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Blackwater Invades Illinois
Blackwater - Part 2
Help Stop Blackwater: Support HB5700
Support Needed For
Limitations on Private Military Contractors Act
Rep. Julie Hamos has introduced a bill into the Illinois legislation that establishes as public policy that private military contractors should not receive state funding or support in Illinois. The bill sets 3 important limitations on their function and use:
1. No state funds may be used to contract with or purchase services from private military contractors for training of law enforcement or security Guards.
2. No military weapons or explosives may be used by private military contractors in Illinois except on secured U.S. military bases or regulated facilities.
3. No personnel trained by private military contractors may be used to patrol, guard, control, contain or arrest any Illinois resident.
We need your help to move this bill forward in the Illinois House. This legislation is key to getting Blackwater out of Illinois and to protecting Illinois citizens from the impact of other private military firms like Blackwater.
1. Please contact your local state representative and urge him or her to co-sponsor HB5700.
2. Contact Rep. Hamos’s office and let her know that you support this bill and that you will be contacting your local representative to do so as well.
3. Write letters to your local newspapers about this bill and do what you can to generate public discussion about this needed legislation.
In order to move this legislation forward we need to create enthusiasm for it and show that it has support state wide. If you care about the threat to democracy that private military/security companies like Blackwater pose this is your opportunity to act.
If you have questions or comments feel free to contact: Dan Kenney at dan@noprivatearmies.org.
Go to Shared Resources for text of bills in Congress and in the Illinonis House
Week In Review
By Dan Kenney
Each week new horror stories come to light involving the renegade behavior of private contractors. At the same time they continue to grow in number and in power. In 2005 the University of Wales reported that worldwide the private security market was valued at $85 billion and had a annual growth rate of 6-8%. Today it is growing just as fast and has surpassed $100 billon.
In early January 2008 our NoPrivateArmies group assisted in the drafting of the first legislation in Illinois to regulate where private military companies can do training and the type of weapons they may use. It also calls for the regulation of governments and municipalities use of private military security companies. This is a very important first step toward ending the expansion of such companies as Blackwater into Illinois. It also may provide a model for future legislation in other states.
For our most recent news articles, updated January 24, 2008 - go to The Latest News
RE: Blackwater Shooting of Iraqi Civilians
September 19 2007:
The Clearwater Citizens' Project organized to stop Blackwater’s expansion into Illinois and to educate others about Blackwater’s role in the privatization of our military, issues the following statement in response to media reports on the Iraqi government's decision to ban Blackwater USA from working in the country:
"The latest fatal shooting of Iraqi civilians involving Blackwater, and the Iraqi government’s subsequent banning of Blackwater highlight the need for our own government to take action now to ensure U.S. contractors are held responsible for their criminal acts. According to numerous reports private contractor personnel implicated in previous violent incidents have been flown out of Iraq by their employers before a full investigation could be conducted, even when there were credible allegations of murder of innocent civilians. These acts that go by without justice being rendered undermine our international standing and tend to generate violent actions against our own soldiers.
One of the U.S. government's purposes in Iraq is to establish the rule of law. U.S. contract employees should not be allowed to avoid that very principle. Thus far, civilian contractors like Blackwater have not been held accountable to the same code of law followed by our military personnel. This means that victims have no access to justice, and human rights abuses go unpunished. In addition these actions take place while millions of U.S. tax payer dollars are paid to these same private firms.
We call on our U.S. Representatives to act now on comprehensive bills in the House and the Senate that would begin addressing the gap in accountability which now exists. We urge our representatives to support H.R. 897 introduced by Rep. Schakowsky of Illinois and similar legislation introduced in the Senate by Senator Obama. We also ask that Congress take these shootings seriously and begin to withhold money from the private military firms being investigated for criminal acts of violence to innocent citizens of Iraq. We ask Congress to take this action on behalf of innocent Iraqi citizens who have no legal recourse to protect themselves, and for the sake of American soldiers who are placed in situations of increased danger due to the reckless actions of private contractors.
We also urge Illinois citizens to take a close look at the actions of Blackwater USA and to ask themselves if this is the kind of company we want training our local law enforcement at its new training facility, Blackwater North, in northwest Illinois. Blackwater is a company which has shown time and again a disregard for any law and they have put profit before human rights. It's time that Illinois take a comprehensive look at legislation that will regulate the actions of all such rogue companies operating on Illinois soil.
The No Private Armies campaign currently is focused on Blackwater USA's move to Illinois.
Blackwater Corporation employs private armies throughout the world, including Iraq, Afghanistan and in the aftermath of Katrina. Investigative reporter and author Jeremy Scahill describes Blackwater as “a politically connected private army” that “has in effect declared its forces above the law” and has won nearly $1 billion in noncovert government contracts, many of them no-bid arrangements. Its 7,000 acre Moyock, North Carolina headquarters is the world’s largest private military base. Blackwater has been under Congressional investigation for shady subcontracts in Iraq for two years and civil litigation for wrongful deaths of four of its employees in Iraq is pending in North Carolina. The company continues to expand, however, recently opening another training facility in Illinois, planning a large facility in California and lobbying to move its forces into Darfur. Opening in Illinois in late March, Blackwater faces opposition from Clearwater, an ad hoc group of local and area individuals and peace, faith-based and environmental groups who want to shut Blackwater down in Illinois and in the U.S.
Clearwater was created in early 2007 by peace activists and local citizens, and expanded in April as a working group within the Illinois Coalition for Peace and Justice. Clearwater is advancing the fight against Blackwater through a variety of means, including meeting with federal, state and county government officials, doing media work, and planning and publicizing author Jeremy Scahill’s book tour in Illinois for his best-selling investigative 2007 expose, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, published by Nation Books.
We welcome your participation. To learn more or join the Clearwater group, contact Dan Kenney at
dan@noprivatearmies.org.
