Today in CREDO's Bracket of Evil, Blackwater squares off against Karl Rove for the title of "Worst for America." Compelling cases can be made for both, that's for sure. But it's a bit ironic that it comes at a time when both are finding it increasingly difficult to find a role in the post-Bush era. Rove hasn't been able yet to figure out whether he's trying to be credible media (presumably not), a GOP strategist (increasingly problematic as historians begin to see him as all tactics, no strategy), or just famous-name-for-hire (more difficult as the brand dies).
Blackwater though is going through an even more dramatic collapse and re-invention largely outside the public spotlight. In the past three weeks, four lawsuits have been filed against the company (recently rebranded "Xe") over the conduct of employees in Iraq. On March 19th, the family of a slain Iraqi vice presidential guard filed suit against Blackwater and former employees, accusing Andrew Moonen of drunkenly murdering Raheem Khalaf Sa'adoon in December of 2006 and other Blackwater employees of attempting to cover up the incident and reneging on a deal to compensate the family for the death. "Xe - Blackwater also is accused of spiriting Mr. Moonen out of Iraq, bribing an Iraqi government official, and destroying documents and other evidence relating to the Moonen shooting and other Xe - Blackwater shootings."
On March 26 and 27, two more lawsuits were filed against Blackwater related to shootings in September 2007 including the now-infamous Nusoor Square massacre in which Blackwater employees killed 17 civilians. Finally (for now), a lawsuit was filed on April 1st accusing Blackwater personnel in the shooting of three Iraqi security guards in February 2007 and subsequent attempts to cover up evidence and otherwise frustrate the investigation of the incident. All of this, of course, on top of a federal investigation into Xe/Blackwater's role in the Nusoor Square Massacre which has targeted six former employees with gun and manslaughter charges. One has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and attempt to commit manslaughter, the other five are scheduled to go to trial early in 2010.
At first blush, the two groups don't have a whole lot in common besides neighboring real estate in the political spectrum. But as Blackwater continues its unwanted presence in San Diego (spawning aspirants to the throne in Hemet), Michigan resident Broekhuizen is just a big fish in the flood of out-of-state money trying to buy their way into a change to California's constitution.
This particularly hits San Diego as the repeated recipient of unwanted outside attention. San Diego was targeted by the national GOP as a test case for turning urban areas Republican which led to the destruction of an entire progressive generation in San Diego. We've been battling against Blackwater's presence and a disinterested city government for two years. And in concert with the, erm, disconcerting video on the right, The Call will be welcoming to to 100,000 peopleto Qualcomm Stadium on Saturday for "[c]orporate prayer and fasting for the protection of traditional marriage and the soul of our nation." I'll be there so you don't have to be.
Look, Dave is right: This is about harming same-sex couples. But the other long-term implications are starting to show themselves. The Republican Party musters its national resources to turn San Diego red and succeeds for a full generation.
Blackwater decides to take your tax dollars- laundered through the Bush Administration, the Iraq War and the privatization of the military- and force its way into California while expanding and diversifying its portfolio to include a private navy and security contracts for Latin American governments.
And now the same national big money forces of the religious right- whether it's the Mormon Church or Erik Prince's mother, this has the potential to turn into a disturbing trend. That the extreme right wing of this country can nationalize an issue and force its will on California. If this keeps working, I don't want to contemplate what'll come next.
There's one week to go. You can contribute to the No on 8 campaign through Equality For All at the Calitics ActBlue page and help push Equality For All past $1 million raised on ActBlue. And you can get involved through the No on Prop 8 website. For example, I know during Saturday's "The Call" event, there are plans for doing real calling in San Diego and throughout the state.
After months of simmering, reports last week sounded rather certain that negotiations between the U.S. and Iraq to continue the American presence in Iraq would include the elimination of immunity for security contractors. Talk of a timetable for withdrawal- phased or complete- has been one sticking point, the Washington Post reported "Iraq's insistence that its laws should prevail stems largely from the excesses of private U.S. security contractors, whom negotiators have agreed would be subject to Iraqi law." Specifically the Nisoor Square massacre in which Blackwater agents killed 17 unarmed civilians without provocation.
