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.
The Union-Tribune's Anne Krueger is back with a command performance from the stenography pool today, delivering the latest "news" on Blackwater's Otay Mesa facility. Yet even she couldn't avoid the awkward break in logic that the various pieces of today's puzzle delivered:
"As long as it was an educational facility, if they're training future police or security guards, that would be considered a vocational trade," Broughton said.
Bonfiglio said Blackwater has had a contract to train Navy personnel since 2002 through a subcontractor, American Shooting Center in Kearny Mesa. The training will be transferred to the Otay Mesa site once Navy inspectors give their approval to the new facility, he said.
Bonfiglio said Blackwater hasn't determined whether American Shooting Center would assist with training in Otay Mesa.
"We want to improve on the curriculum. We want to improve on the teaching," Bonfiglio said. "We want to improve on the facilities."
Bonfiglio said other agencies may use the facilities occasionally if it doesn't interfere with the Navy's training. He emphasized that no independent contractors working for Blackwater would be trained there.
addition: Brian Bonfiglio explicitly states that this facility will provide military, not civilian training in the article: "Already in place was a ship simulator - a miniature version of a Navy ship - that Bonfiglio said will be used to train sailors for crisis situations at sea...Although the facility has a shooting range, it will emphasize training Navy personnel to be better prepared for terrorist attacks, Bonfiglio said."
Just when we thought we had won, Blackwater snuck in the back door and set up shop in San Diego with hardly anyone noticing. Citizen Oversight Projects started spreading the word today that Blackwater will be opening a 61,600 square foot training facility in Otay Mesa, just a block from the U.S./Mexico border. It's also about 4 miles from the Otay Mesa border crossing and about 6.5 miles from the San Ysidro border crossing. This is an indoor facility and obviously much smaller than the 824-acre project Blackwater had pursued in Potrero, but no less nefarious.
This comes at a time when national legislation to block Blackwater and other mercenaries is gaining steam. And perhaps this incident demonstrates that without a major shift at the federal level, we'll just be chasing Blackwater around in macabre version of whack-a-mole into eternity.
Score another big victory for the little guy. The people of Potrero have beaten back Blackwater and kept them out of their community. After the stunning recall of the local planning board members who supported Blackwater in December, Blackwater was facing clear local opposition to the plan. Regional groups had been working hard to raise opposition in San Diego County. Meanwhile, the Courage Campaign was teaming up with the locals to turn this into a broader fight. There were significant questions about it's environmental impact on the community and area. The company was awaiting the official Environmental Impact Review. Instead of continuing to fight against the town, Blackwater decided to pack its bags and leave tiny Potrero.
The letter from Brian Bonfliglio of Blackwater pulling the project is on the flip.
There is an interesting and troubling pattern emerging. The California media is being greatly outclassed by papers from out of the state and country on the developing story about the residents of Potrero pushing back against Blackwater's attempts to move a massive base into their town. This seems like it could be chalked up to the major cutbacks at California newspapers over the past year, but it is a stark reminder about the impacts of those losses. California stories are no longer being covered by California newspapers.
It was the Guardian UK who had a lengthy, detailed article on the push for a recall of the Planning Group members who had voted to approve Blackwater's plans. They talked to Brian Bonfiglio, Blackwater's Vice-President who is deployed to San Diego County to work on the project. The Guardian also interviewed a number of the town residents, including several people who were on the ballot this week.
This week it was the New York Times who dispatched a reporter to Potrero to preview the recall. The reporter ended up breaking news, even though I don't believe he knew it:
With ten ballots to be counted tomorrow this is a preliminary count, but it is simply huge! Talk about people-powered politics... The recall was an overwhelming success. All five members of the Planning Group who voted to approve Blackwater's plans were recalled by unbelievable margins. The election will be certified within two days and the Save Potero slate will take office, hopefully in time for their Thursday meeting.
Keep in mind that Bush won by 25.8% in 2008. Everybody was recalled by over 60% of the vote. Gordon Hammers, who has been the most vocal Blackwater supporter and served as chair of the group, was recalled by nearly 70% of the vote.
