Tony Gonzales, AIM West: Indigenous Peoples input limited at Copenhagen

From Tony Gonzales
AIM West
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

Dr. Cuellar,
Having been to the mother of all conferences in Copenhagen for the COP-15 Climate Change during December 7-18, it soon became clear to me the tremendous task at hand. The very topic is infused with all matters of concern to humankind including economic, social and political dimensions. As the only AIM Liaison there I introduced myself to Indigenous delegates and allies, attended to meetings, text teams, speaking engagements, workshops, receptions, demos and rallies, dinners, interviews, all the time broadening our contacts and base of support. I took advantage of networking and alliance building, an awesome undertaking; and not a dull moment. I also want to qualify my comments before hand to friends and allies with over thirty years experience in international work related activities with liberation movements, human rights, economic and social development, environmental, and within the United Nations apparatus.
I went to Copenhagen optimistic, and to somehow make sure that wording into the final text’s specify the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as a stop gap or tourniquet toward development, at all three major conferences occurring at the same time! There was also so much spiritual sentiments expressed at these conferences in Copenhagen as a necessary element to incorporate with the paradigm shift for another way or standard of living that needed to be factored in as well. Yet, with all due respect to the players and presenters, and under incredible odds, it seemed that COP-15 was a done deal! Granted, governments and organizations planned for this conference months and years ahead buried into their issues. Each came with their strategy for climate change, armed with a substantial and informed delegation, and new recruits and interns.
From an empirical observation it was a world conference I attended with the least amount of Indigenous peoples/NGOs in attendance, less than 100 if that many at all. Needless to say there should have been more Indigenous peoples to contribute toward these serious discussions, or at least for more people to engage and know whose traditional and sustainable lives are being threatened by governments and corporations. Only at the annual UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in NYC are you able to find over 2,000 Indigenous representatives congregating in an international forum; if only we had a third there in Copenhagen we might have had an impact to impress our concerns in the final outcome! Obviously there were more non-Indigenous peoples participating and funded by Foundations, critically speaking. Perhaps their favorites were among the popular environmental movements than consideration given for Indigenous community representatives themselves who have the historical and moral authority to being present representing the natural world, and who are trying to live in a sustainable way! Our stories and issues needed to be heard more frequently so others can begin to make the connections.
It is difficult for me to not to sound cynical or like a wet blanket, and I hope I don’t turn you off with this brief report. But it was also definitely an opportunity for learning, inspiration, and organizing, and of how best translate this and make relevant to Indigenous communities; AIM for strategies for survival, and living in the present. I do not want to sound like a defeatist or the victim while there but rather aware, and being into our element. Although I went to Copenhagen alone I felt a united position; prepared also with three or four Indigenous declarations in hand with text written in prior conferences in different regions of the world.
The first couple of days there was excitement then it got gradually worse, then restricted to less NGOs, then periods of impasse, and finally heavy handed politics toward the end by those in power. I realize I am painting with broad strokes but people were sadly disappointed and discouraged, scandals and disruptions occurred, walkouts and divisions ensued, climate-gate and leaked documents, show-boating and US arrogance; civil society was totally abandoned, adrift, aimless! Some governments called for socialism to replace capitalism, the enemy of mother earth. The NGO community was/is left to fend for itself in a world slowly and literally cooking up in their self-interest.
I took the opportunity to invite the global community to San Francisco to strategize together before COP-16 now scheduled in Mexico City during November 30-December 10, 2010. As you may recall AIM co-founder Clyde Bellecourt last month at the AIM-WEST 3rd annual conference called for an International AIM Conference in SF during November 22-26, 2010 to be hosted by AIM-WEST. Copenhagen was the perfect conference (storm!) to initiate and formally announce such a conference for strategic purposes, in this protracted dome and gloom scenario to save our coming generations.
You can be assured AIM and AIM-WEST, together will schedule meetings at different levels while preparing for the 4th Annual AIM-WEST conference scheduled November 22-26, to include a Climate Change agenda, and a green economy to incorporate into our program. Please mark your calendars now and make plans to be here. I will help coordinate with the international community toward these efforts by gathering together a list of NGO contacts, announcing logistics, lodging and activities, seek funding for a successful conference, and making San Francisco a destination and stop off place before heading on to Mexico City for COP-16. I will also contact the NGOs in Mexico City to help coordinate activities on the ground with local and national activists and Indigenous peoples. If you are interested in helping or volunteer time please contact me.
Stay posted to AIM-WEST website for activities now and in the future. A more comprehensive report will be provided at a later date. AIM-WEST is a non-profit organization in the process of incorporation as an institution. It will also seek consultative status at the UN Economic and Social Council, and continue to be involved as the international and political arm of the American Indian Movement (AIM). Your donations and contributions are appreciated. Thank you very much for your attention, cooperation and solidarity with Indigenous peoples. For all our relations.
Tony Gonzales
AIM-WEST Director
415-577-1492
http://www.aimwest.info/
eltonyg@earthlink.net
http://www.aimovement.org/

MNN Returns: 'Judicial Chicanery' of Federal Court of Canada Side-Swiped

WE'RE BAAAACK!! "JUDICIAL CHICANERY" OF FEDERAL COURT OF CANADA SIDE-SWIPED – Call for investigation!

Mohawk Nation News
http://www.mohawknationnews.com

MNN. On June 14, 2008, Kahentinetha and Katenies, two Mohawk women, were viciously attacked at the Cornwall Ontario border by a special squad of about twelve barking Canadian Border Services Agents CBSA dressed for combat. One woman was put into a torture stress situation meant to kill her. She suffered a trauma induced heart attack and is still recovering. The other was severely beaten and held incommunicado without access to medical attention or outside help. She is still recovering from her injuries.

Kahentinetha and Katenies live in the Mohawk communities of Akwesasne and Kahnawake. They think that everyone should be able to pass the illegal colonial border without being assaulted or killed.

No employee or official has shown any concern for the near fatal assault committed by the CBSA. They filed formal complaints for a full investigation, appropriate charges to be made against the offenders and reasonable compensation for their arrest, assault and illegal jailing. They sent requests to the Hon. Robert Nicholson, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, the Ontario Provincial Police, the RCMP, the Mohawk Akwesasne Police and the CBSA. They all refused to investigate.

The two women have no money and no lawyer. They had no choice but to represent themselves. They filed a Federal Court of Canada lawsuit to force the police and government agents to investigate this attempted murder. For $2 they filed a Statement of Claim on the "Assault, arrest and illegal detention" by Canada Border Services Agents [Kahentinetha & Katenies v. Queen, Section 48, Federal Court Act, T-1309-08]. At first the court registry employees seemed helpful. As time went on they issued misinformation and lost documents to sabotage the lawsuit.

