Blackwater Training US Police

Wayne Madsen Report.com (2007-10-15) Wayne Madsen

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Wayne Madsen Report
October 15, 2007

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

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. De Kalb 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 Health South 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.

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