Cross posted at Calitics

As of yesterday, Blackwater is back to desperately trying to play pariah. They're accusing San Diego of disobeying a court order by...closely adhering to the court order. Blackwater's complaint is that the city is improperly delaying the final permit needed for the Otay Mesa training facility because of a recent letter from San Diego's chief building official that "placed 64 conditions on the final permit for a ship simulator, including wheelchair access."

The Blackwater argument- sad, desperate, and incoherent as it is- is that because a judge's decision pre-empted the City Council from reviewing Blackwater's permits and restricted the permits to ministerial review, a ministerial review from the relevant city department is improper. City Attorney Mike Aguirre clarified that these decisions "are being made by the professional staff using their own good-faith judgment." Just what Blackwater asked for and received.

Basically, how dare you give me what I want and have it turn out to be undesirable. Blackwater is apparently unfamiliar with The Monkey Paw, but will soon hopefully learn that getting what you ask for isn't always the same as getting what you want.

But for a company that's so desperate to adhere to local laws, Blackwater seems mighty resistant to adhering to relevant state and local regulations. Maybe it's because they won't be able to violate federal laws if they can't first violate state and local laws.

Either way, Blackwater's blatant disregard for local regulation was bound to cause them trouble eventually. They managed for now (there's an appeal pending) to avoid allowing the public to decide if they'd like accused murderers and arms smugglers in their community. They've managed to dance around countless laws and basic morals from Iraq to Afghanistan to New Orleans. But it doesn't get them everywhere, and now people are paying attention. Blackwater admitted up front and city officials confirmed that the misleading shell companies used to apply for city permits were used to fly under the radar of city employees and local activists, but the cat is out of the bag and now people will notice if the city fudges on any letter of the law. Too bad for Blackwater if they can't operate within the law.

Cross posted at Calitics

A day later than expected, a federal judge today ruled in Blackwater's favor, ruling "that 'the public interest weighs in favor' of allowing the company to open its facility" in Otay Mesa. The ruling will allow Blackwater to occupy the facility, which they're expected to do in the morning. Court hearings will continue on June 17th when the City of San Diego will again present its case that Blackwater misled city officials during the ministerial review of permits. This doesn't end the case, but it does rob the city of some of its thunder. The legal wrangling will continue, and in the meantime, Blackwater still has more permits pending that will hopefully receive quite a bit more scrutiny.

In related news, the political landscape shifted considerably in elections yesterday. Mayor Sanders avoided a runoff in his bid for a second term, which could either free him to do the right thing or lessen his concern for public opinion. Incumbent City Attorney Mike Aguirre will be heading for a runoff in November, coming in second to GOP candidate Jan Goldsmith. If activists locally are savvy and get the support they need, Blackwater can become a central issue in that campaign. That runoff also knocks termed-out City Council President Scott Peters out of the equation- it will be interesting to see what he does with the remainder of his time in office on this issue. He's spoken out with us previously and his will be an important voice going forward.

As more develops, we'll continue with the updates. The next date circled on my San Diego/Blackwater calendar is June 10, when Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army author Jeremy Scahill will be in town to speak on the depth and breadth of Blackwater in America (pdf).

Cross posted at Calitics

The City of San Diego has decided against issuing a certificate of occupancy to Blackwater (pdf):

Dear Mr. Bonfiglio,

The City will not issue a certificate of occupancy for the above referenced project pursuant to Section 129.0114 of the San Diego Municipal Code (SDMC). The portions of the building identified for use as a shooting range and vocational/trade school shall not be occupied until a certificate of occupancy has been issued for this change of use or occupancy pursuant to SDMC Section 129.0113.

Which basically means that Blackwater can't open up shop until going through a full public review process as ordered by the Mayor (replacing the previously planned stop-work order). In the meantime though, San Diego's development services director Kelly Broughton continues to play dumb, telling KPBS "I don't see that I would have had any other choice but to approve it because it complied with our municipal code and the California Building Code." Of course, it doesn't comply at all, which is why Rep. Bob Filner, several members of the City Council, the City Attorney and Mayor have all now stepped in to correct the flawed process.

For his part, Blackwater spokesman Mike Neil is grasping almost laughably at straws in response:

Neil said Blackwater's own analysis shows that the company is entitled to occupy the Otay Mesa facility and a delay could jeopardize Blackwater's long-standing contract with the Navy to train sailors in anti-terrorism tactics. A delay could damage the company's business reputation and "cause harm to national security."

