Blackwater Defeated!!!: From Raymond Lutz

Dear Everyone who helped defeat Blackwater:

My humble apologies to everyone who helped in the fight againstBlackwater.

My last couple of press releases made it sound like I am theonly one involved, especially the one about my entry into the race as acandidate. Snippets taken by the media are far from the thoroughdescriptions I gave.

Although those press releases centered on promotingmy candidacy, this is not a one-man show--far from it--and without thehelp of everyone, Blackwater West would still be on the horizon. Almostall of the credit goes to the people in Potrero.

Jan Hedlun has enduredperhaps the largest strain, being the sole opponent to the project on the Potrero Community Planning Group while everyone one else in the roomseemed to be against her. Jan has a heart of gold and extremely highintegrity. I have nothing but respect for her, Thank you!

Carl Meyer,Barbara and Robin Simmons headed up the Recall effort, and all thePlanning Group members -- William Crawley, Terry Stephens, Janet Goode,Tina Brown -- whoran and even the three new appointees who stepped forward. I really had nothing to do with thateffort, of course, as it was not possible for nonresidents to take part.Behind the scenes, other people, as I mentioned were involved, but Idon't think it is wise to list everyone in an email, even though it istempting. Although cartoons were put forward about puppeteering, thosepeople took no direction from me. They are VERY capable people and I didnot attempt to tell them what to do. If you are any of those people, youknow very well that I am not a puppeteer.

We appreciate Steve Kowit for his eloquent comments to themedia, even squaring off with Thell when Al Jazeera came in last week,and I sincerely appreciate my new friendship with Steve.

Of course,Carol Jahnkow (Peace Resource Center), Susan Friedman (Activist San Diego), Drew Searing (Puppet Insurgency), and all the great workerswho put the Oct 6-7 Rally together. Vets for Peace activists such asDave Patterson, David Wiley. Also Geoffrey Smith, Enrique Morales, andall others who provided their presentations.

Thank you Jeanette Hartmanfor running the regular Sierra Club Land Use Committee meetings. Thosewere essential to keep focused on what we would need to do to defeatthis. And so many contributors to the list, such as Fred with hisinteresting but thoroughly readable contributions about the Bird, Snake,and Lady. Others from out of state also had an impact.

The protests andarrests in North Carolina went further than anything we had done hereand kept the issue in the media. The Illinois group also has beenworking to put on pressure. None of these contributions would beeffective alone, but together they worked. Yea! And thanks to everyone.It would be entirely remiss if I were to exclude the important assistance we received from Rep. Bob Filner (CA 51) who attended our press conferences and Oct. rally. His high profile as keynote really helped to move the event to the next tier.

And behind all this is the tireless and excellent reporting and writing of Jeremy Scahill, author of "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's most powerful Mercenary Army", Amy Goodman on DemocracyNow! and other journalists, such as our own Miriam Raftery. Media outlets such as KLSD and now Stacy Taylor on AM1700 really helped to keep the pressure on county wide. (It is my theory that the demise of KLSD and the East County Californian, where Miriam's stories would appear, are linked to the media silence BW wanted so they could exit the scene.)

Also, I have had the honor and privilege of working with PR master Karen Pomer. Thank you Karen!I sincerely feel I was a very small part of the effort when I list allthese important players. And, I really have enjoyed working witheveryone. You are friends that I hope I can keep for life.If you are not listed, it does not mean you are not appreciated but isout of respect for your privacy. Also realize that this is a cobbledtogether activist group with no absolute leader. We all led in our ownway, and we all deserve credit. And it is credit that I can acknowledge,but I really can only notice it like everyone else. I have no authorityto dish out these credits. I do so only knowing that these people deserve to be acknowledged for their contributions to the effort.

I saythank you, not as someone who has asked you to do something, but out of pure respect for your patriotism that you would stand with the othersand fight this battle.Realize that the threats I made saying that "we would take this fight to the State Assembly" only had teeth with everyone standing with me andstaring down Blackwater as a group. Sure, I made the statements, and I'm sticking my neck out to run for office. But I can't do anything withoutthe support of everyone else. I sincerely believe that the threat thatwe would be able to carry this to Sacramento was the final straw in thedecision for Blackwater. I sent out the press release on March 6th, Ichatted with Joel Anderson's assistant this morning (March 7th) about itin a chance meeting at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast, and then hourslater, Blackwater pulled out.True, it could be a stroke of coincidence. I was predicting that BWwould pull the plug at about this time, if they were planning to pull itat all.

The media had quieted down about them, and they were desperateto put this behind them. They just needed to find a way to do it thatwould not empower the opposition--us. If they were trying to find a timewhen no one would be able to get any mileage from it, they picked thewrong day, but perhaps the best day they could given that we have areasonably good candidate in the 77th AD. If they waited at all, thiswould fester and would only be a boon for free media exposure in thecampaign. I believe that the threat worked because they could see howeffective our coalition had become and they knew that the campaign wouldbenefit from having the ultimate of worldwide evils to fight -- Blackwater.And, you can also trust me when I say that I was not overjoyed to get in the race for this seat. In fact, I had done a great deal of looking and tried to get others to take on the challenge, someone who would perhapsa military record (which I don't have) to run as I think that would playwell in the district. With no one rising to the occasion, I ended upreluctantly taking on the challenge. But if I do so, I intend to win,and I do. But although intention is very powerful, and I believe works in ways that I don't quite understand, it goes nowhere without the backing ofeveryone concerned. Your backing. Your support. If we are going to haveany shot of winning, we're going to have to play every card as well aswe can. We'll need to take advantage of the likely linkage myannouncement of candidacy and the pull out of Blackwater the next day.

This is not because I wish to denigrate the contributions of anyone elsebut because it is the right way to play the card to gain as much creditfor the opposition, i.e. everyone involved --us-- as we can.Don't be fooled by rumors of complaints about how wrong this was, how I did the wrong thing by not mentioning everyone in the first few emails,etc. Those are probably planted just to ruin our great joy. I believethat as time rolls out, we will find that certain players in this soapopera were nothing more than BW operatives who will soon leave Potrero.We must also be very careful in the near future as I doubt thatBlackwater is disappearing altogether. We must keep a close watch on our nation to find where their next move will be, and then nip it in the bud.

This is a great challenge for our nation, not just Potrero.

We mustStop Blackwater and the blossoming of privatized military of all kinds.

In the coming months, we will have a big party and all get together andenjoy our success. Don't let any negative thoughts ruin this... Thesegreat successes are something to relish! And the letter of Blackwaterpulling out?

Everyone who helped should frame that letter as a rewardfor your contributions, whatever they were.But with Blackwater (hopefully) out of the way, we still have theSunrise Powerlink threatening Potrero. The Alternative Route D willimpact many of the same people who would be impacted by the BlackwaterWest project. Public comment is still open on that project until mid April.

Again, thank you for taking up the challenge and working together to achieve this wonderful success!!--RaymondP.S. If you are like me, I fell in love with the valley when I saw it. It is a rarity indeed to still have a valley as nearly untouched as that one.

Now, we need to put together a deal to set that valley aside and combine it with the Hauser Wilderness and National Forest. It must be done!-- ---------------------------------------Raymond Lutz, CoordinatorCitizens' Oversight Projects (COPs)
P.O. Box 252El Cajon (San Diego Cty), CA 92022
USAVoice 619-820-5321
http//www.CitizensOversight.org