Stop Blackwater's mercenary camp in San Diego

Update 11:45 AM 12/5/2008
US mulls unusual tactic as Blackwater charges loom
By MATT APUZZO and LARA JAKES JORDAN – 6 hours ago
Charges could be announced as early as Monday in the shooting, which left 17 civilians dead and strained U.S. relations with the fledgling Iraqi government. People familiar with the charges said they may include an aggressive Reagan-era anti-drug law cracking down on assault weapons....
...Though drugs were not involved in the Blackwater shooting, the Justice Department is pondering the use of a law, passed at the height of the nation's crack epidemic, to prosecute the guards. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 law calls for 30-year prison terms for using machine guns to commit violent crimes of any kind, whether drug-related or not.

More of my posts on Blackwater.

Since this post pops up frequently in Google searches, I'm linking newer informational posts to it in the form of Updates: This post has links to articles that highlight Blackwater's shenanigans in San Diego thru OCT 31 '07

Update 9:33 AM 10/5/2007

Stop Blackwater West Encampment and Demonstration
STOP BLACKWATER WEST CAMP, RALLY AND WALK!--- October 6 and 7, 2007 Two day Educational Encampment and Walk to Stop Blackwater in Potrero, California Join us

5 minute video on why Blackwater should be stopped from GoLeftTV

Remember this?
Mercenary camp coming right up!




Well well well, a little birdie sent me this:

Stop Blackwater Demonstration and Public Hearing Thurs.,April 5
SAY NO TO TO BLACKWATER USA'S PLAN TO BUILD A MERCENARY TRAINING FACILITY --"BLACKWATER WEST"-- IN POTRERO!!

Blackwater USA, the private military contractor that trains mercenaries and is under investigation by Representative Henry Waxman's Committee on Oversight and Government Reform plans to build an 824-acre training facility in Potrero, a small town in southeast San Diego County.

We need your help to stop this project!

1. Attend the Scoping Meeting: The County Department of Planning and Land Use will hold a Public Scoping Meeting on Thursday, April 5, 5:30 p.m., at the Planning Commission Hearing Room, Department of Planning and Land Use, 5201 Ruffin Road, Suite B, San Diego, CA 92123. The Scoping Meeting is an opportunity for the public to comment on the project and provide input into what should be covered in the environmental impact statement.
(note: written comments can also be submitted by April 27)

2. Attend the demonstration: THERE WILL BE A PUBLIC PROTEST "NO BLACKWATER! STOP BLACKWATER!" FROM 4:30 P.M. TO 5:30 P.M. , THURSDAY, APRIL 5, ON THE SIDEWALK ON RUFFIN ROAD IN FRONT OF THE COUNTY FACILITY JUST PRIOR TO THE SCOPING MEETING! Please bring signs with this theme. Join with citizens from Potrero who are fighting this project that affects all of us!

WE NEED EVERYONE THERE!!! For more information, please contact The Peace Resource Center of San Diego, 619-263-9301 or info@prcsd.org

Some resources about Blackwater USA:
Documents regarding the :Blackwater West" project and the scoping meeting can be found at: http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/dplu/docs/PR/4-27-07/0620001.html

Jeremy Scahill's Nation Magazine article about Blackwater, "Bush's Shadow Army" and view short video at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070402/scahill
Jeremy Scahill audio interview on Truthdig (mp3)

San Diego Reader article, Feb. 22, 2007, on "Blackwater West" http://www.sdreader.com/php/cityshow.php?id=1566
(Bauder notes: "The company's owner, Erik Prince, has given lavishly to politicians, including former representative Tom DeLay, who left Congress in a lobbying scandal, and Duncan Hunter ($1000 in 2004).")


Read Jeremy Scahill's book: "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercentary Army"; Jeremy Scahill will speak in San Diego on May 1 and 2. Details of both events will be posted at prcsd.org/webcalendar

Hey, it's springtime, San Diego is lovely. Come on down!!!!

And Terry mentions the Golden Eagles that are nesting in the area, which I didn't know about: Blackwater Training Camp Planned in San Diego County

Blackwater opens San Diego training center

Blackwater supporter attempting to intimidate protesters in San Diego last year. He looks like an old school fat ass chief. The kind of brainwashed meathead that I love to hate. Stubborn, stupid, and vicious. Probably divorced, or with a third world mail-order bride who meekly does his bidding without questioning and has never been encouraged to become independent of his stupid fat ass. Wonder if he knew about a contract that had already been signed ?


