Sunday, October 4, 2009

America--Fuck yeah!!

The saga of the American Police Force story began to unravel last week but the unraveling appears to be on hold for the weekend. We expect things to accelerate tomorrow. Maybe all won't be revealed but certainly more details will emerge, theories will be proven untrue and stupid rumors will be laid to rest.

So far the speculation-o-sphere seems to be divided into a few camps. What we call the knee-jerk conspiracy theorists, or the reactionaries, are convinced that this is a nefarious scheme by Xe (formerly Blackwater). We here at LoS believe that the privatization of the police and penal system are indeed grave threats to civil liberties. That is why the rampant and unfounded linking of this affair to Blackwater is so offensive. Cry wolf enough and sensible people will begin to write you off.

Dig this bit from Prison Planet by Paul Joseph Watson on 1/10: "APF web page admits it runs Blackwater-controlled U.S. Training Center, proving that the two organizations are one and the same."

The article then goes on to "prove" that Blackwater (actually Xe) runs the U.S. Training Center. The problem is, there is nothing to prove. Xe openly admits that the USTC is their operation.

But more importantly, how does claiming to run anything make it true? If you were going to hire a guy to be your security director and on his résumé he listed experience with the CIA as a qualification, you'd probably be inclined to check it out. And if the CIA said there was no record of this guy ever working for them, what would you think?

a) Wow this guy was in so deep the CIA won't acknowledge his employment! or
b) This guy is full of shit

A second camp proposes that the APF may in fact be a real company with links to the private security establishment, but has simply bitten off more than it can chew. We tend to think even this gives the APF too much credit. Their argument has the benefit of restraint and not jumping to conclusions before all the facts are in. Versions of this theory have APF linked to Allied Defense Systems or other less well-known groups, such as Vance Security USA. ADS has in fact admitted meeting with ADF but says their background check persuaded them to avoid working with them.

A third camp thinks that the APF is an elaborate scam. They cite the founder's extensive criminal background and the fact that the APF claims to have years of experience despite being founded in February 2009, just after it became known that the facility they are to take over was up for grabs. They note that the APF website steals images from other private security firms' websites. This You Tube collection of news reports is pretty convincing that this is a boondoggle of large proportions.

To Prison Planet's credit, they've put up an article by Felix Barbour on 02/10 supporting the scam theory. Mr. Barbour has actually done some basic journalism and found that the APF is unlicensed to act in the capacities they advertise. They cannot act as private investigators or security operators.

And then there's the logo. A bit over-the-top, to say the least. Odd too that the APF's website seems to have changed it's name since yesterday from the American Police Force to the American Private Police Force. Perhaps hoping to avoid being charged with impersonating a police officer when the charges are filed....

Last we've heard, APF honcho Michael Hilton, or should we say Miodrag Dokovich, has left town, probably before being run out of it on a rail covered in tar and feathers.

We at LoS think this a scam. Perhaps it will come to light that APF is working in concert with another, more established company but we'll reserve judgment until more facts come out. There has been talk of a parent company but who knows?

We're actually interested in the possibility that the APF is more than just a clever con. Could they be a front for some kind of nationalist Serbian group? Dokovich claims to be from Montenegro, which only a few years ago was linked with Serbia as the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro (2003-2006). In 2006 Montenegro went independent and the bond was dissolved.

Is Dokovish a bitter nationalist who'd like to see that union renewed? Why would a Montegrin use the Serbian coat of arms for his corporate logo?

Anyway, all this is fascinating, no matter which of the theories turns out to be true. We're merely getting our speculations in before more of this tale unfolds....

For more on the situation as it stands as of 03/10, see this good synopsis from The Missoulian.

Also, this guy certainly got on the bus rather early with his site http://www.americanpoliceforce.net which takes the APF story as its centerpiece but also deals with the privatization of the military and the police. And hey, he'll sell you three APF domain names for $100,000!

11 comments:

  1. Yea this story is proving to be a deep one. I contacted U.S. Bank who holds the note on the £27 million dollar jail in Hardin. and they were very interested in learning about Mr. Dokovichs'history as con man.
    http://americanprivatepoliceforce.blogspot.com/

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  2. It's amazing how rampant this story is on the blogosphere and in Montana news outlets but hasn't been picked up by the majors despite good articles by the AP.

    It's good to see someone else like you taking an interest in this from the "scam angle." If I see another person hold this up as proof that Xe wants to force us all to take the swine flu vaccination or some such I'll retch.

