Blackwater's Efforts To Build In Industrial Park Blocked

SAN DIEGO -- Blackwater International's efforts to build a military training facility in an industrial park near the Tijuana border has been blocked by San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, 10News reported.

The controversial company has fired back that the mayor and San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre were posturing for political gain in an election year, the San Diego Union reported Saturday.

The city attorney ruled Friday that the military services company had failed to do mandatory environmental impact reports and get necessary city council approval before it took out building permits under the names of two of its subsidiaries.

Aguirre called for a stop-work order, which the mayor implemented late Friday.

"It is tragic that City Attorney Aguirre is driving Mayor Sanders to turn our troops and the San Diego economy into unwilling pawns in an election year game,'' Blackwater vice president Brian Bonfiglio said in a statement obtained by the Union-Tribune Friday.

Opponents accused the Virginia-based firm of sneaking through the city permit process to avoid public scrutiny by using its subsidiaries' names, Southwest Law Enforcement and Raven Development Group.

Bonfiglio asserted Friday that every Blackwater official had represented the project as being a Blackwater effort as it took out building permits.

Blackwater was prevented from building a 824-acre outdoor training center near Campo when East County residents campaigned against it, and county officials found that gunfire from military exercises would exceed county noise standards.

The company was in the process of remodeling warehouse space it had obtained in the Otay Mesa industrial area east of San Ysidro when a second public outcry developed.

Blackwater is a controversial defense logistics and training firm run by ex-military officers, which has won, lost, and then won again lucrative contracts to support the U.S. troops in Iraq and elsewhere.