Blackwater opens San Diego training center
By ALLISON HOFFMAN Associated Press Writer
SAN DIEGO (AP) - A new counterterrorism training facility operated by military security contractor Blackwater Worldwide echoed with the grunts of Navy sailors, a day after a federal judge ordered the city to let classes begin.

The 24 trainees batted and punched each other Thursday as they learned basic strike tactics in a corner of the 61,000-square-foot converted warehouse in an industrial area near the U.S.-Mexico border.

For the next three weeks, they'll practice shooting inside a 25-yard indoor firing range and learn to wear sidearms safely while wriggling through ship hatches and up narrow ladders installed in white metal cargo containers stacked along one wall of the building to simulate a ship. Trainers from Blackwater will quiz them on distinguishing small boats carrying cargo from those carrying bombs.

The company sued last month because city officials refused to issue final occupancy documents without a vote by the planning commission, after building inspectors had already signed off on the necessary permits. Blackwater said it faced a Navy contract deadline and accused the city of caving to political pressure.



The company has been targeted by anti-war activists and Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., who opposed its proposed training camp for law enforcement in a remote mountain community east of San Diego. That project was dropped after firing ranges failed to satisfy noise restrictions, but Filner and others have raised concerns that Blackwater is simply seeking a foothold near the border that could serve as a base for providing private migrant or drug interdiction services to federal agencies.

Blackwater insists the warehouse was built to provide the Navy's "ship reaction force basic" training course as part of a $400 million contract. The program is part of an initiative to train sailors in counterterrorist defense tactics after the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in a Yemeni port.

"This facility supports our oldest customer," said company Vice President Brian Bonfiglio, referring to the military.

Blackwater trains sailors from East Coast bases at its headquarters in Moyock, N.C., where it offers an advanced course using model ships floating in a private lake. It developed the California warehouse to offer the introductory program to sailors from San Diego, Guam, Japan and other Pacific bases.

Bonfiglio acknowledged that Blackwater would gladly host other agencies, including the Border Patrol or Coast Guard, at the warehouse, located in an unmarked building within sight of the border fence and the Tijuana airport control tower beyond.

"If we had a bunch of Border Patrol vehicles parked outside, they'd accuse us of trying to take over the border," he said, only half-joking. "But I'd open up our doors to any law enforcement that needed training, if I could do it."

The company has been expanding its domestic law enforcement training business, opening an 80-acre police training center in Mount Carroll, Ill., in 2007 to complement its 7,000-acre complex in North Carolina.

At the same time, Blackwater, the largest private security firm in Iraq, has come under increased scrutiny for its work abroad. Its guards are under investigation by a federal grand jury in Washington for their involvement in the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians. The company is also under investigation for possible weapons smuggling, allegations Blackwater denies.

Weapons smuggling? Like, you know, taking over Khashoggi's trade?

Democratic activist Raymond Lutz said those inquiries can't be ignored when it comes to Blackwater's domestic operations.

"To put training in the hands of private profiteers means that you're giving up your ability to oversee what they're doing and when you give it up you lose control," Lutz said. "Why doesn't the Navy train its own people?"

Bonfiglio said his five trainers offer students a depth of counterterrorism experience the Navy couldn't match without pulling its own experts from other duties.

"What we do overseas needs to be separated from what we do in the United States," he said. "Here we put all of our effort into developing training facilities that are unmatched."

The pride of the facility is the mock warship area, where shipping containers are outfitted with red lights to simulate an onboard emergency and speakers blare clanking background noise during exercises.

On Thursday, workers were reinforcing a maze of wooden walls appended to the cargo containers at the request of city inspectors, who are still reviewing Blackwater's application to use the simulated ship area under an amusement-park ride permit, Bonfiglio said.

City lawyers said the company misled inspectors by applying for permits piecemeal and under the names of affiliated companies instead of making a single application to open a training center with firearms. District Court Judge Marilyn Huff ruled Wednesday that the company did not need to seek special approval because the area is already zoned for vocational school use.

The city has not said whether it will appeal.
2008-06-06 09:00:13 GMT


What won't be on TV in San Diego tonight.

Blackwater, Potrero, Naomi Klein

(update) “Shock Doctrine” Author Naomi Klein on State-Sanctioned Torture and Disaster Response for the Chosen (click on pic)

Happy Halloween.

How about a ghoulish San Diego story?

