Donate $25 for two DVDs of the Cryptome collection of files from 1996 to the present

1 April 2008. Thanks to UKClimbing, the Blackwater Proshop website: http://proshop.blackwaterusa.com/

31 March 2008. Thanks to Shepherd Johnson.

See also:

Blackwater Eyeball: http://eyeball-series.org/blackwater/blackwater.htm
Eyeballing the Moyock Naval Communications Station: http://eyeball-series.org/moyock/moyock-eyeball.htm
Moyock Naval Communications Station Northwest Birdseye: http://eyeball-series.org/moyock-birdseye.htm

Blackwater Opens Public Relations Offensive in Carolina Swamp

by Shepherd Johnson

March 26, 2008

New Blackwater Worldwide logo

Driving down a rural highway in southeastern Virginia, I am passed by minivans and SUVs filled with beach goers, surfers, revellers and other suburbanites from the northern latitudes who are seeking fun in the sun. They are headed to the popular tourist villages of North Carolina's Outer Banks. The road, which skirts the large Dismal Swamp is one of two ways to get onto the Banks.

In the sea of commercial signs one might miss the one that says "Welcome to North Carolina" which greets travellers departing Virginia. Moyock straddles the dividing line between Virginia and North Carolina. The interstate area is culturally and economically linked and the transition from one state to the next is seamless. 

Just south of Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Newport News and the other cities that make up the mega community of Hampton Roads, Moyock is a strip of fast food joints, gas stations and grocery stores all vying for the powerful tourist dollars that snail through town at a forced 45 mph. The border town would make an excellent destination for the inhabitants of Hampton Roads seeking contraband they could not readily find in their metropolitan area. Pornography shops, liqueur stores and fireworks stands all would thrive here. No, you won't find those boutiques here in Moyock, in fact, the swamp land just south of the Virginia border is slightly more conservative than the military-fueled, ultraconservative realm of Hampton Roads where Pat Robertson holds court and defense contractors rule.

It is one of these contractors which has drawn me to the region. Having grown up in Virginia Beach, I have been following with apprehension the stories of a private mercenary army training in the region that I once called home. Moyock is the location of Blackwater Worldwide, the "finest private training facility in the world". Like others who live in the area I was curious to see what was going on "down there", so on a recent trip to Virginia Beach, I decided to take a drive and see for myself. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I envisioned heated words with an armed security guard at a check point while he tells me to pull over, turn off my engine and get out of my car, while I quickly jam the car into a field, pull a high speed doughnut and speed off into the distance, the car's tires kicking up small bits of gravel, dirt and dust in my wake. That is what I thought might happen.

I had read the Blackwater website and saw something about the "Blackwater Pro Shop". Visions of racks and racks of M-16s with M203 grenade launchers started running through my head. I guessed it was some sort of ammo dump / gift shop and I figured that I could beg the security guards, who I was sure I was bound to meet, to let me onto the compound so that I might buy a polo shirt with the Blackwater logo on it for my friend who is really into guns. Could work.

This area of the country is teeming with intelligence agents, military special operations specialists and various other shadowy government figures employed in "other government agencies".  The Special Operations communities at Fort Bragg, N.C. are not that far away. The CIA's Harvey Point special training area is in Edenton N.C. The Department of Homeland Security runs the Coast Guard air station at Elizabeth City, just down the road the road from Blackwater. Various SEAL Teams are headquartered at Little Creek, Virginia along with the Delta Force unit SEAL Team 6 which is stationed at Dam Neck in Virginia Beach. The CIA  runs it's tradecraft school at Camp Peary, Virginia outside Williamsburg. Joint Forces Command which is the command component for U.S. and NATO forces operating in Afghanistan is in Norfolk, Virginia. These sites are all within a hundred miles of Blackwater Worldwide.