The road towards some sort of justice for that massacre has been a long and torturous one (see here for a brief rundown of the attempted coverup). Despite a U.S. military investigation finding no evidence that Blackwater was fired upon, blanket immunity was immediately offered and counter-theories popped up all over the place. But after fighting through the courts for almost a year, there's encouraging progress towards justice. Over the weekend, the Washington Post reported six Blackwater agents received target letters from federal prosecutors, suggesting that indictments for at least some of them will be forthcoming.
Yesterday, the DEA raided a medical marijuana dispensary in Culver City, spending hours on site detaining employees and ultimately leaving the facility in disarray. This is unfortunately not an unusal story. Since 2005, the DEA has raided dozens of state-sanctioned dispensaries in California.
But this time was different. We're used to the DEA calling in help from various federal agencies and local law enforcement. But I guess none of their usual buddies were available yesterday because from the picture below, which appeared in the LA Times today, it looks like they had to resort to calling in Blackwater:
The DEA often likes to say that medical marijuana is not their top priority (though at the height of the raids last year, they were raiding an average of one dispensary per week). They like to argue that medical marijuana raids do not take resources away from other drug interdiction. Yet this photo makes me wonder - if they have sufficient resources to shut down meth labs and to bust medical marijuana providers, why do they need the help of Blackwater, a private agency?
Yet another reason we need Congress to hold oversight hearings on DEA medical marijuana activities. Good to know that House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers is concerned about this issue and has already begun to question the DEA on its actions.
So, apparently there's another contracting company to add to the list of tax dollar abusers. They're called the Parsons construction group. They were supposed to do improvements on a prison in the flatlands north of Baghdad, but Parsons continually fell behind schedule, causing the Pentagon to cancel the project.
The big problem? The prison was part of an almost $1 billion contract to build border posts, courts, police training centers and fire stations, all in hopes of restoring Iraq's infrastructure. Yet Parsons only completed 18 out of the 53 project stipulated in its contract, and although they were paid for the minimal work they did on the prison, the structure is now empty and useless, due to structural weaknesses Parsons did not fix. In the end, Parsons made out with a barrel full of cash, and the much blood-stained region of Diyala never got its infrastructure.
Blackwater may be on shaky ground. Despite official protestations to the contrary, it's starting to look as though Blackwater's course might be shifting. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is starting to ask why the government is using so many private contractors, asking "Why have we come to rely on private contractors to provide combat or combat-related security training for our forces?" and going on to wonder "are we comfortable with this practice, and do we fully understand the implications in terms of quality, responsiveness and sustainability?"
These are questions that a competent government would have been asking in 2001 when Donald Rumsfeld declared that privatizing national security would be a good idea because...I don't know why...his friends would make money? It was Rumsfeld shift away from publicly-guaranteed and provided security that brought about the rise of Blackwater and a litany of other, slightly less infamous private security firms. But in light of the continuing legal proceedings probing Blackwater's Nusoor Square (17 civilians dead for no reason), Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's insistence on eliminating immunity for security contractors in any new Iraq-U.S. security negotiations, and now Gates' expressed concerns, Blackwater executives have been saying they'll shift away from private security because it's causing them too much grief. Blackwater will supposedly "survive with a focus on international training, aviation and construction."
As of yesterday, Blackwater is back to desperately trying to play pariah. They're accusing San Diego of disobeying a court order by...closely adhering to the court order. Blackwater's complaint is that the city is improperly delaying the final permit needed for the Otay Mesa training facility because of a recent letter from San Diego's chief building official that "placed 64 conditions on the final permit for a ship simulator, including wheelchair access."
The Blackwater argument- sad, desperate, and incoherent as it is- is that because a judge's decision pre-empted the City Council from reviewing Blackwater's permits and restricted the permits to ministerial review, a ministerial review from the relevant city department is improper. City Attorney Mike Aguirre clarified that these decisions "are being made by the professional staff using their own good-faith judgment." Just what Blackwater asked for and received.