The crown's first response was to file an unprecedented countersuit for Kahentinetha and Katenies to pay for Canada`s costs. To start they wanted over $20,000 on deposit before the case could be tried, plus all subsequent costs thereafter. They justified this by claiming that Kahentinetha and Katenies are "not residents of Canada". They based this deceptive false argument on an unsubstantiated article from a newspaper published on the internet that speculated that Katenies lived in the U.S. Kahentinetha and Katenies submitted evidence that they live in Akwesasne and Kahnawake which are located in the portion of the colony of Canada known as "Quebec". They are considered residents of Canada by the Canadian government. The court refused to accept the evidence.

Kahentinetha and Katenies were pleased with FCC's order that respects Indigenous jurisdiction over Turtle Island. According to Canada's own order and laws, the demand for money is a human rights violation and Canada must remove its border control.

Prothonotary Mireille Tabib of FCC issued the order that the two women must put $6,500 before the case would proceed. Kahentinetha and Katenies appealed. They argued that Canada cannot claim that Kahnawake and Akwesasne are not part of Canada so as to classify them as "non-residents" to make them pay court costs, while they treat these communities as parts of Canada, including having a border control in the center. This was a very strong argument. So they stooped to skullduggery. They "lost" the appeal documents.

When the crown did not reply, Kahentinetha phoned the FCC registry. She was told the documents were lost. Then they suddenly found them. Kahentinetha and Katenies were instructed to re-file the appeal and to ask "for an extension of time".

FCC Judge Francois Lemieux then issued an order denying them the extension of time. He made no ruling on the unconstitutional posting of money by victims of a crime carried out by agents of the state. His deflection made it impossible for the women to appeal. Such a cynical and willful obstruction of justice was unexpected.

Kahentinetha and Katenies, having no money, no jobs and no attachable assets, had to abandon the case. Then on February 26, 2009, Kahentinetha filed a brand new suit on the "Reckless disregard for the safety and security of Indigenous Women at the Canadian Border, Akwesasne" [FCC File No. T-288-09, Kahentinetha v. Queen]. Not forgotten is that men are also abused at the border.

Canada continues judicial chicanery with blindness to the rule of law. As a signatory to international human rights instruments, Canada's Constitution Act, 1982, states everyone is equal before the law. People, no matter what part of the world they come from, cannot be beaten up by state agents with impunity.

Hardball bullying that Kahentinetha and Katenies got from the FCC shows that it is impossible for Indigenous to get our issues discussed rationally and resolved according to generally accept Canadian and international legal principles. Canadian and international opinion does not support this high handed and unethical behavior.

Kahentinetha is not a Canadian citizen and Kahnawake and Akwesasne are not part of Canada as recognized by Prothonotary Mireille Tabib's order of 23 October, 2008 [FCC No. T-1309] and by Judge Francois Lemieux's order of 29 January 2009 [ FCC No. T-1309-08].

The assault can be proven by both civilian and government of Canada witnesses, by medical and hospital records and by videotape evidence which is in the hands of the CBSA.

Kahentinetha and Katenies' main purposes for their legal actions are to demand a full and fair investigation of: 1) the assault; 2) the failure to investigate; 3) the loss of documents and unethical treatment by the FCC; and 4) the action to be tried without delay in the FCC at 30 McGill Street, Montreal, Quebec.

Canada continues to use its courts as a political weapon to allow its agents to abuse us with impunity. This case cannot be swept under the carpet of judicial chicanery.

Ieriwaonni & MNN Staff Mohawk Nation News http://www.mohawknationnews.com/ katenies20@yahoo.com kahentinetha2@yahoo.com Note: Your financial help is needed and appreciated. Please send your donations by check or money order to "MNN Mohawk Nation News", Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0. Nia:wen thank you very much. Go to MNN "BORDER" category for more stories; New MNN Books Available now! Purchase t-shirts, mugs and more at our CafePressStore http://www.cafepress.com/mohawknews; Subscribe to MNN for breaking news updates http://.mohawknationnews.com/news/subscription.php; Sign Women Title Holders petition! http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Iroquois
Cases FCC T-1309-08 and FCC T-288-09, Kahentinetha v. Queen.
POLITICAL, JUDICIAL & BUREAUCRATIC "DOUCE BAGS": Hon. Robert "Contemptible-flunkey-who-protects state-criminals-and-other-agents-of-repression" Nicholson, Minister of Justice & Attorney General of Canada, Tel: 613-941-6900, Nicholson.r@parl.gc.ca, Hon. John ""Judicial-hit-man" Sims, Deputy Attorney-General of Canada, Dept. of Justice, 284 Wellington St. TSA-6032, Ottawa Ontario K1A0H8 Tel: 613-946-2774, 613-992-3452, 613-942-4238, L. Bisson, Manager, Ministerial Correspondence Unit mcu@justice.gc.ca; Charles Payette 613-952-3653, Anil Kamal 613-943-2302 Fax: 613-952-6006; Federal Court of Canada, 30 McGill St., Montreal Quebec H2Y 3Z7 Tel: 1-800-927-5499, 514-283-4820, Prothonotary Mireille "Twisted-judicial-storm-trooping-gate-keeper-with-a-history-of-unconscionable-chicanery-against-Ongwehone" Tabib, Judge Francois "Rubber-stamping-petti-fogging-cheater" Lemieux; Sgt. J.L. Pettit, RCMP Headquarters, 1200 Vanier Parkway, Ottawa K1A 0R2 Tel: 613-993-7267 Fax: 613-993-0260; Louise Steele, Ontario Provincial Police, 777 Memorial Avenue, Orillia Ontario L3V 7V3 Tel: 705-329- 6051;
COLONIAL DOUCHE BAG PUPPETS: Phil Fontaine of the AFN is a partner in CBSA's Sustainable Development Strategy 2007-9; Chris Kealey, Canada Customs Excise, Immigration Taxation Board, CBSA Media Relations 613-991-5197; President CBSA 613-952-3200, 613-957-0612, CBSA-ASFC@Canada.gc.ca; National Aboriginal Initiative CHRC 204-983-2189 1-866-772-4880 info.com@chrc-ccdp.ca; Canada Customs Port of Entry at Cornwall Island Ontario; Quebec Human Rights presidence@cdpdj.gc.ca; Akwesasne Mohawk Police 613-575-2250 ex 2400; Mohawk Security at the border 613-932-5183, 613-575-2340; Lance Markel, District Director CBSA 613-930-3234, 613-991-1214; Brent Lefebvre, Investigator CBSA; Susan St. Clair, Canadian Human Rights Commission, 344 Slater, Ottawa 613-995-1151, 1-888-214-1090, 613-943-5188; CBSA National Spokesperson 613-957-6500; Quebec Media Relations CBSA 514-350-6130; Chief Mohawk Council Akwesasne 613-575-2250 nbenedict@akwesasne.ca; Minister Stockwell Day, Ottawa 613-995-4432; Melissa Leclair Communications Pub. Safety 613-991-2863.

