now billions more than a $1000000000.00 in u.s. government contracts to an area for over 12 years and yet a scathing u.s. state department investigation found that blackwater quote was over billing the state department and manipulating personal records its guards were partying drinking and even crashed an armored car and saw themselves as quote above the law pretty damning the u.s. state department saying this but the company they've given contracts to over billing and manipulating we never paid any fines for anything like that and that's effect you paid fines for a lot of things the only thing we paid a fine for it was a elation and i gave an example of the o.t. said the only thing you paid a fine for you paid $7500000.00 fine and 2012 to settle 17 criminal charges you paid a full $1000000.00 settlement are a department in 2010 for illegal arms sales. 2012 it already sold the business i saw that in 2010 but the cases go back beyond 2010 the criminal charges raided all sorts of things that went back years including south sudan you broke u.s. sanctions to try and sell weapons to south sudan knowing going to there's no weapons in south sudan there was a proposal on the mineral you never put

a proposal on table to salvage his government $100000000.00 actually the issue there was a satellite phone so you did put a proposal on the table to salvage his government no wonder what the state department complained about then that was back in 2005 was a point in actual a very dangerous satellite phone the same thing you can buy and he threw dutifully we can argue about the fines let's just deal with this report the u.s. state department said you were manipulating personal records over billing the state department and your gods were partying drinking and even crashed an armored car a state department best occasion in 2007. look we employed thousands of people and i would never say that the men were perfect we didn't employ angels we employed veterans who volunteered to serve their country again in a very dangerous place and like i said 41 of them paid the ultimate cost and hundreds more were seriously wounded it's amazing that when you say we didn't employ angels we employed veterans but right now you want to do it all again that's the problem is it not. well here's the thing after after 17 years of war ok where

the united states is spending more than the entire you gave the budget defense budget just this year and still losing in afghanistan i think it's time to look at a different way i want to talk about afghanistan but just before we get to your afghan plan i just want to get to what drives you when you kind of come up with these plans to do private security especially at these muslim majority countries because you yourself have referred to the people your men were fighting in iraq as barbarians who crawled out of the sewer you say in your memoir these were the chanting barbarians american troops have been sent to liberate sure if you people that think it's ok to drive a car bomb into the middle of a square in the middle market place while to attempt to kill an american and in doing so they kill dozens and dozens of civilians absolutely that's barbaric which is true i think if you've read charity called whatever you want but you said these were the chanting barbarians american troops have been sent to liberate you weren't sent to liberate terrorists sounds like you talk about iraq yes. sir look this very day was for you remember the decision this is.

the u.s. decision to go to. liberate iraq from saddam hussein who did a lot more horrid things than we can even speak of here that was certainly the intent i certainly had no role in that policy decision ok but you don't you don't believe iraq is above areas of you know but i believe that terrorists that car bombs in the city square certainly are ok you're proposing now to privatized the u.s. led war in afghanistan you suggested replacing almost $50000.00 nato troops and private contractors with 2000 u.s. special operators. and $6000.00 contractors and you want to cut spending that you think by $30000000000.00 a year which sounds great and i think one thing we can definitely groom is we both think the afghan war is not going well and has been a bit of a failure but given 140000 nato troops couldn't control that country would defeat the taliban back in 2011 what on earth makes you think that a few 1000 contractors are going to do it now under your command because after 911

and we take you back in the 5 days after 911 happened when president bush had a war cabinet meeting up at camp david the pentagon the best thing that the most expensive military in the world came with was a missile and some bombing strikes and then a conventional invasion via pakistan the following april case literally while the headquarters of the pentagon is still smoldering the best the u.s. military came with was the most conventional and most cumbersome approach it was the cia that said money authorities the right people who were going after the taliban and that worked ok less than 100 special operators cia case officers paramilitary guys in s.f. guys backed by air power. and they smash the taliban and they are all peoples of them but that's fine you topple them you have control of the country because more than 6000 people sure but then the united states repeated the soviet battle plan so it's not i believe in battle plan that 6000 people can do what 140000 couldn't show i'm not an expert on mouth but that seems we did well here's the thing you have

15000 u.s. troops there now there's about $7000.00 nato and another $30000.00 contractors so i'm not advocating a privatization of advocating a rationalization at a significant cost savings the way the us has been deploying there they send a unit for 7 or 8 months they spend the 1st 2 or 3 months getting to know the area and then a couple months they're very productive in the last month they're ready to pack up and they lift and shift and they go home ok and then you rinse and repeat you do that again and we've done 30 plus rotations of troops like that you know and as you have no continuity instead i would take the same special forces veterans that have been working there from the u.s. from nato and the usa and not angels. these are the same people the u.s. military and nato has been spending sending there for the last 17 years but the difference is as a contractor they can go in attached to the same unit and live in the same valley and live and work and train and fight with those guys with afghan counterparts month after month for years so they have that continuity is that 2nd resume the afghan government they don't like your plan they say it's

a nonstarter they said on the most circumstances would we allow the war to become a quote private for profit business to form afghan president hamid karzai said even when the opposes your proposal i think you would say differently if you asked him now i literally asked his office on friday and they said they're dead against it. well i've talked to other people i've talked to other people his office who disagree with. the current office and government here's a change their position is well. under no circumstance i doubt very much that ashraf ghani will win the next election but you're waiting for a change of president to get your plan. here's the thing if they don't do a plan like this if there is not a skeletal structure support supporting the afghan forces the next president going to wind up like knowledgeable that did the problem is the way you pitched it is doing was helpful to tell the afghans we're going to be like quote the east india company which violently ruled india on behalf of the british empire in the 18th and 19th century was it wise to talk about having a viceroy in charge of the country i mean you know hiding the fact that this is