Basically, how dare you give me what I want and have it turn out to be undesirable. Blackwater is apparently unfamiliar with The Monkey Paw, but will soon hopefully learn that getting what you ask for isn't always the same as getting what you want.
But for a company that's so desperate to adhere to local laws, Blackwater seems mighty resistant to adhering to relevant state and local regulations. Maybe it's because they won't be able to violate federal laws if they can't first violate state and local laws.
Either way, Blackwater's blatant disregard for local regulation was bound to cause them trouble eventually. They managed for now (there's an appeal pending) to avoid allowing the public to decide if they'd like accused murderers and arms smugglers in their community. They've managed to dance around countless laws and basic morals from Iraq to Afghanistan to New Orleans. But it doesn't get them everywhere, and now people are paying attention. Blackwater admitted up front and city officials confirmed that the misleading shell companies used to apply for city permits were used to fly under the radar of city employees and local activists, but the cat is out of the bag and now people will notice if the city fudges on any letter of the law. Too bad for Blackwater if they can't operate within the law.
San Diego pay attention! ATF raided Blackwater's North Carolina mercenary base and seized 34 machine guns. The backstory is involves yet another example of Blackwater using third parties to get around regulations they don't think they need to follow. In this case, they paid for 34 automatic weapons via having them registered to the Camden County Sheriff's Department to skirt federal law. Interestingly, there are only 19 deputies to which Blackwater CEO Gary Jackson answered, "They are very well equipped."
The weapons in question are 17 Romanian AK-47s and 17 Bushmasters. I've been unable to find info on which model of Bushmasters are involved, only that they automatic. This should be of particular interest for Californians as Blackwater's website notes their San Diego base offers a "Bushmasters Weapons Course" that is open to the public ($450 for two days, includes lunch). As for the AK-47's which have zero law enforcement value, Blackwater justifies the purchase by claiming:
Jackson and Erik Prince, Blackwater's owner, said Blackwater used the AK-47s in training to familiarize police officers or members of the military with a foreign weapon that they might come across while making an arrest or on a battlefield.
On the "battlefield" known as Camden County, the last decade has seen two murders and three robberies.
Disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign which has worked on the Blackwater issue, but these opinions are my own.
Earlier this week, I asked What the Hell happened in San Diego in the June 3 election. I explored a particularly underwhelming electoral performance and noted that there was a massive failure of leadership from the city's elected Democrats (active and retired). Councilmember Donna Frye supported GOP mayoral challenger Steve Francis and Council President Scott Peters ran against the Democratic incumbent City Attorney Mike Aguirre. Incidentally, both Francis and Peters failed to make it to the November runoff.
Then yesterday it happened again. Councilmember Ben Hueso, who in May was rallying to Block Blackwater in his council district, announced his endorsement of Republican city attorney candidate Jan Goldsmith. This is particularly notable because Goldsmith's opponent is incumbent Mike Aguirre. Aguirre has been a champion for the city in the fight to force Blackwater's permits into public hearing at a time when a number of other city leaders have...attended a rally and then thrown up their hands.
If Jan Goldsmith as City Attorney would go to bat over Blackwater or any other number of issues that might be uncomfortable for the Mayor or inconvenient for the City Council, I would be absolutely flabbergasted. The campaign, like every other challenge to Aguirre this year, has been centered around a promise to sit down and shut up. The last thing this city needs is another elected official who doesn't have the necessary combination of power and motivation to force important issues.
As the UT newsblog notes, Hueso and Aguirre have never exactly been close. And Aguirre has taken a lot of flack throughout his term as City Attorney for his rabid pursuit of Mayor Jerry Sanders for all manner of scandal- real or imagined. But as Councilmember Hueso well knows because he's at the meetings, the City Council hasn't exactly put on a clinic when it comes to keeping mayoral power checked by the legislative branch. Fighting the good fight has consistently taken a back seat over the past two and a half years to misguided "pragmatism" that largely allowed Mayor Sanders to get anything he wanted.