Lipan Apache Targeted for More Abuse at Border

By Brenda Norrell
Narcosphere
Photo courtesy Margo Tamez

The US made new threats about the condemnation and seizure of Lipan Apache lands in Texas for the US/Mexico border wall, as the abuses of Indigenous Peoples in the borderzone continues unabated. President Obama continues the genocidal borderland policies of the Bush administration.

The Lipan Apache announcement came this week at the same time that a US Border Agent shot and killed a man, Solis Palma, 28, throwing rocks east of Douglas, Arizona. The practice of US Border Agents murdering rock throwers mirrors the genocidal practices of Israeli soldiers shooting rock throwers, including children, at the border of Palestine.

The Lipan Apache in Texas have been targeted for the seizure of their land, while wealthy white land owners in the Texas borderlands benefit from US white supremacist policy.

The Lipan Apache said, "Indigenous peoples along the Texas-Mexico border — more than many other impacted groups — are burdened in multiple ways and disproportionately on all border wall construction projects because their communities have already been consistently targeted for State violence, militarization, repression and dispossession as a matter of the normative policies of the neo-liberal and settler State.

"The ‘third world’ conditions of the Texas border communities are directly related to the structural violence which goes hand-in-hand with the the settler state and settler constitutionalism dominating the region’s violent race, gender, and class politics. The normalization of the Texas-Mexico border communities as 'sacrifice zones' is so deeply internalized within the consciousness of South Texas' white citizenry that the scale of the violence and injustice is invisible to them."

Margo Tamez, and her mother Eloisa Tamez, continue to fight the United States' condemnation and seizure of their lands for the US/Mexico border wall in federal court.

Eloisa Tamez said, “The health of our elders is severely threatened by this singling out of our small community — and our elders — in El Calaboz and the possibility of further dispossession.”

"Numerous experts debating and writing about this case agree that the border wall mega-project and continuous dispossessions against numerous traditional and poor communities disproportionately targets the most vulnerable. Texas’ border counties are the poorest in the nation. The wall currently stands on the No. 1 and No. 2 most impoverished counties in the entire U.S., according to the last five years census reports. Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr and Presidio counties are often analyzed and cross-compared to many developing nations -- globally," Lipan Apache said in a statement.

Read the entire statement:

http://lipanapachecommunitydefense.blogspot.com/

or

http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/01/indigenous-elders-singled-out-for-new.html

Indigenous Elders Singled Out for New Border Condemnations

Indigenous Elders Singled Out for New Round of Federal Condemnations on Texas-Mexico Border

January 5, 2010

Contacts:
Eloisa García Támez: Eloisa.Tamez1@gmail.com

Margo Tamez, sumalhepa.nde.defense@gmail.com
For Immediate Release

Lipan Apaches, Támez-Benavidez Stronghold on Texas-Mexico Border Singled Out for New Round of Federal Condemnations

Feds Want More Land to Put 'Holes' in Border Wall for Commercial Users:
Native American & Traditional Peoples' Lands Targeted for Surveys

Recently, a communication from Laura Cylke, Office of Congressional Affairs, Customs and Border Protection to Office of Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz stated, "We have not yet made a decision on whether to take any of Dr. Tamez’s land. If there is another way to allow other landowners access, we will try to accomplish it in that way; however, we haven’t yet identified another way.”

Eloisa Támez and her elderly relative, (Sr. Benavidez), have an active lawsuit against the United States and the Texas-Mexico Border Wall, which, last April 2009, sealed off the Indigenous and Traditional Peoples of El Calaboz from their lands, culture, and livelihoods on the south side of the wall. Tamez and Benavidez, who challenged the U.S. in a class action law suit, are currently awaiting notification of the new date of their 'compensation' jury trial, which has been postponed more than three times.

The extensively documented case, Eloisa G. Tamez, et al. Civil Action No.: 1:08-CV-0004 (United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas (Brownsville Division), has opened up new conceptual grounds about the contemporary challenges of states’ rights and human rights, and where these intersect with Indigenous peoples' rights to culture, environments, livelihoods, traditional ways of life and Peoplehood.

The lands in contestation have been held in continuity by Indigenous peoples prior to the Spanish colonization of northeast Mexico and Texas, and in 1749 were granted to the ancestors of Tamez and Benavidez. European legal traditions of granting lands collectively and individually to Native Americans has origins in 1526, when Hernán Cortéz granted encomiendas and hidalgos to Nahua and Tlaxcalteca peoples.

The tradition of granting lands to Indigenous peoples throughout Mexico’s northern states and the U.S. Southwest is a complex and entangled legal history between Native Americans on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border and the States, and often involving heated contestation when Native American rights to exist and to practice their laws, religions, and traditional organization are denied and threatened by the State em>especially when mega-development is an issue. In a previously published article, the Lipan Apache Women Defense has demonstrated that militarization, militarism, border walls, security technology, war contractors and dispossessing Indigenous peoples is big development for U.S.-based contractors. See 'Resources', below.

In the recent notification by the U.S. to Támez, it appears the U.S. government is considering the possibility of condemning more of her lands if she does not provide them entry to conduct more surveys. According to Cylke, the U.S. is seeking entry to “cure access” for land owners requesting commercial access to the levee and their lands on the south of the wall. Tamez, however, challenges this logic. “While it is true that access to the south side of the wall is important for many landowners, it is not rational that the government needs to possess more land on the levee—or beneath it—in order to open a hole in the wall. All they have to do is remove portions of what they constructed, not condemn more land to do so. The government is not being transparent. Condemn more lands to open the wall? Something is not right. I am refusing to allow them entry to my property for the 12 months they requested. If they want to open the wall, they should do so; the people need access to the titled lands on the south of the levee for their subsistence and livelihoods. However, the government should not require dispossessing individuals any further for that access to occur. The government and the contractors are targeting the Indigenous elders who have been most vocal in the exposure of the corruption which is at the foundation of the wall's construction. They are targeting us as a specific group. The government recently dismantled a large section of the wall down the road from El Calaboz at a locally well-known agricultural business. We feel at this time, given the history of this case and the history of non-transparency in all matters regarding the border wall construction, that we must stand firm.”