a colonialist project when you use language like that but here's the thing the united states has no one person that's in charge of afghan policy there's nobody that the president can turn to and say why is afghanistan after this and. yeah sure that doesn't help he doesn't control the military his intro the intelligence funding he doesn't control if i agree with do you think you know wanting someone a vice or in charge of east india company is going to go down well with brown folks . look for 250 years that security model largely work of mostly local forces with a few professional mentors only acting as a structure support but the difference is i'm not there as a colonial power these these these mentor. right the contractors and special forces veterans are serving as adjunct in the afghan forces accountable to the afghan ministry of defense and of course the president if they're flying aircraft we actually found to see the aircraft where the contractor never makes the weapons release decision it is always the afghan but he flies the plane. safety pilot ok in 2004 in afghanistan a blackwater pilot flying a plane with u.s.

soldiers on board flew the plane into the side of a mountain he crashed the plane into the mountain killing 6 passengers on board including 3 u.s. soldiers the captain's last words this blackwater employee flying the plane his last words were i swear to god they wouldn't pay me if they knew how much fun this was you were paying him eric prince he'd only been in the country 2 weeks have you your employees learned any lessons from that horrific incident before you go back into afghanistan sure we operated 56 aircraft there safely for many many years we flew tens of thousands of missions safely the difficult thing is when the your customer asks you or tasks you to change your route so that the colonel on board could go view an enemy area on the way to as a deviation from the plan navigation accidents happen that's right it's a dangerous and yes there's an additional 200000 safety board on the u.s. military both said the blackwater provided is sufficient oversight and guidance to the pilots involved in the crash the widow of that colonel says that there was

gross lack of judgment in managing this company who was managing the company at that time in 2000 full i just told them the former operations officer of the former operations officer 60 of the most elite helicopter you know in the world so yeah people that definitely understand aviation were in charge of the u.s. military the national transportation safety board criticised your company its role in the accident and they reinstated this and we were flying missions again within 5 days of that incident gray needed a very good job bush administration that's got nothing to do with the culpability that your company had for the deaths of those u.s. soldiers they didn't die at the hands of the taliban they died at the hands of blackwater they died at the hands of an accident made by a pilot flying in a very difficult area i mean blackwater executives were e-mailing each other at the time the e-mail came out said by necessity the initial group hired to support the afghanistan operation did not meet the criteria identified in e-mail traffic and had some background and experience shortfalls overlooked in favor of getting the requisite number of personnel on. told to start up the contract you're saying

internally your own company's admitting to each other these guys on experience but need to get the contract up and running is this what you want to replicate in afghanistan now the pilots flying the mission that day had come from alaska they or they were literally high country bush policies are not people that are flying in the over the swamps of florida they were flying on when you were executives e-mailing each other saying that we have experienced shortfalls but we need to get the contract up and running what were they saying that because the transportation because the army material command was demanding the missions to support the missions here's the families felt no no no no trying to serve a customer in a very difficult place we flew tens of thousands in hundreds of thousands of missions after that safely and no incidents ok let's go to our panel here in the oxford union sean mcfate is a former private military contractor former officer in the u.s. army a professor at georgetown author of the book the new rules of war sean you've said u.s. generals have loft eric's plan for afghanistan you've called it unworkable and even magical thinking why blackwater if this was

a job interview i would not give you that contract because blackwater was simply a body guard shop in iraq you've never raised or deployed a military like your advertising now i have in places and it takes hold it's a lot more sophisticated than just mentors in the field it doesn't quite require up to political leadership in kabul and they've already had message that they don't support this this is a dead deal in my opinion well and that you're mistaken because we built the entire afghan border police it was 15000 people we did all the recruiting the training the vetting and we actually had mentors that went the field with them and the success rate of these units when our guys were allowed to go with them effectively as training wheels their success rate went very very high and it worked ok so you know i guess i'm the only guy that can say i've had 56 of my own aircraft in country doing that kind of work for the u.s. military ok ghaith abdul-ahad is an award winning guardian journalist. from iraq you've covered conflicts in iraq afghanistan yemen and beyond gate how do the iraqi

people remember blackwater and erik prince in your view i mean it's amazing to kind of sit here and listen to eric and speak of a block or so in the services they did in iraq because the word blackwater is synonymous with the worst of the american occupation of iraq that is not a single iraqi that i you know i mean i'm one of those barbarians that was liberated by your country but there is not a single you who would you just mention the word black was as to who would not say corruption violence and i'm not talking only about the kind of massacre but i'm talking about the whole 10 years of the existence of these muslims and i think part of the failure of the american the project and out of was due to the using of the continent is it not is a major problem that you could concede that even if your plan is a good one you shouldn't be the one doing it given the legacy you've left behind with certainly here is the thing your your math is a little skewed because the us didn't invade iraq till 2003 i sold the company in