Tiny Potrero Battles County and Blackwater USA
Published on February 22, 2007
By Don Bauder

...Last July, Blackwater hired as a lobbyist Nikki Clay, a longtime cheerleader for corporate welfare (Chargers, Padres) and former president of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce. Blackwater brought on the developer-friendly environmental firm of Mooney, Jones & Stokes, along with other companies to make up their project team. The team quickly snuggled up to the County, which was not playing hard to get...

( San Diego County is the largest urban county in the state without its own fire department.)

Massive security contractor faces growing protest in rural California town over 824-acre base
Miriam Raftery and Muriel Kane
Published: Tuesday April 3, 2007

Good neighbor?
Blackwater keeps its eye on a tiny East County enclave.
By Pat Sherman 10/09/2007

apparently the swamp things are ugly neighbors


11:53 a.m. October 21, 2007
Potrero fire causes evacuations around Julian
SIGNONSANDIEGO NEWS SERVICES

POTRERO – Santa Ana winds of 30 to 35 mph fueled a fast-moving brush fire that broke out Sunday in Potrero and resulted in evacuations of several rural communities, authorities said.

The fire started about 9:30 a.m. near Harris Ranch Road and Potrero Valley Road and was heading northwest as the noon hour approached, but no injuries were reported. The flames jumped Highway 94, according to Cal Fire officials.


Blackwater to California: Hire us to Put Out Your Fires
October 25, 2007 07:27 PM (EST)


Blackwater = Fire-Fighter?
By Noah Shachtman October 26, 2007 3:34:02 PM
Categories: Homeland Security, Mercs

...Local groups opposed to the complex said, before the latest conflagrations near San Diego, that Blackwater West's "regular detonation of firearms would be a risk both to the fire-prone landscape as well as to the wildlife that currently calls that area home, including the golden eagle and the California condor."

Au contraire, Blackwater execs answer. Brian Bonfiglio, vice president of Blackwater West, notes that the complex's proposal includes water tanks capable of holding 35,000 gallons. "I see a tactical operation center for East County fires," he says. "Can you imagine how much of a benefit it would be if we were operational now?"...

Injured California Firefighter Anticipated Dying
Updated: 10-29-2007 09:05:04 AM
TONY MANOLATOS, Staff Writer
The San Diego Union-Tribune

Rapue, 53, was in charge of Pikop and the two other firefighters, whose names have not been released. Both are in critical condition at UCSD.

...For Pikop, the day started like every other Sunday. The crew at the San Marcos station was mowing the lawn and trimming hedges.

Rapue, the captain, was normally based at Cal Fire's Rincon station, one of 18 in the county. He was covering the San Marcos station because the regular captain was off.

The four-member team heard about the fires on the radio, so they weren't surprised when they were dispatched to Potrero, 67 miles away.

The call came in shortly after 9:30 a.m., said Pikop, who started with Cal Fire less than five months ago....

Blackwater Provided Potrero with Relief Suplies During Fires
Oct 29, 2007
Amita Sharma

Blackwater's relief effort wins praise of project foe
By Anne Krueger
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
October 30, 2007

Fire facts

Why Aren't We Better Prepared for Inevitable Disasters?
...The GOP rivals parrot the same old, increasingly irrelevant and out of touch formula of cutting taxes and dismantling government....

Santa Ana winds set to make encore

By Harrison Sheppard, Sacramento Bureau

Article Last Updated: 10/30/2007 11:00:26 PM PDT

Let's meet Naomi Klein

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

Today's Fishwrap

Religions sucks #7 Blackwater edition

(click book cover to find a copy of Scahill's book, click Gomer for an article that provesLarry correct)

Blackwater denies Iraq smuggling

September 27 2006
Blackwater Founder and West Michigan Native Funds Right-wing through Foundation

Blackwater in Iraq The New Private Warriors
By Sgt. MARTIN SMITH
September 19, 2007

Hessians Redux: Blackwater, U.S. and England
By Dr. Sam Hamod
09/20/07 "ICH"

Religious nutjob blogger's entry on Blackwater.

What a country I live in. My government's unfairness and arrogance and hypocrisy infuriates me sometimes. I didn't know I could feel horrified, terrified, angry, disgusted, and despondent at the same time.

*sigh*

I can.

And I'd like to add that Blackwater may finally be getting the negative press it deserves, but the problem is systemic. There are companies competing for a chunk of the security company gravy train that this shitty, fucked up war has created.

