The new mercs on the block

[Cain]

http://www.americanpolicegroup.com/

These kids are getting popular real quick.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/09/american_police_force_hardin_montana.php

A shadowy private security company that has no known clients but claims to have helped foreign governments combat terrorism and will protect anything from cruise ships to Pakistani convoys has taken over a jail in a small Montana town, with plans to build a law enforcement training facility on the property.

The state legislature is looking into the matter and residents of Hardin, MT, were alarmed last week when executives from the firm, American Police Force, showed up in the town, which does not have its own police department, with Mercedes SUVs bearing "City Of Hardin Police Department" decals.

And the town has had to tamp down reports on conspiracy Web sites that APF plans to impose experimental H1N1 vaccines on residents under threat of quarantine in the jail.

Under a lease signed with Hardin, APF, based in Santa Ana, California, and incorporated just six months ago, is now in control of a 400-bed detention facility the town built a few years ago but never used, a town official confirmed to TPMmuckraker today. The town reportedly stands to make over $2 million per year.

http://cryptogon.com/?p=10995 

BILLINGS, Mont. — Michael Hilton pitched himself to officials in Hardin, Mont. as a military veteran turned private sector entrepreneur, a California defense contractor with extensive government contracts who promised to turn the rural city's empty jail into a cash cow.

Hardin's leaders were desperate to fill the $27 million jail, which has sat empty since its 2007 completion.

So when Hilton came to town last week — wearing a military-style uniform and offering three Mercedes SUVs for use by local law enforcement — he was greeted with hugs by some grateful residents. The promise of more than 200 new jobs for a community struggling long before the recession hit had won them over.

http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_1f5ffbee-a4da-11de-b6ab-001cc4c03286.html

Public records available from state and federal courts and from Web site registrations have raised new questions about a company contracted to operate a detention facility in Hardin, as well as a potential supplier of police equipment to the venture.

Local officials have released almost no details on American Police Force, and company representatives have been tight-lipped, leaving everyone from Hardin residents to a New Zealand blogger turning to the Internet for answers.

Separate research efforts by The Billings Gazette and others turned up connections and similarities between the APF Web site and sites for other little-known defense procurement companies.

All of the Web sites share similarities in design, and some include exactly the same phrases, a red flag to Kevin Flaherty, an American blogger living in New Zealand who writes about private military contractors.

Flaherty, owner of the Cryptogon blog, said that plans by APF to provide Hardin with a homeless shelter, computers for schools, free meals for the needy and an animal shelter "read like something out of The Onion," a satirical newspaper.

Flaherty said his online research revealed "a lot of weirdness to chase down."

Public records show that the APF Web site, Americanpolicegroup.com, was first registered on May 15, about two weeks after an effort by the Two Rivers Authority to pursue prisoners from Guantanamo Bay made national headlines.

A section of text on the APF site refers to the company's "U.S. Training Center," and matches word for word text from the Web site for Xe, formerly Blackwater. That company's U.S. Training Center is touted as the largest facility of its kind.

APF representatives have said that their company is a subsidiary of an undisclosed parent corporation founded in 1984. Blackwater was started in 1997.

Public Internet records show that the APF Web site is one of six hosted on a single Web server, including a site for Defense Product Solutions.

Both share the same double-eagle logo, and the same company, Purepoint Design, developed both Web sites. No one answered a call to Purepoint's office in Newport Beach, Calif.

A section of text on the Defense Product Solutions Web site matches word for word text found on Web sites for Allied Defense Systems and Defense Logistic Services, all promising a similarly exhaustive range of military products and services.

Public records for those companies and others with similar Web sites – including Defense Contracting and Consulting, and Worldwide Military Exchange – all show connections to Edward Angelino, a government contractor in Huntington Beach, Calif.

Angelino said that he is not an owner of APF and has had not met with anyone from Hardin, but added that he has been in discussions with APF over the past four months about supplying police and prison gear for use at the Hardin facility.

"Our role is simply, if we land a contract, to provide some supplies to the guards themselves and what they need," he said, adding that there is "nothing concrete, nothing in writing" with APF.

According to documents filed in connection with a civil lawsuit in Superior Court of California in Orange County, Angelino graduated from Al-Roda High School in Kuwait City, Kuwait, and is a U.S. citizen.

Sometimes referred to in court documents by the first name "Emad," Angelino lists on his resume degrees in electrical engineering from California State University, Fresno and engineering management from the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Public government procurement records show that he has serviced tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts, supplying items as varied as sporting goods, turbine parts and police gear.

Angelino said APF is a separate entity, and that the only company he operates, Allied Defense Systems, has been in business since 2005.

He said that he had "no idea" why there are similarities between Web sites for his company and APF.

Angelino is named in state and federal civil lawsuits dating back to 2004, including one dispute stemming from a $17 million contract to provide police gear to U.S. troops and Iraqi police.

Owners of a business that employed Angelino got a temporary restraining order, and later an injunction, barring him from acting on behalf of the company, said Ira Rivin, an Orange County attorney for the plaintiffs.

"Our claim was that Mr. Angelino was attempting to take over the company for himself," Rivin said, adding that the case was settled on the day it was scheduled to go to trial. He did not disclose details of the settlement.