All of the numbers are on the flip. Go check 'em out. Just an incredible victory. They did a phenomenal job on GOTV, getting 160 or so out of the 190 who signed the original petition against Blackwater to turn in their ballots. The people of Potrero had an unbelievable victory tonight, but will need all of our help as the fight moves on to the next level: the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.
Can you tell from the superlatives that I am just a wee bit excited? These folks are my heroes.
Join the movement to Block Blackwater at www.blockblackwater.com, powered by the Courage Campaign.
You've read before about how Blackwater paratroopers parachuted onto the field at halftime of the SDSU "Fleet Week" game draped in a massive American flag (go check out the video in the link if you think I'm not being perfectly serious). Well, now we find out that Blackwater is intending on corrupting the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl (college football game) to be played between Cal Berkeley and the Air Force Academy in Fort Worth, TX on New Year's Eve.
Now, I want to make something perfectly clear. I have nothing against the Armed Forces Bowl in either product or principle. What I definitely have a problem with is the fact that a lawless, murderous mercenary organization like Blackwater is being allowed to share the same field as the United States military, one of the proudest, most ethical, most professional, and certainly the most effective fighting forces the world has ever seen.
I don't want Blackwater associating themselves with the good name of our military any more, whether it's at Fleet Week or at the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl.
If you don't like it either, pass this around and raise some hell. Ask anyone you know at Berkeley if they're happy that their university will be participating in a promotional event for a lawless mercenary organization.
edit at 11:53PM by hekebolos:
Here's the video of the previous Blackwater halftime appearance, just so you don't have to click through to watch the video. Be watching at the 2:45 mark.
They are still counting folks, but it continues to look good.
The way this works is that the ballot says for each individual candidate: do you want to recall X. Then it asks if you want to replace them with somebody else. It is taking a long time to count all of these individual votes. Turnout is in the 300s and there were just 8 ballots turned in today.
It is probably going to take another hour or an hour and a half to get the final count. Rick is camped out in the hallway writing up a post. Ray Lutz is videotaping the count. The media has already come and gone.
(full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign)
I know Courage Campaign has been quiet lately about Blackwater trying to open up a huge mercenary training base in tiny Potrero (509 registered voters), just north of the border, it is with good reason. There is a recall election, ending today. A group of local grassroots heroes started an effort to replace the five members of the Potrero Community Planning Group who voted to approve Blackwater's plans to build a base for 360 staff and "students" on 824 acres of enviromentally sensitive land, consisting of 15 firing ranges, a helipad, and a heavy vehicle. We wanted to stay in the background, while the locals worked hard on GOTV for the recall, since outsiders working on Blackwater had already become an issue within this small community.
One of those heroes is Carl Meyer, who is featured in this short documentary Courage Campaign put together. P.S. The sweetheart of a cat is named Twister. There is more on Carl in a fantastic NYT article below the fold. You might recognize the sign and the pumpkin patch in the photo accompanying the article ;).
Rick Jacobs is down in San Diego right now at the Registrar of Voters, waiting for the ballot counting to begin. I will update as soon as we get the numbers. Polls (aka the general store) closed at 8 pm. It is an hours drive from Potrero to San Diego. We should know by 10 pm. Keep your fingers crossed, but the GOTV efforts by the Save Potrero folks has been just great. There were however reports of one of the pro-Blackwater candidates trying to intimidate voters as they turned in their ballots today. The Sheriff was called and there were plenty of witnesses.
Keep in mind that the 2004 numbers for Potrero were:
Last night, I was watching CSI Miami with an episode featuring a rogue mercenary contractor outfit killing people stateside. I didn't get a chance to finish the show, because my phone rang with a reporter wanting to talk about Blackwater. At that point, I realized Blackwater really is the talk of the town, but no where more so than Potrero, California this evening when the voters have a chance to recall the local planning commissioners who voted to allow a mercenary base in California.
Realize, those voting in the VBM special recall election represent a very conservative electorate that Bush won in 2004 by over 25 points. So if the move to recall the Blackwater supporters votes breaks 40%, we'll see that even Bush supporters aren't down with the GOP plan to privatize via crisis.
