[NYTr] Calif Town Rejects Blackwater Training Camp

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by Marc Sapir via Jane Franklin

[There are more than a few people on the left who think that the general
population of our country is apathetic and basically unconcerned about
the Iraq occupation and war and related policies of aggression, torture
and such.  The story below should help dispel this idea.  It supports
what I believe: that US democracy is a rather transparent fraud at this
point because there are few avenues for people to actively participate
or to give their views meaningful authority regarding national policy.
Given the chance-as Blackwater has-this is what we get.  Righteous
anger.

Marc Sapir MD, MPH
510-848-3826
marcsapir at comcast.net ]

AP via enews - Dec 12, 2007
http://enews.earthlink.net/article/nat?guid=20071212/475f6ad0_3ca6_1552620071212979744937

Calif. Town Rejects Blackwater Plan

By ALLISON HOFFMAN
Associated Press

SAN DIEGO - Residents balked at putting a Blackwater training camp near
a sleepy mountain community, voting to recall five members of an
advisory planning board that endorsed the global security firm's plan.

The results of a mail-in-ballot recall in the village of Potrero were
announced early Wednesday, several hours after polls closed Tuesday
night. The board members - Jerry Johnson, Mary Johnson, Gordon Hammers,
Janet Wright and Thell Fowler - lost by wide margins. A sixth member who
was not on the board at the time of the endorsement was not up for
recall.

Hammers said the board's decision had been misconstrued, and that its
goal was to investigate what jobs and other perks having Blackwater
could mean for the community.

"We chose to stay engaged," said Hammers. "Certain elements made it an
anti-Bush, anti-Iraq war surrogate and sold that to the community. They
were successful."

Blackwater wanted to turn an 800-acre former chicken farm into a
training camp for law enforcement officers. The facility would have
included 11 firing ranges, a driving track and a helipad. But opposition
to the plan intensified in September, after Blackwater guards were
investigated in the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad.
Supporters of the project said Blackwater would bring development and
turn Potrero, home of about 850 people, into a middle-class town.
Opponents say it would increase noise and traffic, compromising the
quiet country atmosphere of the area in scrub-covered mountains about 45
miles east of San Diego.

Final say over the project rests with the county board of supervisors,
who won't consider the plan until environmental impact reports have been
completed.

Blackwater said it would press on with the project.

"Despite the results of the election, Blackwater will continue to seek
approval for the Potrero facility because these results have no bearing
on the land use or environmental impact report issues, both of which we
are confident are not compromised by our proposal," Blackwater West vice
president Brian Bonfiglio said Wednesday. "In the meantime, we will work
closely with the new planning board to educate them on the realities of
Blackwater and the benefits our facility would have on this community."

The proposed training camp site is remote and shielded by mountains, but
it is also a short drive from downtown San Diego and its array of
military bases and federal law-enforcement field offices - including
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol.
Since the Baghdad shootings, Blackwater says it is focusing on its
training operations and trying to wean itself from overseas contracts.


On the Net:
Blackwater Worldwide: http://www.blackwaterusa.com/
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