Thread: CA-Blackwater sets sights on indoor facility in Otay Mesa

Blackwater sets sights on indoor facility in Otay Mesa
By Anne Krueger
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

1:41 p.m. April 22, 2008

Blackwater Worldwide is planning to open an indoor training facility in Otay Mesa after abandoning a controversial proposal to build a training center for law enforcement and the military on an East County chicken ranch.

Brian Bonfiglio, a Blackwater vice president, confirmed the facility will operate out of a 61,600-square-foot building on Siempre Viva Road, just south of Brown Field. Further details about the company's plans are expected later.

Kelly Broughton, director of the city of San Diego's development services department, said Blackwater applied for a permit in February to make improvements to the building. The permit was approved March 19.
Broughton said the building was already permitted for use as a vocational trade school, and Blackwater's training activities would fall within that category.

On March 7, Blackwater dropped its plans to build a training facility for law enforcement and the military on an 824-acre site in the East County community of Potrero.

The proposal brought intense criticism from opponents who said the facility would bring noise and traffic to the rural community, and from those who objected to the role of Blackwater's security guards in Iraq.

Blackwater abandoned the East County site because gunfire tests there showed the noise exceeded county standards.

Opponents said they were opposed to Blackwater opening any new facility.

“We don't need to go any further for training for violence in this country,â€

Southbay Leaders: Otay Blackwater Presence Will Complicate Border Relations

Apr 25, 2008
Amy Isackson


A number of Southbay community leaders say Blackwater’s presence near the border in Otay Mesa will complicate U.S.-Mexico relations and pose a danger to the border region. KPBS reporter Amy Isackson has the story.

The private government contractor Blackwater plans to open a military training facility just a stones throw from Tijuana.

This week’s announcement comes about a month-and-a-half after the company scuttled its attempt to build a massive facility in the rural community Potrero.

Congressman Bob Filner's district runs the length of the California Mexico border.

He says it’s no accident Blackwater is looking for sites there.

He believes Blackwater sees a great market for outsourcing border activities.

Filner: They have said that publicly. This is a very sensitive area when it comes to human and civil rights. We don't need people who have no regard for human and civil rights to be part of that enforcement. It’s dangerous, literally, to the lives of my constituents.

Blackwater's role in the deaths of Iraqi civilians has prompted much of the local opposition.

Blackwater officials say they’ll use the Otay site to train Navy and Coast Guard sailors.


http://www.kpbs.org/news/local;id=11527