2010 so that's certainly not 10 years the company and the company traveling what we we tracked all the vehicles where everybody was moving ok and there is dozens and dozens of times that it was brought up there was a blackwater event here blackwater went there and we didn't have people within 200 kilometers of that location the sad thing is blackwater became white clean actually became winded you know why because you became this because what we were the largest one doing you know because you were very worthwhile mission is the reason i mean you gave the work i mean in iraq now or in yemen or any of these places they don't use the word contractors something they use blackwater in yemen in wherever in somalia they don't use mercenaries ok so you've been in afghanistan reaches a lot of if you're reporting do you think afghans will welcome this plan that eric is putting on the table. i've met administrator in office wills high security officials of the count of one of them astray sions opposition and some of your own friends in afghanistan and all agree on one thing it's not going to work and i

agree with you totally the 17 years have been to 2 ways the fall of the you know copy. of the soviet plan this is something we agree on however we're not getting government officials are not talking to the minister you're talking to all the letter either mistaken i meet with dozens of afghan officials both in and out of the government from all over the country be they go tariq back. and the warlords write all the people that are going to be voting in the afghan allies so we're going to get american to go one more person one more level we need to come in colonel tim collins is here tim you once commanded british troops during iraq you gave that famous speech that a lot of us remember in 2004 you quit the army and founded new century a private militia consulting company how would you evaluate what happened on his watch what's the hold it a different thing i think what we have to remember and indeed i've discussed this with that many times with the u.s. state department the u.s. military asked for services they encouraged they were enthusiastic to

a point of hysteria that blackwater go into these missions when it went wrong they ran a mile and so you have to look at those people and say at a point where there was chairman of the joint chiefs of staff were visiting the facility and encouraging more and more of these services to be privatized and that always and when things went wrong they turned their back on you saying the prince about what it was scapegoated by the u.s. government well i think that as a result of the rather expensive court case that you've been through i think that was the conclusion in the end is that the criticism i as a contractor would level is that blackwater and the organization probably grew too fast there was people who went initially. we were of the highest delta force seal team 6060 some of the people who are coming in at the end of nowhere near and it's a question of who supervising them because the people when we look at them who were

in court and convicted we're not of the quality we're not of the few how did they get there how did they get there while we're hearing paul quality circle 2 of the end of your beat in iraq well because there's literally not enough delta force or seal team 6 or even seals for that matter to do that mission you go to marine infantry or army infantry the one fair characterization that i will say is. blackwater did 2 types of missions you work for the state department they dictated you must drive a polished waxed suburban a big issue be armored 11000 pounds lights and sirens down the road and when you drive the same route every day that the state department tells you to it's very easy for the enemy to set up an ambush you keep saying gauge when ambushes just to be clear for the audience one study found that you black hole to open fire 1st in 84 percent of the shootings is a little defensive because you're. ok but it's not just a matter of the enemy opening fire with a firearm to attack they open fire with

a trigger switch and they drive up to you and destroy you mean literally but there's also you know a 1000000 strong as it's 9 year old children taken away from work whether it's hamas in palestine in pakistan afghanistan or iraq bad guys like ambulances with explosives and kill innocent people not in the cases i cited we're going to take a break in part 2 we're going to talk to erik prince about some of his work in china and his relationship with the trumpet ministration and we're going to hear from a very patient audience here in the oxford union join us apart to. october on just. this month marks a year since the merger of the genders. maybe has some see these are big interviews are back to telling the. world leaders experts and environmentalists will assemble in ice to discuss the future of the. planet.

examine us as well. and we'll bring you coverage of the announcement of the 20 nobel peace prize. october on al-jazeera. hello i missed the how with the top stories on al-jazeera saudi arabia's crown prince mohammed bin saleh has spoken publicly for the 1st time about the murder of journalist jamal khashoggi he told the c.b.s. program 60 minutes that he takes responsibility for the killing because it happened under his leadership however he denies any personal involvement this week marks one

year since she was murdered inside the saudi consulate in istanbul this was a heinous crime like a loser but i take full responsibility as a leader in saudi arabia especially since it was committed by individuals working for the saudi government. when a crime is committed against a saudi citizen by officials working for the saudi government as a leader i must take responsibility for this was a mistake and i must take all actions to avoid such a thing in the future. u.s. president donald trump says he wants to meet his accuser as the push for impeachment proceedings against him gathers pace trouble made the revelation in a tweet saying the accusations are totally inaccurate and forgery and it's over a phone call in which trump asked ukraine's leader to investigate his political rival joe biden all secondary school students in hong kong us skipping classes to take part in a rally on the eve of celebrations planned in china to mark the 70th anniversary of communist party rule you're watching latest pictures from hong kong where the

protests are now in their 17th week hong kong's metro stations and roads have now reopened after a weekend of that saw police fire water cannon and tear gas at protesters who in turn set fires and through petrol bombs. yemen 3 of the fighters have released what they say is video of several trips surrendering including saudi soldiers the operation is said to have taken place in the border town of nashville saudi arabia is yet to comment on the matter. a palestinian prisoner support group is it using israeli security forces of torturing a bombing suspect a lawyer for simeon says he's now on a respirator as a whole as a hospital in jerusalem protesters turned out in ramallah on sunday in support of argued and other prisoners accusing israel of barbarism and at least one person has died after a fire broke out in an overcrowded migrant camp on the greek island of less boss protesting refugees and migrants at moria camp are demanding to be transferred to

mainland greece well those are the headlines now it's back to head to head. welcome back you're watching we head to head on al-jazeera english my guest today is erik prince the founder former c.e.o. of blackwater also a big supporter of and donor to president donald trump erik i want to talk to you about your relationship with present moment but before i do just very briefly your currently executive deputy chairman of frontier services group f s g a hong kong based security logistics firm that you found it why is f s g opening a training center for security guards in of all places province in china where up to a 1000000 muslim we are being held in basically concentration camps right now there is a lot of mis reporting on that the company is not opening any training facility up there that was actually discussed at a board meeting the reporting got it wrong the only there is a some kind of memorandum signed for construction services now training the company