Angelino also was named in a federal civil suit in Kentucky filed by U.S. Cavalry, the distributor of police equipment in that same contract. Company executives declined to comment specifically on that case, which also was settled.

The complaint alleges that the company Angelino had managed failed to honor the terms of a joint venture with U.S. Cavalry, resulting in additional costs and logistical complications.

In answers to both complaints, Angelino states that he was attempting to work with U.S. Cavalry to ensure compliance with an existing contract after his employers failed to follow through on promises to finance the deal.

U.S. Cavalry, a supplier for 35 years of uniforms and other gear for military and law enforcement, was able to successfully complete the contract, said Dennis Garvey, the company's chief operating officer.

Garvey said that a lack of oversight by overwhelmed federal supply-chain workers has created a gold rush to fulfill contracts for homeland security and in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Since 9/11, many small companies "became very proficient in tracking out contract opportunities and worrying later about how they were going to fulfill them," Garvey said, adding that many other small contractors are competent and reputable.

"But a lot of small companies, if they run into trouble and get caught not playing by the rules, can close down and open up under another name next week," he said.

"There's a lot of people attracted by all the money being spent, and the normal due diligence done on some contracts is often not as tightly controlled as you would expect," he said.

So just a little dodgy.

[Cain]

Oops, I should have read all of that TPM article before posting.

Yet another strange development: This page on APF's Web site brags about "our extensive tactical firearms training facility, the U.S. Training Center." But the U.S. Training Center is part of Xe, nee Blackwater. And Xe spokeswoman Stacy DeLuke told us there is no affiliation between Xe and APF.

[LMNO]

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss?

[Kai]

So for Blac-I mean, Xe and Wackenhutt being the next step down the stairway to hell.

[Iason Ouabache]

http://cryptogon.com/?p=10995 

BILLINGS, Mont. — Michael Hilton pitched himself to officials in Hardin, Mont. as a military veteran turned private sector entrepreneur, a California defense contractor with extensive government contracts who promised to turn the rural city's empty jail into a cash cow.

Hardin's leaders were desperate to fill the $27 million jail, which has sat empty since its 2007 completion.

So when Hilton came to town last week — wearing a military-style uniform and offering three Mercedes SUVs for use by local law enforcement — he was greeted with hugs by some grateful residents. The promise of more than 200 new jobs for a community struggling long before the recession hit had won them over.

How long will it take the residents to realize that they are the ones being led to the slaughterhouse? 

[Golden Applesauce]

http://cryptogon.com/?p=10995 

BILLINGS, Mont. — Michael Hilton pitched himself to officials in Hardin, Mont. as a military veteran turned private sector entrepreneur, a California defense contractor with extensive government contracts who promised to turn the rural city's empty jail into a cash cow.

Hardin's leaders were desperate to fill the $27 million jail, which has sat empty since its 2007 completion.

So when Hilton came to town last week — wearing a military-style uniform and offering three Mercedes SUVs for use by local law enforcement — he was greeted with hugs by some grateful residents. The promise of more than 200 new jobs for a community struggling long before the recession hit had won them over.

How long will it take the residents to realize that they are the ones being led to the slaughterhouse? 

Wait, you have an empty jail?

THE FUCK ARE YOU COMPLAINING ABOUT?!?!

Seriously, call that $27mil well spent.

[Cain]

Of course, a $27 million tax cut might've been nice, too.

[Iason Ouabache]

http://cryptogon.com/?p=10995 

BILLINGS, Mont. — Michael Hilton pitched himself to officials in Hardin, Mont. as a military veteran turned private sector entrepreneur, a California defense contractor with extensive government contracts who promised to turn the rural city's empty jail into a cash cow.

Hardin's leaders were desperate to fill the $27 million jail, which has sat empty since its 2007 completion.

So when Hilton came to town last week — wearing a military-style uniform and offering three Mercedes SUVs for use by local law enforcement — he was greeted with hugs by some grateful residents. The promise of more than 200 new jobs for a community struggling long before the recession hit had won them over.

How long will it take the residents to realize that they are the ones being led to the slaughterhouse? 

Wait, you have an empty jail?

THE FUCK ARE YOU COMPLAINING ABOUT?!?!

Seriously, call that $27mil well spent.

I assumed that by "turning it into a cash cow" they meant that they would rapidly find prisoners to put in those jail cells. More prisoners in the cells means more money from the state to take care of said prisoners. This means that they will either import overflow prisoners from other jails OR start rounding up random local riff raff to toss in the cells. I'm sure that the hired help doesn't care where they come from, as long as every block is full.

[Cain]

The town has said it is willing to recieve prisoners from Guantanamo Bay.

Naturally, I cannot forsee anything going wrong with suspected terrorists being handed over to the "care" of a probable Xe/Blackwater subsidiary.  Its not like they employ trigger happy Christian fundamentalists who see themselves as modern day crusaders or anything.

[LMNO]

At the same time, prison crowding from overpopulation is a pretty serious problem in some states.

Yes, a major cause of this problem is the overzealous penal system; however, it takes a long time to change the laws, and the jails are overcrowded now.

[Cain]

Kinky dungeon games with Afghan taxi drivers and shepherds take precedence over every other prison problem ever.  Sorry.

[LMNO]

"NOW, WE GONNA PLAY HIDE THE BROOMHANDLE."
   \

[Jenne]