Shortly after entering the city, they get stuck in traffic, and their small convoy is ambushed. Sign up for our free daily newsletter, along with occasional offers for programs that support our journalism. Corporations are fictional entitiesthey only act through their personnel, explains Miles. Locations: Summerfield FL, Ocklawaha FL, . KATY HELVENSTON: I think thats total garbage. There is not a whole lot of jobs out there for ex-Special Forces guys, and obviously he didnt realize that at the time. 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? Helvenston's contract By the time I got the message hed already been killed., Shortly after Helvenston left that message, the men left the base and set out for their destination. He spent twelve years in the SEALs, four of them as an instructor, and then tried his luck with Hollywood. AMY GOODMAN: When was it after the killing? If you think Democracy Now!s reporting is a critical line of defense against war, climate catastrophe and fascism, please make your donation of $10 or more right now. units, but Blackwater didnt provide them with the maps to go in the G.P.S. And he wrote me back and said, Hi, Jeremy, Im the appropriate person to deal with on this, and he said he would entertain my questions and go over them with counsel. Well, he was a Navy Seal for about 12 years, and he resigned from the Navy, and times got tough. The thing was see, I mean, they wouldnt even give him a map. There should be three men per team. AMY GOODMAN: An excerpt from _Frontline_s program Private Warriors, documentary on the role of private military contractors working in Iraq. KATY HELVENSTON: Well, apparently he had the audacity to suggest that maybe there was a better way of running these certain missions, in that the people who were subcontracting out with Blackwater would actually survive the mission. The suit alleges that the four men should have had a chance to gather intelligence and familiarize themselves with the dangerous routes they would be traveling. So they announced there was going to be a memorial service after you made the call to the head of Blackwater, asking for an incident report. Scotty chose Blackwater, because they had a two-month contract, and he could be back home. And I think that, you know, when we talk about Iraq corruption, a lot of times its Halliburton overcharged for this or Bechtel did this. They were told that they were able to do a pre-trip inspection of the routes and be able to familiarize themselves with the area before going on routes. Altogether an estimated 20,000 non-Iraqi civilian contractors are now working for the United States inside Iraq. Later that night, according to Scotts mother, McQuown came up to Helvenstons hotel room. tn_subject: ['criminal-j', 'society', 'us-wars-an', 'war-and-pe', 'war-on-ter'], He would have to reimburse any monies that had been paid to him, and he was on his own to get home. For most people, the gruesome killings were the first they had ever heard of Blackwater USA, a small, North Carolina-based private security company. KATY HELVENSTON: He refused to even speak to me. After the killings, Katy Helvenston joined the families of Mike Teague, Jerko Zovko and Wesley Batalona in grieving and in seeking details about the incident. He is currently a Puffin Writing Fellow at the Nation Institute. On March 30, 2004, Helvenston, Teague, Zovko and Batalona left Baghdad on the ESS security mission. Were also joined by Katy Helvenston, the mother of Scott Helvenston, who was killed that day, March 31, 2004 in Fallujah. We do not accept funding from advertising, underwriting or government agencies. KATY HELVENSTON: That exact incident. In honor of Public Media Giving Days, a generous donor will DOUBLE your donation, which means itll go twice as far to support our independent journalism. I wrote an email to Gary Jackson, the president of Blackwater. Helvenston began training at Blackwater USA's facilities in March 2004, and developed a personal conflict with head trainer Justin "Shrek" McQuown. And so, then I started I had never read any articles. I couldnt believe I was talking to the man. 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. And theres all sorts of Scott speaks to us posthumously through his email, and I just want to read from this. All this was shady enoughbut the real danger for Helvenston and the others lay in Blackwaters decision to cut corners to make even more money. And at that point, Scotty was desperate for money, and he went in there. And I had turned off the ringer on my bedroom phone, and he left this message, and he said, Mom, Im okay. Thats the only thing they understand, she says. 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. So the next morning they were off.. AMY GOODMAN: Were going to break, Katy. What we have right now is something worse than the wild, wild west going on in Iraq, Callahan says. He was an incredible athlete his whole life. After the training session, Helvenston got on a plane to Kuwait, where he touched down on March 18. We will not be intimidated, he said. I went up to him, and I tried to shake his hand. They have no respect for the families. Promised Iraqis Justice. I would support them in any way I could, but they had to figure out how to get through college. Helvenston arrived for training at Blackwaters North Carolina campus around March 1, 2004. By signing up to receive emails, you agree to receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation's journalism. And Erik had a check for the Zovkos. About 6,000 of these are security contractors. They have no values, they have no morals. And the people he had been with in Kuwait City, all of a sudden he was no longer working in that team. KATY HELVENSTON: I called Blackwater at about 7:00 at night. And so, in that whole pyramid scheme, what you saw was Blackwater had a subcontract with this Kuwaiti company, and the Kuwaiti company had the contract with E.S.S., so the contract with E.S.S., the company that provides the catering services, said explicitly because there is a very serious security situation in Fallujah it actually names Fallujah as one of the cities these men need to be traveling in armored vehicles. Katy, of