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<h1><font size=4><b>Private Paramilitary Training Complex Slated for
Border Hits a Hitch</b></font></h1><font size=3>Posted by
<a href="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/users/bill-conroy">Bill
Conroy</a> - October 22, 2011 at 3:17 pm<br>
</font><font size=1>
<a href="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2011/10/private-paramilitary-training-complex-slated-border-hits-hitch" eudora="autourl">
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2011/10/private-paramilitary-training-complex-slated-border-hits-hitch</a>
<br><br>
</font><font size=3>However, Opponents of Planned Facility Remain Wary of
Shell Game Shenanigans<br><br>
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.<br><br>
At least $1 million is still owed on the property by the company, called
Wind Zero, according to the current
<a href="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/userfiles/70/Notice.Default.pdf">
notice of default </a>obtained by Narco News and some sources familiar
with the foreclosure process indicate the amount owed, including interest
and penalties, exceeds $1.5 million.<br><br>
“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.<br><br>
A check of
<a href="https://common2.mptsweb.com/megabytecommonsite/%28zt0c4145m3p1j345xaz2bbrp%29/PublicInquiry/Inquiry.aspx?CN=imperial&Dept=Tax&Site=Public&PG=Search">
public records </a>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.<br><br>
“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.”<br><br>
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
<a href="http://www.city-data.com/city/Ocotillo-California.html">
Ocotillo</a>, located in Imperial County some 80 miles east of San Diego
and less than a dozen miles from the Mexican border.<br><br>
The
<a href="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/userfiles/70/SierraClubBreakdown.pdf">
paramilitary training center </a>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.<br><br>
Shell Game<br><br>
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
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/04/world/middleeast/04blackwater.html?pagewanted=all">
Xe </a>(formerly Blackwater), could still purchase the property out of
foreclosure and proceed with the project.<br><br>
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
<a href="http://legacy.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080307-1433-bn07black.html">
pulled the plug </a>on that controversial project in early 2008 due to
community opposition.<br><br>
“There have been rumors floating around that Wind Zero [led by former
Navy SEAL
<a href="http://imgspeakers.wordpress.com/2011/05/17/introducing-brandon-webb-former-u-s-navy-seal-entrepreneur/">
Brandon Webb</a>] 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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
“They could show up at the courthouse in Imperial County and buy the note
at the foreclosure auction,” he says.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
Webb addressed the issue in an interview with the San Diego Reader in
January of this year.<br><br>
From
the<a href="http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2011/jan/26/citylight2-wind-zero-military-training-facili/">
Reader</a> story:<br><br>
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.<br><br>
“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.”<br><br>
Broker in the Weeds<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.”<br><br>
“Donna [Perrine, the holder of the note] rejected the offer, and there
was no deal made with Keener,” Cowan adds.<br><br>
In a check of
<a href="https://ourcpa.cpa.state.tx.us/coa/Index.html">Texas corporation
records</a>, 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.<img src="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/userfiles/70/WZ.property.jpg" alt="[]">
<br><br>
A
<a href="http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1435689/000143568909000003/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml">
Form D Notice of Exempt Offering of Securities </a>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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
Keener also says he was not representing either Jansen or
<a href="http://eon.businesswire.com/news/eon/20110726005381/en/Xe-Services/USTC/security-training">
Arlington, Va.-based Xe </a>in the bid to acquire the Wind Zero property
in Southern California.<br><br>
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
<a href="http://www.rand.org/about/people/b/birkler_john.html">John
Birkler </a>, according to Wind Zero's 2009 Form D filing with the
<a href="http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1435689/000143568909000003/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml">
SEC</a>.<br><br>
RAND bills itself as a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank, but, in
reality, it has a long history of
<a href="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2010/10/sprawling-drug-war-training-complex-planned-us-mexico-border">
close ties </a>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.”<br><br>
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.”<br><br>
The
<a href="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/userfiles/70/Lawsuit2.SierravWindzero.pdf">
environmental groups </a>represented by Silver and the
<a href="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/userfiles/70/IndianTribe.lawsuit.pdf">
Quechan Indian Tribe </a>(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.<br><br>
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
<a href="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/userfiles/70/11-DevelopersAgreement.pdf">
development agreement </a>with Imperial County.<br><br>
“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.”<br><br>
Stay tuned …..<br><br>
Past coverage of the planned Wind Zero project:<br><br>
•<a href="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2010/12/100-million-drug-war-garrison-approved-us-mexican-border">
</a><a href="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2010/12/100-million-drug-war-garrison-approved-us-mexican-border"><b>$100
Million Drug-War Garrison Approved for U.S.-Mexican Border</a><br><br>
</b>•
<a href="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2010/10/sprawling-drug-war-training-complex-planned-us-mexico-border">
<b>Sprawling Drug-War Training Complex Planned for U.S-Mexico
Border</a><br><br>
<br><br>
</b></font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
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