Blackwater and the Privatization of the Military
With Dan Kenney

Monday, February 11, 2008 • 7pm
Unitarian Universalist Church, 4848 Turner Dr., Rockford

Program is free & open to the public. For more info: Stanley Campbell at 815-964-7111.

Dan Kenney is an educator, activist, and investigative journalist. He is the coordinator of the DeKalb Interfaith Network for Peace and Justice. He is one of the co-founders and Co-coordinators of noprivatearmies. org and of the Clearwater Project to stop Blackwater World Wide's expansion in Northern Illinois. He also was one of the founding members of the Illinois Coalition for Peace and Justice.

His article “Lurking Beneath The Surface of Blackwater North” has been widely published on the web. He also has been published in newspapers and journals. He has often spoken to citizen groups on the issue of private armies and Blackwater in particular. He presented this past November at the School Of Americas Vigil in Columbus Georgia and on the campus of Northwestern University. This February 2nd he will present at an international conference at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The conference is entitled: “The Privatization of Security and Human Rights in The Americas: Perspectives from the Global South.”

He serves on the Board of Directors of the DeKalb Teachers’ Union Local of the American Federation of Teachers. He also is a member of the City of DeKalb Environmental Commission. His poetry has appeared in journals. In addition to the above he is a fourth grade teacher in the DeKalb School District of DeKalb Illinois.

Blackwater Invades Illinois Documentary Showing
Wednesday, January 30, 2008 - 7 p.m.
Batavia Public Library, 10 S. Batavia Ave., Batavia.

The screening is sponsored by Fox Valley Citizens for Peace & Justice.
Admission is free. Light refreshments will be served and a discussion will follow the film. Copies of the DVD will be available. Stop Blackwater T-shirts will be available for sale.

Drum Gathering At Gate to Blackwater North
October 7th • 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
A Drum Circle Gathering will be held Sunday October 7th from at the gates of Blackwater North on Skunk Hollow Rd. in southeast Jo Daviess county. Anyone interested in helping to create rhythms of peace is invited to join us. Extra drums and rhythm instruments will be available.

Blackwater North is an eighty acre shooting range and weapons training facility that offers classes to law enforcement and military personnel, as well as the general public. It is owned by Blackwater USA, a controversial military contractor and private army with the largest private military base and armory in the country, as well as several thousand mercenary soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. It's employees have recently been involved in massacres of Iraqi citizens, and some are being investigated for weapons smuggling.

If you come to the Drum Circle Gathering, please plan to car-pool as parking is limited. To get there, take IL Rt. 78 to E. Loran Rd., about ten miles south of Stockton or ten miles north of Mt. Carroll. Follow the pavement on E. Loran about four miles and turn right on Skunk Hollow Rd. The parking area is about a mile from E. Loran Rd., on the west side of Skunk Hollow Rd. The gates of Blackwater North are about a quarter mile further. Passengers and gear may be unloaded at the gates, but please park only in the designated parking area. Please drive slowly, and respect private property.

Simultaneous demonstrations are being held at Blackwater's home base in Moyoc, North Carolina, and in San Diego, California at the site of a planned eight-hundred-acre training camp called Blackwater West. We gather at the gates to resist this dangerous new form of corporate power and greed. We gather to call forth the rhythms of life and give them voice through our drums and songs. We gather to call for an end to the madness and evil of war for profit. We gather to pray for peace.

For more info contact Martin Hippie at 815-845-2608 or popeace@aeroinc.net