course, can talk about how Scott ended up going there. JEREMY SCAHILL: I think, just in closing, you know, this is such an incredible tragedy, and whats clear from this the allegations in this lawsuit is that it really appears like it was preventable. units for the Middle East. My family wouldnt let me read any of the articles, they were so graphic. AMY GOODMAN: And so, were you able to talk out of the presence of the guards? Lay out this story. KATY HELVENSTON: Erik Prince told them that they would have to sue Blackwater to get that information. KATY HELVENSTON: It was a brand-new area. Im gonna take care of you. You know, just stuff like that, which obviously wasnt true. And then you are sending them in undermanned. JUAN GONZALEZ: When were you officially notified that it was him? KATY HELVENSTON: I was in my home office doing research, and I was on the computer and I had CNN on. (In fact, the suit contends that Blackwater fabricated critical documents and created a pre-trip risk assessment after this deadly ambush occurred.), The men entered Falluja with Helvenston and Teague in one vehicle and Zovko and Batalona in the other. JEREMY SCAHILL: I was very diligent in trying to get Blackwater to make any comment. According to the suit, McQuown lacked the credentials of Helvenston and other ex-SEALs. Full Interview: Frank Mugisha on New Anti-, Former Guantnamo Prisoners Ask Biden to Let Them Keep Art They Made to Escape Inhumane Conditions. Hooyah! The fact that these four Americans found themselves located in the high-risk, war-torn City of Fallujah without armored vehicles, automatic weapons, and fewer than the minimum number of team members was no accident, the suit alleges. }); In the Oval Office the killings were taken as a challenge to Americas resolve, according to the Los Angeles Times. On April 17, President Bush spoke at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Justin Timberlake voices King Arthur, Fiona's distant cousin and next in line for the throne of Far Far Away after Shrek (who understandably just wants to return to his swamp). And each family was assigned a guard, literally, and it was to me, it was just so bizarre, because we were being watched 24/7. AMY GOODMAN: What about the other families? AMY GOODMAN: Did they say it was Fallujah? And by the end of the year, the companys president, Gary Jackson, was bragging of what he called a staggering 600% growth, and so Blackwaters prospects were very, very strong while the families were grieving. AMY GOODMAN: How did you hear that Scott had died? It is one of the most infamous incidents of the war in Iraq: On March 31, 2004, four private American security contractors get lost and end up driving through the center of Falluja, a hotbed of Sunni resistance to the US occupation. The man heading the training was Justin McQuown, nicknamed Shrek, after the green ogre movie cartoon character. Domination, Sing Your Song: Remembering Harry Belafonte, Who Used His Stardom to Help. Name. In the presentation, called Managing Contracting Risks in Battlefield Conditions, Capace laid out a legal strategy for deflecting the kind of lawsuit Blackwater now faces. AMY GOODMAN: But you did meet at the memorial service. The article is called Blood Is Thicker Than Blackwater. ease arkansas phone number According to Callahan, there was a safer alternative route that went around the city, which the men were unaware of because of Blackwaters failure to conduct a risk assessment before the trip, as mandated by the contract. This was not a roadside bomb, it was not any other explosive device. But we couldnt hear anything, because there were these two helicopters that were flying, I mean, just a couple hundred foot over our heads. 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. Shortly after George W. Bush was re-elected in November 2004, Gary Jackson sent out a mass celebratory e-mail declaring, Bush Wins, Four More Years!! AMY GOODMAN: Each of you in separate hotels? Scottys not going to die in vain, says his mother. And I called them, and I said, Thats just not acceptable. They deleted the word armored. And Marc Miles says that in doing that, Blackwater was able to save $1.5 million. Justin's ethnicity is Caucasian, whose political affiliation is unknown; and religious views are listed as Christian. Katy Helvenston, your response? Mr. Rumsfeld answered that Iraq has its own domestic laws, which he assumed applied to those private military contractors. AMY GOODMAN: At the memorial service for your son? It was like $19,000-something. Without the big gun, without the third man, without the armored vehicle, they were sitting ducks, says Callahan. Hidden Potential Official Site. His family is linked in with Richard DeVos, the Amway founder who basically funded the Republican revolution of the 1990s. We rely on contributions from you, our viewers and listeners to do our work. Blackwater, in turn, was billing a Kuwaiti company more than $800 for Scott Helvenstons services, and then that Kuwaiti company, in turn, billed a Cypriot company called E.S.S., which was the company that provides catering services to military operations, basically the U.S. military bases. It was about what happened to Scotty and Jerry and Mike and Wesley. PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Yeah, I appreciate that very much. The other two were kept behind at Blackwaters Baghdad facility to perform clerical duties. When they finally said Blackwater, I thought, and I just looked up on the internet and got an 800-number, and I called them, and I said, My name is Katy. I said, Scotty Helvenston is my son. So what this lawsuit is about, its about creating accountability for those firms, those private military firms that are working in Iraq, and its also not only about holding Blackwater accountable for these four deaths, but its also about sending a message to the other private security firms out there that they cannot cut costs to increase their bottom line and put lives at risk. Is he okay? And they said they didnt know. He said, Give us a map. And they said, Youre going to have to wing it.. Unbeknownst to Helvenston, this goal would drive a series of events that would ultimately lead to