So what we're left with is Ben Hueso surveying this scene- Mayor Sanders re-elected to a second term with what CW will term a convincing mandate (it's not, the turnout was too low to carry a mandate) and a City Council that will likely go from a narrow Democratic advantage to an even split, further neutering a body that had given itself over to the inevitability of the Strong Mayor government- and deciding that the best thing for the city is that the single dissonant voice of any weight in the city government should be replaced by, as the UT put it,
Hueso said the city attorney's political persuasion is less important to him than getting "the best legal advice."
If the Democratic Party in San Diego is ever going to be able to capitalize on the tremendous infrastructure building being done at the precinct and street-corner level, leading Democrats need to stop undercutting both their party and basic points of fundamental governance at every opportunity.
What happened in San Diego? Ben Hueso and destructive politics like this happened.
In a little noticed vote yesterday, the Merida Initiative passed easily through the House of Representatives 311-106. It provides $1.6 billion with an emphasis on training and equipment to fight drug cartels in Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America, because as Rep. Brian Bilbray explained:
"Either we can go after these cartels in Ensenada, or we can fight them in Escondido," said Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-Carlsbad), who voted for the plan. "I'd prefer that we move now and take care of this problem south of the border. The drug wars in Mexico and in other regions have grown horrendously violent, and their destructive ways must be quashed."
A day later than expected, a federal judge today ruled in Blackwater's favor, ruling "that 'the public interest weighs in favor' of allowing the company to open its facility" in Otay Mesa. The ruling will allow Blackwater to occupy the facility, which they're expected to do in the morning. Court hearings will continue on June 17th when the City of San Diego will again present its case that Blackwater misled city officials during the ministerial review of permits. This doesn't end the case, but it does rob the city of some of its thunder. The legal wrangling will continue, and in the meantime, Blackwater still has more permits pending that will hopefully receive quite a bit more scrutiny.
In related news, the political landscape shifted considerably in elections yesterday. Mayor Sanders avoided a runoff in his bid for a second term, which could either free him to do the right thing or lessen his concern for public opinion. Incumbent City Attorney Mike Aguirre will be heading for a runoff in November, coming in second to GOP candidate Jan Goldsmith. If activists locally are savvy and get the support they need, Blackwater can become a central issue in that campaign. That runoff also knocks termed-out City Council President Scott Peters out of the equation- it will be interesting to see what he does with the remainder of his time in office on this issue. He's spoken out with us previously and his will be an important voice going forward.
As more develops, we'll continue with the updates. The next date circled on my San Diego/Blackwater calendar is June 10, when Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army author Jeremy Scahill will be in town to speak on the depth and breadth of Blackwater in America (pdf).
Earlier today, Blackwater ratcheted up the San Diego battle, suing the City of San Diego on federal charges. Blackwater claims that the revocation of its occupancy permit (so that the public has a chance to comment and review) violates not only state and federal rights, but Blackwater's Constitutional protections under the Commerce Clause. You can read the entire complaint in pdf form here, but I can assure you that the irony of a company who operates outside of all law- Constitutional and otherwise- trying to claim those same rights runs right through the whole thing.
I work for the Courage Campaign
The argument rests on a number of misrepresentations, including the assertion that Otay Mesa is a "remote" and maintaining that fulfilling a military training contract somehow corresponds to a closed-to-the-public "vocational school." But the crux of it all is that Blackwater thinks it's unconstitutional for there to be a public review of its permit. Which of course inaccurately attempts to convince us all that Blackwater is just another business. That's the Blackwater pitch through all of this, and (hopefully) it's never going to fly. Blackwater likes being a special case when it's insulated from murder prosecution, but not when it screws up their permits. Speaking with KPBS, City Attorney Mike Aguirre said "It's not really something that in my judgment is a appropriately before a federal court. [sic]"
Brian Bonfiglio for his part as Blackwater West's shill accused the city of trying to suck up to activists (when was the last time that happened ANYwhere?) in defense of the lawsuit. This is a whole new level, we'll see what comes next.