doesn't do any training of any police or security forces why did i say that at all why did your company say it was establishing training facilities it was going to sign him or you for construction without a press release march the 2nd with your name on it for contract now my name we are going names on the press release your names on the press to me several times and it says i've got the press release. china establishing training facilities and buying security equipment in vehicles. again it was for construction services this training facility if you look at the actual translation from mandarin to english it was structured services the only other is we don't need only as your company's english press release when in reality the only training service is the only thank you that. is for people like bank of china employees or china airlines employees because they travel the world and they go to dangerous places it's how you are wearing people in should know their presence was wrong there is the company has 0 footprint in china so it's not establishing the training facility

it said it was establishing a march the 2nd 2800 in english language press release. the board has discussed this twice in there is not $1.00 or r. and b. allocated for anything like that ok and you've got nothing to do with what's going on with the week of muslims and 0 ok but you do have a lot to do with the chinese government so for someone who sees himself as a great american patriot veteran navy seal america 1st donald trump support isn't all that you do so much security business with the chinese government which is seen by many including by president trump as a major geopolitical adversary of the united states and that way it is not a conflict again the company doesn't do any security perceval does some training for people to avoid being a victim of a terror of a terrorism is that it's there is no blackwater sorry no no. you're right there is no way no official employee that's armed doing that kind of secure working in china your hong kong based the majority of your shirt if you really really come to me as a chinese owned is it not it's well it's retail investors everything from mutual

funds in their currency chinese own yes or no i don't know if it's a majority but there's a lot of chinese ownership sure how much your company or the executives deputy trade know it's publicly listed it's all publicly disclosed tell us the fact is the company does grocery delivery trucking all through southern africa we do medivac with the biggest medivac provider but there's no conflict between working for the chinese and working for the u.s. as you want to do now in afghanistan you don't think there's a conflict there but american patriot acts veteran look america is a big trading partner of china and helping china connected logistics lines for better trade i think countries that trade together tend to not fight together ok but against sure it is a form of private military contract to form officer in the u.s. army professor at georgetown university author of the book the new rules of war short is there a conflict of interest it is a concern do you think in washington d.c. where you are based yes there is a big interest so last year the national defense strategy which is the pentagon's strategy for the world shifted the 1st time in years away from counterterrorism

counterinsurgency into the threats of russia and china and we all know that china. uses its economic instruments of power to you know to to look at they did to sri lanka they took over a port as if they were a mafia don so it's not just economic trade there's also a darker aspect to it and many in washington see you as one of their sort of weapons of war and you're a chinese weapon of absolutely not and because we're not doing any kind of training building their tactical what about the leverage shown building about the economic leverage the fact is what does the company do now it does trucking in transportation from southern africa you can deliver groceries from cape town all the way up to the d.r. see we medivac we fly people all over the continent and we do significant air operations out of malta supporting hopefully oil operations in countries like iraq or pakistan or the hydro dams look the countries around the world with china shows

up a lot of money a lot of people to do infrastructure projects the russians are showing up with muscle and weapons the united states is largely missed the boat the one positive change the trump administration has made is it changed the law changed last october for opec the overseas private investment corporation the only part of the u.s. government that actually makes money and now they're shifted a huge budget away from the state department of opec so that it is managed and it allows more investment also a little bit of trade with china which might put you into different comes at the same time let me ask little tim collins this question is here you are a famous officer in the british army now you're chairman of your own private security consultancy new century how do you respond to critics who say when you run these private for profit companies you're only loyal to yourselves or to your bottom lines you're not loyal to a national government and that's a problem that's that makes you conflicted what's your response to people who say that well in the day there's a thing called international law nobody does anything on that side and if they do them then the the must be held accountable the difficulty is the only people who

will subject to allow themselves to be regulated all the good guys there are meshing reactivity. all over the world the reality is that many people in this room don't realize that many governments in the world particularly in pakistan india around the middle east maintain people who they pay and deploy as contractors and these are people who are committing atrocities they won't be regulated ok so let me put that point very briefly sean very briefly what's your sponsors point about regulation do you think companies like erik's are as regulated as they should be while i'm a little bit more skeptical about the power of international law in general about mercenaries because the thing about you know who is going to go into yemen and arrest all those mercenary at the u.n. and if so the mercenaries can shoot back they can kill your law enforcement and i'm not suggesting that erik's that would be eric's plan but eric as part of a broader trend of the rise of mercenaries what word is this and you know private

wars wars without states that's of and what if the us partakes in this area let me ask you this you're a big supporter of donald trump you've been questioned by special counsel robert muller over the russia gate investigation he looked at your laptop and your phones i believe you've also testified to congress in november 27th and you told congress under oath that you played quote no official or really unofficial role in the trump campaign what you didn't tell congress is that on august 3rd 2016 you were at a meeting during the campaign at trump tower with don jr trump son which stephen miller then a campaign advisor to trump with george nader a former blackwater colleague of yours who acts as a back channel to the saudis there moralities you're supposed to be convicted paedophile and also joel's and israeli expert on social media manipulation how come you didn't mention that meeting to congress given it so relevant to their investigation. i did as part of the part of the investigations i certainly disclosed in the ne meetings the very new i had on in the congressional testimony

