Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

February 6, 2008

Longest Walk 2, walking and listening across America


Morning Star Gali
mstargali@gmail.com
Julie Hernandez
memma3@yahoo.com
www.longestwalk.org

30th Anniversary of Historic Native American Rights March Inspires “The Longest Walk 2”

Hundreds To Embark On 5 Month Walk from Alcatraz to Washington D.C. for Environmental Protection and Native American Rights

American Indian dignitaries, religious leaders, environmental, and union groups will hold events to begin the Longest Walk 2 on Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 11 -- 12. The trans-continental walk will call for environmental protection and support Native American rights.
More than 300 participants of the Longest Walk 2 will embark on a five-month journey on foot from San Francisco, arriving in Washington, D.C. on July 11, 2008.
American Indian Movement Co-founder Dennis J. Banks said, “From Alcatraz Island to Washington, D.C., through the elements of the seasons, we shall walk; nothing shall deter us from completing our mission: All Life is Sacred, Protect Mother Earth.”
The Longest Walk 2 follows two routes, northern and a southern routes that will cover more than 8,000 miles in total, stopping each evening in communities along the way.
People from all over the world are joining the walk with its peaceful and spiritual call to action to protect Mother Earth and defend Human Rights.
The Longest Walk 2 also marks the 30th anniversary of the original Longest Walk of 1978 that resulted in historic changes for Native Americans.
2008 Longest Walk 2 Commencement Events Schedule:
Monday, February 11th
4:30 a.m. Spiritual Gathering and Celebration of Indigenous Resistance at Alcatraz Island
This is a public event and members of the media are invited to respectfully attend and cover the ceremonies to initiate the Longest Walk 2.
12 Noon News Conference at University of California, Berkeley at Sproul Plaza
Upholding the Longest Walk 2’s mission, Native Tribes and Social Justice allies will rally together to demand Religious Freedom and Social Justice. Tribal officials, spiritual leaders, environmentalists, and concerned citizens will address religious freedom and federal law violations committed by the University of California.
Tuesday, February 12th
8:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. News Conference at Rumsey Indian Rancheria
Commencement ceremony with statements announcing we are coming to communities along the route to listen and include local issues along with desired action into The Longest Walk 2 Position Paper. It will be delivered in Washington D.C.
The Rumsey Indian Rancheria is located at 14455 Highway 16
Brooks, California.
12 Noon News Conference in Sacramento at the State Capitol
Official send-off for both routes of the walk. Speakers will address specific legislation issues impacting Native Americans and the Environment. The press conference will be held on the North-end of the Capitol Building.
For a complete itinerary, specific directions and additional information, please visit:www.longestwalk.org.

E-mails expose Arctic oil scam, scientific dissent suppressed


By Carol Goldberg
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)

Leaked E-Mails May Sink Arctic Offshore Lease Sales
Officials Scramble to Suppress Scientific Dissent over Bush Arctic Oil Initiative

WASHINGTON, DC - February 4 - The Interior Department is scrambling to stanch the flow of internal e-mails from its own scientists that undermine the legality of its aggressive offshore oil and gas lease sales in federal Arctic waters, according to correspondence released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The e-mails belie Bush administration claims that environmental risks were adequately considered prior to offering tracts in the Chukchi, Beaufort and Bering Seas for drilling.
During the past three weeks, PEER has released a series of internal e-mails from current and former Interior scientists raising troubling questions about how badly environmental assessments of Arctic offshore oil development were skewed. These e-mails have fueled two new lawsuits in the past week that threaten to stymie new lease sales and lend further support to ongoing litigation against earlier lease sales.
Read the gag order, and lawsuit against Interior regarding Freedom of Information and polar bear habitat:
http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=985

February 5, 2008

Spy towers aren't working, no kidding


By Brenda Norrell
Photos: US spy towers in Arivaca and on the Tohono O'odham Nation near the Arizona border.

ARIVACA, Ariz. -- It's time to party in Arivaca, so drag out the kites. Ooops, the kites aren't really necessary to confuse the radar, because the spy towers don't work.
Sorry folks, we know there were reports that we were safe in the hands of Homeland Security with all those new spy towers at the Arizona border. But guess what, there's a new report. They really don't work.
Of course the Bush Administration would like to waste millions more on this. I say they get some three-year olds, ten-year-olds tops, to check out their software and computers to find out what the problem is.
Did they really think coffee shop Wi-Fi and the Israeli spy cameras would work in those rugged desert canyons with fortress-like mountains on the Arizona border?
Well, we had a good time anyway, spying on the spy towers this summer.
Here's the latest in the never-ending series of articles: Spy towers don't work

