Montana jail deal raises questions: Shadowy company to bring in inmates

[seafan]

Montana jail deal raises questions

By MATTHEW BROWN
Associated Press Writer
Miami Herald

September 12, 2009

BILLINGS, Mont. -- The Two Rivers Detention Center was promoted as the largest economic development project in decades in the small town of Hardin when the jail was built two years ago. But it has been vacant ever since.
City officials have searched from Vermont to Alaska for inmate contracts to fill the jail, only to be turned down at every turn and see the bonds that financed its construction fall into default. They even floated the idea of housing prisoners from Guantanamo Bay at the jail.
So when Hardin officials announced this week that they had signed a deal with a California company to fill the empty jail, it was naturally a cause for celebration. .....

But questions are emerging over the legitimacy of the company, American Police Force.

Government contract databases show no record of the company. Security industry representatives and federal officials said they had never heard of it. On its Web site, the company lists as its headquarters a building in Washington near the White House that holds "virtual offices." A spokeswoman for the building said American Police Force never completed its application to use the address.

And it's unclear where the company will get the inmates for the jail. Montana says it's not sending inmates to the jail, and neither are federal officials in the state. ..... On its elaborate Web site and in interviews with company representatives, American Police Force claims to sell assault rifles and other weapons in Afghanistan on behalf of the U.S. military while providing security, investigative work and other services to clients "in all 50 states and most countries."

The company also boasts to have "rapid response units awaiting our orders worldwide" and that it can field a battalion-sized team of special forces soldiers "within 72 hours."
Representatives of American Police Force said the company presently employs at least 16 and as many as 28 people in the United States and 1,600 contractors worldwide.
"APF plays a critical role in helping the U.S. government meet vital homeland security and national defense needs," the company says on its Web site. "Within the last 5 years the United States has been far and away our" number 1 client.
However, an Associated Press search of two comprehensive federal government contractor databases turned up no record of American Police Force.

Representatives of security trade groups said they had never heard of American Police Force, although they added secrecy was prevalent in the industry and it was possible the company had avoided the public limelight.
"They're really invisible," said Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president and counsel for the Professional Services Council. The group's members include major security contractors Triple Canopy, DynCorp and Xe Services, formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide.

This movie looks awfully familiar....




Erik Prince

[midnight]

1. Incarceration and weapons-big business apparently not touched

by the down turn in the ecomomy.

[dmr]

2. 'American Police Force' - not only an arrogant name, but

if they do exist, and if they act anything like Blackwater, then with a name like 'American Police Force', the victims will surely blame you, me, and any other American.

[Quasimodem]

3. A division of OCP? n/t

[starroute]

4. The lawyer quoted in the article is real enough.

Maziar Mafi. Seems to be an Iranian exile. Has a law firm in Santa Ana along with another Iranian named Ali R. Mirhosseini. He donates to Democrats and was trying to run in 1999 as a Democratic candidate for Congress. (http://www.payvand.com/news/99/dec/1027.html) He's apparently got a twitter account but doesn't use it. (http://twitter.com/maziarmafi)

None of which is very revealing -- though it does make a Blackwater connection seem less likely.


On edit -- his campaign website is still up:

http://mafilaw.com/mafi2000/index.html

Welcome to Maziar Mafi's home page. Mr. Mafi is the Democratic candidate from California's 47th district for U.S. Congress in the year 2000.

No to El Toro Airport period
Yes to Education Reforms
Yes to Trigger Lock and Background Check
Yes to Women's Right to Choose

[seafan]

5. Thanks for that info, starroute.

That there are some supposedly Democratic leanings in the background of this attorney working for this unknown group deserves only a passing glance.... But appreciate the research on him. Time will tell.


Ever since Barry S. Richard, employed by Greenberg Traurig and listed as a Democrat, entered center stage as the lead attorney to represent George W. Bush in the 2000 Florida Recount coup, party affiliation as a measure of past, present or future behavior is unreliable.

[glitch]

6. Not just private prisons, private police but private "justice" systems now? Who needs Habeas Corpus.

Exactly where is American Police Force getting their prisoners? From American Justice System, Inc.?
You know what we need, a constitutional scholar in a position of power in our government. That would take care of this fascist bullshit, real quick.