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
19. New York Police Department
20.
Yonkers, New York Police
21. Fairfax
County, Virginia Police
22. Maplewood, New
Jersey Police
23. Gastonia, North Carolina
Police
24. Tampa Police
25. U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
26.
DeKalb County, Georgia Police
27.
Arlington County, Virginia Police
28.
Baltimore Police
29. U.S. Coast Guard
30. Suffolk, Virginia Police
31.
Franklin City, Virginia Police
32.
Milford, Delaware Police
33. University of
Texas Police
34. Norfolk, Virginia Police
35. Ottawa-Carleton, Canada Police
36. San Bernardino County, California
Sheriff
37. Plattsburgh, New York Police
38. Chicago Police Department
39.
Oregon State Police
40. Los Angeles Police
Department
41. Tonawanda, New York Police
42. Special Forces of Colombia
43.
Jacksonville, North Carolina Police
44.
Harvey Cedars, New Jersey Police
45.
Elmira, New York Police
46. Department of
Corrections, New Jersey
47. Lexington,
Kentucky Police
48. Willimantic,
Connecticut Police
49. Georgia Department
of Law Enforcement
50. City of Fairfax,
Virginia Police
51. Alexandria, Virginia
Police Special Operations
52. Illinois
State Police
53. Dallas, Texas Police
54. Hamilton, Ohio Police
55.
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
and 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, and 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.