[News] Private Paramilitary Training Complex Slated for Border Hits a Hitch

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Private Paramilitary Training Complex Slated for Border Hits a Hitch

Posted by 
<http://narcosphere.narconews.com/users/bill-conroy>Bill 
Conroy - October 22, 2011 at 3:17 pm
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2011/10/private-paramilitary-training-complex-slated-border-hits-hitch 


However, Opponents of Planned Facility Remain Wary of Shell Game Shenanigans

A paramilitary service company’s plan to develop 
a nearly 1,000-acre military and law-enforcement 
training facility near the California border with 
Mexico is now in the process of being scuttled by 
a foreclosure action on the property.

At least $1 million is still owed on the property 
by the company, called Wind Zero, according to 
the current 
<http://narcosphere.narconews.com/userfiles/70/Notice.Default.pdf>notice 
of default obtained by Narco News ­ and some 
sources familiar with the foreclosure process 
indicate the amount owed, including interest and 
penalties, exceeds $1.5 million.

“The note [loan] on the property is in default, 
and we are going through the foreclosure 
process,” confirms Stewart Cowan, a San Diego 
attorney representing the note holder, Donna 
Perrine, who sold the 944-acre site to Wind Zero in 2007.

A check of 
<https://common2.mptsweb.com/megabytecommonsite/%28zt0c4145m3p1j345xaz2bbrp%29/PublicInquiry/Inquiry.aspx?CN=imperial&Dept=Tax&Site=Public&PG=Search>public 
records for the Wind Zero property shows that the 
owner also is in arrears on 2010 taxes owed to 
Imperial County, Calif., to the tune of nearly 
$2,800. David Black, a senior planner with 
Imperial County, says he is not aware of either 
the foreclosure or the taxes owed with respect to the Wind Zero project.

“I was the project planner for that project, but 
I have not kept up on the foreclosure or tax 
matters,” Black says. “If they come in to apply 
for building permits, then it might become an 
issue. But nothing has been done on the (Wind 
Zero) project since they received approval in December of last year.”

The proposed Wind Zero project, which would be 
developed in three phases at a cost of up to $100 
million (some $15 million for Phase 1), has been 
billed by Wind Zero as a privately operated, 
state-of-the-art training center that would 
employ up to 200 people and serve as economic 
boon to the small California border towns of 
Nomirage and 
<http://www.city-data.com/city/Ocotillo-California.html>Ocotillo, 
located in Imperial County some 80 miles east of 
San Diego and less than a dozen miles from the Mexican border.

The 
<http://narcosphere.narconews.com/userfiles/70/SierraClubBreakdown.pdf>paramilitary 
training center is slated to include numerous 
shooting ranges allowing for some 57,000 rounds 
of ammunition to be fired off daily; a mock-up of 
an urban neighborhood for practices assaults; a 
6-mile dual-use race track for teaching defensive 
and offensive driving (and for private-pay 
recreational use); an airstrip and multiple 
heliports; and enough housing and RV camper space 
(along with a 100-room hotel) to accommodate a small battalion of warriors.

Shell Game

Despite the money problems apparently afflicting 
the Wind Zero project, opponents of the 
development indicate that there is still some 
concern that a paramilitary front company, such 
as an affiliate of 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/04/world/middleeast/04blackwater.html?pagewanted=all>Xe 
(formerly Blackwater), could still purchase the 
property out of foreclosure and proceed with the project.

In fact, the planned Wind Zero training center is 
not unlike a similar project proposed several 
years ago in southern California by Xe, then 
called Blackwater (which, like Wind Zero, was 
founded by former Navy SEALs). Blackwater 
<http://legacy.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080307-1433-bn07black.html>pulled 
the plug on that controversial project in early 
2008 due to community opposition.

“There have been rumors floating around that Wind 
Zero [led by former Navy SEAL 
<http://imgspeakers.wordpress.com/2011/05/17/introducing-brandon-webb-former-u-s-navy-seal-entrepreneur/>Brandon 
Webb] has some type of affiliation with Xe, and 
that it is possible Wind Zero could sell it’s 
interest in the project,” says Larry Silver of 
the California Environmental Law Project. Silver 
is representing the Sierra Club and the Desert 
Protective Council in a lawsuit against Wind Zero 
and Imperial County, Calif. ­ which has 
sanctioned the development of Wind Zero’s paramilitary training center.

Attorney Cowan concedes that there is nothing to 
prevent a company like Xe, or an affiliate of 
Wind Zero, from buying the note due on the 
property where the Wind Zero training center is slated to be constructed.

“They could show up at the courthouse in Imperial 
County and buy the note at the foreclosure auction,” he says.

Narco News attempted to contact Wind Zero top gun 
Webb, but phone calls were not returned. 
According to prior media reports, Webb insists 
Wind Zero is not affiliated with Xe, but rather 
he considers the East Coast company to be a competitor.

Webb addressed the issue in an interview with the 
San Diego Reader in January of this year.

