Blackwater: In through the back door

It may not look like it, but this is a licensed educational facility. Only one problem, though:

It's Blackwater in disguise!

Hired guns are hiding out in this import/export building,
just two blocks from the US/Mexican border

From the Calitics website:

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.

[...]

Ray Lutz, one of the key figures in the defeat of Blackwater in Potrero, visited the new site and reported back with pictures, impressions and particular points of concern. He notes 20 truck bays and its position not only near two major border crossings but also the Tijuana International Airport. And if there's any doubt about the facility being used to train more mercenaries (and pretty clearly in the art of desert AND border tactics), note the word from Kelly Broughton, director of the city of San Diego's development services department:

Broughton said the building was already permitted for use as a vocational trade school, and Blackwater's training activities would fall within that category.

Vocational trade school. That's what we're calling it. If ITT Tech and a career in medical transcription isn't for you, check out Blackwater West. However, I don't think I'd have the same concerns about a bunch of crazy dental-assistants-in-training being planted within four miles of five schools (including three elementary schools) as I do about mercenaries.

Citizens sound off about the mysterious causes of the wildfires that originated in Potrero Canyon, originally scheduled to be Blackwater's Southern California training camp, until they were kicked out by citizen action.

And be sure to visit Fun Facts About Blackwater.


current-events

State of the Union

Shaker Heights is already hit by the sub prime mortgage meltdown

The Shrub gave his State of the Union speech last night; I didn't watch it - what the fuck does he know? Instead, I re-read this article:

The streets are empty. Trash rustles down the road past rusted barbecues, abandoned furniture, sagging homes and gardens turned to weed.

This is Shaker Heights, a suburb of Cleveland and a town ravaged by the sub prime mortgage crisis roiling the United States.

Faded "for sale" signs sit in front of deserted houses. The residents are gone, either in search of new jobs after the factories shut down, or in shame after being evicted for missing their mortgage payments.

A red, white and blue American flag flies over windows and doors which have been boarded up to keep the drug dealers away.

Thieves have stripped many homes of the plumbing, the doors, the windows, the aluminum siding.

The police station parking lot is full. The officers, who have seen their numbers triple since 2006, are coming back from their rounds. They speak of installing alarms in some of the homes claimed by squatters.

The rest of the story here.

And, of course, this shit hasn't even slowed down:

BAGHDAD — A suicide car bomb exploded near an American patrol in the northern city of Mosul on Tuesday, a day after Sunni Arab guerrillas killed five American soldiers during an ambush on a convoy in Mosul.

There were no American casualties in the latest attack, but one Iraqi was killed and 15 others were wounded, the military said in a statement. The attack is the latest sign that the main front of the insurgency has shifted to northern Iraq.

On Monday, the Sunni Arab guerrillas ambushed the American convoy with a roadside bomb, then sprayed survivors with machine-gun fire from perches in a nearby mosque.

It was the second devastating attack on United States forces this month, bringing the number of fatalities to 36 this year. While American deaths have fallen sharply in Baghdad and Anbar Province, they have not slowed in the north. Three-fifths of the American service members killed this year were in three provinces dominated by Sunni Arabs north of Baghdad.

Three weeks ago, a house rigged with explosives killed six soldiers in Diyala Province.

And there's still this:

Photo by Clayton James Cubitt

current-events