Blackwater permit faces challenge(Public not informed, San Diego officials say)

[maddezmom]

Source: Union Tribune

OTAY MESA – San Diego officials will challenge Blackwater Worldwide's permit for an indoor military training facility in South County, saying the public didn't know about the plan.

“Residents deserve to know when a facility like this is approved – before it is approved,” San Diego City Council President Scott Peters said.

The North Carolina company received a permit in March for a training site in Otay Mesa, an industrial section of south San Diego, shortly after abandoning its controversial proposal to build a larger facility in Potrero in East County.

The city Development Services Department granted the permit without public hearings. The site was already permitted for a vocational school, and city staff members decided Blackwater's training of Navy personnel qualified. The facility will have a shooting range, a simulated Navy ship and classrooms.



Read more: http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080426/news_1m26black.html

[mac2]

1. After all the criminal charges and lack of over sight

for Blackwater they should be given land and training like our regular military? Privatization of military is an open door to abuse and waste of funding.

If anything...we should be training more of our own troops and taking care of those we have now. We can't trust Rumsfeld military plan since he failed to protect us at home and attacked an innocent nation.

[EFerrari]

2. These guys are good. They must have looked a long time

before they found a site that had already been issued a permit for a vocational school. And they sure got their own permit fast.

It's amazing how efficient government can be sometimes!

[gratuitous]

3. Well, a vital project near and dear to the heart

Thenn it's time for Casey Jones and the railroad to run this permit or legislation through. Every time I hear one of our faithful public servants in the national legislature bemoan an inability to get a bill up for consideration, all I can think of is the Schiavo Fiasco. Boy, did that get through Congress like shot through a goose! Commander Bunnypants even cut short one of his interminable vacations to sign the bill into law.

[EFerrari]

4. Hi, gratuitous. My mom has been trying to get permits for more than

10 years. If she'd hired an expiditer (aka, someone with strings attached to her Co. planning department) she'd be finished by now.

It's been such an odyssey, I may write a book about it.

For BW to get a permit for such a complicated site plan in only a few months is just :wow:

[Mika]

6. Should do what the Cuban "independent" libraries do.

Just open up in any neignborhood without any permits whatsoever. Then cry 'abuse' when they are shut down.

:hi:

[EFerrari]

7. LOL! Too many gringo around!

Mom actually did do that for a number of years but they made her take down her mobile. The argument was that she didn't have the right permits. The problem is, she paid for the permits, did all the work and had all but the final clearance -- from the pendejos who made her take the mobile down because she didn't have her permits.

I told her we should call the place Rancho Yossarian. :)

[izquierdista]

5. Let them build their facility

After they get it up and running and have their all-hands meeting there, we can padlock the gates and put the "War Criminals Prison" sign on the outside.

[YvonneCa]

8. This is 3 blocks from the border. As a resident...

...of Chula Vista for 27 years, this is worrisome. Kudos for Rep. Bob Filner for the rally...but the lack of publicity hurt the turnout. Only 30 people? I needs to be investigated, publicized, and another rally held...at a time when people can actually attend (not 10:45 on a weekday morning).

[amihol]

9. that's good!

[balantz]

10. They sure want to have those border facilities, don't they?

Mercenary army to support NAFTA?

To continue to make sure the war on drugs is a soaring success?

Big plans for that border and beyond I'll wager.