On Saturday night, the San Diego State Aztecs hosted BYU to close out their regular football season. The game was the 3rd Annual Fleet Week-sponsored game, rescheduled from October 27 because of wildfires. The Fleet Week Foundation describes the game like this:
San Diego State University plays in this third annual Fleet Week Football Classic. Pregame and half-time shows will feature flyovers, parachutists, the Navy Region South West and SDSU bands, and a tribute to our wounded warriors at Balboa Hospital and Camp Pendleton as well as a tribute to members of the Legion of Valor.
The festivities have a wide range of public and private sponsors and it's fun for the whole family right? Well, for at least the second year in a row (probably all three), the halftime show included an American flag being parachuted onto the field by members of a nation parachutist team...who happen to work for Blackwater and use parachutes emblazoned with the Blackwater logo.
Attached is the promotional video from last year's (2006) Fleet Week. You can skip ahead to the 2:43 mark to see the Blackwater parachutist bringing in the giant American flag. If you want, you can also zip over to about the 3:09 mark to see the flag being dragged across the field during landing.
Fleet Week events, which go on year round, are to honor veterans. I've attended several of them and in my experience they've been good opportunities to pay tribute to veterans. So I have a hard time understanding how Blackwater fits into the puzzle. They consistently undermine the work being done by our armed forces around the world and especially in Iraq. It seems a particularly unfortunate inclusion in the festivities; made all the more uncomfortable given that the Blackwater recall election culminates on Tuesday (12/11).
Its time for the annual march on Fort Benning, and great strides have been made by SOAW. Two hundred three congressmen voted to stop funding to the School of Assassins, a fifth country announced its military will discontinue involvement with the school, and congress voted to release the names of the 2005 and 2006 graduating class. But this progress may be deceiving. The last year's Foreign Operations bill included $16.2 million to fund International Law Enforcement Academies (ILEAs). These facilities including ILEA-South in El Salvador which was established to deal with the prolific gang violence and instability in Central America. Unfortunately, reports about human rights violations from authorities continue to come from El Salvador.
(Welcome Miriam, an award winning journalist to Calitics. More info from on the ground there, following up on my post earlier today. Note: I moved some stuff below the fold. - promoted by Julia Rosen)
Potrero, California, the town that has gained national attention for standing up against Blackwater Worldwide's plan to build a private military-style training camp in their pristine backcountry community east of San Diego, now faces an even more formidable force. The Harris wildfire which began outside Potrero early Sunday morning has ravaged the small rural community, where many residents remain trapped without supplies four days after the fire began.
"It's like the Kalahari Desert as you drive down Potrero Valley Road. There are sand dunes everywhere-dirt and ash," Jan Hedlun reported via cell phone on Tuesday. "We can't get in or out, and we are running out of supplies." This morning, however, Hedlun said food will be provided to beleaguered residents at the old Volunteer Fire Department Building. The County recently began initiating its fire consolidation plan, closing some rural volunteer firefighting departments. But here in Potrero, some residents complained that they never saw a single fire engine until long after their homes burned down.
Stretches where homes once stood along Highway 94 have been reduced to wasteland. Many homes have burned, although the town's store, library, and Post Office are still standing. "There is looting going on up here," said Hedlun. Another source described Potrero as a "moonscape with houses here and there."
Many Potrero residents never received reverse 911 calls warning them to evacuate. Some rely on cell phones, which were not included in the evacuation system.
"It's like Armageddon," said Jill Michaels, who had just four minutes to pack belongings before fleeing flames that singed her husband. She and her family tried to evacuate but found all roads blocked. She returned to witness her Potrero home burn to the ground.
Others suffered worse losses. Tom Varshock died trying to save his home on the Potrero/Tecate boundary. His son remains hospitalized with burns over 50% of his body.
This past Sunday I was all set to have a call with the local activists on the ground in the tiny town of Potrero where Blackwater is planning on setting up a training facility on 824 acres in a fire-prone box canyon with one way in and out. We were going to talk about ways that the Courage Campaign could support them during the upcoming recall election to boot the Planning Board members who voted to support Blackwater's proposal. But the locals had to evacuate due to a fire bearing down on the town and we canceled the call.
Until this morning, only word we have had from them was via the San Diego Union Tribune where Jan Hedlun, one of the organizers was quoted talking about her former colleague who was killed in the fire. His son is in the hospital with four firefighters after a heroic rescue. We did hear from Jan today. She is ok. Her house survived, though countless others in the town were destroyed.
