[Peace] Fwd: Blackwater/Xe Pulls Out of Illinois

[Barbara kessel]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Dan Kenney <dkenney53 at hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 11:43 PM
Subject: Blackwater/Xe Pulls Out of Illinois



 *Blackwater/Xe Flees Jo Daviess County *

*But Training Continues*

* *

*By Dan Kenney*

*Co-Coordinator of No Private Armies*

* *

            Nearly four years ago citizens joined together in a small church
near Mt. Carroll Illinois forming No Private Armies/ Clearwater to Stop
Blackwater. The citizens group worked for four years to get Blackwater, now
Xe, to leave Illinois. The last major demonstration held at the
Blackwater/Xe training site in northwest Illinois occurred April 27th 2009
and resulted in 22 arrests.

Blackwater was once the largest and most powerful mercenary company in the
U.S. making over $1 billion in U.S. contracts. But now beleaguered with
lawsuits, and having undergone massive changes in the company’s
administration the sole owner of Blackwater, Eric Prince has moved out of
the country and put the company up for sale.

            The Galena Gazette reports
http://galenagazette.com/index.aspthat Blackwater/Xe as of October 1st
2010 no longer has a financial interest
in the Jo Daviess’ County facility. It is now a private business locally
owned and operated. According to the current business owner Eric Davis, who
was the manager of the site for Blackwater since 2007, “Blackwater is
currently in the process of moving their equipment that still remains back
to North Carolina.”

            In 2009 Blackwater changed the name of their training facilities
to U.S. Training Center. They still operate two training facilities one in
San Diego and the other in Moyock North Carolina. Blackwater also owns and
operates a mobile training unit that travels the country training law
enforcement.

            The facility on Skunk Hallow Road twenty miles south of
Stockton, Illinois has been renamed North American Weapons and Tactical
Training Center. The new company is owned by Impact Training Group. Mr.
Davis, former U.S. military, reports that all of the full and part-time
instructors are former law enforcement.  The company’s Facebook page states:
‘Impact Training Group offers the finest and most comprehensive firearms and
tactics instruction available.”

            The NAWTTC also offers, “a unique training experience that can
accommodate any of your training requirements or needs. Whether you or your
unit wishes to rent our ranges, participate in IMPACT’s training courses, or
just learn basic fundamentals of marksmanship give us a call and we’ll make
the arrangements.”

            The North American Weapons Group joins the many other companies
that have sprung up around America over the past decade. These companies
have moved in to capitalize on the growing trend to outsource the training
of local law enforcement and military. Over the past two years I have been
contacted by citizens in California, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio
and Michigan concerned about start-up Blackwater want-a-bes.

            It is good to know Blackwater was not able to make sufficient
profit to continue to operate a training facility in northwest Illinois.
However the fight against the outsourcing of America’s security continues.
Currently contractors out number American soldiers in Afghanistan, where
there are 206,000 private contractors performing many tasks, and in Iraq
where 177,000 contractors remain. Over 40,000 of these contractors are armed
and may engage in combat. In the first six months of 2010 contractor
casualties outnumbered those of US soldiers; there is an increasing reliance
on mercenaries to carry out American operations as US troops are brought
home.

We are witnessing the largest transfer of combat fighting and security work
from public hands to private in the history of our country. We are also
witnessing the privatization of war by multi-billion dollar companies such
as  Dyncorp and Blackwater and hundreds of others like them. Some 600
private companies are profiting off of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It
is reported that nearly half of every tax dollar spent in these conflicts
goes to a for profit military contracting company.

Senator Levine after a trip to Afghanistan stated clearly recently one of
the dangers this privatization process presents:

*      “The reliance on private security contractors in Afghanistan too
often empowers*

*  local warlords and powerbrokers who operate outside the Afghan
government’s control. There is even evidence that some security contractors
work against *

* coalition forces, creating the very threat that they are hired to combat.
Not only do these contractors threaten the security of our troops, but they
put the success of our mission at risk –”*

If American citizens want their security provided by soldiers who take an
oath to uphold and protect our constitution and have strong allegiance to
our country then we need to remain vigilant of what is happening to our
security and what is happening to the way we conduct our wars. We also need
to be watchful of how and by whom our local law enforcement is being
trained.
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