According to Margo Tamez, a Lipan Apache scholar at Washington State University, the U.S. may not have the final say if the Indigenous peoples are successful in gaining the ear of the Inter-American Commission/Organization of American States.

In October 2008, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of the American States (OAS) held its 133rd regular period of sessions. In this period, the IACHR/OAS read briefs and listened to testimony of the University of Texas Law Working Group, comprised of faculty and law students of the University of Texas Law School, with Margo Tamez, an impacted community member. In their formal statement, the IACHR/OAS Jurists responded: "The Commission received troubling information about the impact that the construction of a wall in Texas, along the U.S.-Mexico border, has on the human rights of area residents, in particular its discriminatory effects. The information received indicates that its construction would disproportionally affect people who are poor, with a low level of education, and generally of Mexican descent, as well as indigenous communities on both sides of the border."
(Available at: http://www.utexas.edu/law/academics/centers/humanrights/borderwall/analysis/iac-Press-Release-re-Hearing.pdf).

Texas-Mexico IAS/OAS Testimony at: http://lipanapachecommunitydefense.blogspot.com/2008/10/texas-mexico-border-wall-hearing-at.html

Indigenous peoples along the Texas-Mexico border—more than many other impacted groups—are burdened in multiple ways and disproportionately on all border wall construction projects because their communities have already been consistently targeted for State violence, militarization, repression and dispossession as a matter of the normative policies of the neo-liberal and settler State.

The ‘third world’ conditions of the Texas border communities are directly related to the structural violence which goes hand-in-hand with the the settler state and settler constitutionalism dominating the region’s violent race, gender, and class politics. The normalization of the Texas-Mexico border communities as 'sacrifice zones' is so deeply internalized within the consciousness of South Texas' white citizenry that the scale of the violence and injustice is invisible to them.

Many historians have anayzed Texas as a unique case in North American histories of genocide and ethnic cleansing, and the entrenched pockets of cultures of violence which sustain the creed of lawlessness. The idealogy of hatred which birthed the settler society and spawned South Texas' industrial corridors as the 'gateway' to Latin America is, as historian Gary Clayton Anderson stated, a culture where "Violence, especially against ethnic groups, had become economically institutionalized in Texas." In this cultural landscape, the promotion of lawlessness, turmoil, and opportunity collide, and 'South Texas', from Indigenous perspectives, was constructed as an excuse to develop, destroy and kill.

Tragically, today this consciousness has not evolved. Violence has become, as Anderson argues, "ingrained in Texas, especially in the southern counties." As in the past, today South Texas violence is laissez faire andfixed in an opportunistic manner--among governors, corporations, contractors, workers, congresspersons, commissioners, rangers, border patrols, and civil society. Indigenous peoples along the Texas border were already under extreme deprivation before the border wall--at alarming scales and at comparitive levels with many Third World nations and militarized conflict zones around the world. Fernando Romero-Lar cross-analyzed this border with the world's top conflict zones: North Korea-South Korea; Israel and Palestine; Morocco and Spain; South Africa; and the Golden Triangle. Romero-Lar found that this border topped the list of all conflict-industrial global militarized borders to qualify as a 'hyper-border.' (See report: "Texas Borderlands: Frontier of the Future (2009)")

The fundamental rights of Indigenous peoples are distorted in the normative Texas Creation Myth which traditionally views Indigenous peoples as less than human, servants, laborers, and 'the multitudes of surplus workers.' This construction of Indigenous peoples as 'Other' is a popularized stereotype which contorts white heroic masculinity through rationalized acts of genocide, extermination and structural violence against South & West Texas' and northern Mexico's aboriginal inhabitants.

Indigenous peoples' precarious access to critical First Foods (necessary for the repair of their dietary health), safe and potable water, safe housing, healthcare, education, jobs, transportation, and an environment free of gender violence and militarization has been overshadowed by the general society's pre-occupation with 'security' thinly masking the development objectives of NAFTA, the Security and Prosperity Partnership, and ongoing projects of the lucrative corporate war occupation to militarize our environments. Indigenous elders, while they contend with degrading and destructive harrassment and surveillance upon them as they go about their personal lives, cannot help but speak out against the erosion of rule of law and human rights as a daily reality in South Texas.

The occupied aspects of their lives is anything but natural--militarized occupation in South Texas and northern Mexico, funded with U.S. tax dollars, Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense, is socially and physically constructed by a Euro-American settler society which emigrated to the Texas border in the mid 19th century. Massive waves of Euro-ethnic emigrants and Anglos from the U.S. south appropriated Texas constitutionalized slavery as a normalized economic system of an expansion-prone, modernizing society. At its essence and most fundamental level, Texas embodies the principles of Liberal democracy and settler constitutionalism--based on a stratified society where Indigenous peoples, such as Apaches, Tlaxcaltecas, Coahuiltecs, Tiguas, Kikapoos, and Comanches, are viewed as 'enemies,' and exploitable as human battery packs energizing the dreamscape of the middle-class consumer.

Along the U.S. side of the Texas-Mexico border, the flavor of white America is most palpable on a one-on-one and up-close basis, as the Indigenous peoples witness, report and document their most fundamental human rights being further eroded. When they are not being followed by gangs of CBP patrol cars, U.S. helicopters, and government functionaries trampling through their lands unannounced, they are confronted with the new migrant workers imported to the region to consume the manly job of building the border wall.

With the new waves of Angl-American emigrants from states such as Nebraska and those incomes going out of state to households in the Mid-West, it seems as though the border wall is truly an import-export job. When the border wall was being constructed in Cameron County, community members reported that the increase in large vehicle (i.e. trucks) traffic on Hwy 281/Military Highway bearing license plates with NEBRASKA engraved upon them was obvious and noticeable. Government contractors tend to be loyal to their home districts and states, and Euro-American migrant workers from Nebraska importing a conspicuously Mid-Western consciousness of 'Indians' and 'Mexicans, i.e. savages/illegals' could be felt in the road and table manners of the Nebraska migrant workers exercising both militaristic and tourist-like behaviors with local Indigenous women--both on roads and restaurants, according to local witnesses. It seemed as though the daily work to build the wall included a conscious opportunistic will to exercise old-fashioned American masculinity and sexism upon the Indigenous women labor force.

Local communities are exposed daily to these ruptures and multiple others in their daily lives, from the perniciously benign forces of white privilege and racism to the most obvious obstructions to human rights of the wall itself. They bear witness to the criminality, dangerous behaviors, greed and thievery of the mega-wealthy--which is ironic--considering that the U.S. citizenry just endured one of the most severe economic depressions in a century.