 From 
the<http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2011/jan/26/citylight2-wind-zero-military-training-facili/> 
Reader story:

Anger over Wind Zero’s proposal intensified in 
June 2007 when Brian Bonfiglio, Blackwater’s vice 
president, showed up at a presentation that Wind 
Zero chief executive Webb was giving at a community meeting.

“There’s been a lot of negativity about this 
Blackwater [Xe] issue,” Webb says during a 
January 17 phone interview. “There’s this big 
conspiracy that we’re a shadow company for 
Blackwater, but it’s ridiculous. [Bonfiglio] 
showed up at the meeting, and I didn’t even know 
until afterwards. If we were associated, then the 
worst thing I could do would be to bring a member 
of Blackwater to a community meeting.”

Broker in the Weeds

However, sources told Narco News that in late 
September, about a month after the notice of 
default on the Wind Zero site was recorded, a 
broker from Texas by the name of David Keener 
contacted Cowan to make an offer on the property.

Cowan confirms that he was contacted by Keener, 
whom, he says, “made an offer on the property 
that was considerably less than the value of the note.”

“Donna [Perrine, the holder of the note] rejected 
the offer, and there was no deal made with Keener,” Cowan adds.

In a check of 
<https://ourcpa.cpa.state.tx.us/coa/Index.html>Texas 
corporation records, Narco News discovered that 
Keener is listed as the registered agent for MDJ 
Texas Reality Holdings LLC. Those same records 
show that MDJ is affiliated with a company called 
Holland Park Capital of Austin, Texas, whose 
registered agent is an individual named Mark Jansen.
[]


A 
<http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1435689/000143568909000003/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml>Form 
D Notice of Exempt Offering of Securities filing 
that Wind Zero lodged with the U.S. Securities 
and Exchange Commission in July 2009 lists Jansen 
as an executive officer and director of Wind Zero.

Narco News was unable to reach Jansen for 
comment. However, Keener, when contacted in 
Texas, did confirm that he knows Jansen and had a 
business relationship with him. However, Keener 
says he is now the sole owner of MDJ and it is no 
longer affiliated with Holland Park Capital.

Keener also says he was not representing either 
Jansen or 
<http://eon.businesswire.com/news/eon/20110726005381/en/Xe-Services/USTC/security-training>Arlington, 
Va.-based Xe in the bid to acquire the Wind Zero 
property in Southern California.

Xe is owned by USTC Holding LLC, which counts as 
members of its board of directors former Bush 
Administration U.S. Attorney General John 
Ashcroft, former Clinton Administration General 
Counsel Jack Quinn, and retired U.S. Navy Admiral 
Bobby R. Inman. Listed as a director of Wind Zero 
is former Navy Captain and RAND Senior Management 
Systems Analyst 
<http://www.rand.org/about/people/b/birkler_john.html>John 
Birkler , according to Wind Zero's 2009 Form D 
filing with the 
<http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1435689/000143568909000003/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml>SEC.

RAND bills itself as a nonprofit, nonpartisan 
think tank, but, in reality, it has a long 
history of 
<http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2010/10/sprawling-drug-war-training-complex-planned-us-mexico-border>close 
ties to the military and private-sector warfare 
complex. RAND media spokesman Warren Robak told 
Narco News previously that “John Birkler and his 
involvement with Wind Zero is a private matter ­ 
it has nothing to do with RAND.”

Keener would say only that he was representing in 
his bid for the Wind Zero property “an investor 
from the East Coast who was familiar with the [Wind Zero] project.”

The 
<http://narcosphere.narconews.com/userfiles/70/Lawsuit2.SierravWindzero.pdf>environmental 
groups represented by Silver and the 
<http://narcosphere.narconews.com/userfiles/70/IndianTribe.lawsuit.pdf>Quechan 
Indian Tribe (the land slated for the Wind Zero 
project is the site of a tribal burial ground) 
filed their separate lawsuits earlier this year 
in California Superior Court seeking a judicial 
order that will undue Imperial County’s approval 
for the planned Wind Zero project.

Silver says the Sierra Club and Desert Protective 
Council have no plans to drop their lawsuit, even 
if the Wind Zero property is sold ­ given the 
concern that a third party affiliated with either 
Wind Zero or Xe may still seek to purchase the 
property out of foreclosure (at a significantly 
reduced price) and move forward with the project 
under the existing 
<http://narcosphere.narconews.com/userfiles/70/11-DevelopersAgreement.pdf>development 
agreement with Imperial County.

“There is a hearing in the case set for Nov. 10, 
and we are prepared to ask the court to set aside 
the approval for the project,” Silver says. “If 
the judge says no, then we plan to appeal.”

Stay tuned 
..

Past coverage of the planned Wind Zero project:

•<http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2010/12/100-million-drug-war-garrison-approved-us-mexican-border> 
<http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2010/12/100-million-drug-war-garrison-approved-us-mexican-border>$100 
Million Drug-War Garrison Approved for U.S.-Mexican Border

• 
<http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2010/10/sprawling-drug-war-training-complex-planned-us-mexico-border>Sprawling 
Drug-War Training Complex Planned for U.S-Mexico Border




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