fallen comrade its the complete opposite in a private military world you look at the budget 1st the loyalty of these companies and these businessmens change depending on market forces. We operate in the worlds challenging complex emerging markets the middle east is absolutely cool for other business today. The sooner we can are in calif we perform into the right thing off. 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 the 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 fed i stepped my fits in iraq every did was a bomb and they bombed the village there is a rockets. Every day we have rockets fired. Every day how to gunshots every day a bomb in income an income in only good it bomb once you know whats you damage. 4 of our guards 4 of the civil union guys well trained guys assume i say original rock i called my mom i said mom im in iraq she said oh what i said im in iraq no no youre kidding i said no moment 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 yelling oh daddy. I said no mom there is no problem here we are saved we are not using weapons we are you here is does our convince my mom i said we are doing just domestic walk in iraq she told all the neighbors around so my son hes in iraq you know hes doing in cooking joe not in the in that we were born. Just after the war in syria you know i couldnt make it up because there was no job i didnt. And my friend calls me its told me thats a. Very civic and see they were recruiting guys socalled so its also iraq if you just use weapons and who are well trained in it come from. Comply on. The 1st time i arrive to to this Training Camp can plan i have together with that to 2 white men found from the security company. Went driving out in this small track 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 1st thing we see is this a gun an instructor was and shouts of the training out there making sure we could say lined up in order to receive these guys from the past security company. Their work my care for iraq was. Written back in from iraq you said that he needed. It what a shallow fighter who supposed to go to iraq not on ice you know more basic weapon issues only people that you cant be fighting between iraq. From a shell young government perspective the iraqi crude and was considered a quite good deal in the sense that they could actually take you know good troublemakers something away to back for a couple of years. And then returning them after 2 years with money and from that overseas deployment this could surf to stabilize you crazy in ca on. In the beginning of the Training Course that one looked real weapons presence so they were using the set i wouldnt sticks. It was fast after a couple of days and so the training that the weapons and riped and their well being lined up with and sables within in the middle of the big camp. I think. It was this tension and excitement also the tension mainly because now its actually getting into something very real ok me. For many have to be true this is the 1st time holding a weapon since the ending of the civil war. When they were starting to shake and some were even starting to cry when that when the souped up the weapons and not being able to to handle and. That day any day i will provide a compliant backing for iraq event. And memories come. From the past i thought that we were supposed to know when im seeing this when im talking. The most notable for now. What i did last. So supposed to have born again i said this is not my idea. What. I survive and i live where point. This young on what has been forth mainly by young converts. Looking for young men to perform military jobs the chance of a quite good that they have also been. I was its at 13. But you never can mean i think that actually. It took my foot a time when you put it under the rug. As you know i would grant. Me. Give you a they said with us you know i dont know whats right whats he talking about. To keep. Going on. No. Need to. Show you that you have the money to fund the fishing if not every day remember. Returned our few my father to my without next idea that i would keep. This its little im going to. Go. I said no i dont want a tree so i asked thats how good it is thats a used in this stuff you put it in my boat. My boat is that bond and i burn it in order and drop. This in the us to cry for water but the gun makes you forget about your mortar so i start says. Call my house. When i was young. At a lot of things that ive been scindia. A lot of there which is not good for human being. Or because. Of the job you have your command on this you go the people you have to do it by denny dont order you to have been killed. When we think of war and the war youre right we have this image and our mind of a man in 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 21st century they dont match those assumptions anymore now we have outsourced a lot of our war fare 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. It was until the early ninetys the private Security Industry is a dull commercial industry. Outright mercenaries who were bringing down governments for the cash can you explain what exactly sound fine internationally is and what you do and. Sunline. Is a company that provides military Consultancy Services for governments. For asians. 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 the british military. 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 would mostly i just dont like the image that comes out in most peoples mind the 1st time i met to spice i was interviewing him for a newspaper hes charming Public School educated god self so and that medievals it must be a feature they construe before and it changed the agenda of the global agenda almost a problem that your company was. Tim spicer was considered the respectable head of a mercenary organization but at 1st his Business Affairs didnt go too well he was dogged by failure for example he got a phone call from a fellow indian with a thai 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 sherrilyn 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 Companies Run by tip spicers focus on a couple 150 patients by customs and excise and hes accused of 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 as it was a true story. These things tended to happen says tim spicer a couple of times that hed always somehow managed to get signed the recently retired british gonna 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 heroes Sandline International well i think weve got a number of lessons to learn from this particular. Episode i think that we will continue to try and develop business as long as we can do it in a. Sandline eventually collapsed on the way to bed. Was that a failure in the short term you could say that was also a Successful Company in terms of delivering an enormous amount of money to its shareholders and so forth. It launched him spice on a career where he was able to found what would then become one of the most significant problem if you talk to me in the world. It is. That america is a region of wonder of joy tragedy and b. S. Of violence but it doesnt matter where you are you have to be able to relate to the human condition. I was in that isnt