you gave to the house we went through you didn't mention anything about august 26th meeting in trump tower they specifically asked you what context you have and you didn't answer that. i don't believe i was asked that question you asked whether any communicate for communications or contact with the campaign you said apart from writing papers putting up yard signs know what you said i've got the transcript of the conversation here. i might have been i think it was at trump headquarters or the campaign headquarters probably 2016 usable and israeli do a back channel to the emirates on the saudis don't jr and even militant were there to talk about iran policy you little iran policy thing that's something important to disclose to the house intelligence committee while you're under oath you did you didn't we just went through the testimony there's no mention of the trump tower meeting notice 2016 why not i don't know if they got the transcript wrong. or they got the transcript wrong so we could i don't know i remember i remember certainly does dismiss it that we didn't get you because we know that robert muller he hasn't

been able to establish collusion yet but he has got a lot of guys for lying to the authorities and not telling the whole truth is that the problem now even if you accidentally didn't tell them that could come back and haunt you fully cooperated i haven't heard anybody i haven't heard from anybody in more than 9 months i mean i mean members of congress after they discover this media have talked about certain witnesses not telling the truth but you believe you told congress about this meeting even if not in the transcript just to be clear i believe so ok you had another meeting which they did talk to you about in the seychelles on the 11th jahnu 2017 a week before trump's inauguration where good old george nader was there again on behalf of the as was top russian oligarch cheryl dimitri of a close ally of law to me putin's the emirates he stole that meeting as a as a way of creating a back channel between putin's guy dimitry of and trumps you didn't they. i don't think so i was there to talk to the iraqis about somalia and some of the other problem areas that we didn't help with before was also about iran you know

and it was so how did you end up with a with a russian oligarch who runs the russian direct investment fund and is seen by the admiralty as the messenger to putin they call him well i say recall the who are investors in that fund and any fund manager fun any fund manager tends to travel to where their lp their investors. need them to be but what we chatting about with the russian dude. i've talked about in testimony and that's all i meant to say but it was just a kind of accidental meeting. yes even though georgia nader your fund raising like i've said before it lasted one beer which doesn't take me very long. so you flew halfway around the world to a secret meeting in the seychelles to have one beer with. i was there to see the iranian leadership that's not what georgia nader seems to be telling the mother folks right now does that worry you that nader's country where you are a former colleague i think it's amazing for you to try to view into the miller testimony that it's my impression to i mean ok that's that's what that's what's

being reported ok. i want to bring in you mentioned iran interesting enough to bring in very briefly before we move on and i know the audience waiting ghaith abdul-ahad is an award winning guardian journalist from iraq you've covered conflicts across the middle east when you hear about the emerald t.'s and trump and the saudis and the israelis what is that all about i mean mentioned iran is this all about iran i mean of course we're living kind of people say it's a cold war it's not a cold war game or between their morality so these are the israelis and the iranians on the other side and what the minorities are doing for example in yemen and i think you work with the iraqis and you advise them at one point they are actually implementing your of understand plan so if you see the morality war in the end and it is tens of thousands of most reasonable forces with skeleton troops from the immoralities a war that is being followed so viciously with no accountability whatsoever with then the big arch of fighting the iranians who did exist in yemen have you

advocated using private private contractors to take on iran to the trumpet ministration you know you have people have accused of advocating the past you've talked about using private contracts to confront iran no no you see no role for blackwater s.g. in any relation to iran oh ok just to check before going to tell you what i've got asked one question last question you are part of a group of high profile trump supporters including steve bannon sheriff david clarke and others who are planning on raising private money to build a wall along the us mexico border you can have a go fund me page what i don't get though is i'm. pretty sure i heard donald trump say that mexico would be paying for the war. don't discount mexico actually paying for the wall i think most of us have but yet more and more news on that look there's a lot of places where it's federal land and in a go fund me individual effort is not possible but there's a lot of places where u.s. ranchers or u.s. landowners own land right up to the border they are sick of their farms effectively being massive transit spots for drug and criminal activity and so they would

welcome that the guy who started that is a triple amputee a military veteran who started it and he's raised more than $20000000.00 and the cost per the you for the last people for money when mick when trump told us more than 100 times people have counted that mexico would pay for the wall so why do we need you in this guy and go fund me page from lied to will because i again don't discount mexico actually paying for part of that. there are things that may happen that mexico end up paying he want is entitled to the will hurt can say hey mexico is going to pay for paul to the wall part very explicitly if mexico will pay for the wall the last chapter is not written on that mark my words you will pay for the wall so then why you fund raising. you want it both ways there is going to raise money because people are frustrated they're sick of frustrated that the president can't get mexico to pay for the wall 2 years into his presidency after claiming

there it is a national security issue when you have thousands of people crossing the border with a lot of drugs look america has a huge opium and you know the majority that in fact come through legal points of entry i'm talking about the funding trumps in mexico and from the wall did he lie to people when he said what used to be a bipartisan issue the democrats have made items that are to say that you didn't lie to us when he said mexico to pay for the well given your now trying to get americans to pay i don't believe the president has lied and like i said the last chapter of mexico paying for the wall is not done yet ok mark my word i will wait for them ok but in the meantime americans are going to pay for it through your fund raising let's go to our audience who's been waiting very patiently i'm going to go to the front here and i'm going to the back gentleman here with the band. being originally iraq and having spent some time in iraq i've seen how iraqis still shudder at the name blackwater reminded of the endless aggression the use of weapons as call homes or even the use of tear gas as call traffic control do you not think that blackwater has a role to play in perpetuating violence in iraq as well as laying the foundation for the creation of al qaida in isis there's 110000 iraqi civilians have died after

