Military training facility on Indian reservation is revealed

[MindPilot]

Source: San Diego Union-Tribune

Miles deep into the largest Indian reservation in San Diego County, a company with ties to at least one former Blackwater Worldwide executive is building a training facility with firing ranges, a helipad and what was described as mock Afghan villages.

Two men told visitors to the remote site last week that Marines and other troops would engage in cultural, language-immersion and ambush exercises there, although in a later interview one stressed there would be no combat training.

The facility, located on the Los Coyotes Indian Reservation northeast of Warner Springs, follows a similar effort by Blackwater to create a military and paramilitary training center in Potrero. Blackwater abandoned that proposal amid community opposition in 2008.

It’s unclear when or how the tribe became involved in the current project, which came to public light by chance on April 6.



Read more: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/apr/14/military-training-facility-indian-reservation-reve/

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'In a follow-up interview by phone, Roach said his group was involved in “perfectly legal activities on sovereign tribal land that isn’t subject to public or journalistic scrutiny.”' OMFG.

[MineralMan]

1. Not military. Paramilitary.

And scumbag paramilitary, at that.

[MindPilot]

2. Acorrding to the article...military. As in Navy and Marines.

"The Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado said Navy SEALs would use the Eagle Rock center in the near future for a new survival-training course. A spokesman for the Camp Pendleton-based 1st Marine Expeditionary Force said he was still checking on whether the command would use the facility."

[OnyxCollie]

3. Terrorist training camps. nt

[Arctic Dave]

4. You nailed it.

What happens when it is bombed by a foriegn nation?

[MindPilot]

5. We just hope they don't hit the Casino. n/t

[Liberty Belle]

6. This tribe does not have a casinio.

It's location is extremely remote and inaccessible in bad weather; they are also among the poorest tribes in SD County, maybe the poorest. I've driven up the road; it's so rarely traveled that rattlesnakes bask in the sun in the middle of the roadway. I saw 3 or 4 on a trip there once. The tribal members' motivation is understandable; many tribal youths are unemployed and the cost now of gasoline to drive to work is more than they get paid for low wage jobs.

I am one of the journalists who gave Blackwater plenty of "scrutiny" when they tried to open a training camp in Potrero, also in San Diego's backcountry. I hope these Indians are clued in to the company's track record of deceptions and broken promises. (The later may not sit too well with Native Americans.)

Los Coyotes, incidentally, is the tallest mountain in San Diego County. Ironically, there's also an FCC application pending for a progressive radio station to put a transmitter up there, which could make for some very interesting local news reporting if both get approved.

[MindPilot]

7. Yeah, I was being faceteous...we don't have a font for that.

I did not know about the potential progressive radio station...is that Stacy Taylor's project?

[L. Coyote]

8. Indian reservations can be used to avoid federal laws!

[EFerrari]

9. And are sitting ducks for deep wallets because of their poverty. n/t