The City of San Diego has decided against issuing a certificate of occupancy to Blackwater (pdf):
Dear Mr. Bonfiglio,
The City will not issue a certificate of occupancy for the above referenced project pursuant to Section 129.0114 of the San Diego Municipal Code (SDMC). The portions of the building identified for use as a shooting range and vocational/trade school shall not be occupied until a certificate of occupancy has been issued for this change of use or occupancy pursuant to SDMC Section 129.0113.
Which basically means that Blackwater can't open up shop until going through a full public review process as ordered by the Mayor (replacing the previously planned stop-work order). In the meantime though, San Diego's development services director Kelly Broughton continues to play dumb, telling KPBS "I don't see that I would have had any other choice but to approve it because it complied with our municipal code and the California Building Code." Of course, it doesn't comply at all, which is why Rep. Bob Filner, several members of the City Council, the City Attorney and Mayor have all now stepped in to correct the flawed process.
For his part, Blackwater spokesman Mike Neil is grasping almost laughably at straws in response:
Neil said Blackwater's own analysis shows that the company is entitled to occupy the Otay Mesa facility and a delay could jeopardize Blackwater's long-standing contract with the Navy to train sailors in anti-terrorism tactics. A delay could damage the company's business reputation and "cause harm to national security."
I'm really not impressed that Blackwater has decided that Blackwater is right. And if Blackwater is so concerned about hanging onto this contract, they might have wanted to engage in this process honestly. But at least they continue to blow off even the pretense that this would be a vocational school. Not even lip service to the notion. Finally, for all the lame bluster about the threat to national security if Blackwater loses this contract, let's not lose sight of the fact that, even if this were true (obviously it's not true and is in fact absurd), it's not a good thing. Blackwater's contention is that San Diego should break its local government because the military can't handle its own training.
Well that's exactly what Donald Rumsfeld had in mind back in 2001 when he decided it was time to save the Pentagon from itself by privatizing everything in sight. As I remember it, the ensuing years have demonstrated that Donald Rumsfeld is not right about very much, and this is one example. So even if Blackwater were right that its vital to military readiness- that would just be all the more reason to put the training back in the hands of the military. Blackwater has been nothing but trouble, and cementing any "necessity" for them would be wrong on so many levels. Good for their bottom line- which is what they care about- but not good for San Diego, the U.S. military, the country overall or the world at large. Less Blackwater is the goal.
[Update] The Union-Tribune reports today that Mayor Sanders has ordered all work to stop on the Blackwater site. Brian Bonfiglio (somewhat ironically) is complaining about the politicizing of the issue in an election year, even though nobody EVER wants Blackwater and he knows cause this isn't his first time around this block.
Broughton said yesterday that the internal review could lead to Blackwater's permits being revoked, after a public hearing, if it turns out that staff made mistakes or relied on bad information.
The City Attorney issued a legal opinion on Friday indicating that a series of building permits issued by the City of San Diego's Development Services Department to a subsidiary of Blackwater Worldwide, a global security firm whose work in Iraq has fallen under criticism, were obtained improperly and a more rigorous permitting process should be completed. The City Attorney opined that a stop work order should be issued immediately and a more rigorous application process undertaken.
Southwest Law Enforcement Training Enterprises, a subsidiary of Blackwater Worldwide, obtained permits for tenant improvements to an existing warehouse in Otay Mesa the area of the City of San Diego. The permit applications specified that the building was to be used as a "training facility." The original building was formerly used as a warehouse. One of the three applications filed by Southwest Law Enforcement stated that the proposed use of the building as "same (no change)."
As a result of the representations in the permit application the permits were issued under the DSD's "ministerial" process, which meant no City Council or other discretionary approval was required.
More recent tenant improvement application submitted by Southwest Law Enforcement Training Enterprises was to construct an "indoor firing range."