blackwater and involvement in iraq blackwater was not the problem in iraq a very sick tarion government dominated by iranian units that have been pounding on the sunni's and pounding on the kurds is probably the thing that led to the crop of basis but even if that's part of it most military experts into the us military experts agree that high profile incidents whether it's abu ghraib did help act as a recruiting sergeant for groups like isis that didn't exist before the u.s. invaded iraq so something like the missile square massacre that is still remembered in baghdad may well have done helped people say you know what i'm going to go join an insurgent group that's how americans treat of private contractors shoot 9 year old kids in the street shoot mothers with their children i think massive unemployment and an iraqi government that is you know when i'm not disputing that i'm agreeing with you i was saying when you discount them in iraq you sitting at home seeing the missile square massacre didn't think you know what i might as well

go join the insurgency this is how americans treat as innocent people no that's not you know look there is a justice a process that served there is actually accountability lots of investigation for that but like i said that's what i always want to ask that you don't answer the question as if iraq you sitting at home sees the missile square massacre you don't think that might incite him to join in a surge in there of course bad news travels fast and irritates people really about news is what this gentleman suggesting but we did not create 110000 iraqi civilians that were murdered ok. xabi and the iranian let's go back to the audience gentlemen here in the red tide. i'd like to ask what you thing some of president trump's greatest for and policy achievements have been thus far and what he should focus on for the next 2 years to secure reelection. well you know the president he campaigned against endless wars and the pentagon look there is a real military industrial complex but he's trying to stop that he is trying to

remove or reduce the u.s. presence in afghanistan and in syria he's been getting the north koreans to the table and if you can actually go she an end to the korean war it will be a magnificent 1st step and i think if that's if that's the case then the u.s. should be willing to pull all troops out of south korea and the u.s. presence in korea which we've been we've had for 77 years you're not a fan of iran is going to briefly should you negotiate with iran to why is it that iran is the evil regime nobody should talk to them but north korea i send them love letters he sends me love letters. to my knowledge i think there certainly is still back channel negotiations with the iranians as well but you know they continue to do. you know questionable things in syria ok let's go to let's go to the lady here in the gentleman there. hi this is also with regards to the august 3rd meeting of the 16 you said that you mentioned it in your task to need to the house

intelligence committee i have the transcript right here of the testimony on the 30th of november 2016 you didn't i could read from it if we don't have time for you to read the past so why didn't you why you why are you saying you did when you can have another go answering this question why didn't you mention it in your test i mean it was nothing to hide not all the discussion that there was trust transcribed and that's a fact ok your answers to the questions suggest that there was no involvement that they asked you for example have you had any me any meetings with the u.a.e. delegation prior to the official meeting and the august 3rd meeting was prior to say georgia now there is a representative. respond like i said not everything was transcribed from that discussion you weren't there. you've been very kind of i admire you be very forthcoming to that on this issue you're very i want to say much are you worried are you worried about milo no not at all now ok. let's go back to the audience let's go to the gentleman there. i was caught up in this was going back to covering

a story at the time was mayhem as you know we saw people getting killed my own brother was injured no we discussed this with you before but just going back one listens have you from it. if done things differently then if you knew what you know i'm sure i wouldn't i wouldn't ever do security for the state department again it just wasn't worth it it wasn't worth the damage or the horror of the company if we were going to do it i would have insisted like we did for any angio work that we did is that we have cameras ok because the camera serves as a 3rd party neutral observer because it's very easy to 2nd guess something that happens you know days ago or weeks or months ago but it's very different and you have to make a split 2nd don't say you're saying. hemmer is that the implication being that you don't accept you did anything wrong that i had there been cameras your men would be vindicated if that was not what you're saying to be explicit about look because i've been found guilty in american courts and in the courts you don't like but

they've been found guilty in american court after the 4th time of trying ok they've been found guilty in american court and we had numerous other incidents where there was a shooting and we were accused and when it was all square and we believe your men did anything wrong and when law enforcement authorities viewed the tapes there was no problem believing this was square human did anything wrong so very simple question in hindsight sure if it's an innocent civilian every innocent civilian that's killed is a tragedy is a horror and we try very hard to avoid that that's why 40 when 41 men died doing that mission shielding other people from enemy bullets who were trying to kill them and slaughter them or hang them in a grid and burn them going to some more questions lady there with a hand up do it for my friend to come to you yes i was a us television journalist in iraq during and after the invasion i saw blackwater people humiliate and terrorize iraqis. they were hostile to journalists and they were hostile to n.g.o.s why should you get

a contract to do the same thing in afghanistan thank you thank you how did you know that they were blackwater personnel very very clearly walking around not just driving cars walking around they were blackwater as journalists we knew who blackwater was let us know they were not soldiers they were blackwater if they were there was literally i'm sorry there was hundreds and hundreds of companies employing u.s. nato and other country veterans difference between the between blackwater and nato i'm sorry by saying i don't think you're that sharp that you can tell the difference between a polish guy a french guy or you name your that sharp to tell the difference well thank you thank you very much i did time to go but i'm sure you are going to

be very retract if you're going to agree before this because i would carry on with your i carry on with you wouldn't go to the debate with a tie in the suit. so i've got to be in war since i was in one fighting 20 international terrorist groups since 2014 the afghan national security forces have been doing this by themselves so how do you justify that you'll get a contract and go and do the war in afghanistan given that you're making money out of this business and you don't ever want to conclude this business there and one point please do us a favor and have a bold line between the centers of the democracy is totally up to the people of afghanistan to decide who is their next president thank you are you ready for. you after yourself and you believe the afghans don't want nothing like that's definitely not going to do with the 1st question about that that you have a self-interest in perpetuating the conflict as you get paid here's the thing the of the $62000000000.00 right now the u.s. spends $5000000000.00 supporting the afghan security forces $57000000000.00 is the

