At $21 million, it represented the companys biggest contract in Iraq. MARC MILES: I wouldnt be surprised if there are other incidents like this. I sent them, I think, seven or eight more emails, including one that just said, If you dont comment, youre not going to be represented in the piece, other than what I can find in the media, because these are very serious allegations, and it looks bad for you to not say anything about it. Justin McQuown is 50 years old and was born on 11/17/1972.Justin McQuown lives in Virginia Beach, VA; previous city include Joint Base Lewis McChord WA.Justin L Mcquown and Justin L Mcqvuwn are some of the alias or nicknames that Justin has used. Surely there are other instances like this one with wrongful conduct involved, but, of course, we havent seen one single prosecution coming out of any contractors in Iraq, and that is essentially the entire focus of the litigation here. mcquown in a sentence - mcquown sentence Bills a judge in Tampa, and I called Bill, and I said, Bill, I think I need to get an attorney. And he said, Yeah, you sure do.. They said it was the direct line. Why cant I have it tomorrow? And I said, Are you going to rewrite it for my eyes only? I mean and I never did get that report. Scottys not going to die in vain, says his mother. This April at a forum at Johns Hopkins, Bush was asked by a student about bringing private military contractors under a system of law, to which Bush replied, laughing, that he was going to ask Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, I was going toI pick up the phone and say, Mr. Secretary, Ive got an interesting question [laughter]. And this Justin McQuown was the instructor there at Moyock, and he was outraged that Scott had the audacity to even suggest that there was a better way. People should understand, Scotty Helvenston wasnt even in Iraq for more than 48 hours before he was sent to Fallujah. Once the cover boy on a Navy calendar, he also had several workout videos. KATY HELVENSTON: It was a brand-new area. He swam like a fish. AMY GOODMAN: But you did meet at the memorial service. Democracy Now! 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 . This is life and death were talking about here, and as Marc Miles says, the commodity that Blackwater deals in is human beings. Domination, Sing Your Song: Remembering Harry Belafonte, Who Used His Stardom to Help. They said Blackwater.. Find 1 person named Justin Shreck along with free Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok profiles on PeekYou - true people search. AMY GOODMAN: How did you hear that Scott had died? Scotty chose Blackwater, because they had a two-month contract, and he could be back home. You need to put a face on these acts. He reported . KATY HELVENSTON: I was in my home office doing research, and I was on the computer and I had CNN on. It seemed like an ideal situation for him, as two of his friends from his days on the reality TV show Combat Missions were helping to run the Blackwater operations: John and Kathy Potter. The State Department regulations call for six people to be on a security detail in Iraq, because of the security situation, while these men were sent out with only four. It was like $19,000-something. AMY GOODMAN: Jeremy Scahill, thank you for being with us. It was the event that sparked the U.S. siege of Fallujah, in which hundreds and hundreds of Iraqis were killed, many of them who had nothing to do with this whatsoever women, children, others. The suit alleges that Blackwater trainer Justin " Shrek " McQuown resented Helvenston and deliberately reassigned Helvenston to the team that was ambushed. 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. Insurgents would ambush them from behind. And I called them, and I said, Thats just not acceptable. KATY HELVENSTON: He was told that he was going to be security for the ambassador, Paul Bremer. According to the suit, Blackwater was gung-ho to start in order to impress ESS and win further contracts. The suit alleges that Blackwater trainer Justin "Shrek" McQuown resented Helvenston and deliberately reassigned Helvenston to the team that was ambushed. You dont just stick a Navy Seal on a brand new team with guys and send them into a combat zone. They wrote back to us and said, Out of respect for the families and the integrity of the judicial proceedings, I cannot join you. Had they been, I sincerely believe that theyd be alive today. 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. 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. Blackwater founder Erik Prince personally delivered money to some of the families for funeral expenses, and the company moved to get the mens wives and children benefits under the governments Defense Base Act, which in some cases insures those on contract supporting US military operations abroad. But first we begin by going back to March 31 2004 the day Scott Helvenston and three other Blackwater contractors drove into Fallujah. navy seal scott helvenston death video - brew7-coffee.com I went up to him, and I tried to shake his hand. 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. Justin Shreck. Im gonna take care of you. You know, just stuff like that, which obviously wasnt true. Katy, of course, can talk about how Scott ended up going there. I mean, Scotty excelled at anything he attempted, and he always had to be the best. The suit alleges that Blackwater trainer Justin "Shrek" McQuown resented Helvenston and deliberately reassigned Helvenston to the team that was ambushed. KATY HELVENSTON: In the rooms on the balcony, because we had gotten so paranoid, we thought maybe the rooms were tapped or something. I did get a call a few days later, and they all of a sudden were going to have this grand memorial. Potter didnt have any other gainful employment, because many of these men who are ex-military, their skills dont transfer easily into the civilian sector, he says, adding that after Potter was removed for blowing the whistle on the armor issue, the company abandoned him until they needed him to avoid this subpoena and this deposition and they said, We need you and we need you now. And zoom, off he goes. Blackwater subsequently attempted to have Potters deposition order dissolved, but a federal court said no. Lets see if we can screw with Scott. Those were like the last words that Scott Helvenston basically wrote before being sent over there to Baghdad. After