Photos by Andrew Ironshell, Lakota
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Photos by Andrew Ironshell, Lakota.
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
April 10, 2014
SEATTLE -- Native Americans joined protests today in solidarity with hunger strikers in detention centers. Natives Americans protested both at Homeland Security's ICE headquarters and at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, pressing the Gates to divest in private prisons.
"The Original Homeland Security counted coup on Barack's Homeland Security in solidarity of our brothers on hunger strike in detention centers. Pray for all Red Nation families of this hemisphere,” Andrew Ironshell said.
Gates is a stockholder in both GEO private prisons and G4S global security.
Bill Gates is one of the top shareholders in the notorious prison profiteer G4S. See G4S shareholder info:
http://www.g4s.com/en/Investors/Investor%20Relations%20Information/Major%20Shareholdings/
G4S has been charged with torture and abuse in prisons around the world. A young Palestinian father died from torture in an Israeli prison operated by G4S
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/young-palestinian-dad-died-israeli-torture-forensic-expert-says
G4S is the same company that has the buses snaking along the Arizona border searching for migrants to transport into detention. The Arizona border contractor was formerly Wackenhut. However, Wackenhut split into two companies for maximum profiteering from human misery, one with the US border transportation contract now under G4S, and the other is a separate corporation GEO private prisons.
G4S is among those included in the Boycott Israel campaign for abuse of Palestinians.
http://boycottisrael.info/aggregator/sources/1
Why would Bill Gates want to invest in private prisons? Because there is big money now in security and private prisons, especially prisons which torture Palestinians and others living in border communities around the world.
Corporate profiteers from human misery
Meanwhile, Wackenhut was previously security for Peabody Coal on Black Mesa, and part of the oppression of Navajos forced into relocation to clear out Black Mesa for Peabody’s coal mines on Black Mesa.
As always, follow the money, and the contracts.
The Israeli Apartheid contractor Elbit Systems is another one. The US Homeland Security just gave Elbit Systems, an Israeli defense contractor, the huge southern US border contract. So the Israeli spies are now building the US spy towers on sovereign Tohono O'odham land. O'odham human rights activists say this is only possible because the Tohono O'odham government is corrupt and co-opted by the US government.
There's a lot of US hoopla about the US economy recovering, but these mega contracts are not going to US companies. G4S is London/Belgium based, and Elbit is an Israeli company. The foreign corporations all have sub-offices in the US.
BrightSource, another Israeli corporation, built the mega solar project recently in the California desert. The Obama administration used it as an example of a recovering US economy. Meanwhile, there were celebrations is Israel over getting the US contracts.
The Ho-Chunk, owners of the indianz.com website, also just received a huge US spy contract with the Pentagon. http://siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/state-department-awards-ho-chunk-division-million-contract/article_20a58d37-5aae-52c3-8043-b492a1878e64.html
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| The Wackenhut bus earlier at Three Points, Ariz., on the border of Tohono O'odham land, transporting migrants into detention, under US Homeland Security contract. The buses are now labeled G4S, and part of the notorious global corporation charged around the world with abuse and torture of inmates and detainees. Photo Brenda Norrell |
Article copyright Brenda Norrell
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Petition: Tell Bill Gates to divest from Israel’s torture of Palestinians!
| British private security company G4S helps the Israeli government to run prisons at which Palestinian political prisoners are detained. Right now, there are more than 5,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails, including 183 children. Human rights organisations have documented widespread torture, including of children, and Palestinians are often held without trial indefinitely. Inside the prisons, Palestinian political prisoners suffer from severe overcrowding, insufficient quality and quantity of food, medical neglect, isolation, and regular attacks from Israeli Special Forces. G4S is at the heart of this system, installing and running security systems at Israeli jails. In June 2013, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the largest private foundation in the world, purchased shares in G4S worth $172m, making it one of the company’s biggest shareholders. The Gates Foundation says that it is “guided by the belief that every life has equal value” and that it uses its investments to fund projects that “help all people lead healthy, productive lives”. But through its holdings in G4S, the Gates Foundation is legitimising and profiting from Israel’s use of torture, mass incarceration and arbitrary arrest to discourage Palestinians from opposing Israel’s apartheid policies. Last February, the Israeli military arrested Palestinian student Arafat Jaradat. Arafat was tortured in the Al Jalameh interrogation centre, where G4S installed and maintains the security systems. Just seven days after his arrest, he was found dead in a cell in another prison that G4S helps to run with three broken ribs, severe bruising all over his body and blood in his nose and mouth. He left behind a pregnant wife and two children. By working so directly in support of Israel’s prison system, G4S is complicit in Israel’s violations of the Geneva Convention, Article 76 of which prohibits the transfer of prisoners from occupied territory into the territory of the occupier. G4S also provides security for Ofer Military Court in the West Bank, the sole purpose of which is to imprison Palestinians, including hundreds of children and human rights defenders each year. Israel’s military courts have a conviction rate of over 99 per cent and serve an important element in maintaining Israel’s occupation. All across the world, universities, banks, charities and trade unions have cut links with G4S because of their role in Israel’s abhorrent prison system. With a personal wealth of $76 billion dollars, Bill Gates was just named the richest man in the world. Surely his foundation can afford not to invest in grave human rights abuses? Tell Bill Gates to divest now! More info: http://www.addameer.org/etemplate.php?id=670 #StopG4S |
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