General

Jeremy Scahill's Blackwater Book tour Hits SD

Tuesday, 01 May 2007
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Jeremy Scahill, author of New York Times Bestseller
Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army
Book Tour of Southern California
Thursday, April 26th – Wednesday May 2nd

Blackwater West Comes Under Fire in State
Local residents and their Congressman move to block Blackwater's expansion plans
to build Blackwater West, a private military training camp in So-Cal near Mexico’s border.

WHERE AND WHEN:

Jeremy Scahill's Southern California
Blackwater Tour Dates
Speaking and Book Signings:

Thursday, April 26th
Santa Barbara, CA
Isla Vista Theater 7PM
960 Embarcadero Del Norte

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Sun, April 29
Los Angeles, CA
LA Times Book Festival, 2PM
at Nation Books’ booth
on the UCLA campus
book signing (only)

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Monday, April 30
Los Angeles, CA
Nativity Episcopal Church, 7:30PM
6700 West 83rd St. Westchester
Speaking and Book Signing
(arrive early for seating)

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Tues. May 1
San Diego, CA
Unitarian Church, 7PM
4190 Front Street
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Wednesday, May 2
La Mesa, CA 7PM
La Mesa Community Center
4975 Memorial Drive
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WHO: Jeremy Scahill is a Puffin Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute and a frequent contributor to The Nation magazine. He has won numerous awards, including the prestigious George Polk Award. While a correspondent for the national radio and television show “Democracy Now!,” Scahill reported extensively from Iraq through both the Clinton and Bush administrations. Traveling around the hurricane zone in the wake of Katrina, Scahill exposed the presence of Blackwater mercenaries in New Orleans and his reporting sparked a Congressional inquiry and an internal Department of Homeland Security investigation.

WHAT: The San Diego Union Tribune recently reported the proposal by Blackwater USA to "build a training center on a 800-acre former chicken and cattle ranch in the rural-town of Potrero in San Diego County has torn apart the tiny community and brought protests by those opposed to the company's government contracts in Iraq."

"Rep. Bob Filner (D-San Diego, CA) says he is exploring legislation that would block a controversial proposal for a major defense contractor's training camp in the backcountry community of Potrero."

Blackwater the book is an in-depth expose of one of the greatest beneficiaries of the “global war on terror”—a private company based in the wilderness of North Carolina that has been at the forefront of a secretive campaign to change forever how the US wages war. Blackwater goes deep inside the personalities that founded the company, its close ties to the White House, military and intelligence agencies, as well as its role in the conservative movement.

FOR MORE INFO GO TO:
www.BlackwaterBook.com

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BLACKWATER WEST IN THE NEWS:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/19/1349211

Democracy Now!

Blackwater Plans for New Military Facility Near San Diego Draws Fire From Residents, Peace Activists and Local Congressmember

Thursday, April 19th, 2007

The private security firm Blackwater USA is planning to build a new military training center on an 800-acre ranch near Potrero, a tiny rural town east of San Diego.

The project, known as Blackwater West, is being opposed by a growing coalition of local residents, environmentalists and peace activists. We speak with Rep Bob Filner who is exploring legislation to block the project as well as one of the local organizers and journalist Jeremy Scahill, author of "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army." [includes rush transcript]

Today we are broadcasting from Los Angeles, California. About 150 miles south of here, near the US-Mexico border, the private security firm Blackwater is planning to build a new military training center known simply as "Blackwater West."

Plans for the new site include multiple firing ranges, training towers, an armory, a helipad, an urban simulation training area and a driving track.

Blackwater plans to build the facility on an 800-acre chicken and cattle ranch near Potrero, a tiny rural town about 45 miles east of San Diego. The project won preliminary approval from the local planning board in December, but since then more than half the registered voters of Potrero have signed a petition opposing it. The residents are being joined by a growing coalition of environmentalists and peace activists.

The project will ultimately need the approval of the county planning commission and the board of supervisors, a process that could take up to two years. Earlier this month, a normally routine county planning meeting on the project drew over 100 protesters. They were met by three dozen police and sheriff's deputies and people entering the meeting were required to walk through a metal detector.

Blackwater West is also running into opposition from a local Democratic Congressmember who represents the area. Representative Bob Filner said he is exploring legislation to block the project.

