Ayn Rand, author and political philosopher
From the July 2008 Idaho Observer:
The sublime rise of a standing army in America
Spirit Lake, Idaho, has about 1,600 residents and one flashing yellow traffic light. It has three cops. One is an older, slightly overweight man under six feet tall who has been around for a long time; he looks and acts how you would expect a police officer from a small, relatively quiet north Idaho town to look and act. The other two, recent arrivals (one with the last name "Lawless"), are large, muscular men dressed in black paramilitary garb complete with kevlar vests and combat boots. Their demeanor is noteably more menacing and intimidating. There is no doubt that, while the older cop's job has been keeping the peace, the two "Darth Vaders" are here to enforce the lie (I mean, enforce the law). The following article outlines the process whereby Blackwater is training up a standing army. Though Wayne Madsen has provided a list of agencies and departments that, as of October, 2007, had been trained by Blackwater at its Moyock facility in North Carolina, we should not underestimate the growth of this advancing army of militarized cops. Afterall, we have two of them in tiny and remote Spirit Lake, Idaho.
By Don Harkins
Blackwater USA was founded in 1997 by former navy seal Erik Prince and Al Clark and currently operates the world's largest private police and military tactical training facility on 600 acres of North Carolina's Great Dismal Swamp.
Blackwater USA became Blackwater Worldwide in 2007 and currently trains more than 40,000 people a year on offensive and defensive military tactics and domestic policing strategies.
Expansion.
Blackwater is currently expanding its domestic operations. Aside from its Blackwater Lodge and Training Center in Moyock (Blackwater East), Blackwater is also planning to establish regional training centers in Potrero, California (Blackwater West), Mount Carroll, Illinois (Blackwater North) and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho (Blackwater Northwest).Revenues.
An estimated 90 percent of Blackwater's revenues come from primarily no-bid government contracts, including providing "security services" in Iraq and Afghanistan. The tactics used by Blackwater personnel, many of which are in violation of international law and the laws of the jurisdictions within which they are operating, have caused international outrage.Authority.
It is not clear where Blackwater gets the authority to violate national and international law. However, neither the governments of Afghanistan or Iraq have the political muscle to prosecute Blackwater personnel for violations of national law and the U.S. Department of State has granted Blackwater personnel immunity from prosecution for such transgressions as murder of unarmed civilians, including children, without cause.Domestic immunity.
Incidents of abuse by Blackwater personnel in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (New Orleans, 2005) indicate that the company also enjoys prosecutorial immunity when laws are violated while responding to declared states of domestic emergency.It should be noted that several Blackwater "guards" arrived in post-Katrina New Orleans and began policing the region in its customarily abusive manner without a contract—or the authority—to do so. Blackwater contracted with New Orleans and the state if Louisiana to provide "security services" several days after its personnel had commenced operations.
The Backup.
In 2007, Blackwater bought The Backup Training Corporation (Backup). As a division of Blackwater Worldwide, Backup is now actively extending its tactical military training services to city, county and state police.North Idaho operations.
Blackwater, through Backup manuals provided under contract to the Idaho Peace Officer Standards & Training (POST) Academy at North Idaho College in Coeur d'Alene, has been training police since 2003. Blackwater is currently petitioning Kootenai County to permit the siting and construction of a tactical police and military training facility where the Idaho Post Academy will be a "tenant."Standing army in training.
"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 indicating police agencies that have sent their officers to Moyock for training," journalist Wayne Madsen of the Wayne Madsen Report reported in October, 2007.Madsen noted that "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 an analysis of the photograph revealed the following list of agencies that have used Blackwater for training:
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