his death. And whats important here is that the lawsuit alleges that because of Justin McQuowns personal animosity toward Scott Helvenston, he intervened to have only four men sent, that only four were sent on Justin McQuowns order that day, instead of six, and the other two were held back to perform clerical duties in the Blackwater facility in Baghdad. The company has been slapped with a lawsuit that, if successful, will send shock waves through the world of private security firms, a world that has expanded significantly since Bush took office. And, Katy, I know this is difficult for you, and its the first time youre speaking out in a live national broadcast, but I would like to step back for a minute and have you tell us about your son Scott. KATY HELVENSTON: Yeah. At 17 he made history by becoming the youngest person ever to complete the rigorous Navy SEAL program. Thats why this case is being watched so closely by other firms operating in Iraq. COL. JOHN A. TOOLAN: Unfortunately, it was going out on CNN. And they said contractor, and I was thinking of maybe they were working on the pipelines, oil lines or something. MARTIN SMITH: By the time the press arrived, a mob had set the cars on fire. Justin J Shrek, age 31, Summerfield, FL Search Report. Since the team was driving without a rear-gunner and did not have armored vehicles, the insurgents were able to literally walk up behind the vehicles and shoot all four men with small arms at close range, the suit alleges. But instead, they missed that turnoff, and they ended up driving straight through the center of Fallujah, and it was as they got through the middle of town that they got stuck in traffic, that they were ultimately ambushed. While some of that may be legitimate defense tactics, the lawyers argue that the company has actively prevented court-ordered depositions from taking place, including taking steps to prevent a key witness from testifying: John Potter, the man who blew the whistle on Blackwaters removal of the word armored from the contract and was subsequently removed. But they had put all of the news stuff in a closet, and I pulled it out, and I got the names of the other three families. Blackwater is being sued for the wrongful deaths of Stephen Scott Helvenston, Mike Teague, Jerko Zovko and Wesley Batalona by the families of the men slain in Falluja. He was told at that time that he was not going to be doing security for the ambassador, Paul Bremer, and he was going to escort a convoy of trucks to pick up kitchen equipment. MARC MILES: Well, its important and its groundbreaking and its precedent-setting, because were working in such a unique situation here, where we have private American companies working within a war zone. KATY HELVENSTON: Yeah. KATY HELVENSTON: Well, I had been in contact with the Zovkos, primarily out of Cleveland, prior to that. I mean, thats I knew it was him from his looks, everything. An analysis of Princes contributions prepared for The Nation by the Center for Responsive Politics reveals that since 1989, Prince and his wife have given some $275,550 to Republican campaigns. Blackwater is able to operate over there in Iraq free from any oversight that would typically exist in a civilized society. On the one hand, you have the allegations that Blackwater systematically defrauded these men by not providing them with the armored vehicles, the weapons, the adequate personnel for the mission, the opportunity to do a pre-trip risk assessment, etc., all the things that Marc Miles has laid out. Helvenston et al. Well, that left Scott no choice. Well, Scotty chose the military, and he wanted to continue his education through that. We can send our men out to die so that we can pad our bottom line, and if anybody comes back at us, we have insurance. Its essentially insurance to kill.. Company founder Erik Prince and his family have poured serious money into Republican causes and campaign coffers over the past twenty years. He is the writer, with David Riker, and a producer of the documentary feature filmDirty Wars, released by IFC Films in 2013. They had breakfast, lunch, and dinner with us. Blackwater is scooping up lucrative Homeland Security contracts. When they took that word armored out, Blackwater was able to save $1.5 million in not buying armored vehicles, which they could then put in their pocket, says attorney Miles. Blackwater and Regency had essentially wrestled the ESS contract from another security firm, Control Risk Group, and were eager to win more lucrative contracts from ESS in its other division servicing construction projects in Iraq. They said it was the direct line. They were vulnerable and obvious. Blackwater has not offered a rebuttal to the specific allegations made by the families, except to deny in general that they are valid. Helvenston arrived in Kuwait on March 18, where he was under the management of John and Kathy Potter, whom he knew from Combat Missions . Erik Prince and his late wife gave $275,000 since 1989 to various political candidates, not a single penny ever to a Democrat. Had they had a rear gunner, had they had armored vehicles, a very strong case could be made that they never would have been killed. tn_author: ['jeremy-s'], Blackwater sent my son and the other three into Falluja knowing that there was a very good possibility this could happen, says Katy Helvenston, the mother of 38-year-old Scott Helvenston, whose charred body was hung from the Falluja bridge. A new firefighter goes through the academy, is shown all these big hook-and-ladder trucks and pumpers and engines, all this equipment, and then is told to run into a burning building where a family is inside, but is given nothing other than a squirt gun. And we welcome you all to Democracy Now! They had some rocks that they had kind of shaved off, and they had the name of each one of the men. had a contract with Halliburton with K.B.R., the subsidiary of Halliburton. And then, when we come back, I want to ask you about your request for an incident report from Blackwater to understand what had taken place and also about a memorial service that Blackwater held, and well continue this discussion.
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