UPDATED: What’s Going on in Hardin, Montana?

Today, a PID listener sent me a link to an article at KULR television, a station serving the Billings, Montana area. (Hat tip to Allen!) This strange and disturbing report describes vague details around a deal between the city of Hardin, MT and a mysterious organization called “The American Police Group”.

Once you’ve read the article, you’ll understand why I immediately conducted a Google search for information about the group that has promised to visit “…Hardin next week and start filling about 250 positions, 80% of which will be hired locally.”  In such lean economic times as these, it’s natural that small towns would seek to bring in new business, especially if said business uses and/or renovates already existing property. In this case, it’s the Hardin jail, currently an empty building, that the new ‘business’ has promised to renovate.

But how much vetting did the Twin Rivers Authority conduct before signing with their new partner? Perhaps none. However, like it or not, the California company has arrived in Hardin, for better or worse. I’m thinking the latter is a strong possibility.

According to a Sept. 26, 2009 article at the Mercury News:

After arriving in this rural city with three Mercedes SUVs marked with the logo of a nonexistent police department, representatives of an obscure California security company said preparations were under way to take over Hardin’s never-used, $27 million jail. [direct quote, although the emphasis is all mine]

Significant obstacles remain—including a lack of any prisoner contracts on the part of the company that wants to run the jail, American Police Force.

And on Friday came the revelation the company’s operating agreement for the facility has yet to be validated—two weeks after city leaders first unveiled what they said was a signed agreement.

If this were an April 1st article or one at Spoof.com, it would make much more sense!  ‘Captain’ Michael Hilton (known originally only as “Captain Michael” since he declined to reveal his surname, even to AP reporters) says he plans a helicopter tour of the area to locate the perfect 5,000-10,000 acre spot for a ‘tactical military training ground’.

The SUVs mentioned above, by the way, had license plates on the back that read “City of Hardin Police Department”, despite the fact that the city has no police department.

Honestly, I can’t do this story justice. It’s either a major scam, a disinfo game being played upon the Patriot media, or it’s a sinister plan to put into place a secret detention and training center (I’ve even read that Hardin may become the new ‘Gitmo’).

This morning I located the American Police Group’s website and was able to read a bit about them. They claim to have years of experience, yet they were incorporated just this year. I tried to access the site a few moments ago to gather additional information, but THE SITE IS NOW GONE. Here’s a screen cap of the original site (click the image to enlarge):

The emblem on this screen cap looks like a reverse of the Federation of Russia’s national emblem with a few changes. Since the double-headed eagle (PHOENIX) is also used by dozens of other entities and countries, it’s impossible at this juncture to ascertain the origin of the APG’s logo.

And here’s what it looks like now:

Curious, no? Maybe someone in Hardin caught on.

UPDATE: APG’s attorney, Maziar Mafi (a personal injury lawyer) is reportedly an Iran-American who claims he is the first Iranian-American to run for Congress from California. Mafi claims to be a supporter of regime change in Iran and has drafted an Iranian Bill of Rights.

Also, APG’s ‘virtual office’ is in Washington DC, just one block from the White House.

UPDATE 2: Also listed as having offices at 1701 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 300 are:

Wendt Partners
Phase Legal, LLC
Uyghur American Association/Uyghur Human Rights Project
The Event Planning Group LLC
Rhodes & Weinstock, LLC
National Abstinence Education Association
Palisades Capital Advisors
Matthew T. Famiglietti, Esq.

According to Wilkipedia, this may not be the first ‘scam’ the city of Hardin has fallen for (assuming the American Police Group deal is a scam):

In 2004-05, a Texas development consortium convinced Hardin’s industrial development authority to float bonds to build the speculative Two Rivers Regional Correctional Facility, a $27 million jail for 464 inmates mostly dormitory housing located on a 40-acre field. Officials claimed that the understanding when construction began in 2006 was that the State of Montana would send some state prisoners there. The state has denied that allegation, and the economic feasibility study used to promote the bonds had not mentioned the possibility of incarceration of sentenced state prisoners. The facility was ready to open in July 2007, but no such transfer occurred. Although the consortium’s operator, CEC/CiviGenics, sought prisoners from various states, agencies and jurisdictions, they were unsuccessful in that quest. A county sheriff termed it “basically a “warehouse, ” referring to its “24-inmate rooms. [4] The Authority bonds defaulted on May 1, 2008. [5] In the fall of 2008, the facility bid to house a sexual offender program for the state but it was rejected. [6] CEC ended its contracts and withdrew its last two of its few employees on January 23, 2009. As of June 2009, no prisoners have ever been housed there.[7] The Hardin City Council and the Two Rivers Authority have proposed that, when the Guantanamo Bay prison is closed down, some of the detainees there be transferred to Two Rivers.[8] Montana’s state and federal officials have universally rejected its fitness and use for Guantanamo detainees.

UPDATE 3: The IP address used by americanpolicegroup.com is also the home for defenseproductsolutions.com (this URL redirects to dpsna.com). A quick scan of the source code for dpsna.com shows the following ‘key words’ (despite the fact that the ‘About Us’ info describes the company as ‘woman owned’, one of the keywords is Edward S. Angelino:

Defense Logistics,

Defense System,

Defense Logistic Services,

Defense Product Solutions,

DPS,

Quazi Defense Product Solutions,

Edward S. Angelino,

Eddie Angelino,

Military Services,

DPS,

2007,

Irvine,

California, [emphasis mine]

Presumably, the other keywords are alternate company names. More soon….

LATEST UPDATE: The American Police Force website is now active again. It’s clear from the flash movie at the top that the odd two-headed eagle emblem is almost identical to the crest for the Serbian Royal Family. Now, you’d think the city of Hardin would have noticed this. I’m glad we don’t live in Serbia–oops, I mean Hardin.