trying to bring their way into the National Assembly ive been covering all of latin america for most of my career but no country is alike and its my job to shed light on how and why. Of the passion for supporting local communities. And pioneering inoperative african science and Technology Projects how his child beautiful. Glorious are all of us on this planet not just us for aljazeera one as a leading by a chemist determined to use his scientific knowledge to say africa women make science from the lab to the field on aljazeera there is a huge group of people at work behind our screens and the power they have is massive that urge to keep swiping through a twitter feed thats designed the way we all click i agree to the terms and conditions just so most of us never even give it a 2nd thought and actually thats designed as well ali riggs floors how designers are. If you leave out a viewer in the final episode poll hell be algorithm on just 0. And Richelle Carey and these are the top stories on aljazeera u. S. President donald trump has arrived in india on his 1st state visit to the country is are live pictures right now i have where i am trump has landed and has a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi his trip is designed to boost. Trade ties at least an attempt to but also his reelection chances by doing 4 and a half 1000000 Indian American voters we will stay on that throughout the day chinas partly locked in quarantine restrictions at the epicenter of the krona Virus Outbreak allowing some people to leave the city of under certain conditions earlier for chinese provinces lowered their Emergency Response level to the outbreak at followed a reported slowdown in the rate of infection i am breaking news to bring to malaysias Prime Minister has resigned Prime Minister mctear mohamed said his letter of resignation to the king his party has left the Ruling Coalition we will get you more information on that as well south korea still on high alert or the outbreak and now its another jump in new coronavirus cases the number of deaths from the virus in south korea stands at 7 after 2 more people 2 more rather were announced on monday the Israeli Military has carried out air strikes on gaza and the syrian capital damascus after the Palestinian Armed Group Islamic jihad fired 21 rockets into southern israel 2 members of the group for killed in the strikes the group said it launched its attack after Israeli Soldiers fired on a group of palestinians. Togos president ford the same day has won a 4th term in office according to political area results it took 72 percent of the vote far ahead of his main rival the opposition says there were acts of fraud during the election president in the same days family has ruled that west african nation for 53 years. An earthquake has killed at least 9 people in turkey the magnitude 5. 00 quake struck just across the border in northwestern iran that is that people were injured in both countries after more than a 1000 buildings collapsed. The Police Officers in haiti have exchanged gunfire with members of the armed forces in the capital Port Au Prince the confrontation started during a demonstration by Law Enforcement officers demanding better wages at least 3 of the protesting policemen were willing to take him to the hospital or the headlines keep it here on aljazeera child soldiers reloaded continues. When 911 occurred 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 100000 u. S. Troops and very quickly the rest of the Bush Administration reacted negatively hes absurd thats crazy its not going to require those amount of troops and they actually simply dropped him out of the military it turned out he was right we did deploy several 100000 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 but nobody had any control anybody doing anything with firearms in this country to say theyre private military company. Was an a. T. M. For these companies 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 x. Cost of a year now being a contractor whos being paid 8. 00 times 10. 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 is almost sure to be. Good example of. Its nothing but a country is going to be a good thing. But none of the russians are searching around ok im looking. At this hour we will get a room full of these words very. Contractors offer some gray area benefits to politicians everybodys concerned like we have a 1000 boots the ground nobody ever asks how many contractors there is dont like our goods on the ground. So if the u. S. Military wanted to put 1000 boots on the ground and theres 4000 contractors its a way of you know having a force of 5000 but without politically risk. That we. Should do meaning. Youre shooting at you know it just you yes yeah it was not. Intended bang bang so you did did you get a skirt shoot 1st of it shot in front of you know you can reduce shade his car. And thats exactly. Right this is only right. If. The Security Companies had the sensitivity all of. The civilians would often if not always. Get caught in the crossfire. What governments have always done is they would do 2 things at once. You fight and you win hearts and minds. Private lynch a complete didnt do that. Try this comes on the ground opening fire they were very very noticeable they would play rock music that in this was not there was no subtlety 6 this was not a even the military would most discreet in the private Security Companies so they were as they were very very public slap in the face for the average iraqi on a daily basis. The. 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 therefore their presence was more danger than it was help. Knowing. Who. The police turn around and traffic circle. Theyre probably trying to get going. And. The problem was that we had all of these different private military Companies Running around we outsourced too quickly and they werent coordinated 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. Diseases contracts in iraq and was to oversee the communication and coordination for all of the privacy of your companies on the ground. And been effective meant that they were the general in charge of all of the private contractors. Now that point the us military was the largest machine presence in iraq but if you added together all of the private military contractors spies was effectively in charge of the 2nd largest on force in iraq. The prisons in iraq was relatively stable for years one. Video which was posted on you tube from the contract so who is. Following that gun while playing rock music. Being. Released. But no legal actions were taken. Very rapidly each is such a machine huge company. And it made to spy certain extremely healthy man. A 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. Were moved to move. Work. No woman will not go to war. d then i. Am. So mad. And you could. Always use you. And it is really hard to grow. Your food without it. And. Im gonna need. You got. What you need long. The initial story could see. It be long sleeve could see. Them. Better than long. X. People. Who. Drop bits. Sometimes they will give you just a march up which is not shop. Even if you can breathe. A little whatsoever the person can feel it more than you expect to hear more than. You. Destroy the life. Thats for when i was just. All work undertaken by the judge is carried out to high standards of fresh milk competence and integrity when we 1st 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 1000. 