by Wayne Madsen Report
October-15-2007

WayneMadsenReport.com

from TruthNews Website

 

The mercenary firm Blackwater USA is well known for the controversy involving its "shoot first, ask no questions" policy in Iraq.

 

It is also known that Louisiana's Department of Homeland Security contracted with Blackwater to provide public law enforcement services in New Orleans following hurricane Katrina. Blackwater is also planning to establish regional training centers in Potrero, California and Mount Carroll, Illinois, billed as Blackwater West and Blackwater North, respectively.

These training centers, in addition to Blackwater's Lodge and Training Center in Moyock, North Carolina - Blackwater East - and a possible fourth rumored to be slated for the Pacific Northwest - Blackwater Northwest - may result in the establishment of a network of Blackwater-trained police, sheriffs, and other police units around the country.

 

Given Blackwater's dismal record on human rights and brutality, this spells trouble for civilian control of police and paramilitary forces in the United States, from major metropolitan areas to small rural towns.

On October 14, the Washington Post ran a story, which included photographs from Blackwater's Moyock training center. However, what was most intriguing was a photograph of a police and military patch board at Blackwater's headquarters that indicated the police agencies that have sent their officers to Moyock for training.

Blackwater is secretive about its non-federal, as well as its foreign clients, which the Post pointed out includes Jordan, Azerbaijan, and Burkina Faso, but a WMR inspection of the photograph of the police agencies has yielded the following list of agencies that have used Blackwater for training:

 

  1. Iowa Department of Natural Resources

  2. Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff's Department

  3. Matthews, North Carolina Police

  4. Atlanta Police

  5. Chillicothe, Ohio Police

  6. Charleston, South Carolina Police

  7. Port Chester, NY Police

  8. Highland, Indiana Police

  9. Unalaska, Alaska Police

  10. Metropolitan Washington, DC Police

  11. Charlottesville, Virginia Police

  12. Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (Dulles and Reagan National Airports)

  13. St. Louis County Police (Missouri)

  14. Queen Anne's County, Maryland Police

  15. Prince George's County, Maryland Police

  16. FBI SWAT Team

  17. Gloucester Township, New Jersey Police

  18. Tempe, Arizona Police

  1. New York Police Department

  2. Yonkers, New York Police

  3. Fairfax County, Virginia Police

  4. Maplewood, New Jersey Police

  5. Gastonia, North Carolina Police

  6. Tampa Police

  7. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)

  8. DeKalb County, Georgia Police

  9. Arlington County, Virginia Police

  10. Baltimore Police

  11. U.S. Coast Guard

  12. Suffolk, Virginia Police

  13. Franklin City, Virginia Police

  14. Milford, Delaware Police

  15. University of Texas Police

  16. Norfolk, Virginia Police

  17. Ottawa-Carleton, Canada Police

  18. San Bernardino County, California Sheriff

  19. Plattsburgh, New York Police

  20. Chicago Police Department

  1. Oregon State Police

  2. Los Angeles Police Department

  3. Tonawanda, New York Police

  4. Special Forces of Colombia

  5. Jacksonville, North Carolina Police

  6. Harvey Cedars, New Jersey Police

  7. Elmira, New York Police

  8. Department of Corrections, New Jersey

  9. Lexington, Kentucky Police

  10. Willimantic, Connecticut Police

  11. Georgia Department of Law Enforcement

  12. City of Fairfax, Virginia Police

  13. Alexandria, Virginia Police Special Operations

  14. Illinois State Police

  15. Dallas, Texas Police

  16. Hamilton, Ohio Police

  17. Morganton, North Carolina Police

A number of the police departments that have been trained by Blackwater have abysmal civil rights and police brutality records, most notably the Chicago Police and Illinois State Police, both cited by former Illinois Governor George Ryan as being guilty of police misconduct in his decision to commute the death sentences of Illinois' death row inmates.

 

It was a decision that likely had much to do with his indictment by the Bush administration on corruption charges - political misuse of the Department of Justice that has been seen in the indictments and investigations of:

  • Alabama former Democratic Governor Don Siegelman

  • HealthSouth former CEO Richard Scrushy

  • Qwest's former CEO Joseph Nacchio

  • Democratic campaign contributor Martha Stewart

  • Coastal Corporation's former Chairman and Democratic contributor Oscar Wyatt

  • Democratic-leaning trial attorneys around the United States, as well as the firings of several U.S. Attorneys who refused to engage in political prosecutions, and a Justice Department workup on North Carolina presidential candidate John Edwards in 2004

The training and potential political indoctrination of police officers by the extreme right-wing and proto-fascist Blackwater, coupled with the politicization of the Justice Department and U.S. courts, has the potential for the streets of Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York, and Washington, DC, as well as Chillicothe, Harvey Cedars, and Elmira to turn as bloody as the streets of Baghdad and Fallujah.

Citizens have a distinct opportunity of confronting their local elected city, county, and town officials over Blackwater training of their police officers.

 

Local officials should be pressured to reveal the numbers and identities of officers trained by Blackwater, the subjects covered by the training, the revenues spent, and a public demand should be made to cease and desist in such training.

 

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