SBInet hits software snag
By Alice Lipowicz
Published on February 5, 2008

Following testing that was supposed to be final, the Homeland Security Department has determined that it needs to develop better software and perform additional tests on the initial 28-mile segment of the SBInet border surveillance system, a department spokeswoman said.
On Dec. 10, the department’s Customs and Border Protection agency conditionally accepted from prime contractor Boeing Co. the “Project 28” initial segment of the Secure Border Initiative Network at the Arizona-Mexico border. Also on that date, agency officials said they would conduct 45 days of operational testing before final acceptance of that section.
But 57 days later, a department official has confirmed a second round of tests is being conducted ... The additional round of testing is the most recent glitch in getting the potentially $30 billion U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada border surveillance system up and running. Boeing was awarded the prime contract in September 2006 and began work on the $20 million initial task order for Project 28, installing towers, cameras, sensors and communications equipment ...
On Monday, Secretary Michael Chertoff said he is requesting $775 million for SBInet in fiscal 2009. The department also recently awarded a $64 million task order to Boeing to develop a common operational picture for SBInet. A common operational picture is a single, relevant display of information that can be used by more than one group.
.
In related news, the Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen was in court today, facing a lawsuit over Jeppesen's secret renditions, torture flights:

Russia tells US to tear down its Apartheid Border Wall


(Photo: San Diego border wall by Jay Johnson-Castro)
PRAVDA, Russia:
"After the trillions of dollars wasted in slaughtering hundreds of thousands of people around the globe, after failing in each and every one of his domestic and international policies, after insulting the noble precepts on which his country was built and after ensuring that he is the last Republican President for many years to come, George Bush prepares one last parting shot: a US-style Berlin Wall.
After two terms in office, it has become patently clear that George Bush neither respects international law, nor has any intention of pretending to abide by the fundamental precepts underlying international relations, having breached the Geneva Conventions, the UN Charter and numerous UN Resolutions in wanton acts of mass murder outside the borders of the United States of America."

February 4, 2008

Hated Nation: Federal courtroom becomes healing balm

By Brenda Norrell

TUCSON – The dialogue in a federal courtroom here evolved into a healing balm, revealing a nation, the United States, that the world has grown weary of, and a growing number of aging Americans willing to serve time in prison to expose the cancer within.
Torture was again on trial in federal court in Tucson Monday, Feb. 4. But in dialogue that surprised those that packed the courtroom, the healing remedy of grace and understanding were combined with wisdom and the spiritual foundation for a better world.
Two of the protesters of US torture arrived in court suffering from cold and sleep deprivation. Betsy Lamb and Franciscan Fr. Jerry Zawada, in prison awaiting trial, had spent the night in cold, bare holding cells. Those holding cells are where all inmates from the privately-run prisons in Florence wait all night before a court appearance.
Dressed in thin prison clothes in a cell without a bed, there is only a cold, stone floor to lie on.
Mary Burton Riseley, in a wheelchair and sick with the flu, appeared with fellow defendants Lamb and Fr. Zawada.
Read article:

Col. Ann Wright: Bush and Cheney are axis of evil

Singing all the way to prison, aging Americans go to prison to protest US torture

By Brenda Norrell
Human rights editor
U.N. OBSERVER & International Report

TUCSON – President Bush and his top advisors have violated international laws prohibiting torture and must be held accountable, Retired Army Col. Ann Wright told a gathering in Tucson.
It is the same style of torture that Carlos Mauricio suffered through in El Salvador in 1983. Mauricio’s torturers were trained by the US military who used the manuals of the U.S. School of the Americas.
Col. Wright and Mauricio spoke at the Festival of Hope on Feb. 3, as three more aging Americans, prepared for a hearing and possible prison sentences, following peaceful protests of the Army Intelligence Center at Fort Huachuca.
Exposing the secrets of torture, in solidarity with the poor and oppressed, prisoners of conscience arrived from throughout the United States to prepare for a court hearing in federal court here on Monday, Feb. 4.
Fr. Jerry Zawada and Betsy Lamb, both in prison in Florence awaiting trial, and Mary Burton Riseley, are charged with conspiracy, trespass and failure to obey an officer at Fort Huachuca in November.
Already in prison are two priests, Fr. Steve Kelly and Fr. Louis Vitale, for kneeling in prayer in protest of US torture at Fort Huachuca in Nov. 2006.
Mauricio began with these words, “My story belongs to many El Salvadorans.”
Read article ...
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/02/col-ann-wright-says-bush-and-cheney-are.html