Socialist Workers Party Involved with Anti-Blackwater Protests

The Socialist Workers Party is one of the groups promoting anti-Blackwater protests from coast to coast, exploiting the September 16 Nisoor Square shootout to make its political point.

The protests attracted few participants.

Congressman Bob Filner (D-Cal.), whose anti-Blackwater activism was discredited by his assault and battery of a woman last year - he copped a plea to avoid trial - participated in the protest via telephone, according to SocialistWorker.org.

Blackwater critic cops plea in assault of woman

A leading congressional critic of Blackwater has pleaded guilty in a case involving his alleged assault of a woman at Dulles International Airport near Washington, DC.

Congressman Bob Filner (D-Cal.) admitted he was guilty of trespassing, and copped an "Alford Plea" in which he did not admit guilt for assault and battery but did acknowledge that there was sufficient evidence to convict him. Rather than face trial for assault and battery, the crime with which he had been charged, Filner cut a deal and pled guilty to trespassing.

The congressman was to have stood trial for assault and battery on December 4.

In the August 19 incident at Dulles, Filner got agitated that his bags were being handled too slowly and violated security by illegally entering an employees-only area of the airport. It was there he entered the altercation with the woman who worked for an airline. He allegedly assaulted her.

"I want to make clear that I did not strike, push, or shove anyone,'' Filner said while copping his plea. ''It's very important to me that the record be clear on this point. Nor did I seek any sort of special treatment because I was a congressman."

Dynamic Duo targets Blackwater from Congress

Two Members of Congress who skirt the edge of the law have targeted Blackwater in a new bill designed to shut down Blackwater's diplomatic security service in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sponsor 1: Congressman Bob Filner (D-CA), who is awaiting trial for alleged assault and battery against a woman.

Sponsor 2: Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), whose husband just marked a year since his release from federal prison on bank fraud and tax cheating convictions.

Fringe Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Socialist, introduced similar legislation in the upper house.

"Mercenary armies can overthrow a democracy," Filner said as he anticipated his trial for allegedly manhandling a female airport employee. "We are going to fight Blackwater until there are no more mercenaries."

Anemic anti-Blackwater turnout in San Diego

Opposition to Blackwater's plan to build a training facility in San Diego County, California, seems much weaker than expected.

A meager 200 activists turned out over the weekend to protest Blackwater's planned facility in San Diego California, despite the presence of a local congressman, a gaggle of reporters, and international controversy that makes the company a hot issue.

Congressman Bob Filner (D-CA), awaiting trial for assault and battery against a woman in a Washington-area airport, pledged to stop the security provider. “Blackwater is a black mark on American democracy.”

The activists were organized by a group that was founded after 9/11 to oppose the military hunt for al Qaeda.

When the group marched to the gate of the proposed training site, a Blackwater official came to speak with the marchers and answer their questions. He told the San Diego Union-Tribune that we welcomed the attention. "“I think it's doing us good instead of harm,” he said. “This is a political circus.”

The local 9-person planning board voted unanimously last year to approve the Blackwater site. Protesters have organized a recall vote for a December ballot.

One local anti-Blackwater activist says that he expects the town of Potrero to go ahead and approve the company's plans to build the facility. "Realistically, it looks like Blackwater will be given the okay to come to Potrero by the Board of Supervisors," he says in an article posted on an Italian website that supported Saddam Hussein. "However, if the pressure from the public grows enough, even they may have to back down and consider the Blackwater move a political liability."

Moonbats to protest Blackwater in San Diego

A coalition of fringe groups opposed to fighting terrorists and a congressman awaiting trial for assault and battery of a woman are protesting this weekend against Blackwater's planned facility in San Diego County, California.

One of the protest organizers, the San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice (SDCPJ) was founded in September, 2001, to oppose the military hunt for al Qaeda terrorists and the liberation of Afghanistan from the Taliban. The group urged non-violent ways to capture those responsible for 9/11.

Congressman Bob Filner (D-CA), who made headlines in August for assault and battery against an airport employee, is joining the "peace" coalition. SDCPJ says Filner is scheduled to speak at the protest. Filner is awaiting trial in Virginia where he allegedly assaulted a female airline worker because he was upset that she was helping another customer instead of him.

Filner is under a cloud among his colleagues, with the House Ethics Committee investigating him pending a court ruling. He bullied a Hispanic immigration official in 2003, telling the officer, "I am a Congressman and I can do whatever I want." Filner was scheduled in court on October 2, the day Blackwater CEO Erik Prince testified before Congress, but the trial was postponed. (Click here for the text of the criminal complaint against Congressman Filner.)

The SDCPJ website keeps a list of "recent events." The group's 2007 events listed on the page include:

January 27 - Protest demanding "the immediate and complete withdrawal" of US troops from Iraq (regardless of the consequences). SDCPJ co-sponsored the event with the International Socialist Organization, Code Pink, and the International Action Center. The International Action Center is staffed by members of the Marxist-Leninist Workers World Party. Its founder, Ramsey Clark, offered to be on the legal defense team of Saddam Hussein).

February 5 - Rally in support of Lt. Ehren Watada prior to his court-martial for failing to go with his unit to Iraq and for conduct unbecoming an officer.

March 12 - Protest to pressure lawmakers to stop supporting the troops in Iraq, by cutting off a $93 billion supplemental appropriations request.

March 17 - Anti-war protest in cooperation with MoveOn.org.

March 27 - Anti-war protest in cooperation with Guerrero Azteca (Aztec Warrior) Peace Project, a group set up to discourage young people from choosing a life of military service. Aztec Warrior does charity work in cooperation with Code Pink.

April 2 - Event with S. Brian Willson, a pro-Marxist activist who lost both legs in 1987 by trying to stop a freight train reported to be carrying weapons destined to be used against Communist forces in Central America.

April 5 - Anti-Blackwater protest; participation in the Public Scoping Meeting of the County Department of Planning and Land Use, to voice opposition to approving an 824-acre training facility in Potrero.

July 9 - Protest against the blockade of the Fidel Castro regime in Cuba. Included a showing of a Michael Moore film.

July 21 - March in the San Diego GBLT Gay Pride parade.

August 6 - Protest against the atomic bombings that ended World War II.

August 24 - Book signing for the president of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), a radical legal pressure group that has provided legal advice to convicted members of terrorist organizations, such as the Islamic Jihad's Sami Al-Arian. The NLG president, Marjorie Cohn, was a collaborator with Soviet international front organizations during the Cold War. The SDCPJ website refers to her activity with one of those groups, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL). Now a tiny fringe group without its KGB subsidies, the IADL remained committed to its old causes. IADL held a conference in Havana, Cuba, in 2000 where delegates denounced the United Nations sanctions against Saddam Hussein's regime.

September 21 - Protest against the war in Iraq, in cooperation with IraqMoratorium.org.

October 6-7 - "Stop Blackwater West" protest. The main coordinator of the event is the Peace Resource Center of San Diego. The group's page for the anti-Blackwater protest is here.