By: Rebecca Agule - 4/24/08

The Iraq War provided the all the necessary context for the Friday, April 18, event entitled "Blackwater and Beyond: Panel on Military Contractor Liability in Iraq." Sponsored by the American Constitution Society, the panel convened three distinct voices in the on-going discussion regarding the legal regime necessary to properly manage the ever-increasing presence of U.S. contractors overseas.

April 24, 2008: Concurrent with China's latest shipments of arms and munitions to Zimbabwe, two dozen uniformed and armed Chinese soldiers were seen patrolling the streets of the eastern border town of Mutare, with Zimbabwean troops, during a strike by Mugabe's political opposition. The Chinese Embassy denied that there were any Chinese troops in the area, but suggested that local Chinese-owned companies hired contractors to protect their interests. Over the last few years, thousands of Chinese have moved to Zimbabwe, where they have become active in retailing, manufacturing, mining and farming. They have a lot to protect and apparently have formed a militia.

Security contractor plans training center
By Anne Krueger - April 23, 2008

Although Blackwater Worldwide has given up its plans to build a training center in East County, the government contractor is still seeking a presence in San Diego County.

The North Carolina company is planning to open an indoor training center in Otay Mesa to train Navy personnel after abandoning its controversial proposal to build a larger facility on a ranch in Potrero.

 By Louis Hansen - The Virginian-Pilot - April 23, 2008

Blackwater is making a small shift in its West Coast operations.

The move comes a few weeks after the company abandoned a plan to build a training facility in Potrero, Calif., outside San Diego in the face of heavy opposition. This latest step, company Vice President Brian Bonfiglio said, " is nothing more than an exercise in geography."

By Noah Shachtman, April 23, 2008

Insurgents have put together hundreds of propaganda videos ranting about how oh-so-terrible the American troops in Iraq are.  But this is the first flick I've seen that directly and exclusively targets the private military contractors like Blackwater that have become a hallmark of the Iraq occupation.  

22 April 2008 - By Stephen McGinty
ON A drizzly, cold day in Ramallah in the West Bank, where Israeli tanks patrolled the roads and wet concrete dust scented the air, Bob Shepherd thought: "This is it. I'm going to die."
His head was slammed up against the side of an Israeli armoured personnel carrier and a tall blond, blue-eyed Israeli soldier was pushing the barrel of an M16 into his temple. For a 20-year veteran of the SAS, a man who once swung through the windows of the Iranian embassy while Britain watched on television, in awe at the their first glimpse of the secretive army unit, it was a unique and unpleasant experience.