I'm really not impressed that Blackwater has decided that Blackwater is right. And if Blackwater is so concerned about hanging onto this contract, they might have wanted to engage in this process honestly. But at least they continue to blow off even the pretense that this would be a vocational school. Not even lip service to the notion. Finally, for all the lame bluster about the threat to national security if Blackwater loses this contract, let's not lose sight of the fact that, even if this were true (obviously it's not true and is in fact absurd), it's not a good thing. Blackwater's contention is that San Diego should break its local government because the military can't handle its own training.

Well that's exactly what Donald Rumsfeld had in mind back in 2001 when he decided it was time to save the Pentagon from itself by privatizing everything in sight. As I remember it, the ensuing years have demonstrated that Donald Rumsfeld is not right about very much, and this is one example. So even if Blackwater were right that its vital to military readiness- that would just be all the more reason to put the training back in the hands of the military. Blackwater has been nothing but trouble, and cementing any "necessity" for them would be wrong on so many levels. Good for their bottom line- which is what they care about- but not good for San Diego, the U.S. military, the country overall or the world at large. Less Blackwater is the goal.

But who's complaining? We've had a pretty good run of good news in the past week or two- something we haven't really been used to over the past few years. We come up with lots of ideas at the Courage Campaign, and obviously we think they're generally pretty good. But as we look forward to build on the momentum from recent victories, we need to hear from you.

That's why we've opened up the Courage Campaign Suggestion Box. Our Managing Director Eden James explained all the details yesterday via email:   Read More »

On Friday, San Diego's City Attorney issued a full opinion on the Blackwater issue, calling for an immediate stop-work order and environmental impact report. This was most certainly a welcome development, but even more encouraging was the response from Mayor Sanders, who agreed and "ordered work to stop on Blackwater Worldwide's proposed military training facility in Otay Mesa."

A Sanders spokesperson explained that the Mayor would revisit the issue after the city's CEO completes an ordered review of the permitting process- due May 23. So this buys at least a week and is a demonstrable step in the right direction from the Mayor's office. If he does in fact stick to his good governance guns, there's simply no way that Blackwater's new facility fits under the permits that have been issued. It will be important to find out what went wrong in the process and fix it, but first we've got to prevent the bad outcome.

Brian Bonfiglio, for his part, did his usual bang-up job of making Blackwater look condescending and tone-deaf:   Read More »

Cross posted at Calitics

Yesterday the Union Tribune reported that according to Kelly Broughton, San Diego's development services director, Blackwater's city permits could not be appealed. The article held out one glimmer of hope though- that Mayor Sanders' call for investigation could bear fruit:

Broughton said yesterday that the internal review could lead to Blackwater's permits being revoked, after a public hearing, if it turns out that staff made mistakes or relied on bad information.

Certainly one compelling bit of "bad information" might be the use of Southwest Law Enforcement and Raven Development Group on the permits instead of Blackwater. Another might be...you know...blatantly lying about the planned use of the property in Otay Mesa and what would be installed there. Well today City Attorney Mike Aguirre weighed in on exactly that, calling for a stop work order to be immediately issued and establishing the need for environmental impact study:

The City Attorney issued a legal opinion on Friday indicating that a series of building permits issued by the City of San Diego's Development Services Department to a subsidiary of Blackwater Worldwide, a global security firm whose work in Iraq has fallen under criticism, were obtained improperly and a more rigorous permitting process should be completed. The City Attorney opined that a stop work order should be issued immediately and a more rigorous application process undertaken.

Southwest Law Enforcement Training Enterprises, a subsidiary of Blackwater Worldwide, obtained permits for tenant improvements to an existing warehouse in Otay Mesa the area of the City of San Diego. The permit applications specified that the building was to be used as a "training facility." The original building was formerly used as a warehouse. One of the three applications filed by Southwest Law Enforcement stated that the proposed use of the building as "same (no change)."

As a result of the representations in the permit application the permits were issued under the DSD's "ministerial" process, which meant no City Council or other discretionary approval was required.

More recent tenant improvement application submitted by Southwest Law Enforcement Training Enterprises was to construct an "indoor firing range."

The legal opinion issued by the City Attorney's Office also states that California Environmental Quality Act is also necessary in order to address the environmental impacts of a firing range

Which is a long way around to smacking down Blackwater on about every point that's been raised by the locals objecting to the project. Local NPR on the way home earlier reported that Mayor Sanders was on board with some or all of the City Attorney's opinion, still waiting to get an official response from Sanders.