Well, Scotty chose the military, and he wanted to continue his education through that. In one of its few statements on the suit, Blackwater spokesperson Chris Bertelli said, Blackwater hopes that the honor and dignity of our fallen comrades are not diminished by the use of the legal process. Katy Helvenston calls that total BS in my opinion, and says that the families decided to sue only after being stonewalled, misled and lied to by the company. There is not a whole lot of jobs out there for ex-Special Forces guys, and obviously he didnt realize that at the time. There was a local minister that spoke, and then Erik Prince spoke. JUAN GONZALEZ: Now, even in the training period at Blackwater, he began to find problems in terms of the quality of the training that was going on? One point that I want to make, though, that I think is important is Katy Helvenston talks about the way that Erik Prince and others from Blackwater have dealt with these families. And at that point, they were on the east side of Fallujah. With regard to the wrongful death of these four men, that face is Justin McQuown of Blackwater. The company refused to comment on the case, but McQuowns lawyer, William Crenshaw, told The Nation there are numerous serious factual errors in the lawsuit, saying, On behalf of Mr. McQuown, we extend our sincerest sympathies to the families of the deceased. This is what delegation - I dont mean to be dodging the question, although its kind of convenient in this case, but never- I really will. They made a killing off of New Orleans. [includes rush transcript]. Mr. Rumsfeld answered that Iraq has its own domestic laws, which he assumed applied to those private military contractors. And just like any town in America of 20,000 to 30,000 folks, youre going to have situations where there are crimes committed and wrongful conduct. Historical Amnesia About Slavery Is a Tool of White Supremacy. He had a job waiting for him, but he needed to make some money in those two months. Unfortunately, what they didnt know was that there was a much safer route that took them around the north side of Fallujah. I mean, clear as day. tn_loc:'atf' v. Blackwater Security is the lawsuit for wrongful death filed by the families of the four contractors for Blackwater Security (since renamed Academi) murdered in the 31 March 2004 Fallujah ambush.The families of the four men, led by Scott Helvenston's mother Katy Helvenston-Wettengel and Donna Zovko, Jerry Zovko's mother, filed suit against Blackwater with lawyer Daniel . So I sent Blackwater about 23 specific questions, and from that first email that Chris Taylor sent me, I never heard back. McQuown refused to allow it. MARC MILES: Well, what were going to prove at trial is that because Blackwater essentially cut corners and because of this personal animosity that Justin McQuown had with Scott Helvenston, they werent allowed to gather intelligence and do the pre-tip inspection and all of the things that they were told that they would be allowed to do and that is actually represented in the contracts for the mission that they were doing work under. When we cover the climate emergency, our reporting isnt sponsored by the oil, gas, coal or nuclear companies. It is unusual, though, for the head of a company to cast its lot entirely with one party, and it has paid off, because Blackwater literally is making a killing right now, to the point where Gary Jackson, the president of Blackwater, after Bush won the election in 2004, sends out an email to Blackwaters mailing list that says, Bush wins, four more years!! AMY GOODMAN: An excerpt from _Frontline_s program Private Warriors, documentary on the role of private military contractors working in Iraq. I called every hour and talked to them for like 15, 20 minutes, and Scotty had been so good about calling me and emailing me, and I kept thinking, you know, he would have called me and let me know he was okay, because he knew how worried I was. The suit alleges that Blackwater trainer Justin "Shrek" McQuown resented Helvenston and deliberately reassigned Helvenston to the team that was ambushed. There was a manmade pond with brand-new bark, you know, cypress bark. Kathy Potter told the News and Observer that Regency would quote ESS a price, say $1,500 per man per day, and then tell Blackwater that it had quoted ESS $1,200. ESS then contracted with Halliburton subsidiary KBR, which in turn billed the government an unknown amount of money for the same security services, according to the paper. JEREMY SCAHILL: Per day. Before Helvenston, Teague, Zovko and Batalona were ever sent into Falluja, the omission of the word armored was brought to the