Congressmember Filner joins me on the line now from Washington DC. Here in Los Angeles I am joined by Raymond Lutz, one of the main organizers opposing the Blackwater West facility. He runs the websites Stopblackwater.net and citizensoversight.org. And in our firehouse studio in New York I am joined by Jeremy Scahill, author of the New York Times bestseller, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army."

We called Blackwater to invite them on the program but they declined our request.

• Rep. Bob Filner, Democratic Congressmember representing California"s 51st congressional district. He is exploring legislation to block the proposal for the Blackwater West site in Potrero.

• Jeremy Scahill, Democracy Now! correspondent and a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute. He is the author of the new book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army." [More information on the book and Jeremy's book tour of California go to Blackwaterbook.com]

• Raymond Lutz, one of the main organizers opposing the Blackwater West facility. He runs the websites Stopblackwater.net and citizensoversight.org. He is President of the East County Democratic Club.

TO WATCH/LISTEN/READ THE TRANSCRIPT GO TO:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/19/1349211

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http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20070426-9999-2m26black.html

Comment period extended on training camp

May 28 is deadline on Blackwater plan

By Anne Krueger

SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

April 26, 2007

The public will have an extra month to weigh in on a proposed military training camp in the backcountry community of Potrero.

The deadline for comments to the county about the environmental effects of the controversial project, initially set for tomorrow, has been extended to May 28.

Blackwater USA wants to build a military training camp on 824 acres that was once a chicken and cattle ranch in Potrero.

Glenn Russell of the county Department of Planning and Land Use said he decided to extend the comment period because the previous county planner on the project mistakenly gave out an incorrect fax number.

The county has already received almost 300 comments on the project, including 230 brought to the planning department Monday, Russell said.

The training center, called Blackwater West, is proposed for 824 acres on land that was a chicken and cattle ranch. Opponents have expressed anxiety about traffic and noise, and concerns about Blackwater USA's role as a military contractor in Iraq.

The comments will be sent to consultants for Blackwater to be addressed in an environmental report, which is expected to take several months to prepare.

Emotions have sometimes run high as plans for the project progress.

At an April 5 meeting held by county planners, dozens of law enforcement officers surrounded the county operations building. More than 100 people attended the meeting.

The extra security was the result of threats made against someone connected to the project.

“Law enforcement is conducting a criminal investigation into possible threats related to the Blackwater project,” county spokesman Michael Workman said, declining to comment further.

Blackwater officials say the training center would house about 300 students a week at a time. The site would feature eight rifle ranges, three pistol ranges, a helipad and an urban simulation training area.

The North Carolina-based company has aroused controversy because of its millions of dollars in government contracts to provide security in Iraq. Four Blackwater employees were killed in March 2004 in Fallujah, with images of their charred bodies shown around the world.

Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, whose district includes Potrero, has promised to help opponents of the project.

“It doesn't fit at all,” Filner said of the proposed center. “(Blackwater's) actions in Iraq and the problems they're having make me very, very suspicious about them.”

Filner said he wants to propose legislation that would block the training center, but isn't sure yet what action he'll take.

“I'm just trying to figure out a way I can help,” he said.

The county Board of Supervisors will ultimately decide whether to approve Blackwater's proposal after a process that is expected to take about two years.

In an interview last week on the radio show Democracy Now!, Filner said he believed Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, intervened to get the property owner to sell quickly to Blackwater. But in a later interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune, Filner said he'd just heard that from an area resident and had no proof.

Hunter spokesman Joe Kasper said Hunter did not intervene. Blackwater Vice President Brian Bonfiglio called the allegation “ridiculous, truly ridiculous.”

Filner said he is willing to meet with Blackwater officials.

“If they want to, I'll be happy to sit down and tell them why they should not be around,” he said. “I should probably have some bodyguards there.”

Details:

Comments to be considered in an environmental report about the proposed Blackwater West training center can be sent by e-mail to jarrett.raimaya@sdcounty.ca.gov, by fax to (858) 694-3373 or by mail to 5201 Ruffin Road, Suite B, San Diego, CA 92123.

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Location:
Unitarian Church
4190 Front Street

URL: www.blackwaterbook.org