Increasingly a magnet for controversy, Blackwater USA has encountered a bumpy road implementing its national and international expansion plans.Gosh, have you too noticed, that the grey hairs in the photo that accompanied the Story are not your typical draft dodging dope smoking hippies, but the sort of left wing Welfare State types who want the NannyState to provide the Military, rather than leaving these complex and technical matters up to the Invisible Imaginary Foot of the Market...
The Moyock, N.C.-based private military company's plans to open an Asian branch in the Philippines have been scrapped and one stateside proposal has drawn considerable heat.
"We are no longer pursuing a facility in the Philippines," Anne Tyrrell, a company spokeswoman, said this week.
The company's plans for a jungle survival skills training center on the site of the former U.S. naval base at Subic Bay sparked calls for an investigation from a prominent member of the Philippines Senate last summer.
More recently, the head of a United Nations work group on mercenary activity expressed concern about recruitment methods used by Blackwater and similar companies in the Philippines.
Closer to home, Blackwater's drive to open a West Coast outpost has run into a buzzsaw of public opposition. More than half the registered voters of a tiny rural community east of San Diego, the proposed site of "Blackwater West," have signed a petition opposing the project.
[ cf Blackwater scraps Philippines center, hits snags in California ]
Ok, as the Evil Media Noted, there are some concerns
It was just the latest in a series of brush fires Blackwater has been dealing with in recent months:But Only The Free Market Can Stop Iranian Flying Saucers..( op cit )
- An off-duty Blackwater contractor shot and killed an Iraqi security guard in Baghdad on Christmas Eve and was immediately flown home by the company. So far there is no word of any criminal charges being filed.
- In February, the company underwent a public grilling by a congressional committee about its security work in Iraq, including emotional testimony from relatives of four Blackwater contractors killed and mutilated in a convoy ambush in Fallujah in 2004.
- The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from Blackwater, clearing the way for what could be a landmark lawsuit in a North Carolina state court over the Fallujah ambush. The victims' families are suing the company for wrongful death.
Last month the Air Force dropped criminal charges against two officers involved in a road-rage incident with a Blackwater contractor in Afghanistan and launched an investigation into the possibility of witness tampering in the case.
And we should give the Free Market A Free-er Chance To Be More Free!!!