Lookee here at the list: PRIVATE FORCES DOT COM

SAY NO TO TO BLACKWATER

Thursday, April 5, 5:30 p.m.PUBLIC PROTEST!WE NEED YOUR HELP!

SAY NO TO TO BLACKWATER USA'S PLAN TO BUILD A MERCENARY TRAINING FACILITY "BLACKWATER WEST" -- IN POTRERO!!

1. Attend the Scoping Meeting: The County Department of Planning and Land Use will hold a Public Scoping Meeting on Thursday, April 5, 5:30 p.m., at the Planning Commission Hearing Room, Department of Planning and Land Use, 5201 Ruffin Road, Suite B, San Diego, CA 92123. The Scoping Meeting is an opportunity for the public to comment on the project and provide input into what should be covered in the environmental impact statement. (note: written comments can also be submitted by April 27)

2. Attend the demonstration: THERE WILL BE A PUBLIC PROTEST "NO BLACKWATER! STOP BLACKWATER!" FROM 4:30 P.M. TO 5:30 P.M. , THURSDAY, APRIL 5, ON THE SIDEWALK ON RUFFIN ROAD IN FRONT OF THE COUNTY FACILITY JUST PRIOR TO THE SCOPING MEETING! Please bring signs with this theme. Join with citizens from Potrero who are fighting this project that affects all of us! WE NEED EVERYONE THERE!!!

"One citizen opposed to the project revealed that Lori Spar—listed with the California Bar Association as an attorney with a law firm representing Blackwater on July 31, 2006 —has since unexpectedly surfaced as a land use/environmental planner for the Department of Planning and Land Use.

"She walked into our Mar. 1, 2007 Save Potrero meeting, representing the County," said former Potrero planner Carl Meyer...
More from Raw Story (I told you the people that run this town are crooked)

More from Sourcewatch

Update: My local corporate newz is pathetic.

One station showed ten seconds of the protestors and a two minute interview with someone involved with the project.

You think you can buy anything in Tijuana?

HA, the local government can be bought, especially if you're a RepugnantThuglican.

Even the newz.

The VNR about brushing your cat's teeth was especially revealing.

Always a big fucking deal when there's a SWAT standoff, ,

You know, keeps people afraid and in their homes behaving themselves. Like we need more paramilitary assholes in this town or something.

Update: the VNR loving newz channel did cover it after all, with a pro-project person getting the last word in.

Yes, Mr. Erik Prince, you spoiled little douchebag, spreading $$ around this town, and sucking up to Preznit poopypants does pay. For such a good Christian man, doesn't it bother you to train killers, or make a profit on the death and destruction that is war?

Dickhead.

Finished reading

"Legacy of Ashes
The History of the CIA"
By Tim Weiner © 2007
Tim Weiner is a New York Times reporter who has written on American intelligence for twenty years. He was awarded a Pulitzer price for this work on national security programs. He has traveled to Afghanistan and other nations to investigate CIA covert operations first hand. This is his third book.

On page 411 in the book is an interesting passage on William Casey. {Casey was the OSS chief in London during WWII. He was a Wall Street operator who made his money selling tax-shelter strategies. He was Reagan’s campaign manager.}

He was the director of the CIA at the time.

December 15, (1986) Casey had a seizure in his 7th floor office. He was wheeled out on a stretcher before anyone grasped what had happened. At Georgetown University Hospital, his doctors determined that he had an undiagnosed, central nervous system lymphoma-a malignant spider’s web spreading in his brain, a rare disease, difficult to detect. It often led to inexplicably bizarre behavior in the twelve to fifteen months before it was discovered.

{ So Reagan sleeps through briefings and the director of CIA has some weird cancer in his brain. Iran-Contra anyone? }

There’s a passage on page 510 that left me with my mouth hanging open:

The clandestine service began to abandon the techniques of the past - political warfare, propaganda, and covert action - because it lacked the skills to conduct them. The agency remained a place where few people spoke Arabic or Persian, Korean or Chinese. It still denied employment to patriotic Arab Americans on security grounds if they still had relatives living in the Middle East as most did.

Huh? Who’s security does this protect? The security of Americans? The relatives still living in the old country? So I guess deaing with liars, cheats, thieves and drug dealers has proven to be a more efficient way to gather intelligence. Yeah, tell that to all the families of the foreign CIA recruits that got killed upon discovery. Mmmmmm hmmmm, OKaybee.

