By Becky Lambert
Sixty people walked down a rural road in northwest Illinois heading toward a remote training camp for police, soldiers and gun enthusiasts run by the private security contractor, Blackwater. Songs of peace were sung and thoughts turned more and more serious as a guard tower looming in the distance got closer, reminding us of the dreadful business going on in our backyards. Upon reaching the gate, more songs were sung and a statement was read. We were attempting to serve Blackwater with a statement of foreclosure for moral bankruptcy. Unfortunately, the Illinois State Troopers who were lined up on the opposite side of the fence were unable to understand the importance of this effort and arrested the 22 people who went under the gate trying to bring notice to the director of the facility.
There are many ways in which the Catholic Worker can be seen as counter-cultural. Many of us live in intentional community with people we are not related to, practice voluntary poverty, perform the biblical works of mercy by opening our homes to our brothers and sisters in need of a place to live, eat, shower, etc. Many of us also take the gospel call toward nonviolence and peacemaking very seriously. And so every year Catholic Workers from around the Midwest gather to once again voice their discontent with the prevalence of militarization throughout the U.S. government and its foreign policy. This year the focus was on private security contractors, with a retreat held in Stockton, Illinois, close to the home of Blackwater’s Midwest training facility in Mt. Carroll, Ill.
The U.S. has used independent security contractors to perform duties for the military, alongside the military, and instead of the military during the “War on Terror” and for many years before. In effect, the use of security contractors doubles the size of the military without the bad publicity. The U.S State Department does not keep numbers of how many contractors have been killed and how many they have killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are often better equipped than the U.S. soldiers, and as Jeremy Scahill said, “wearing the corporate logo instead of the American flag.” Blackwater is one such company, founded by ex-Navy Seal, Erik Prince.
Blackwater guards have a policy in Iraq that says “Shoot first, don’t ask questions.” They were given, by law, complete impunity from crimes committed in Iraq. The New York Times reported that Blackwater guards have been implicated in over 200 “shoot first” incidents, many of them resulting in the deaths of innocent Iraqi civilians. When Iraqi families have filed complaints against Blackwater, investigations have found that many cases of pre-emptive shootings have been covered up, not only by Blackwater, but also the State Department. Most well known of the Blackwater atrocities, the 2007 massacre of 17 Iraqi civilians at Nisoor Square, led the House Oversight Committee to compile a report and schedule hearings on Blackwater activities, also according to the New York Times. All of this led the Iraqi government to ban Blackwater from operating in their country and the US government to decline to renew their contract with the company.
Since being banned in Iraq (and losing half its overall contract revenue) Blackwater has redoubled its focus on training police forces. It is impossible to know exactly how many agencies have used Blackwater but we do know that they include both the Chicago Police Department and the Illinois State Patrol, both of which were cited in former Gov.
George Ryan as being guilty in police misconduct in his decision to commute the sentences of Death Row inmates in Illinois in 2003. Blackwater has also trained the FBI SWAT team and various Airport Authorities.
While the retreat focused on Blackwater as this local incarnation of a wider trend in the spread of private security forces and non-government trained police agencies, this virulent agenda is the business of hundreds of companies. These private security guards are hired by corporations and in many states are given official police authority. They can stop cars, detain “suspicious” persons, carry weapons and make arrests. They outnumber real police 5:1. And since they work for corporations they are responsible not to the citizens that, in theory, police officers and departments are held accountable to, but rather the corporations that have hired them. The Freedom of Information Act only applies, in this case, to law enforcement and not private individuals and companies. This is where Blackwater hopes its future lies. They will take advantage of laws, laws that were set in place to keep the government in check, by doing their dirty work for them (The Wayne Madsen Report).
February 2009 saw Blackwater, in a move reminiscent of the School of the Americas/Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/WHINSEC), change its name to Xe (pronounced Z). Blackwater spokesperson Anne Tyrell said the idea behind the name change “is to define the company as it is today and not what it used to be.” In April the Midwest regional Catholic Workers reminded Blackwater that their past has not been forgotten and their future will not tolerated.
All 22 who were arrested, were brought to the county court house and released within 5 hours. All were charged with criminal trespass to real property with a common court date. Though, what stuck with many of us and reinforced our commitment to seeing Blackwater and all private security firms “foreclosed,” was the sight of a Blackwater SUV sitting at the gates of their compound with an M-16 in the back seat, a Blackwater employee in the driver’s seat and an Illinois State Trooper in the passenger seat.