These fixtures of violence in the heart of darkness continues to define and to mark Texas as a pernicious state within an outlaw State; an identity with a propensity for achieving 'public goals' exercised 'democratically' through violence against Indigenous peoples. In the whitestream, this violence generally goes unaddressed by the state, federal governments and U.S. civil society (who'd rather stay 'safe' in the boundaries of debating the progressiveness of 'Avatar' rather than hone in on the current ethnocides in the U.S. 'Congo'--South Texas.

This violent and negligent will to empire, from the perspective of many Indigenous elders along the Texas-Mexico border, must then be taken up at different levels of legal oversite. They are resolved that they will not be intimidated by the violent propensities of the settler society for Indigenous land, water, minerals and bodies which are the markers of mega-projects.

Mega-projects--such as the border wall--impede the Indigenous elders from accessing their ancestral medicine plants, their biologically diverse properties titled to their ancestors through Crown land grants and treaties, and their sacred burial sites such as cemeteries which align both sides of the border wall. Indigenous peoples’ genealogical ties to historical places along the border wall construction, such as rancherias, communal meeting places, religious sites, missions, pueblos, presidios, wildlife areas, and traditional subsistence areas throughout the Texas-Mexico border region are eroding every day as a result of the lack of access to the lands on the south side of the wall which are owned by Indigenous peoples.

Eloisa Támez, a vocal opponent to the wall, seeks secure and unharmed access to her lands on the south side of the wall. Támez has documented numerous important species of flora and fauna on her lands necessary for continuity of culture, and she watches over the sites of habitation of her ancestors due to the destructive methods of government contractors who destroyed portions of her properties vegetation during the construction of the wall. The Lipan Apaches, like the Kickapoo, Tigua, and numerous tribes in Arizona, argue that the racist politics which are the foundation of the border wall must be calculated as “irreparable damage.” She does not believe that the government’s new request for “curing access” should entail dispossessing her elders and her community from Indigenous rights and the protection of their human rights. The federal lawsuit documented the ancestral, genealogical ties of Tamez and Benavidez, and an important South Texas Lipan Apache band in the region, which are signatories on key treaties, accords, hidalgos, merceds and land grants with Spain, Mexico, Texas and the United States.

Margo Tamez, a scholar at Washington State University, notes, “By refusing this community’s requests for secure access to their lands and cultural properties—which are necessary to sustain their traditional subsistence vis-à-vis agrarian, pastoral livelihoods, traditional gatherings and religious practices— the U.S. is failing to protect their human rights under International Law. Negative consequences may be associated with the failure to do so.”

Eloisa Tamez, a strong proponent of the health of poor and traditional peoples of her community, restates her firm resolve. “The health of our elders is severely threatened by this singling out of our small community—and our elders—in El Calaboz and the possibility of further dispossession.” Numerous experts debating and writing about this case agree that the border wall mega-project and continuous dispossessions against numerous traditional and poor communities disproportionately targets the most vulnerable. Texas’ border counties are the poorest in the nation. The wall currently stands on the #1 and #2 most impoverished counties in the entire U.S., according to the last five years census reports. Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr and Presidio counties are often analyzed and cross-compared to many developing nations--globally.

Margo Tamez, who is also the founder of an Indigenous Peoples Organization at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, concurs with the community members. “We feel that Indigenous peoples’ human rights are being violated—and this serious concern explicitly involves the United States and state government representatives along the entire U.S.-Mexico border—on both sides of the border. Lipan Apaches have demonstrated their serious grievances against the violation of their human rights along with other Apache nations (San Carlos Apache Tribe) at the United Nations in the past two years. The international law forums are increasingly critical sites for Indigenous peoples divided by this border to seek out alternative partners, allies, and legal avenues to pursue reparations and their human rights against States which are violators.”

At the local level, the singling out of Indigenous elders is causing further injury and irreparable harm against future existences of Lipan Apaches and Traditional Peoples in the El Calaboz Ranchería. Their lifeways are threatened, and thus, so are Lipan Apache grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Indigenous children’s rights are increasingly taking on important visibility at the United Nations, where the U.S. has been taken to task for numerous violations against Indigenous children who live and work within its political borders. Eloisa Támez, in her on-going challenge to dispossession, is taking a firm stand for the rights of Indigenous children. She states, “This is for the children—ours and everyone’s. The government is possibly seeking to take possessory rights to the Earth beneath the levee. My grandparents would not have allowed that, and they actively fought against this in their time. This is an on-going struggle for Indigenous peoples. Those land cannot be taken from the Indigenous peoples, according to traditional beliefs. The Earth is not for taking."

Resources:

Gary Clayton Anderson, The Conquest of Texas: Ethnic Cleansing in the Promised Land, 1820-1875, (Normal: University of Oklahoma Press, 2005).

The University of Texas at Austin, School of Law & The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, "The Texas-Mexico Border Wall," at http://www.utexas.edu/law/academics/centers/humanrights/borderwall/law/lawsuits-government.html

Fernando Romero/Lar, Hyper-Border: The Contemporary U.S.-Mexico Border and Its Future, (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2008).

Margo Tamez, "The Texas-Mexico Border Wall Through the Eyes of Indigenous Communities in El Calaboz Rancheria," May 2008.
Excerpt:
The following is a list of corporate contractors involved in the building of the
Border wall in S. Texas.

Lockheed Martin
Texas Divisions of Raytheon (Network Centric Systems)
L-C Communications (Integrated Systems)
Northrup Grumman (Los Angeles, CA)
BAE Systems (Austin, TX)
SAIC of San Diego
Computer Sciences Corp of El Segundo, CA
America’s Border Security Group (Erriccson Inc, Plano, TX)
(NASDAQ: ERIKY)
Fluor Corporation (NYSEL:FLR)
SYColeman Corporation
MTC Technologies
CAMBER Corporation
AEP Networks, Inc.
Texas A & M University
University of Texas (Austin)
Boeing
Kellogg Brown & Root (Halliburton)
Secure Border Initiative Network
United Kingdom Home Office

Sources for the above:
PennWell. “Defense firms turn to border security.” Washington, 28, Dec. 2005.
“The government’s high-profile offensive to control the borders is spawning a growth market for the nations’s defense industry.” http://mae.pannet.com/Articles/Article_Display.cfm?ARTICLE_ID=244491&p=32 Accessed 11/20/07.