The legal opinion issued by the City Attorney's Office also states that California Environmental Quality Act is also necessary in order to address the environmental impacts of a firing range
Which is a long way around to smacking down Blackwater on about every point that's been raised by the locals objecting to the project. Local NPR on the way home earlier reported that Mayor Sanders was on board with some or all of the City Attorney's opinion, still waiting to get an official response from Sanders.
To learn that Blackwater's no-bid security contract for Iraq was renewed even as a grand jury investigates the company and the IRS considers its own review of the company's books, raises serious concerns that merit Senate hearings. How was this decision made? What was the process that concluded there were no alternatives? What was the extent of Blackwater's lobbying effort?, said Senator Kerry. "Five years into this war, there's been too much abuse of the contracting process in Iraq and too little oversight, and nowhere do the questions loom larger than in Blackwater's role and the Administration's apparent imperviousness to skepticism where this corporation is concerned.
Coincidentally, this news comes on the same day that news broke that Blackwater vehicle prototypes might be on the Defense Department's shopping list. This is two more fronts in the battle over Blackwater's legitimacy. On the one hand, Blackwater continues to seek out new niches to keep itself afloat after we finally leave Iraq, and on the other hand, Democratic leadership continues to step to block Blackwater. Kerry's hearings will likely take place in the Middle East Subcommittee in the Foreign Relations Committee. Also serving there is Senator Barbara Boxer. Now Senator Boxer has earned the benefit of the doubt over her years in the Senate, but this is a huge issue that goes well beyond this aspect of Blackwater or the State Department. This is a statement about how we as a nation are going to treat organizations like Blackwater.
I have a lot of faith in Barbara Boxer to do the right thing, but that doesn't mean it isn't vital that we watch and make sure she helps drive the point home here. There's simply never any excuse for Blackwater to be paid with our tax dollars. Until we can lay down a federal level smackdown (Rep. Schakowsky's Stop Outsourcing Security Act is another great opportunity) on this sort of thing, it's just gonna be more rounds of whack-a-mole around the country. It's good to see more leadership in DC on this issue, but now we've gotta get the follow-through.
By now, nobody should be surprised by the resiliency of Blackwater. They've come back from the brink so many times, it's easy to allow yourself to think they'll never really be gone. So this weekend's New York Times article on Blackwater's comeback might be both demoralizing and par for the course if it wasn't for the strong rhetorical pushback from members of Congress that line up encouragingly with local progress.
As the New York Times chronicles all the near death experiences that Blackwater has come through:
The State Department has just renewed its contract to provide security for American diplomats in Iraq for at least another year. Threats by the Iraqi government to strip Western contractors of their immunity from Iraqi law have gone nowhere. No charges have been brought in the United States against any Blackwater guard in the September shooting, either, and the F.B.I. agents in Baghdad charged with investigating whether Blackwater guards have committed any crimes under United States law are sometimes protected as they travel through Baghdad by Blackwater guards.
Nevertheless, signs indicate that, ever so slowly, the worm is turning. The article notes that the State Department renewed its contract largely for lack of other options, to which Rep. Henry Waxman retorted "I can't understand why Blackwater's contract was renewed. It seems to me the administration should have looked for others who could do the job, including the U.S. military."
Blackwater made its way into the big time here in San Diego today, with mayoral hopeful Steve Francis picking up on the issue and savagely beating Jerry Sanders over the head with it. There's no love lost between these two (as you may remember or enjoy viewing), and they know that whether it's on June 3 or in the November runoff, they're in direct competition with each other for roughly the same political real estate in this mayoral race. So when Francis is kind enough to adopt the Courage Campaign frame in his press release entitled Blackwater Permit Issue Raises Serious Questions. Which makes Blackwater a defining issue as both Republicans try to stake a claim to the center-left.
Local leaders gathered today outside the office of Mayor Jerry Sanders to present him with more than 2,500 signatures to the letter from San Diego Democratic Party Chair Jess Durfee calling for an investigation into Blackwater's permit process. There was a somewhat unexpected air of celebration to the event as it was announced yesterday that Mayor Sanders is calling for the city's Chief Executive Officer to conduct a full review of the Blackwater permit process (of course now we'll see what comes of it).