On page 512 a now familiar lament from anyone with three brain cells left:

At he end of Dwight Eisenhower’s years a president, a few days after he lamented the legacy of intelligence failures he would pass on to his successors, he gave his farewell address to the nation and famously warned" "We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence whether sought or unsought by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplace power exists and will persist." Little more than a half century later the surge of secret spending on national security after 9/11 had created a booming intelligence-industrial complex.

Corporate clones of the CIA started sprouting all over the suburbs of Washington and beyond. Patriotism for profit became a $50 billion-a-year business by some estimates-a sum about the size of the intelligence budget itself. This phenomenon traced back fifteen years. After the cold war the agency began contracting out thousands of jobs to fill the perceived void created by the budget cuts that began in 1992. A CIA officer could file his retirement papers, turn in his blue identification badge, go to work for a much better salary at a military contractor such as Lockheed Martin or Booz Allen Hamilton, then return to the CIA the next day wearing a green badge. After September 11 the outsourcing went out of control. Green-badge bosses started openly recruiting in the CIA’s cafeteria.

…Lockheed Martin posted help wanted ads for "counterterrorism analysts" to interrogate suspected terrorists at Guantánamo prison.

So this book mentions some local hotshot names of people who are in hot water, and then mentions Blackwater USA. This company wants to set up a training camp a few miles from Tecate, Mexico in a tiny little place called Potrero. I was listening to the only local progressive talk radio show in San Diego this morning and a listener called in to say that she was at the protest yesterday in Potrero. She said that she felt like the Blackwater goons were trying to intimidate the Blackwater protesters. They were filming and one of these goons was pointing his finger at the protesters and making it look like a gun. I wasn’t there because I figured that something like that would happen. I've tangled with right-wing idealogues before. They're so stupid and brainwashed that reasoning with them is a waste of time, but they're kind of like cornered badgers, you don't want to fuck with them, they're nasty little shits.

Three hundred against Blackwater, and fifteen for Blackwater at the protest:

Blackwater foes begin fight with their feet

The right-wing brainwashed morons who commented on the Fishwrap article just crack me up. I wonder if any of them have ever looked up the word 'liberal' in a dictionary.

I saw Jeremy Scahill speak tonight on Blackwater

Well, I was going to re-read Orwell's 1984.
San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice


I'm really glad that I decided to make the drive to see Jeremy Scahill speak instead. He seemed like a nice kid, and really sharp, and I'm glad that he came to San Diego. It's so nice to listen to a real reporter who cares about things that really matter to the American people.

Update 8:44 AM 5/2/2007
the the right-wing piece of crap fishwrap: “Stop Blackwater” bumper stickers were offered at the event, and those in attendance were asked to send comments to the San Diego County Department of Planning and Land Use about their opposition to the project.

What the fishwrap "reporter" fails to mention is that the Department of Planning and Land Use gave the wrong e-mail address AND the wrong street address to people who wanted to lodge a complaint and keep Blackwater out .

Not to mention this: Last July, Blackwater hired as a lobbyist Nikki Clay, a longtime cheerleader for corporate welfare (Chargers, Padres) and former president of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce. Blackwater brought on the developer-friendly environmental firm of Mooney, Jones & Stokes, along with other companies to make up their project team. The team quickly snuggled up to the County, which was not playing hard to get.

Go see Jeremy speak.

Details
Author Jeremy Scahill

When: 6:30 p.m. today (5/2/2007)

Where: La Mesa Community Center, 4975 Memorial Drive, La Mesa

Dianne Jacob

San Diego County Board of Supervisors

I am Dianne Jacob, Supervisor of San Diego County’s Second District, representing communities affected by the proposed Sunrise Powerlink including Ramona, Wynola, Santa Ysabel and the greater Julian area...
...SDG&E, to its credit, has made some changes.
The applicant was receptive to the idea of undergrounding a stretch of the 230 kilovolt
Inland Valley Link;

San Diego Gas & Electric Co. gave $50,000 to Dianne Jacob...

and she buys a new rescue vehicle with it, awwww, how wunnerful.

Hey, does she receive any money from the publication that published this article?

Jacob 'splains to the peasants/proles why she's mum on Blackwater (video)
The first part of the Campo Revitalization meeting, conducted by County Supervisor Dianne Jacob. Unfortunately, despite a large number of people present who wished to speak about it, they were not provided with a public comment period (in violation of the Brown Act) and comments about Blackwater were not allowed.