attention of Blackwater management by John Potter, according to the families lawyers. K.B.R. AMY GOODMAN: Marc, I just want to interrupt for one second. KATY HELVENSTON: Well, Jay Price, who writes for the News & Observer out of the Raleigh-Durham area, had come down and talked to me, and he wrote a series of articles. All four guards were shot and killed. Blackwater seems to understand money. PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Yeah, I appreciate that very much. Shortly after entering the city, they get stuck in traffic, and their small convoy is ambushed. MARTIN SMITH: By the time the press arrived, a mob had set the cars on fire. tn_keyword: ['academi', 'security-c'], KATY HELVENSTON: It was probably 24, maybe 30-some hours before he was murdered. Can you talk about that a little bit? The insurgents made their own video of the aftermath. Initially they put us in separate hotels. The suit further alleges that McQuown intervened and ordered only a four-man team be sent, although six were available, the other two remaining to perform clerical duties. He spent twelve years in the SEALs, four of them as an instructor, and then tried his luck with Hollywood. Thats whats very upsetting. JUAN GONZALEZ: Marc Miles, I would like to ask you, obviously there have been about 425, now, Americans who have been working for contractors who have been killed in Iraq. You can read our Privacy Policy here. units, but Blackwater didnt provide them with the maps to go in the G.P.S. Blackwater has fought to have the case dismissed by claiming that all liability lies not with the company but the U.S. government. Scottys not going to die in vain, says his mother. What Blackwater is trying to do is to sweep all of their wrongful conduct into the Defense Base Act, says Miles. Scott Helvenston, Katys son, was the youngest Navy Seal ever. JUAN GONZALEZ: Jeremy, in your article, you talk about some of the contracts that you were able to get copies of, where actually Blackwater was subcontracting to others, but in their contract they deleted certain provisions of the protections of these men, and the men actually complained about it, the superiors complained about it. Would he speak to them? Blackwater has not offered a rebuttal to the specific allegations made by the families, except to deny in general that they are valid. Helvenston Et Al. Katy Helvenston, thanks for joining us, and condolences on the death of your son Scott. AMY GOODMAN: And then he was in a Survivor-like program called Combat Missions? Now, back in the United States, these killings were taken as a threat or a challenge to Americas resolve in the White House and immediately became a sort of turning point in the war. Lawyer Paul Dickinson: The U.S. The lawyers for the families charge that Blackwater has continued its practice of stonewalling. And Blackwater has only scratched the surface of it.. He thought that was a really funny thing to and he was so glib and just blew it off. And Donna, she misunderstood where this money was coming from. Scotty had tried to call me in the middle of the night, Katy Helvenston remembers. Callahan says that if Blackwater and McQuown had done in the United States what they are alleged to have done in Iraq, There would be criminal charges against them. What happened between McQuown and Helvenston was no mere personality conflict. Is he okay? And they said they didnt know. Ill only be away from my kids for a couple of months. Thats why he chose Blackwater, she recalls. Blackwater had told all of us that none of us wanted to communicate with each other. They do not deny that the men were aware of the risks they were taking, but they charge that Blackwater knowingly refused to provide guaranteed safeguards, among them: They would have armored vehicles; there would be three men in each vehiclea driver, a navigator and a rear gunner; and the rear gunner would be armed with a heavy automatic weapon, such as a SAW Mach 46, which can fire up to 850 rounds per minute, allowing the gunner to fight off any attacks from the rear. But then, theres something else that all too often gets left out of the mix here, and that is that tens of thousands of Iraqis have died in this war, and they dont have a voice in the legal system here. correspondent Jeremy Scahill. Full Interview: Frank Mugisha on New Anti-, Former Guantnamo Prisoners Ask Biden to Let Them Keep Art They Made to Escape Inhumane Conditions. He is the writer, with David Riker, and a producer of the documentary feature filmDirty Wars, released by IFC Films in 2013. For its part, Blackwater is represented by multiple law firms. Those were all misrepresentation. Erik