The stage was shared by Jess Durfee (who noted he knows a few things about vocational schools courtesy of a Master's degree in vocational education), Courage Campaign's Rick Jacobs, Humberto Peraza- district Chief of Staff for Rep. Filner, Francine Busby and Ray Lutz from Citizens' Oversight Projects.
All the parties involved have been instrumental in the rapid and effective response to this new Blackwater situation. Remember it's been barely two weeks since the news originally broke of this new facility, yet here everyone was gathered to mark and celebrate a significant people-powered success story.
Today was a great opportunity to cement in no uncertain terms the coalition to Block Blackwater which has formed rapidly and forced action from the Mayor. And we're just getting warmed up. There have been recent revelations that Blackwater is looking to expand operations at current facilities and open a new training facility in Idaho. Why? Because they see the writing on the wall. They know that Iraq isn't going to last much longer, partly because they've behaved so criminally and partly because the war is such a debacle. They know that their survival depends on diversifying and establishing new roles in a post-Bush/Iraq system. It's why they're looking for a few good hundred million in new investment capital. It's because there's no natural place for them to exist once they can't get anymore handouts from the Bush Administration and their cronies.
Today was a victory. Tomorrow we'll likely need another. But we're developing the methods that win.
Mayor Jerry Sanders got what he asked for when he was elected in 2005. Not just the office, but unprecedented "strong mayor" control over the city's operation. He's had two and a half years, and as he runs for reelection, we have to ask whether he's lived up to the responsibility.
At a recent debate, Mayor Sanders let his frustration get the best of him over the substance, or perceived lack thereof, in the current campaign. Well if he wants to talk about issues, Blackwater is a good one. Steve Francis, a leading contender for mayor, has accused Jerry Sanders of "presiding over the largest pay-to-play system the city has ever seen." If Mayor Sanders wants to get substantive and prove that the good of the community is is his top priority, it's time he get involved in the absurd permit process that has- thus far- allowed Blackwater to waltz into the city and start unpacking within spitting distance of the border.
Earlier today, Courage Campaign partnered with Jess Durfee, the Chair of the San Diego Democratic Party, to introduce a petition calling on Mayor Sanders to launch a full investigation into the questionable process that's brought Blackwater to the City of San Diego. He asked for this responsibility- he still wants this responsibilty. It's time to deliver.
On the flip is the email that Jess Durfee sent to Courage Campaign's San Diego members today.
When nobody was paying attention, Blackwater found another way into San Diego. After watching every friendly politician in Potrero get recalled handily in February, Blackwater West quietly started pursuing permits to open a facility in the City of San Diego just three blocks from the U.S/Mexico border. 61,600 square feet, zoned for a vocational school but which Blackwater plans to use for training Navy personnel in terrorism response. To echo recent comments by Councilmember Ben Hueso to local news, Blackwater has no business in the City of San Diego unless and until someone can say definitively what laws they are bound by. And certainly, setting up shop on the border raises all sorts of extra red flags.
The local response has been fast and furious this week. And thanks to leadership from Congressman Bob Filner, there will be a rally at the proposed site of the new Blackwater facility tomorrow (Friday) morning. Rep. Filner will be joined by Councilmember Ben Hueso, San Diego City Council President Scott Peters, Carol Jahnkow of the Peace Resource Center, Raymond Lutz of Citizens' Oversight Projects, and Sierra Club's Jeanette Hartman at 10:45am at 7685 Siempre Viva Road in Otay Mesa in opposition to Blackwater's latest shady dealings. Blackwater discovered once that San Diego isn't friendly territory. They're sticking around for a reason, and best guess is, it's not just for a Navy subcontract.
Among other organizations, the Courage Campaign is encouraging all local San Diegans to attend if they're able. If you want to read the email from Rick Jacobs, you can check it out here.