AEP Networks, America’s Border Security Group. “Ericcson’s AMerioca Border Security Group (ABSG) Offers Proven Effective Solution for U.S. Border Security.” http://www.aepnetworks.com/news/press_archive/release_06012006.htm
Accessed 11/20/07

Richey, Joseph. “Fencingthe Border: Boeing’s High-Tech Plan Falters.” July 9, 2007 http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14552. Accessed 11/20/07.;

“Software Glitches Delay Virtual Border Fence.” Newsmax.com. Tuesday, Ocotober 30, 2007. http://www.newsmax.com/us/virtual_border_fence/2007/10/30/45069.html Accessed 11/20/07.;

Riley, Michael. “Fortress America--Building a Border: Part 2.” Denver Post. 03/06/07 http://www.denverpost.com/fortressamerica/ci_5356695. Accessed 11/20/07.;

McLemore, David. “Border Residents fuming over fence plans.” June 26, 2007. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/062707dntex...Accessed 11/20/07;

Downing, Margaret. “Killing Fences: Totally Misconstrued.” Houston Press, May 31 2007. http://www.houstonpress.com/2007-05-31/news/killing-fences-totally-misconstrued

Accessed 11/20/07;

Richey, Joseph. “Border for Sale: Privitizing Immigration Control. July 5, 2006. http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13845&printsafe=1 Accessed 11/20/07;

PRNewswire. Garland, TX. “Raytheon Awarded Contract with U.K. Home Office for e-Borders Project.” November 14, 2007, http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/NEW03314112007-1.htm Accessed 11/20/07.

Survivors of Canadian Residential Schools Plan Civil Disruptions of BC Olympics

British Columbia Olympics to Face Civil Disruptions by Survivors of Canadian Indian Residential schools -
Government Given Deadline for Return of Bodies
By Hidden from History
http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org
VANCOUVER -- The group representing survivors of Indian residential schools on Canada's west coast announced today that it will hold civil disobedience actions and disruptions during the February 2010 Olympics near Vancouver if the Canadian government and mainline churches have not announced a timetable for the repatriation of the remains of the thousands of children who died in these schools.
The Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared (FRD), which held high-profile protests and occupations of churches in Vancouver and Toronto during 2007 and 2008 and compelled the Canadian government to issue an apology for the residential schools in July, 2008, has given Canada and the Roman Catholic, Anglican and United Church of Canada until February 15, 2010 to announce when and how they will return for a proper burial the remains of Indian children who died under their care.
Read article:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2010/01/survivors-of-canadian-residential.html

Video: Splitting the Sky: Attempted Citizen's Arrest of Bush

Splitting The Sky: Exposing The Bush-Cheney Cabal from Steve Poole on Vimeo.

If the video is choppy, click on HD and turn it off, or alternatively, view it here:

http://www.archive.org/details/SplittingTheSky-ExposingTheBush-cheneyCabalAsWarCriminals

Lehman Brightman 'Bureau of Caucasian Affairs'

JOIN THE BUREAU OF CAUCASIAN AFFAIRS- Promotion of International Understanding
To Unite All People Of Color
THE BUREAU OF CAUCASIAN AFFAIRS
United Native Americans is proud to announce that it has purchased the state of California from the whites and is throwing it open for Indian settlement.UNA bought California from three winos found wandering in San- Francisco. UNA decided the winos were the spokesmen for the white people of California. These winos promptly signed the treaty, which was written in the Lakota language, and sold California for three bottles of wine, one bottle of gin, and four cases of beer.Lehman L. Brightman, the Commissioner of Caucasian Affairs, has announced the following new policies: The Indians hereby give the whites four large reservations of ten acres each at the following locations: Death Valley, The Utah Salt Flats, The Badlands of South Dakota, and the Yukon in Alaska. These reservations shall belong to the whites 'for as long as the sun shines or the grass grows' (or until the Indians want it back.) Read more ...
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2010/01/lehman-brightman-bureau-of-caucasian.html

Socorro County NM: Uranium, DNA damage and mutations

Chernobyl, Iraq and Indian lands

Double click on NM map to enlarge

Censored News www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

As Navajos and Pueblos continue to fight new uranium mining, following decades of death and disease from Cold War uranium mines, new research reveals the extent that depleted uranium and uranium mining have, including altering DNA and mutations. Paul Zimmerman shares an article with Censored News which reveals the damage in Socorro, New Mexico, in the region of Pueblos and eastern Navajo lands. Socorro County is located downwind of a DU-weapons testing site at New Mexico Tech.

Paul Zimmerman: Uranium Weapons, Low-Level Radiation and Deformed Babies

"A dramatic increase in the number of babies born with birth defects was recently reported by doctors working in Falluja, Iraq [1]. One of the proposed causes for this alarming situation is radiation exposure to the population produced by uranium weapons."
"Something is deeply wrong with the current science of radiation safety. Given this, statements by the radiation protection community regarding the impossibility that low levels of uranium can cause birth defects are suspect. Numerous studies demonstrate that uranium produces a wide range of birth defects in experimental animals [20,26]. Further, numerous in vitro and in vivo studies conducted in the last twenty years have proven that uranium is genotoxic (capable of damaging DNA), cytotoxic (poisonous to cells), and mutagenic (capable of inducing mutations) [27]. These effects are produced either by uranium’s radioactivity or its chemistry or a synergistic interaction between the two. These findings lend plausibility to the idea that the observed increased incidence of deformed babies in Iraq is related to depleted uranium munitions [26]." Read article:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16726

Roberto Rodriguez: Decade of Fraud, Fear, Hate and Permanent War

The Decade of Fraud, Fear, Hate and Permanent War
by Roberto Rodriguez

" ... 9-11 became a clarion call for a fanatical crusade against Arabs/Muslims and a call for a permanent worldwide war: God Bless America.
Enter hate. Brown people became the enemy … with turbans. Brown people became the enemy in Afghanistan and then at home. And it didn’t matter what kind of brown people. They became both the enemy and the convenient scapegoat."
Read column:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2010/01/roberto-rodriguez-decade-of-fraud-fear.html
Photo: Roberto Rodriguez holding cross of migrant who died in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, during march from Tucson to San Xavier. Photo by Brenda Norrell.

CNN: Mouthpiece to Create Wars

If you want to know how wars are created, listen to CNN's broadcasts on Yemen. It is a textbook case of using propaganda to initiate a war. By using press releases from the US, based on the interests of corporations, CNN manipulates public opinion. There is no way to know what is fact, and what is a CIA black op. Of course, the rest of the mainstream media follows the same pattern. --Censored News

Chiapas/Zapatista News Summary

FELIZ AÑO! HAPPY NEW YEAR!
DECEMBER 2009 CHIAPAS/ZAPATISTA NEWS SUMMARY
By Chiapas Support Committee
Photo by Brenda Norrell: Marcos in Sonora, Mexico, with O'odham, near the Arizona border

.