I don't trust why she's mum on Blackwater because Last July, Blackwater hired as a lobbyist Nikki Clay, a longtime cheerleader for corporate welfare...
Clay said she was communicating regularly with the supervisor's office and the office of military powerhouse Congressman Duncan Hunter, even though Potrero is not in his district. Potrero's supervisor is Dianne Jacob. The Blackwater project team proudly noted that although Jacob "has historically required secondary access," in this case "she will be in favor of only requiring primary access."

Here's a couple more reasons why this woman bugs the crap out of me.

San Diego Medical Marijuana Raids
SAN DIEGO SUPES DEFY STATE MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW
Vote to File Federal Lawsuit Against Prop 215, SB 420
Dec. 7th. Opposing a state requirement that counties issue medical marijuana ID cards, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted to file a federal lawsuit against California's medical marijuana law.

Supervisors moved to sue the state after being threatened with a lawsuit from San Diego NORML for failing to implement the ID system.

County's pension board blocks Jacob's role on benefits
But the retirement association, which has chewed over the retiree health benefit issue itself for the last two years without coming to a resolution, bridled at the county's ultimatum. That unhappiness ultimately led to the board to use a relatively new policy to forcefully "disqualify" Jacob from discussing or voting on the issue.

You know, if there's one thing about this county that sticks in my craw it's that if you're flashing cash you can do whatever the fuck you want to do. It doesn't matter who it hurts, and the public doesn't even need to know about it. There's so many goddamned military bases, loaded with people who don't HAVE any rights that you can always pull the "need to know" bullshit line. Then you ramp up the fear mongering, and the rhetoric on Reich-wing radio hate spew, which is what the right-less uniforms listen to (well that, and the rock station that hasn't changed the fucking playlist since 1979). They watch Faux Newz, it's what's encouraged on the bases. Not that the local mainstream newz is worth a tinkers damn, either. You wouldn't trust it, if you knew anybody unlucky enough to to have their story sensationalized and filled with inaccuaracies. The cash flashers also get away with a lot of crap because there are tons of transient people here, including the right-less uniforms.

Stop Blackwater

Erik Prince testified today

Here's an interpretation of what happened.

(Oh Jeez, I just caught this sentence from the above article: "Every indication is that Prince is a very bad man." Totally cracks me up. I used to listen to squids try to impress me by trying to bullshit me into believing that they were Navy Seals. They didn't realize that that didn't impress or even interest most chicks raised in San Diego. Why? Because we knew that they were assholes. By the time I was eighteen I had had about enough of guys who thought that they were Billy BadAss.)

The asshole acts like his shit don't stink because of The Bush administration's ties to Blackwater


We don't want Blackwater in San Diego.

Encampment and Demonstration to Stop Blackwater West from building a training facility in San Diego County

Stop Blackwater in Potrero October 6-7 2007

The cancer that is killing this country is out of control in this city.
The military-industrial-complex can't even be surgically removed from San Diego.
The triage nurse just rolls her eyes and calls for morphine.

Here's a nice little local article about Brent Wilkes, Dukie Cunningham, ho's and hot tubs, and Wilkes' troubles before the Dukie thing.

Blackwater's Starr

Suit against Blackwater over contractor deaths moves to arbitration
By BILL SIZEMORE, The Virginian-Pilot
© May 20, 2007

Blackwater Succeeds in Forcing Arbitration of Employee Claims
Harper's magazine
Scott Horton
May 22, 2007

Daily Kos diary Potrero vs. Blackwater from Sat. Mar 17, 2007

US Security Contractors Open Fire in Baghdad
By Steve Fainaru and Saad al-Izzi
The Washington Post
Sunday 27 May 2007

Update:
Sending in the Praetorian Guard
Harper's Magazine
BY Scott Horton
May 28, 2007

Every day I want this company to go back to the fucking swamp they came from and play with Kenneth Starr, the reptile they hired to represent them in court.

I've got reptiles on the brain. I saw this picture out of the corner of my eye the other day and just had to link to the article. It's a couple of years old now.

I thought of Russian and U.S. military intervention when I saw this picture. The critter sploded.

Blackwater on the border

Virtual fence on Mexican border deemed insufficient
By ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, April 23, 2008

So?


Blackwater still needs to feed from the government trough, and what better place than San Diego? Just what we need patrolling the border here, Blackwater.

There's just something about right-wing Christofacist zombies. Relentless fuckers, aren't they?

Duncky will come to their rescue. Lemon Chicken man does his best to secure bucks for all the boondoggles that defense contractors can dream up.