    Your blog is an excellent collection of article and info. We need more fact and less conjecture (we're guilty of this too I s'pose).

    I think this will become a lot clearer by week's end!

    Thanks again, D.

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  3. www.AmericanPoliceForce.net would be our website. The $100,000 price tag is more of a joke and a slap in the face to APF, the cons-thugs-serbian mercs-supporters of privatized police-whatever the hell they are. Would we sell it for $100,000 if offered? Maybe, but we'd use that money to continue to fight the forces of fascism. And we also own the domain name www.AmericanPrivatePoliceForce.com to keep in the fight.(shows how stupid the scammers are, we acquired that domain name minutes after they changed their name)

    While one of our contributors writes on the Swine Flu/forced vaccine/prison camp theory, we at Fightingtyranny.com believe that these guys are scammers and crooks, possibly former Serbian mercs who planned on using this jail to train more Serbian mercs. The fact that the government knows about and allows/encourages privatized police, prisons and jails and the training of foreign mercenaries on our soil is our biggest concern. Oh btw, despite the huge amount of traffic we receive, the revenue we earn from sponsor ads is small potatoes compared to the personal out of pocket expense we incur.

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  4. Hi there FT and thanks for the comment. Sorry to make light of your site with the offhand snarkiness about the domain names. I think all of us here are in full accord with your basic principle that privatization of the military, the police and the prison systems represent grave threats to personal freedom.

    It also seems just plain wrong to make a profit from imprisoning people. A terrible mentality which small town have apparently embraced with open arms without considering how it conflicts with other aspects of their allegedly libertarian ideologies. Free market trumps all I suppose.

    Our POV is basically the same in that we see APF as a group of scammers and crooks. The Serbian connection is fascinating but we're not sure what to make of it. I too thought that the training facility might have something to do with Serbian militias. Or perhaps simply a way to raise money abroad for them. This is pretty wild speculation, but bears looking into, if only to show that it's untrue.

    These APF people do seem a bit naive though. Anyone with a computer can (and has) demonstrated the company was created in February, has no government contracts and operates out of virtual offices. They also seem to be oblivious to the implications of site caching, which despite changing text and logos, allows us to track their changing story when their claims are proven fraudulent.

    Our biggest concern is that by linking this tale to more outlandish conspiracy theories we in fact create disinformation. Many might see the claims of imminent national enslavement and write off anything that is said about the dangers of corporate police entities and private prison, etc.

    So, exasperation with a lot of nonsense leads us to be a bit curt sometimes. I've looked through your site quite a bit and find it very interesting and the links useful. Sorry again if we came across as dissing you because fundamentally, you are correct!

    BTW, a guy called "D" (see first comment) has also assembled some good info and facts worth checking out.

    Best of luck to you.

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  5. Thanks for the link to D, It's good to see how quick people online are at exposing these crooks and con artists. We do believe these are small time thugs (though one of our contributors admittedly is all over the FEMA thing and has been for years), but we also believe that they are shedding light on a much bigger problem with the privatization of our police, military, jails, prisons...It is quite possible that this was intended to train foreign mercs...We just need to dig more on this Micheal Hilton (AKA Midrag Ilia Dokovitch, AKA Midrag Ilia Dokovich and AKA Michael Miodrag) character and see what he's all about. He has stated his intentions were to use the facility for training and was also looking at additional land. You tie that in with his hard-on for Serbia (despite naming their organization "American Police Force") and that leads us to believe they were or are mercs themselves (Not necessarily endorsed by Serbian Special Forces) but possibly planned to land contracts for/from their fellow compatriots back home

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. http://www.americanpoliceforce.net/2009/10/american-private-police-force-rundown.html

    Our most current post with a rundown of the facts

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  8. FT, I tend to shy away from the training foreign mercenaries theory but but then again, the exiled Cubans were doing it long ago so perhaps it's possible they had that idea in mind. I would be more interested to know if the alleged "parent company" is Serbian and if the idea of taking over the prison was to raise money for efforts back "home" that might have been illegal within the country. This all just wild speculation, thinking out loud really, but again, it can't hurt to take a look....

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  9. D's blog seems to have disappeared...he's been taken out by the APF no doubt! ;)

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  10. Yeah, I found that odd myself. He's had recent posts up since the 6th on his other blogs...so one could watch or attempt contact, if no contact and no more postings, one could only assume....

    FightingTyranny

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  11. He probably felt he was duplicating other sites and took it down

    From the AP

    Company run by ex-con drops Montana jail plan

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