his talk, he took questions from students at the school. The gruesome image is soon beamed across the globe. And this becomes very important, as Marc Miles talks about, because you have to prove intent. JEREMY SCAHILL: A couple things here. If it had been up to Katy Helvenston, her son wouldnt have been in Iraq at all. However, Iraq is clearly not currently capable of enforcing its laws, much less against you know, over our American military contractors. He was dead. AMY GOODMAN: Katy Helvenston, when did you last speak to your son Scotty? Attorney Marc Miles says that shortly after the suit was filed, he asked the court in North Carolina for an expedited order to depose John Potter. You can read our Privacy Policy here. And Donna, she misunderstood where this money was coming from. This would have resulted in Blackwater losing profits and would also have delayed the start of the ESS job. . He went through the rigorous Navy Seal program at age 17. to your inbox each morning. On April 17, President Bush spoke at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. AMY GOODMAN: Were also joined by Katy Helvenston. Helvenston et al. He wouldnt accept anything but the very best, and he became a Navy Seal, and he considered that the best. You raised a whole issue of the contract that required a risk assessment on their part and an overview of the mission that they were involved in. Thats not what I was hired to do. And at that point McQuown apparently told him that if he didnt do it, he would be fired immediately. You said they had no map? Not so, say the families of the four men and their lawyers. And so, what happened is they set out on their mission, but because they didnt have G.P.S., because they didnt have maps of the area, because they werent able to do a pre-trip inspection of the route, they didnt necessarily know where they were going, so they essentially got lost. The lawyers for the families charge that Blackwater has continued its practice of stonewalling. More than 428 private contractors have been killed to date in Iraq, and US taxpayers are footing almost the entire compensation bill to their families. What we have right now is something worse than the wild, wild west going on in Iraq, Callahan says. KATY HELVENSTON: And I had called I did several follow-up calls, and I said, I still dont have that information.. McQuown refused to allow it. [6] And thats the type of conduct at Blackwater that were dealing with. AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us what happened when you asked for an incident report for what happened to your son? 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. This is about holding Blackwater accountable and about creating accountable and sending a message to other private military firms operating over there. It will be precise, and it will be overwhelming. Within days of the ambush, US forces laid siege to Falluja, beginning what would be one of the most brutal and sustained US operations of the occupation. The night before he left, Helvenston sent an e-mail to the Owner, President and Upper Management of Blackwater, subject: extreme unprofessionalism. In this e-mail, obtained by The Nation, he complained that the behavior of McQuown (referred to as Justin Shrek in the e-mail) was very manipulative, duplicitive [sic], immature and unprofessional. He describes how his original team leader tried to appeal to Shrek not to reassign him, but, Helvenston wrote, I think [the team leader] felt that there was a hidden agenda. He says, you know, basically says, Im not the kind of guy who would normally complain about anything, but this has gotten so extreme that I want to raise this with you. And so, you have a convergence of Justin McQuowns alleged interventions that led to these guys being sent out the way they were, and Blackwater the allegations of Blackwater systematically defrauding these guys. Username. Now, they were ultimately to get to the other side of Fallujah. They were not provided with the armored vehicles or able to do the pre-trip inspection or the risk assessment. Their bodies were pulled into the streets, burned and their charred remains were beaten and dismembered. The men, it goes on, would be alive today had Blackwater not forced themunder threat of being firedto go unprepared on that mission. is a 501(c)3 non-profit news organization. MARTIN SMITH: By the time the press arrived, a mob had set the cars on fire. 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. Its going to be deliberate. And I was just literally dumbfounded. He was ranked 12th in the nation in tennis. The killing was March 31. Helvenston v. Blackwater Security - Alchetron, the free social encyclopedia McQuown In this e-mail, obtained by The Nation, he complained that the behavior of McQuown (referred to as "Justin Shrek" in the e-mail) was "very manipulative, duplicitive [sic], immature and unprofessional." He describes how his original team leader tried to appeal to Shrek not to reassign him, but, Helvenston wrote, "I think [the team leader] felt . Thats the only thing they understand, she says. They were vulnerable and obvious. KATY HELVENSTON: That exact incident. According to the suit, McQuown lacked the credentials of Helvenston and other ex-SEALs. And he did say, Well, its nice to meet you, and then he turned around and left. It was good money, but it was never enough, his mother remembers. Social:Helvenston v. Blackwater Security - HandWiki My family wouldnt let me read any of the articles, they were so graphic. Katy Helvenstons son Scott Helvenston is one of the four men who died, the security contractors working for Blackwater on March 31, 2004 in Fallujah. When less business is being done, and you have more time on your hands, we wanted to bring something positive to your . KATY HELVENSTON: I think thats total garbage. These four guys were sent out without armor, without the adequate guns, without adequate personnel, and Blackwater takes it as a moment to say, 'Hey, we're famous now. I was going to I pick up the phone and say, Mr. Secretary, Ive got an interesting question. The suit alleges that Blackwater trainer Justin "Shrek" McQuown resented Helvenston and deliberately reassigned Helvenston to the team that was ambushed. Within moments, their bodies are dragged from the vehicles and a crowd descends on them, tearing them to pieces.
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