Rep Bob Filner, to his credit, has this to say

I have a question though. Why is Blackwater training sailors here? San Diego is one big huge Navy base.

Wednsday September 19, 2007 SDUT

Front Page UT

A little more Blackwater doody---

Federal official is under scrutiny
Krongard accused of stopping probes
By Lolita C. Baldor
ASSOCIATED PRESS
September 19, 2007

...Also under scrutiny is whether Blackwater USA, the private security firm banned this week from working in Iraq over the killing of civilians, was “illegally smuggling weapons into Iraq,” according to a letter to inspector general Howard J. Krongard obtained yesterday by The Associated Press...

...In addition to outlining a host of allegations against Krongard, who took over the State Department post in May 2005, the Waxman letter raises new questions about Blackwater. Although the security company is not named in the letter, several senior administration officials confirmed that Blackwater is the firm mentioned as being suspected of smuggling weapons into Iraq illegally...

Hey Howard, howsya bruthuh Buzzy, doin' eh?

Democracy Now on Blackwater West

Three out of four registered voters in Potrero don't want this mercenary camp in their community.

Blackwater Plans for New Military Facility Near San Diego Draws Fire From Residents, Peace Activists and Local Congressmember
Thursday, April 19th, 2007

Listen to it now with your RealPlayer
Note: This content may require the latest RealPlayer, which is not available on Windows 95, Mac OS9 or Linux systems.
or listen to the mp3 of the whole show

It's quite enlightening. The political connections are interesting. This company's behavior indicates that it thinks it's above military and civilian law. It's outrageous.

For more on how to help stop this camp from being built:

Stop Blackwater.net

Citizens Oversight.org

Iraq Revokes Blackwater's License

Now can we keep the morons out of San Diego?

Something tells me NO, the San Diego 'ol boy/ M-I-C network is too entrenched.

Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf said eight civilians were killed and 13 were wounded when contractors believed to be working for Blackwater USA opened fire in a predominantly Sunni neighborhood of western Baghdad.

Larry says Blackwater ain't leaving Iraq.

Hmmm, so when the blithering idiot that we call our president says something about troop withdrawal does he mean the approximately 200,000 "private contractors?" I wonder how many of the contractors are mercenaries? I know I'm still hearing local ads for Border Patrol agents. That's a big hint to me that our Border Patrol agents are working in the Middle East for security contractors who pay a hell of a lot more money than the US Govt Pays.

(See my last blogpost for why I think things are going the way they are)

I think this is the only book that preznit poopypants has ever read, but I think he missed some of the important stuff. W misses important stuff sometimes. Whoa, am I Captain Obvious this morning, or what?

Texas Co. Signs Iraq Oil Deal With Kurds
With No National Iraq Oil Law Passed, Kurdistan Region Makes Its Own Rules
Comments 30
DALLAS, Tex., Sept. 9, 2007


I have qvestion. What happens to the Kurds now? Will they be able to hire mercenaries from their oil revenues and stop the Turkish, Iranian and Iraqi governments from killing them? Will there be new borders drawn in the area? Does this mean Kurds will get Kurdistan?

(update 4:21 PM 9/17/2007 Jeremy Scahill will be on the Randi Rhodes Show tomorrow, Tuesday September 18, 2007

Fed Judge Gives Blackwater Huge New Year's Gift, Dismisses All Charges In Iraq Massacre

By Jeremy Scahill

"...In a memo defending his opinion, Urbina cited a similar rationale used in the dismissal of charges against Iran-Contra figure Oliver North—namely that the government violated the rights of the Blackwater men..."



I'm sure that Jeremy Scahill's mouth is not hanging open in stunned silence. Mine is. The 14 innocent Iraqis the Blackwater assholes slaughtered in this particular incident right's weren't violated, right?

*sigh*

This decade sucked. Big-time. I'm really glad it's almost over. You'd think that after a year of Fucktard (43) being gone I'd hate him a little less, right? Nope, we ain't never getting out from under the mess that retard made.

Happy Fucking New Year.

Southern California Residents Gear Up for New Fight to Stop Secretive Expansion by Military Firm Blackwater (Democracy Now)

Blackwater Still Courting Investors
By Noah Shachtman
May 02, 2008 | 3:01:55 PM Categories: Mercs

Looks like Wired Magazine is doing a fine job of following all things Blackwater


San Diego GOP has a cracker?

Heh.

Mercenary camp, coming right up!!

