Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

November 23, 2011

Homeland Security pitches new spy towers at Tohono O'odham



New spy towers pitched for sovereign Tohono O'odham Nation, after billion dollar boondoggle
Copyright by Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

TOHONO O'ODHAM NATION -- (Nov. 23, 2011) The US Homeland Security is now pitching new spy towers to the Tohono O'odham, after Homeland Security wasted billions on the last boondoggle of Arizona spy towers that did not function.
Previously on the Arizona/Mexico border, Homeland Security's Secure Border Initiative spy towers were pointed at the people of the community in locations like Arivaca and not at the border.
Photo copyright Brenda Norrell
US spy tower on Tohono
O'odham land 2007.
Those spy towers, including one on the Tohono O'odham Nation south of Sells, Arizona (shown below) were fashioned after Israeli's Apartheid Wall. Those spy towers were built by Boeing and the Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems.
Then, Homeland Security announced in Jan. 2011, the replacement of the previous boondoggle SBInet with the Alternative Southwest Border Technology. It also referred to as Arizona Border Surveillance Technology.
Homeland Security is now presenting new spy towers, shown below, to Tohono O'odham districts for approval.

The Tohono O'odham elected government has been able to censor the media by not allowing outside journalists into Tohono O'odham Legislative Council sessions.
The Tohono O'odham elected government also controls the movement of mainstream media when it attempts to cover news stories on the Tohono O'odham Nation.
The elected Tohono O'odham government spoonfeeds the mainstream media and the result is public relations hype published in newspapers who are sometimes considered credible, like the Los Angeles Times and New York Times.
Tohono O'odham activists who attempt to protest the Tohono O'odham government, which has been coopted by US Homeland Security and Border Patrol, are followed and threatened by US Border Patrol agents and Tohono O'odham police.
News reporters who attempt to cover the real story, and grassroots Tohono O'odham who speak out against the US surveillance on sovereign Indian land, are also stalked, detained and threatened by US Border Patrol agents.
Border Patrol spy camera focused on Tohono
O'odham home, on sovereign Tohono O'odham Nation
The US Border Patrol continues to spy on Tohono O'odham families with spy cameras mounted on US Border Patrol trucks on sovereign Tohono O'odham land, as shown here. The US Border Patrol continues to harass and assault Tohono O'odham, as docu
mented by human rights organizations in Arizona.
As for media spin doctors, Los Angeles Times now has a news story out on the "Indian Shadow Wolves" trackers. But as one Tohono O'odham woman in Sel
ls said, "If they are such good trackers, why haven't they found even one O'odham in the desert."
The Shadow Wolves hype is spoonfed to mainstream media to make it appear like the Tohono O'odham are still in control of law enforcement on the Tohono O'odham Nation, when it is actually the US.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano canceled the virtual fence along the U.S. border with Mexico in January. Napolitano cited technical problems, cost overruns and schedule delays since its inception in 2005.
The Secure Border Initiative-network, a high-tech surveillance system, has so far cost taxpayers almost $1 billion for two regions in Arizona, covering just 53 miles overall on the 2,000-mile border, according to Homeland Security reports.
Copyright Brenda Norrell. Please contact brendanorrell@gmail.com for permission to repost this article or photos.
Updates at Censored News: http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

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