00 to 1200. 00 and them oh i dont know 6 months a year ago it became. God and guards at about 800. 00 a month and we douse the question of Security Companies because of the slowest price technically acceptable rushed to the bottom thats what some call. White while 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 2. 00 to 400. 00 less and now in this most recent trip the company that is winning all the awards that had this was 1st started heard of well weve got a good strategy were using Sierra Leonean so you ask the question so so what are we paying informants but 250. 00 a month. You know i guess rhetorically i dont expect to be answered you know can we go lower could 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 will 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. Bidding system requires that you pick the lowest bidder so that became the status quo in iraq to have multiple layers of foreigner 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 Self Interest Companies are Profit Maximizers what they do thats not troll. Told me i get from a few miles. What do you do if you know you have somebody from the philippines working for an American Private military company in afghanistan who can tell somebody what jurisdiction does that person fall under we dont know. d in about 15 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 they came into account to kill a lot of. Hours on top of the time. Looking down we had to explain. I think when people are dying on the street. The explosion is all over the city and off any time had a gunshot had a bomb or watch a very explosion i think about my colleagues who was happens every 4. Well you brought with you that. You faced him for. It actually. Intended to be. Full force. And i remember. Still dish the wall and the squats happened and she did you she. Was. Going off was. If you run a con you cant get. That fighting for what i want to have of you fighting for you that. I feel is that you dont use it you know its not good well to be close to one. Justice you dont have. It may seem like an act of free well 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 they may 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 deliberately sending them into the jaws of combat and for. Other violence nothing could be worse for these young people nothing could be worse for security. Theres a close connection between this this industry and policymakers. These private military firms really poach a retired general officer as an admiral from the armed forces. Because they have connections. I say that it sounds facetious but its real. Know what will you get what you pay for. The Security Industry will continue to act for. Youre going to see private companies neutrino gaging in warfare. 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 did what were they fighting for nobody bothers to ask about that contractors. Every american who serves joins an unbroken line of heroes i am awed by their sacrifice. Men in good time and no allowance and im going to lie im going to im not im not you when you bag you in kind of would our men have family coming in the family unit. Who to be got in on only what they needed got. 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 4 regions but is using proxies contractors 3rd Country Nationals and in obscurity their role. You see i do that you get into that in the record i do some missions here well end up in afghanistan its really your money and your tax money. Doing it but make sure that politicians dont get in trouble. Private military contractors makes a decision to go to war a lot easier. As part of ending a war responsibly is standing by those who fought it. How the snow stopped falling in turkey now but the residual rain is spreading across the levant itll head slowly south that satellite shows circulation the strongest winds are region thats where the showers going to go down to london youll notice something developing in northern saudi and also of course the eastern edge of the Higher Ground as we enter into iran now its going to keep going and enhanced the showers i think in saudi arabia even as far south as mecca i guess you kuwait to the south there that is remarkably warm a lot suddenly greens been 30 degrees in doha and but average around 33 in riyadh thats really quite a big climb and as the rate is slowly coming north by you know by surprise to see big white top plant there in d. R. Congo and there in angola forecast wise theyll tend to stay in that and that area got to gabble as well and if you go further south you see not only northern but southern parts of milan receive some fairly heavy rain in fact that street runs all the way down through zimbabwe towards botswana on the eastern side of south africa so forecast wise pretty widespread right and it still includes libya not discuss in coast but inland including wind took 24. 00 degrees and thunderstorms pretty good for february. But. Gives you an feel dead and did you get the peace prize too soon. Is this going to hurt or help Donald Trumps reelection chances it is very free money for you could shoot somebody on 5th avenue and not have any consequence this is not a muslim issue this is a human colony issue join me maddi hot sun as i put it up from questions to my special guests and challenge them to some straight talking political debate here on aljazeera. In 2009 a torture victim of the brutal arjen time bedelia regime confronted his interrogator who tortured no no no no not the older daughter until i was in target has justice now been served for the atrocious crimes committed decades earlier the idea of the true lord telling lies and investigation into the dark history of argentina why didnt they told me in the end rewind interrogating a torture on aljazeera. This is a domicile a mans 4th trip to boozy in 2 days the fisherman is using his boat to risk you as many people as he can was stranded in the flood hit area of the psycho to die struck mozambique i was up when i 1st saw women with babies on their backs crying for help saying they were dying i knew i had to do something i was late and from the dark a faint was still in the distance alerts us to people calling for help women children and the elderly are brought on board 1st hungry and thirsty it hasnt taken much time to pull the boat about 200 people have been rescued and more want to get on but this simply no space. Luke. Prime minister marks there mohamed and his allies announce their resigning in a shocking political people. Im Richelle Carey this is out there live from doha also coming up as President Donald Trump arrives at india his 1st state visit to that country. China says it will allow some people to leave the town of will han the at the center of the growing a Virus Outbreak but fears of a Global Pandemic remain. Israels military fires rockets into gaza and syria in response to strikes and blames on the Palestinian Armed group