Blackwater USA wants to build a new training camp on what used to be a chicken farm out in Potrero . Duncan Hunter's district covers at least one zip code that pops up when you Google it. The other Potrero zip code is in Bob Filner's district.

Hmmmmmm. (more from Crooks & Liars on Blackwater)

It's really not their fault that we pay two dollars for a dozen eggs here. I'm sure that has had more to do with the fact that land owners have recently been able to turn a hell of a better profit growing new condos than they ever did with chickens or eggs. That requires labor that has had a tough time getting to work across the border since 9/11, or maybe those condo farms are growing so fast there's nowhere to house migrant farmworkers. (I don't which came first, chicken or egg?) Speaking of the border, hey maybe the plan is to outsource everyone who carries a gun in due time? Be nice to have border guards that aren't accountable to any of those pesky regulatory agencies.

Oh wait, we do have them, they're called minutemen.

No, no, nevermind, they may be out of commission shortly.

Anyway, ol Bob and Dunc, (presidential hopeful Dunc, bawwaaa haaa haaaaaa ha ha ha) may have had something to do with the fact that the military-industrial-complex is pretty much the only way someone without an advanced degree, fifty frickin' roomates, or a mortgage they got in the 80's can survive here. Ol Dunc has been in Congress most of his working life. Gee, Bob has spent a lot of time in government also.

I hate these Blackwater motherfuckers. I don't want their spoiled, pampered asses or their killer training camp here. Not surprised though. Dunc and Bob know that some of these guys coming back from Iraq are going to be too fucked up to do anything but be killers. And they'll be crazy enough to repeatedly risk getting killed. They're going to run drugs through this camp, you watch, it's what old creepy retired CIA fucks do and this camp is really close to the border.


Call me cracked, I don't care, but this company ain't no good egg.

It's a pity that this country isn't as evovlved as South Africa. They passed a law last year letting mercenaries choose between their careers and their nationality

religion sucks #14

Mormon Church on Prop 8: We Oppose Civil Rights (But Don't Tell)
Rick Jacobs
Posted November 4, 2008 03:43 AM (EST)

"...The Mormon Church's members have contributed some $22 million into Prop 8, a vicious campaign here in California seeking to strip fundamental marriage rights from same-sex couples, making them permanent second-class citizens..."

Traditional Media: Missing the Mormon Ideology/Blackwater Connection to CA Prop 8

Look on the right of this pic--that's interstate 5, so whenever you travel this section of 5 you get to look at this huge Mormon temple.


How can people be smug and ignorant at the same time? That would be the Yes on h8ters, and most people who want to shove their religious beliefs down my throat.

I just talked to my neighbor that I encouraged to register for the first time. She got up early and voted. I know she voted NO on 8, so nyah nyah nyah, stupid Mormons, stupid Blackwater hypocrites.

Brand name spies and disaster capitalism

Blackwater's Owner Has Spies for Hire
Ex-U.S. Operatives Dot Firm's Roster
By Dana Hedgpeth
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 3, 2007; Page A01

First it became a brand name in security for its work in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now it's taking on intelligence.

Somehow I don't think these particular spies' investigatory talents will be utilized to discover the origins of the Harris fire.


Yeah, leave it to Cofer Black.

I'm so cynical that I think soon there will be shit going on in the border area that we residents of San Diego have NEVER seen before. Weird shit like, oh, how about suicide car bombers ramming Border Patrol vehicles? That's always a clue that the CIA is pulling shit in the neighborhood. Or drug runners using illegal Mexican mules except for maybe one of the mule's backpacks has explosives in it instead of drugs. These guys never stop coming up with reasons to create yet another underfunded law enforcement agency that will inevitably need to be supplemented with overpriced, overfed, overripe contractors who are accountable to no one. Double-dipping ain't near enough money for these greedy motherfuckers.

Hey, didn't the Roman Empire rot from the inside out?

People Burn Here

Rapture Rescue 911: Disaster Response for the Chosen Naomi Klein


Whoops, missed the CityBeat Blackwater article on the 30th, here 'tis

Ho Ho Ho's -- Buh Bye, Hammers slammed

California Town Rejects Blackwater, Fires Council Members Who Endorsed Them

Posted by Paddy , Cliff Schecter's Blog at 5:33 AM on December 12, 2007.

Update: Rick Jacobs explains why rare triumph of democracy IS a big deal, and yet, the Blackwater slime will continue to ooze into San Diego without vigilant battle from local residents.

I wonder also if this isn't a message to the greedy assholes who think that all government functions should be privatized.