This weekend, we were planning to travel to Potrero for a face-to-face meeting. But we have decided not to make the trip, given what has happened. Since we don't even know for sure if they still have their homes at that point, now is not the best time to be entering into this potentially destroyed community.
What we can do is be here waiting in the wings when the fight resumes. What we can do is let them know we have their back. That was the message we delivered to Courage Campaign members last night. Below the fold is that email. Please join me in passing on a message of support to the brave people of Potrero. They have a lot on their plate now, but perhaps we can be some moral support. Blackwater has their army. We have ours.
Meanwhile, what is Blackwater doing? The are asking people for PR support, for them. Much more below the fold.
Despite the uproar over their murder of 17 civilians in Iraq, Blackwater is still moving forward with their plans for a massive base in San Diego County. Dubbed Blackwater West, the facility would stretch 824 acres in an environmentally sensitive area, populated by 360 staff and "students." The training facility would consist of 15 firing ranges, a helipad, and a heavy vehicle operator's course covering the equivalent of 10 football fields. SignOnSanDiego.com:
Despite rumblings that Blackwater might cancel expansion plans, Vice President Brian Bonfiglio said his bosses at the North Carolina-based company are still eager to open a law enforcement and military training center in Potrero, about 45 miles east of San Diego.
"Their charter is to make this thing work even more now," Bonfiglio said.
These guys sure are stubborn. Good thing the locals down there are adamant about keeping Blackwater out. Courage Campaign has been working to build up support for the local efforts. Thousands of people have signed the letter to Boxer and Feinstein asking them to stand with the California Democratic Party and go on record opposing this base.
Below the fold is more information on the official process that Blackwater needs to follow through on to get this base built.
Today's Blog Roundup is on the flip. People wrote a *lot* in the last couple days, which means that yesterday was a bad day for me to quit sniffing glue be too busy to put together a roundup. Let me know what I missed.
Now that Blackwater is back in the news and CCR (Center for Constitutional Rights) is filing a lawsuit in DC Federal Court this morning on behalf of 3 of the recent shooting victims, it's time to dust off my resolution. My first draft was last June. Please feel free to make changes within your own club or central committee, bearing in mind the idea is to get this to the EBoard Resolutions Committee where they will certainly make their own changes. It's a resolution, not legislation. It needs to go to the EBoard with broad support if they are going to consider it at all. The power to apply deadly force needs to reside within our government and not be outsourced to private entities.
Stevan Thomas
Candidate AD15 http://ElectSteveTho...
DRAFT 10.11.07
Resolution Regarding Private Military Contractors Operating Within California
Whereas, The Constitution of the State of California, under Declaration of Rights, Article 1, Section 5 reads: "The military is subordinate to civil power. A standing army may not be maintained in peacetime."
Whereas, Private Military Contactors (P.M.C., a.k.a. mercenaries or private armies) are NOT under civil control OR military chain-of-command AND can be looked upon as a "standing private army maintained in peacetime" if allowed to operate within California:
My post about Jane Harman's remarks at a town hall meeting yesterday about the secret "torture memos" revealed this week by the New York Times is up at Think Progress, submitted through their Blog Fellows Program, which I can't recommend enough. Let me contextualize those remarks a bit more, and add some of the other interesting things Rep. Harman had to say.
I asked the question to Harman about the secret memos. Earlier this week, the White House claimed that all relevant members of Congress had been fully briefed on the classified program sanctioning harsh interrogation techniques by the CIA. At the time of the memos, Harman was a member of the "Gang Of Eight" routinely briefed on intelligence matters. Harman was shaking her head as I asked the question if she was fully briefed, chuckling almost in disbelief. Her answer:
We were not fully briefed. We were told about operational details but not these memos. Jay Rockefeller said the same thing, and I associate myself with his remarks. And we want to see these memos.
Despite the uproar over their murder of 17 civilians in Iraq, Blackwater is still moving forward with their plans for a massive base in San Diego County. Dubbed Blackwater West, the facility would stretch 824 acres in an environmentally sensitive area, populated by 360 staff and "students." The training facility would consist of 15 firing ranges, a helipad, and a heavy vehicle operator's course covering the equivalent of 10 football fields.