cost of u.s. presence there that's going away ok the support for the afghan security forces the airlift the medivac which is wholly inadequate right now because afghan soldiers are dying at a rate of $30.40 per day if there is not a scale to support supply provided to them how many cars i'm sorry ashraf ghani himself said the afghan forces will collapse in less than 6 months i say it's more like 6 weeks ok so there has to be some kind of capability to keep the afghan security forces operate and able to function so that afghanistan can actually have a free election and they should be totally free to choose their next leader i agree let me ask you this despite all the things you and black would have been accused of some of which we've discussed tonight but this much more you said in 2007 quote i sleep the sleep of the just i'm not feeling guilty just wondering is that still the case today you still have no regrets no guilt no ruined sleep at all over all those innocent lives taken by blackwater employees. look the fact is the company did what

it was asked to it was asked to protect protect we saved thousands and thousands of people we saved many many wounded u.s. soldiers well beyond the scope of the contract. ok we did what we were asked any any injury any civilian that's injured in a car crash or or actually having your 9 year old children shot in the correct and still since long after blackwater was involved 110000 iraqi civilians have been killed in that same conflict you know by buying companies over there when i have george bush on the show lost about his sleep i ask about the people your guys killed does it keep you awake at night we were asked to do a job and we performed very very well we'll have to leave it there thanks to our audience here in the oxford union thanks to our panel of experts who've come tonight and thanks to erik prince for joining me on head to head that's our show head to head will be back next week. international trade would you have supported having free trade with nazi germany or

the japanese or chinese dogs or germany controversial immigration policies that you want to as a well founded euro persecutors should be able to come as a welcome letter from syria he's closed the door to syrian refugees is that compassionate maybe his son goes head to head with a trump advisor. this year the trump deficit crosses a trillion dollars you'll be urging everyone not to reelect the will from not out of. and i once again the weather remains slushy said barack the middle east that some places a cloud around the caucuses from time to time little cloud unitas just down towards the southeast and cold of pakistan but elsewhere it does look lossy settled in sunny still somewhat sunshine about 4145 back that will kuwait city be getting up into the high twenty's once again with a pleasant twenty's therefore by route 7 to jerusalem with the hive around $26.00

degrees pushed further south and again that sunshine does continue coming in play event $39.00 celsius here and hostages chance of wanted to showers around the gulf of aden southern end of the red say western side of yemen otherwise it's largely dry bright and sunny still a little bit of clothes just around the little bit of cloud just around the coastal fringes of little changes that go through tuesday night as botches day slightly drive direction on our way in september just picking up to 40 celsius here and 41 in riyadh lots of sunshine on the cause a fair amount of sunshine into southern africa because some showers to just around the eastern cape 21 celsius here in dublin and 19 left the cape town as we go on into choose day that cloud right will push its way further race was warming up in harare to 31. in a country beset by poverty and lack of infrastructure. sometimes we risk our lives

in taking a deep throat's risk at saving lives even a dangerous job as a vaccine so it's only good for 24 hours there are patients waiting for his mother's house who must be in pain and lives for the risk of the recorder one of the gang stops some vehicles on the road that they can do it with weapons. risking you know guinea on al-jazeera. saudi's crown prince denies ordering the murder. but says he takes full responsibility for the journalists killing. fellow who are jazeera live from doha i'm off base also coming up. thousands of

students joined anti beijing protests in hong kong as the city's stock exchange lists the 2nd biggest stock offer this year. donald trump seeks a treason investigation against a senior congressman who's having an impeachment inquiry against the u.s. president. a national dialogue in cameroon aimed at ending a long running political crisis but there are doubts the main opposition leaders will turn up. the saudi crown prince mohammed bin sound man has denied ordering the murder of journalist jamal khashoggi in his 1st public interview on the matter he told the c.b.s. program 60 minutes he takes responsibility for the killing because it happened under his leadership but he denies any personal involvement. reports in his 1st public statement about the murder of sergeant journalist. principle.

knowledge is responsibility but distances himself from the murder the crown prince also known by his initials. brushed aside accusations he personally gave the order to kill the journalist. absolutely not this was a heinous crime. but i take full responsibility as a leader in saudi arabia especially since it was committed by individuals working for the saudi government turkish officials insist the killing was given by the highest offices in saudi arabia the concluded in his assessment the order came from the crown prince as international pressure on saudi arabia. put 11 suspects on trial and fired close aides to. the trial is held in secret.

and. the un special rapporteur. found out in her inquiry for the murder was deliberate but meditated and extrajudicial a report was dismissed by saudi arabia the crown prince is also facing growing calls to free activists who have been detained for months one such case is that of le jane i'll have little one of the most prominent female activists who fought for the right to drive her family says she was subjected to torture. if this is correct it is very heinous islam forbids torture the saudi laws forbid torture of human conscience forbids torture and i will personally follow up on this matter. and the meantime the crown prince faces more pressing issues drone attacks this month targeted critical oil installations not 5 percent of the world's oil supply the u.s. vanes iran describing the attacks as an act of war and d.s.