Literally right next door to the Blackwater complex are the listening posts, antennae, and radomes of the Naval Security Group Northwest which is the polite way of saying the spy group NSA. In addition to all of this, the CIA has been using front companies in several small rural airfields in Fayetteville, Smithfield and Kinston, North Carolina to run it's rendition program and "ghost flights". It seems the rural nature and seclusion of the swampy farmland found in northeastern North Carolina lends itself to anonymity.

Once in Moyock, I knew I was going to have to pull over and ask for directions, knowing only vaguely where the Blackwater compound was in relation to the town. It's basically everything to the west of town I later found out. The facility is that large.

Looking for a gas station I suddenly notice something with the Blackwater logo on it. Eureka! It's the Blackwater Pro Shop! Right here in town, with a large sign that says "Open to the Public". Hell, I'm the public. The Pro Shop seems to occupy what looks like a former residence. Maybe the Blackwater Pro Shop is behind the house and they are going to demolish the house at a later date. No, the Pro Shop is the house. 

Blackwater ProShop

As I pull into the driveway and approach the door I half expect a little gray haired old lady to walk up and greet me with a tray of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. There is still hope. I've seen private gun dealers in the country who operate out of their own home. Maybe this is the case with Blackwater. Maybe it's a ploy to throw off Al Qeada who is certainly operating in the very swamp that I just skirted to get down here. I can still pick up that M249 Bravo machine gun or a Mark 19 grenade launcher, a little bit of nerve gas, a Nuclear Biological Chemical warfare suit. I need some heavy duty armament and I know Blackwater can answer that call. At the very least, I want to look at some heavy munitions if not purchase them.

Blackwater's facility at the end of Puddin Ridge Road may be a state of the art facility and the finest private training facility in the world but the house that is the Blackwater Pro Shop looks as if the former occupants may have moved out as recently as a week ago. The home is typical of houses built in 1950s in rural Virginia and North Carolina. Brick construction, two bed rooms and a fire place. The mantle for the fire place now being used as a display area for little stuffed black bears wearing little T-shirts with the Blackwater logo.

As I enter the house I can already see a glass display counter with knives and a cash register sitting on top. There is a guy behind the counter and another guy with a clip board who looks like he's doing inventory. I greet them with the obligatory, "How's it going?" and begin to scan the room, looks like a living room, with the aforementioned fire place to the left of the entrance way. There are T-shirt racks and little stuffed animals and candy bars. All this stuff mind you has the Blackwater logo on it. But there are no guns and certainly no ammo lying about.

I begin interrogating the clerk behind the counter, I ask him if he is a Blackwater employee or a contractor. A little humor on my part. He replies that he works for Blackwater.  I ask him if he had been to Iraq. He of course says "no", which I knew he would say, he didn't look the part, he is a little doughy. I tell him that I was going to try and buy a polo shirt at the main Blackwater facility and that I didn't even know that the Blackwater Pro Shop was out here, right on the highway. He says that they just opened up ten days ago and that they hadn't even had their grand opening yet. He also says that I would not have gotten very far at the Blackwater compound as they require a background check for everyone who enters the facility.

We exchange various pleasantries and I ask him if Blackwater is hiring, I'm interested in the "role players" that Blackwater employs in it's various war games and other training scenarios. He tells me that Blackwater does hire from time to time, that the employment opportunities are listed on the website, he adds that the role players are hired from the ranks of former Navy SEALS and various other retired special operators which seem to be plentiful in southeastern Virginia.

I notice that some of the logo items are using the old Blackwater USA logo which has the bear paw in the gun sight motif, the new logo employs the bear paw in globe pattern. With this he seems somewhat alarmed that I know so much about Blackwater. I then ask the clerk if he has ever met Erik Prince, he says he's seen him at various Blackwater functions but that he's never met him. The Blackwater clerk tells me about the future plans and expansion of the Pro Shop, how they are planning to sell beer, bait and tackle, towels and other sundry beach gear. It reminds me of the Brew-Thru chain of conveinence stores found on the Outerbanks which cater to tourists.

