Stop the Blackwater Mercenaries from coming to California!!

Hopefully you've already heard Christine Craft talk about this on her show. If not, then let me tell you that Blackwater (Bush's private mercenary army - Fallujah, Iraq / New Orleans) is trying to open a private military training facility here in California (near San Diego). Apparently Gov. Arnold is fully supportive of this.

We must stop this NOW before it's too late!

Please read the emails below from a San Diego activist and the Sierra Club and send your calls / faxes / emails before this Friday @ 4pm.
Please tell this to everyone you know!!

Thanks for your help with this important issue,
Bill

----- Original Message -----
From: Patricia Gracian

Your FAXes, calls, and emails needed before Friday 4PM:

Blackwater USA, the private military contractor that trains mercenaries and is under investigation by Representative Henry Waxman's Committee on Oversight and Government Reform plans to build an 824-acre training facility in Potrero, a small town in southeast San Diego County.

The Blackwater plan to set up base next to San Diego, in Potrero in Dianne Jacob's district is not just an environmental disaster. It is a threat to our constitutional liberties and to our freedom from a developing police state.

This is NOT paranoia.

This group has already been involved in the criminal treatment of Iraqi civilians and of our own fellow citizens in New Orleans.

We need your help to stop this project!
Some resources about Blackwater USA:

View short video at
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070402/scahill

San Diego Reader article, Feb. 22, 2007, on
"Blackwater West"
http://www.sdreader.com/php/cityshow.php?id=1566

The public comment period regarding environmental impacts ends on Friday 4/27, 4PM. PLEASE plan your message from the Sierra Club information below. It need not be long or complicated. It just needs to be forceful and to the point.
Please FAX your letter to the County Department of Planning and Land Use,

Attn: Mr. Jarrett Ramaiya, Project Manager,
at 858-694-3373.

Please also send your comments to all the San Diego County Board of Supervisors when you can:
Districts 1-5

1. Greg Cox- http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/bos1/
2. Dianne Jacob-
http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/cnty/bos/sup2/reach/index.html
3. Pam Slater-Price-
http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/bos3/index.html
4. Ron Roberts-
http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/cnty/bos/sup4/contact.html
5. Bill Horn-
http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/cnty/bos/sup5/District5/index.html

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Forwarded message from Sierra Club:

(Please, please state your concerns. This is serious and you don't need to be an expert! This is worth spending some time on.)

Your voice is needed! Please comment on the Notice of Preparation of an Environmental Impact Report (NOP/EIR) for an inappropriate development of a Blackwater mercenary training facility proposed in the tiny rural town of Potrero.

Comments are due by this Friday, April, 27th, 4PM. Please FAX to the County Department of Planning and Land Use, Attn: Mr. Jarrett Ramaiya, Project Manager, at 858-694-3373.

The NOP (Notice of Preparation) can be reviewed at
http://www.sdcounty,ca.gov/dplu/ceqa_public_review.html.
It is also available in the Sierra Club Office.
County Contact: Jarrett Ramaiya -phone 858-604-3015.

The backcountry along Hwy 94 and residents of Campo, Boulevard, Potrero, Dulzura, Jamul, and even as far as Spring Valley, Lemon Grove, La Mesa and El Cajon would be directly
impacted by this development. All of San Diego would be impacted by the introduction of this unsavory mercenary element into our region.

For the Hwy 94 dwellers, impacts include increased traffic with the accompanying hindrance to emergency vehicles. Fire hazards from shooting and from storage of explosives and fuels,
noise and light pollution could reach us. Potrero will lose its rural community character and suffer intolerable noise along with the other impacts.

The proposed development would sit on an agricultural preserve which is not supposed to be developed according to the general and community plans, and in the Cleveland National Forest. Light and noise impacts would be very harmful, in addition to the loss of buffer area provided by the forest land and agricultural (ag) zoning. This is prime ag land which we have a lack of. Shooting will be directed away from the community, which likely means toward the
Cleveland National Forest and the Hauser Wilderness Area.

Adjacent to Hauser Wilderness are two Wilderness Study Areas that are Wilderness Proposal Areas in a recently introduced bill by Senator Barbara Boxer. I personally participated in the
field-mapping of these areas for the bill. One of the proposed Wilderness Areas is Hauser
Canyon which is below and south of the existing Wilderness. Hauser Creek runs the length of the canyon, and is a drinking water supply link from Lake Moreno to Barrett Lake. Hauser
Mountain, just south of a portion of the canyon hosts consists of rare habitat and a wide variety of micro habitats important to many plants and creatures. Both areas host endangered species and portions of the Pacific Crest Trail as well as many beautiful hiking and riding trails.