is calling for a tougher stance but draws a military option against iran. if the world does not take a strong and firm action to deter iran we will see further escalations that will threaten world interests all supplies will be disrupted and oil prices will jump to unimaginably high numbers that we haven't seen in our lifetimes saudi arabia also blames iran for arming the whole theory rebels in yemen more than 4 years since the start of the saudi led military campaign thousands of civilians were killed the u.n. says the humanitarian crisis in yemen is the worst in the world. 1st if iran stops its support of the who thing militias the political solution will be much easier today we open all initiatives for a political solution in yemen we hope this happens today rather than tomorrow. but fighting has spared. dashing hopes for and

a peaceful way out the crown prince in his interview with c.b.s. didn't mention the d.c.c. crisis at all the blockade imposed by saudi arabia and qatar has led to deeper divisions and to raise concerns of further instability in a volatile middle east saudi authorities have recently announced easing visa restrictions and dropping strict dress codes for foreign women to attract tourists and diversify an economy addicted to oil money though say these steps are the talent. to rebuild the image of the crown prince his reputation has been damaged by the murder of the mother and the war in yemen. or washington d.c. . well the turkish president right up to a better one has written an opinion piece for the washington post saying his country will continue to investigate the murder of jamal khashoggi in the peace president after one calls khashoggi his assassination not only a tragedy but also

a blatant abuse of diplomatic immunity noting that the murderers traveled on diplomatic passports and turned a diplomatic building into a crime scene and were assisted in the attempted cover up by saudi arabia's top diplomat in istanbul which set a very dangerous precedent he writes it's in our best interest and of humanity to ensure that such a crime is not committed anywhere again. right we hope to talk to our correspondent in istanbul in just a little while but in the meantime hundreds of people in saudi arabia have attended the funeral of king sound man's bodyguard in mecca major general abdul aziz al franken was reportedly killed in jeddah by a friend over what's being described as a personal dispute on saturday night the gunman was also shot and killed in a standoff with police after refusing to surrender.

hundreds of students in hong kong of joined a sit in protests just a day after violent demonstrations gripped the semi autonomous territory classes were boycotted as anti beijing demonstrations continue now into their 17th consecutive week despite the protests it appears to be business as usual in the financial district budweiser has made its debut on the hong kong stock exchange on tuesday china will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the people's republic of china let's speak to our correspondent adrian brown who's in the hong kong and adrian many people might think it's really weird they're seeing these scenes of complete and utter chaos and an often violence in the territory and yet budweiser one of the great big brands international brands has chosen to list itself there. indeed martin it is

a reminder i think that hong kong today is very much a tale of 2 cities yes here we have budweiser the world's biggest brewer listing on the hong kong stock exchange this is the biggest listing this year in fact and as i say a reminder that on some levels it is business as usual it really is a case of being in a parallel universe because come that weekend you start to get this sort of mob violence in some not all parts of the city it has to be said and then come monday morning it is very much business as usual and that is certainly the case on this monday and the fact that this brewer the world's largest brewer has decided to list on the hong kong stock exchange is a reminder that here in asia the hong kong index is probably the only index in asia that could handle a listing of this size because shanghai certainly isn't up to that yet neither is singapore or probably tokyo so it's another reminder that actually the leadership

in beijing still needs hong kong but it of course remains deeply concerned alarmed that the violence here is intensifying in many ways the scale of the protests are no longer as large as they were several months ago but the violence has become as i say much more intense and the violence we saw on sunday particularly here in the streets of one shy behind me as well as our movie and causeway bay i think served as an ominous portent of what could happen on tuesday when of course all of china apart from many people in here in hong kong will be marking the founding the 70th anniversary of the founding of the people's republic of china and i think that tensions on tuesday really are going to be very heightened and very wrong indeed and the police which numbers some $30000.00 the police force is going to be very stretched indeed because we understand there will be at least $6.00 to $7.00

protests taking place in different parts of hong kong many of them on cow loon side so it's going to be a very challenging day for the police in more ways than one marty all right thank you for that adrian brown live in hong kong. the u.s. president donald trump wants a leading democrat investigated for treason in a series of trance president trump said the house intelligence committee chairman out in shifts had lied to congress the president rose i deserve to meet my accuser especially when this accuser the so-called whistleblower represented a perfect conversation with a foreign leader in a totally inaccurate unfortunate way you'll say tweeted without citing any evidence u.s. house intelligence chairman adam schiff sly's were made in babson is blatant and sinister manister manner ever seen in the great chamber i want to shift question to the highest level for fraud and treason well as the president fights back against calls for an impeachment inquiry he says he wants to meet the whistleblower who

filed the complaint about his phone call to the ukrainian president more now from our correspondent andy gallagher. it was an announcement that changed the political landscape in washington betrayal of his oath of office because of a national security house speaker nancy pelosi wants reluctant to stanton pietschmann proceedings change her mind after a transcript of a call between president donald trump and president volodymyr as the lenski of ukraine was released president trump now stands accused of abusing his power undermining national security and inviting a foreign power to interfere in u.s. elections senior democrats on the intelligence committee say the trumpet ministration won't be doing itself any favors if it doesn't cooperate with the white house fight us on this i have to imagine they're going to fight this tooth and nail and yet even as they do with the more that they fight to try to prevent an obstruct the lawful functions of congress the more they're going to make

a case for impeachment on obstruction of justice of congress republicans and now rallying behind their embattled president saying donald trump was duty bound to press the ukrainians to look into allegations about joe biden's son hunter and his dealings with a ukrainian energy company trumps personal lawyer rudy giuliani himself an important player in the scandal is likely to be called before house democrats if he decides that he wants him to testify course not testify even though i think adam schiff is an illegitimate chairman this year's already prejudged the case if you want fairness here we've got to put somebody in charge of that committee who has an open mind impeachment proceedings are now moving at a pace that neither the republican party nor president from can control at the heart of all this is a report from a so-called whistleblower deemed credible by the acting director of national intelligence it's thought he or she may appear behind closed doors soon.