1. 16 Years of Zapatista Resistance! - January 1 marked the 16th Anniversary of the 1994 Zapatista Uprising. The Zapatistas closed the five Caracoles to the public (both national and international) on December 30 with signs announcing that they would reopen after January 2, 2010. Meanwhile, the Mexican Army moved into Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of Chiapas, with 26 armored tanks and 600 additional soldiers, to "dissuade" any possible confrontations.
2. San Cristóbal Seminar in Honor of Andrés Aubry - On December 30 and 31 and January 1 and 2, an international seminar of reflection and analysis took place at Cideci in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. The 4-day gathering coincided with the publication of a book from the gathering 2 years ago in which the EZLN and some leading anticapitalist and antisystemic thinkers participated. It also coincided with the 16th Anniversary of the Zapatista Uprising, leading to much speculation about whether any Zapatistas would appear or participate in the seminar. That did not happen.
3. A New Cocopa Arrives in Chiapas - The Mexican Congress (federal) appointed a new Commission of Harmony and Pacification (Cocopa, for its initials in Spanish), as required by the 1995 law of the same name. Its legal mandate is to mediate between the federal government and the EZLN in a process of dialogue and negotiation to reach peace agreements. The new Cocopa is currently lodged in San Cristobal, trying to make contact with the EZLN. The commission did not explain why the EZLN should return to dialogue and negotiate with a government that failed to implement the first agreement it reached with the EZLN, known as the San Andres Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture.
4. Scathing Human Rights Criticisms of Mexico - Mexico came under scathing attack from 3 sources this month for its human rights abuses. On December 9, Amnesty International accused the federal government of being complicit in serious human rights abuses committed by the Mexican army, often under the guise of fighting drug trafficking. AI accused the government of inadequate responses and ineffective investigations at all levels, leading to a general climate of impunity among security forces. A recent AI study found that human rights abuses by the army tripled under the Calderon administration. On December 10, the Inter-American Human Rights Court accused Mexico of egregious human rights violations related to the femicides in Ciudad Juarez. Ruling on a case from 2001, the court found Mexico guilty of violating the most fundamental rights outlined in the Constitution, including the right to life, personal liberty, judicial protection and equal treatment. The wide-ranging decision ordered Mexico to repair the damages, fully investigate and process the crimes, sanction those responsible, and publicly recognize the state's international responsibility for its egregious failures.
On December 21, Alberto Brunori, representative of the United Nations' Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that cases of impunity almost always go hand in hand with smear campaigns designed to discredit denunciations of human rights abuse. He maintained that Chiapas is one of the states where there are serious cases of impunity and it is "difficult for humanitarian defenders to work," because of situations of insecurity and the smear campaigns against them. Brunori was in Chiapas to meet with government officials, campesino organizations and to attend the 12th commemoration of the Acteal Massacre.
5. The US Delivers 5 Helicopters to Mexico - Oblivious to the rampant human rights abuse by Mexico's security forces, the United States delivered 5 Bell-412 helicopters to Mexico's Secretary of Defense on December 15. John Brennan, an advisor to Barack Obama on internal security and counterterrorism, personally handed over title to the helicopters as part of the Merida Initiative (Plan Mexico) to help Mexico in its "War Against Drugs." Meanwhile, in Washington DC, the Senate was approving more money for Plan Mexico.
6. OCEZ Ends Its Protest on Cathedral Plaza - On Christmas Eve, as a result of negotiations with the Chiapas government, the Emiliano Zapata Campesino Organization (OCEZ) removed its sit-in on Cathedral Plaza in San Cristobal de las Casas. The Chiapas government agreed to legalize certain disputed lands occupied by OCEZ members and to study the possibility of legalizing others. It also agreed to give OCEZ 1,150,000 pesos for a number of "productive projects," with which its communities can start small businesses. Another meeting on the agrarian issues will take place on January 13, 2010. The state government also agreed to pay lifetime pensions to the widows of the two men killed in the accident that occurred while they were attempting to stop the detention of Jose Manuel Chema Hernandez Martinez. It also agreed to pay disability benefits to a man who was paralyzed as a result of that same accident, and to reimburse OCEZ for the truck that was in the accident and its expenses for maintaining the sit-in.
7. Chiapas State Congress Passes Anti-Abortion Law - The local Chiapas Congress approved the "Law of Responsible Paternity," which grants rights to persons from the moment of their conception, and revokes the penalty of prison against women that abort but imposes psychological treatment on them "to reaffirm the values of maternity." The legislation was approved over strong protest by women's rights organizations. The bill now goes to the 118 municipalities for approval as it involves a change to the state Constitution.
In Other Parts of Mexico...
1. Mexico City Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage - Gay activists in Mexico City received a Christmas present from Mexico City's Congress. It approved legislation granting same-sex couples the right to marry. The law sets a precedent in Mexico and will also give gay couples the right to adopt children. The law is scheduled to take effect in March. There is currently an intense backlash against the legislation led by the Catholic Church.
2. Charges Against APPO Member in Brad Will Murder Reversed - A district court judge in Oaxaca granted a protective order to Juan Manuel Martinez Moreno, an APPO member accused of the murder of Indymedia jounalist Brad Will. This means that Martinez Moreno will be released from prison if the Attorney Generak of the Republic does not appeal within the next ten days. The judge found a lack of evidence against the accused and absolved him of the crime.
3. Lack of Health Care Cited in Guerrero Deaths - The Guerrero Network of Civil Human Rights Organisms reported that 22 people died in an indigenous region of the state in the last two months because of a lack of adequate health care facilities. 46 communities do not have even a casa de salud and those that have one lack medicines. Clinics in the region do not have doctors or nurses 24-7, and some clinics completely lack doctors. This same situation is also found in rural Chiapas. It is one of the first problems the Zapatistas began to address and advance in. It is why the Chiapas Support Committee's Pharmacy Warehouse Project, and others like it, are so important. __________________________________________________
Compiled monthly by the Chiapas Support Committee.
The primary sources for our information are: La Jornada, Enlace Zapatista and the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba).
We encourage folks to distribute this information widely, but please include our name and contact information in the distribution. Gracias/Thanks.
-- Ofelia Uya Rivas
Solidarity in Dignified Rage
O'odham VOICE Against the WALL
O'odham Rights Cultural & Environmental Justice Coalition
http://www.solidarity-project.org/

Don't Look At This! CIA DRONE PROTEST

FACEBOOK DELETES INVITE TO CIA DRONE PROTEST
By Brenda Norrell, Censored News: http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