Prince and his late wife gave $275,000 since 1989 to various political candidates, not a single penny ever to a Democrat. [6] tn_subject: ['criminal-j', 'society', 'us-wars-an', 'war-and-pe', 'war-on-ter'], People should understand, Scotty Helvenston wasnt even in Iraq for more than 48 hours before he was sent to Fallujah. And thats the type of conduct at Blackwater that were dealing with. And he came up to Scotts room a couple days before Scott was murdered and got into an altercation, and he took Scotts gun away from him. AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go for a minute we only have a few minutes to a comment of President Bush about private military contractors operating in Iraq. The producer Paul Howard says Bohm merges, into his [] It was a simple thing, really, that kicked off Suresh's career shift. Hidden Potential Official Site. And the insurgents knew that it was a fairly easy mark. By signing up, you confirm that you are over the age of 16 andagree to receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nations journalism. KATY HELVENSTON: Yeah. Explore Scott Helvenston net worth, bio, age, height, family, wiki, birthday, career, salary [Last Update 2021]! According to the suit, McQuown lacked the credentials of Helvenston and other ex-SEALs. freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ But I can imagine that there may be other lawsuits to follow if these companies dont shape up and actually realize what theyre dealing with here. And I presume that thats the defense that Blackwater is going to make. In its motion to dismiss the case in federal court, Blackwater argues that the families of the four men killed in Falluja are entitled only to government insurance payments. Marc Miles, why is this lawsuit groundbreaking? KATY HELVENSTON: Yeah. Beast, he was the only contestant to defeat the beast, outmaneuvering a chimpanzee in an obstacle course. We rely on contributions from you, our viewers and listeners to do our work. Justin McQuowns nickname, according to documents weve gotten and to other people who were in Kuwait and Iraq at the time, was Shrek, after the green ogre character, and it doesnt sound like he was too popular of a guy and really sort of targeted Scott Helvenston. And I said, What do you mean you dont know? And they said, We dont know. And I said, Well, dont you know where your employees are? And they said, Not really., And I was on the phone. And they did approach the Zovkos and asked if they would meet Erik Prince in his office, and they did. None of that was true, says attorney Callahan. Were joined by Jeremy Scahill, who did the piece for The Nation magazine, out today, Blood Is Thicker Than Blackwater, appearing in the new issue; Katy Helvenston with us, mother of Scott Helvenston - today, she is speaking out in a national broadcast live for the first time -; and Marc Miles, attorney for the families of the four men, the Blackwater contractors killed in Fallujah. He didnt want to give up his gun. The suit further alleges that McQuown intervened and ordered only a four-man team be sent, although six were available, the other two remaining to perform clerical duties. In fact, Blackwaters then-general counsel, Steve Capace, gave a workshop last May on the subject to an International Super-Conference for contractors. Katy, of course, can talk about how Scott ended up going there. KATY HELVENSTON: Yeah, and all this fresh bark that had just been laid was just flying all over the place. I was thinking of construction when they said contractor. And a couple hours later, they said security contractors, and I said, My god, Scotty is a security contractor, but hes not in Fallujah. After Terminal Cancer Diagnosis, Daniel Ellsberg Reflects on Leaking Pentagon Papers & His Legacy, Daniel Ellsberg Warns Risk of Nuclear War Is Rising as Tension Mounts over Ukraine & Taiwan, Zooey Zephyr, Montanas First Trans Lawmaker, Speaks Out After Being Banned & Silenced by Republicans, Rising Tide of Fascism: Tennessee Rep. Justin Jones Warns of GOPs Growing Embrace of Authoritarianism, Courage Is Contagious: Zooey Zephyr & Justin Jones on the GOPs Silencing of State Lawmakers. Altogether an estimated 20,000 non-Iraqi civilian contractors are now working for the United States inside Iraq. AMY GOODMAN: Were talking about a groundbreaking lawsuit against Blackwater, the security contractor in Iraq. What happened that day, as far as you have been able to understand and as your lawsuit alleges? The suit alleges that there were six guards available that day, but McQuown intervened and ordered only the four to be sent.
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