Additionally, the proposed development area itself sits in a water basin. Groundwater could be contaminated by lead from the bullets, fuel, etc. With predicted water shortages (a recent
report states that CA is heading toward permanent drought) and ever increasing groundwater contamination, S. California cannot afford to mess with its water supply.

Politically, Blackwater is a very scary entity, avoiding accountability even to our government. The organization and its operations are blanketed in secrecy. Even Congress has had trouble
obtaining records. If the trend toward increased privatization of war continues it will likely lead to increased seeking of profits from war, which leads to more war. Fighting this development is one way we can deter such an increase. Blackwater is currently the subject of Congressional hearings, as you probably already know, and efforts are being made to increase contractor accountability. This could eventually even impact the entire country and our freedom. These people can work for anyone or any country. Recently our Constitutional Clause, Posse Comitatus, (see http://www.dojgov.net/posse_comitatus_act.htm) which protected us from Martial Law, has been removed by the Bush Administration. He could declare martial law at any time without Congressional approval...at his whim. Is this our country?

Locally, rumor from Potrero residents is that one planning group member, pushing this project against the will of the people, has a business that will benefit financially from this development. The will of the people has not been fairly considered. Concerned citizens
say that they have been bamboozled by their own planning group.

This project is against the will of the people, against the community plan, and against county and federal regulations.

(Please see further info on this and the waste of taxpayer money in the Sierra Club comments below the links.)

Please speak against this proposed atrocity. Also please send your comments to Dianne Jacob, who seems to be acting favorably to this proposal, contradicting some of the very reasons she is using to defend us from a Jamul Casino and contrary to her support of wilderness.

Thanks!
Cheryl Reiff

Here are some links to articles for more info:

http://www.sdreader.com/php/cityshow.php?id=1566
Published on February 22, 2007
Tiny Potrero Battles County and Blackwater USA
By Don Bauder

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http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Massive_security_contractor_faces_growing_protest_0403.html

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And a map of the facility:
http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/dplu/docs/PR/4-27-07/0620001-location-map.pdf

http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/dplu/docs/PR/4-27-07/0620001-plot.pdf

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http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070402/scahill
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http://www.blackwaterbook.com/?gclid=COaFhOyi3IsCFRAvhgodqFdsWA
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More info from the Sierra Club Land Use Chair:

B. Local Land Use Issues: Compliance with General
Plan 2020

Blackwater's proposed use of the Potrero Valley as a mercenary base is in gross violation of the County's own plan. Your Website states: "General Plan 2020 will form a framework into which the unincorporated communities will grow, shaping the future of San Diego County."

Are you going to throw away a comprehensive plan that the taxpayers spent millions of dollars to prepare, and that took years of time from administrative staff throughout the County?

Three regional advisory committees and 18 Cities guided the development of the 2020 General Plan. The Plan has been approved by the Planning Commission and the County Board of Supervisors.

No where is there a mercenary base called for in the plan. The Potrero Valley, is zoned for agriculture.

C. State, Federal and International and Native American Land Use Issues

The Potrero Valley is protected from development by federal law. It is proposed as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act.

The Potrero Valley contains species that are protected by the Endangered Species Act. The Golden Eagle is known to breed in the Valley.

The Potrero Valley is the entrance to the Hauser Wilderness Area. Two adjacent areas, the Hauser Cyn and Hauser Mt Wilderness Proposals, are included in the California Wild Heritage Act, recently introduced by Senator Barbara Boxer.

The Potrero Valley is included in the Las Californias Binational Conservation Initiative, a bi-national initiative to protect priority conservation areas in the Las Californias region.

The Potrero Valley is located between Tecate and Little Tecate Peaks, which are of extreme religious and spiritual importance to the Kumeyaay people. Tecate Peak is where the Kumeyaay Shaman obtain their knowledge and power.

Don't just think outside the box -- find a way to tear the walls down.

Cheryl Reiff
Chapter Coordinator
Sierra Club, San Diego Chapter
3820 Ray Street
San Diego, CA 92104-3623
619-299-1741
creiff@sierraclubsandiego.org
http://sandiego.sierraclub.org