Iraq after all won't be around forever and it's certainly time for Blackwater to diversify before the last troop's boot lifts off from the desert. Blackwater now has it's own navy, it's own air force and with the addition of the Blackwater Pro Shop, it's own tourist trap. After a while I buy a couple of stickers and he actually gives me a few pens for free, all with Blackwater's logo. I thank him and depart.

I go out to the car and retrieve my camera. I'm taking pictures of the house from the parking lot when I decide to go back in and ask him if I might be able to take some shots of the interior. It's worth a try. He says, sure, but not to get him in any of the pictures.

Cash register and counter

Blackwater security

T-shirts and posters

Stuffed animals

As I'm taking pictures of the house it dawns on me that I was standing inside of a public relations operation, a carefully crafted one. Millions of people descend upon the Outer Banks of North Carolina each year and most of them arrive via the road I just drove down.

With the lawsuits filed by former Blackwater employee's families surrounding the deaths of four Blackwater contractors in Fallujah, Erik Prince testifying before Congress last year and various other entanglements including the arrest of protesters outside Blackwater's gates, Blackwater needed to win over some hearts and minds in the homeland. Cue the Blackwater stuffed bears and T-shirts.

The Blackwater Pro Shop's mission on the highway in Moyock is actually two-fold when it comes to public relations. It provides Blackwater with a friendlier face but it is also a forward position to divert people away from the scarier, paramilitary compound, with it's gunnery ranges, defensive driving courses, airfield, mock Iraqi villages and checkpoints with armed gunmen. Erik Prince certainly doesn't want nosy onlookers around his ultra secure facility.

In another effort to revamp it's image Blackwater changed it's logo from the bear paw caught in gunsight to the slightly different bear paw stamp on the globe, which I think is actually more menacing. Blackwater trying to take over the world? It would appear so, one franchise at a time.

It was now time to take a drive out to the Blackwaters facility at the end of Puddin Ridge road. There are about four stop lights in Moyock and Puddin Ridge Rd. is the second one. Off the highway, the countryside fades into a sea of mini mansions, some of which are surely occupied by Blackwater employees.

The end of Puddin Ridge Road

The woman I got directions from at a gas station said to keep driving till it turns to a dirt road then keep going because the compound is further yet. Nearing the end of Puddin Ridge Road, I cross into Camden county from Currituck county and there in front of me is a large Blackwater Worldwide sign, no words, just the logo. There is also no dirt road, the road must have been improved by Blackwater since that woman had ever ventured out here. To the right of the large sign and just off the road is another sign that says, "Blackwater Worldwide: Welcome to the largest private training facility in the world. Train hard... Or don't train at all!" Which makes no sense to me, certainly a little bit of training, all be it half assed is better than no training at all.

Close up of signs

Beyond is a very large field. In the southwest corner of the field right at the tree line I can see some activity, looks like some parked SUVs and a small hut. Looks like a check point. The traffic going into the facility is heavy. I notice license plates from all over the country, Michigan, Florida, Texas, Ohio, some of the occupants of these vehicles look like Secret Service agents, some are dressed in Marine issue desert camouflage, desert digital pattern.

Guard checkpoint

The road makes a hard left hand turn at these two signs and proceeds for about a quarter mile where it makes another hard right hand turn. In another quarter mile lies the checkpoint. As I approach the checkpoint I notice that one guard who had been screening one of the vehicles takes great interest in me.

Before I get too close, I start to look for a place to turn around. He is now staring at me and speaking into his walkie-talkie. That's it, I'm out of here. I only made it to that point because I saw absolutely no signs that said "no trespassing" and no signs that said "private property".

Whatever this security guard's intentions were, I definitely was not going to let him detain me. I felt it best to simply avoid confrontation and turn around. Having returned to the relative safety of the entrance signs at the county line, I parked the car and proceeded to take pictures of the signage and the checkpoint from that position. To my relief the guard did not dispatch anybody to pursue me. I guess he figured I was just another curious tourist, probably one of several he encounters everyday.