San Diego Fires: The Blackwater Connection
by MasonicPlot

Having done some research the last few days I have come to the possible conclusion that there may be more than meets the eye here.

Blackwater has been in a big legal fight with the town of Potrero to build the nations largest mercenary training center. The people of the Potrero community have resisted Blackwater’s attempts to do so, now suddenly all of their homes are gone and the entire community destroyed and purged of all Blackwater resistance.

I have a funny feeling that Blackwater may be getting a real good deal on a huge swath of land after the smoke clears.

Three weeks ago, the Petrero community was asked to sign a letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein and Senator Barbara Boxer about Blackwater’s base, including a warning about Potrero’s “fire-prone landscape”:

“Not only will Blackwater’s proposed California paramilitary base disrupt the lives of its residents, but it will also threaten the pristine natural habitat of the Round Potrero Valley, which includes part of Cleveland National Forest and is adjacent to the proposed Hauser Wilderness preserve. The regular detonation of firearms would be a risk both to the fire-prone landscape as well as to the wildlife that currently calls that area home, including the golden eagle and the California condor.”

Blackwater is ironically now playing on those very people’s emotions by offering their helicopters, tanks and soldiers to help the community and surrounding areas fight the fires.

This fire exploded just as the people of Potrero were preparing for a recall election on December 11 to kick out the planning group members who approved Blackwater’s base. With ballots scheduled to be mailed in early November to less than 600 registered voters in this historic vote-by-mail recall, Potrero residents were preparing for an intense campaign over the next six weeks.

But the actual landscape — and the political landscape — of Potrero have been transformed over the last 48 hours.

I’m starting to hear on the news that authorities believe some of these fires were deliberately set.

It is almost, just too convenient, I’d say.

and this.

Randi Rhodes on CA fires: Blackwater might be involved

“I started just doing Google searches to try and figure out. You know, arson, arson, it was like crazy trying to figure out why is that being downplayed? Why is that, you know, just a small part of the story? And you know, every time I look for it what comes up, believe it or not, is that Blackwater wants to move to San Diego and build this giant complex in San Diego right where most of the evacuations are taking place and you know. You just know wherever there is fire, this administration will be out there doing what it does best and that is fanning the flames, you know. It just spooks me, I can’t explain to you how creepy this whole thing is that you know, you’ve got these fires. Some of them are thought to be the work of arsonists and in the same breath you’ve got a community that’s on fire that just recently protested Blackwater West. Just recently said no to Blackwater and apparently you don’t do that. I mean, I don’t even know what to think. You know, nobody is saying Blackwater set the fires, that is nobody that doesn’t want their house burned down. Nobody is saying that, but it is all so bizarre that this is America and you have to sort of sit there and wonder … arson, same place Blackwater West wants to be, people protesting. And then you find out that some of the guys that used to work for Blackwater are now in Schwarzenegger’s administration. It’s all so creepy.”

Lefty: I’m all for doing whatever it takes to get rid of this bunch, but the 11th Amendment essentially provides the federal government sovreign immunity from civil actions like what you’re suggesting.

Instead of going after the government, we need to go after the criminals themselves — the BushCo cabal as individuals, or as an organized crime syndicate. Yeah — Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Hadley, Gonzales, etc., brought up on state and federal racketeering charges — I’m loving the sound of that…

Comment by TCDon — October 30, 2007 @ 8:30 am

Civil and criminal charges should be brought by the states against this federal government.

I must agree with OB on this one.

Iraq had oil, and we needed it, therefore we have the right to be in Iraq.

There were NO WMD’s, so that lie didn’t carry weight. In fact, the “programs” that then Sec. Powell lied about were all gathering dust, so there’s another lie that doesn’t carry any weight at all.

Saddam hated Usama bin Laden, and the only terrorist camps were in the no-fly regions in which he had no control at all, so the false claim that Saddam was somehow, mysteriously helping the terrorists was another lie that carried no weight at all.

Nope, the oil was and is the only real reason that we are still in Iraq.

It might have started out as a “childish tantrum” by Pres. Bush to “get” the people that planned to assasinate his father when Bush Sr. was President, but it was the Oil that made it a deal clencher.

Comment by O. Bigfoot — October 30, 2007 @ 3:20 am

and, in a nutshell, the desperation of the right. bigfoot is as big a terrorist as Bin laden, and more dangerous to America. the right has no understanding of American ideals, no understanding of human rights, no understanding of law. That’s why they’re going down hard next year, and all the denial in the world isn’t enough to save them. their only hope is that the elections come before true American patriots rise up in anger against them, and use the same tactics the Blackwater criminals are using. Blackwater was not granted carte blanche, and every last one of them should be tried and imprisoned, starting with Eric Prince. Condaliar Rice, likewise, should spend the rest of her life in a cell. the right’s hatred of American freedom is bringing them dangerously close to being treated like thugs and criminals as a matter of American survival.

Comment by O. Bigfoot — October 30, 2007 @ 3:20 am

That’s not the government’s right, it’s the government’s RESPONSIBILITY, under the Constitution:

Amendment II

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

If this were true, they’d be required to wear a military uniform and follow the rules of the military. If you want them to have the same protections, then they need to be required to follow the same rules.

Yeah, prosecutors! Prove that negative!

Stop the presses. Time for action, folks.

We have had so many investigations of Bush Co. war crimes, lies, incompetence, and arrogance that hearings are meaningless.

What can we do to restore the rule of law in this country?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/10/21/202247/19

Another try.

It’s a love fest. :)

Comment by ForTruth — October 29, 2007 @ 10:11 pm

Pfff well that’s every night at the Zoo, eh? :)

;)

I continue to be totally baffled by this administration’s willingness to protect Prince the Boys, even to the extent of murder. What the heck is really going on here? Are other contractors getting this kind of immunity?

Check out a 4 part blog over at the DailyKos called:

Bush Authoritarianism: Blackwater+Amway=GOP
by DHinMI

Link here:

This link is to Part 4, but you can go to the others from here. Excellent reading regarding your question.