California Communities Stand Up to Blackwater War Profiteers

Posted by Joshua Holland at 2:21 PM on August 14, 2007.

Things are going gang-busters for Blackwater, the world's premiere private army. They've got a nice chunk of the booming security business in Iraq -- the estimated 180,000 private contractors now exceeds the number of troops in the country and, as Jeremy Scahill points out on the front page, firms like Blackwater are "flush with profits."

But that's only a tiny slice of the pie: Blackwater recently introduced its own armored vehicle, the Grizzly Armored Personnel Carrier; Blackwater Airships is building a remotely-piloted vehicle; the company's global air service, Presidential Airways, holds a secret facility clearance from the DoD -- I'm sure they have nothing to do with any extraordinary rendition -- and the mercenary outfit recently announced that it was starting a private intelligence firm to rival the CIA.

It's a great time to be an unaccountable killer in a three-piece suit!

And the company's training operations are spreading. From its headquarters and primary training facility in North Carolina -- you can get some excellent sniper training there, I hear -- to "Blackwater North" in Mount Carroll, Illinois. And now the firm is trying to open a sprawling new training facility in California.

Specifically, in tiny Potrero, California, a berg in San diego county with a population of fewer than 1,000.

What exactly does the infamous war profiteer want to drop the following in the middle of an idyllic piece of the California countryside? Glad you asked ...

Blackwater intends to build another of its private city states consisting of 824 acres, replete with 360 staff and students, 15 firing ranges, a helipad and a heavy vehicle operator's course the length of 10 football fields.

Not surprisingly, the mercenary company is meeting some resistance, which started with community leaders in the small town but is now growing into a state-wide campaign.

The video to your right is a report -- a damning one -- by a local NBC affiliate. Blackwater was none to pleased with the broadcast, and has mobilized (that usually means "hired") an "astro-turf" network to bombard the station with complaints about how the report was un-American, anti-Capitalist and whatever else.

If you want to help push back, you can. The good folks at the Courage Campaign have organized a petition, and they're collecting signatures to send to the Governator, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein asking to keep Blackwater's mercenary operations out of California. If you have a minute, consider signing the petition.

Tagged as: blackwater, courage campaign

Joshua Holland is an editor and senior writer at AlterNet.