Cindy Sheehan said Facebook deleted an invitation to the CIA Drone Protest in Langley, Virginia, scheduled for Jan. 16, 2010. Sheehan said "the CIA is becoming overly involved in terrorizing populations." Sheehan joins a powerhouse of women activists to lead the CIA Drone Protest, including Cynthia McKinney, Ann Wright, Kathy Kelly and Debra Sweet.
"We had an event with over 250 confirmed guests and it was deleted by Facebook," Sheehan said. "We are going to the source of one of the big problems in the US Empire -- the CIA -- to protest its extra-judicial killings of people in Pakistan. We are against the use of UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) and manned aerial vehicles, but we believe that it is very dangerous that the CIA is becoming overly involved in terrorizing populations," Sheehan said.
The protest will focus on the civilian deaths from drones in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and the role of private contract mercenaries in the killing of civilians, carried out in the name of the US.
"Recently, it has been reported in mainstream media that the United States Central Intelligence Agency has been working in cooperation with Private Military Contractors (PMCs--also known as mercenaries) in waging secret operations in utilizing drone attacks. Under this veil of secrecy it can only be assumed that impunity for war crimes is being actively cultivated within the highest level of Department of Defense operations, via proxy by the Central Intelligence Agency (which then sub-contracts out the directives)" Sheehan said in a statement.
Meanwhile, at the US borders of Mexico and Canada, the US has expanded the use of dangerous and expensive drones. Even though a drone crashed near Nogales, Arizona, on April 25, 2006, the US has expanded drones at the borders without regard for the safety of people on the ground or the expense.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems is the latest profiteer in the border xenophobia business, with its new $13.5 million dollar drone, the US said in an announcement that the drones would also patrol off the coast of Florida beginning this month. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems also built the $6.5 million dollar drone that crashed near Nogales, a crash so loud that residents thought a bomb had exploded.
Earlier, the US announced that the drones (killing civilians and used for rogue assassinations, in Iraq and Afghanistan) were controlled by Airforce soldiers at Davis Monthan Airforce Base in Tucson. The announcement came at the same time that the FBI announced that so many military soldiers, police officers, prison guards, etc., wanted to smuggle cocaine for cash, that the FBI sting, Operation Lively Green, had to be shut down. Airforce officers were among about 100 military personnel, including high school military recruiters in Tucson, charged with smuggling cocaine from Nogales, Arizona, to Phoenix.
The Seattle Times, published a photo of the remote control killing computers in Tucson with this caption in December: "Members of the 214th Reconnaissance Group fly a Predator aircraft drone in support of ground troops in Iraq and Afghanistan from Davis-Monthan Air Base in Tucson, Ariz., earlier this year. The CIA's covert program uses drones over Pakistan." See photo and read more about remote controlled killing from Tucson: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2010420031_ciadrones04.html
Read more about military personnel arrested at the Arizona border for smuggling drugs: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=ie7&q=Operation+Lively+Green&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7TSHB_enUS341US341
FIRST PROTEST AGAINST CIA DRONE ATTACKS COMING TO LANGLEY, VIRGINIA
From Cindy Sheehan:
On January 16th, 2010 from 1 pm to 4 pm activists will descend upon the home of the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Virginia to protest the immoral, illegal, and inhumane use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs--also known as drones).
Speaking at this event will be:- Cindy Sheehan (world renowned U.S. anti-war/peace activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee)
- Cynthia McKinney (former six term member of the U.S. House of Representatives and former Green Party candidate for President of the United States)
- Ann Wright (retired United States Army colonel and retired official of the U.S. State Department, known for her outspoken opposition to the Iraq War. She is most noted for having been one of three State Department officials to publicly resign in direct protest of the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.)
- Kathy Kelly (U.S. peace activist, pacifist and author, a three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, one of the founding members of Voices in the Wilderness, and currently a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence)
- Debra Sweet (Brooklyn-based director of World Can't Wait)
- Bruce Gagnon (coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space)
- Joshua Smith (anti-war/peace activist, analyst and coordinator)
- David Rovics (musician)
By some reports the current implementation and planned operational expansion of the strike-capable drone programs in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan have to date yielded up to 33% civilian (non-combatant) deaths. To any sane and honorable person this statistic alone should prove that the "actionable intelligence" and robotic delivery vehicle do not yield a proper basis and/or method for credible attack. The primary and proven case against drone attacks is that they pose a public danger that can only be deemed as indiscriminate bombing. On the day of the event, activists will demand that the United States and its allies adhere to the protection of civilians (non-combatants) in international armed conflicts in accordance with the multiple existing conventions, protocols and customary international laws. These same activists will, of course, also demand an end to the wars and occupations currently under way and an immediate withdrawal of all troops and contractors.Drones operate in the theater of war by being fueled and maintained at airbases within their locale but which are remotely piloted via satellite connected ground control stations half-way around the world and from an environment disassociated with any human connection to reality of their actions. The psychological aspect of this endeavor will ultimately create a false sense that war is easier to condone, safer to conduct and more acceptable in U.S. public and political opinion to initiate.Recently, it has been reported in mainstream media that the United States Central Intelligence Agency has been working in cooperation with Private Military Contractors (PMCs--also known as "mercenaries") in waging secret operations in utilizing drone attacks. Under this veil secrecy it can only be assumed that impunity for war crimes is being actively cultivated within the highest level of Department of Defense operations via proxy by the Central Intelligence Agency (which then sub-contracts out the directives).The most well known drone is the propeller driven Predator A (MQ-1). This drone began as merely a streaming video reconnaissance tool but was soon armed with Hellfire missiles. The United States Military then upgraded the entire drone arsenal with what has become a an even more ruthless killer--the Predator B "Reaper" (MQ-9). With millions upon millions, of U.S. taxpayer funded dollars the Reaper became higher, faster and strong with increased size and fuel capacity, quicker engagement via a turbo-prop engine and a larger weapons payload/assortment. The Reaper is seemingly a "steroid raged monster" that cowardly stalks it's prey. The next evolution is the Predator C "Avenger" which will employ stealth design/materials, jet engine and highly advanced optics systems.Within the oration of the activists at this event the most frightening aspect of future drone programs will be explained and spelled out to attendees and to the press. The three most notable facts are (1) that drone programs currently under development will soon yield a series of UAV aircraft that will operate in a fully autonomous mode (meaning that no human will be controlling the craft remotely), (2) that the UAV program is destined to become the primary type of air power for the U.S. military which will also be tasked with the ability to carry out nuclear strikes, and (3) the use of drones will morph into rapid and various domestic roles as well (operating in, around and over cities of the United States)..Comment on Cindy Sheehan's Facebook page: Al Qaeda is based in Langley, Virginia.
President Obama orders drone attacks in Pakistan
President Obama orders drone attacks in Pakistan
Drone photos:
http://www.cindysheehanssoapbox.com/peacePage.html