Hitler's Blueprint: Indian reservations and US genocide

Dine' and Apache children in the prison of Fort Sumner, N.M. during Longest Walk

Starvation and cold at the prison camp of Fort Sumner, New Mexico
after the Longest Walk

Apartheid and the Holocaust: 

Genocide of American Indians

From the Censored News archives, the words of Russell Means and Louise Benally, first published in 2014. Operation Paper Clip is one of the least reported U.S. spy operations. A second U.S. spy operation, Operation Chaos, targeted Russell Means, the American Indian Movement, and their supporters in other countries. A third spy operation, at the Denver, Colorado Police Dept., spied on AIM, resisters at Big Mountain, supporters of Leonard Peltier, attorneys, grandmothers, and many others. Then, in 2014, the Stratfor files were exposed, revealing private spying on Mohawks, the Cochabamba Mother Earth conference and more. These files also revealed Native American involvement with the U.S. Fusion Centers. While much has been written about COINTELPRO, much less has been written about these other spy operations. Ultimately, Wikileaks and The Intercept further exposed the U.S. and private corporation spying. -- Censored News
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
Nov. 2014
Updated Aug. 30, 2019

Russell Means spoke a great deal about how Hitler used the genocide of American Indians -- starvation on long walks, and slow death on reservations -- as a blueprint for the Holocaust. Russell's words often focused on Dineh and the Long Walk to the prison of Bosque Redondo in Fort Sumner, N.M.

Trump's Monster: Bulldozers Now Ripping Through Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Trump's Monster Border Wall: Catastrophic to Endangered Species and Precious Water in Sonoran Desert: Bulldozers Now Ripping Through Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument
Located east of Lukeville, Arizona, and near the western border of the Tohono O'odham Nation.

Screenshots by Censored News of video at Organ Pipe by Center for Biological Diversity.

Watch video below:
Center for Biological Diversity

ALERT: Trump’s wall is being built through Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Bulldozers are ripping a scar through the most spectacular Sonoran desert ecosystem on the planet. Endangered species, Native American sacred sites and protected wilderness are under immediate threat.

More:
The UK Independent: Trump's plan to detain migrant children indefinitely while denying them vaccines is ethnic cleansing in plain sight.

Below: High Country News: 'Where wildlife is up against a wall'
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Democracy Now! Trump Ordered Aides to Speed Up Border Wall Construction, Promising Pardons for Illegal Acts

Trump Ordered Aides to Speed Up Border Wall Construction, Promising Pardons for Illegal Acts

HEADLINEAUG 28, 2019

Democracy Now!
In other immigration news, The Washington Post is reporting President Trump has ordered his staff to speed up the construction of his border wall before the 2020 election — even if it means breaking the law. Trump reportedly told aides he will pardon them if they face any legal repercussions related to the request, which could including seizing private land, expediting billions of dollars of construction contracts and ignoring environmental regulations. Trump reportedly dismissed concerns over the implications of circumventing appropriate procedures, including by using eminent domain, telling staffers to just “take the land”.
More at Democracy Now:
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/8/28/headlines/trump_ordered_aides_to_speed_up_border_wall_construction_promising_pardons_for_illegal_acts

Big Mountain: Standing with Mauna Kea and celebrating end of dirty coal monsters

Photo by Ethan Sing

Standing Strong
'Great gathering for resistors at the Benally stronghold marking the occasion of the Black Mesa strip mine and Navajo Generating Station power plant closure and planning for more victories for people land and wilderness in the Americas and solidarity with other blossoming struggles like Mauna Kea and all other indigenous-led movements to fight the devastation of the Trump nightmare.' -- August 2019, Photographer Ethan Sing

Article by Brenda Norrell
Censored News

Louise Benally of Big Mountain in among Censored News Revolutionary Native Women Writers. Louise spoke out against the bombing of Iraq on the day it was bombed by the United States, comparing it to the atrocities of the Dine' walking, suffering and dying on the Longest Walk to imprisonment. Louise remembered her ancestors at Fort Sumner, Bosque Redondo.

Indian Country Today censored Louise's voice and refused to publish a retraction. Louise continues to resist relocation at Big Mountain, orchestrated by Peabody Coal, energy barons, and politicians. Read about Revolutionary Native Women Writers at Censored News: https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2018/08/revolutionary-native-women-writers.html
Uncensored: Louise remembers her ancestors and the Longest Walk when Iraq is bombed: Censored by Indian Country Today: http://bsnorrell.tripod.com/id78.html
Louise described the endless struggle against relocation, Peabody Coal and livestock seizures. Now, there is no rain, the food is not coming back, and windmills are dry. Louise spoke during the Dine' CARE, Dine' Citizens against Ruining our Environment, gathering at Dilkon on the Navajo Nation in 2018.
During decades of struggle, the traditional Hopi have joined the Dine' of Big Mountain resisting relocation. They all realize that Peabody Coal's relocation is a land grab, a land grab for coal to make electricity for other people, other places.
During an interview at Dine' CARE's Peoples Convention -- with Dine' CARE celebrating 30 years of protecting environment -- Louise described the resistance to colonization and mining since the 1960s at Big Mountain on Black Mesa.
Speaking with Spirit Resistance Radio, Louise said in 1968 Peabody Coal came in and began developing the land for coal resource extraction to make electricity for other people, not Navajos.
"So the rest of the U.S. would have electricity and water at their pleasure," Louise said.
The legislation was drafted in 1974 that called for the relocation of more than 10,000 Navajos and over 200 Hopis.
The U.S. drew lines without the consent of local communities.
"My community decided not to move," Louise said.
Big Mountain teamed up with traditional Hopi and opposed it, and knew it was just a land grab.
"Most of my elders are no longer here."
Louise said people talk about Dine' of Black Mesa in the past tense, but they are still there.
"We are still here. We continue to live our way of life."
"We continue to practice our traditional ways of oneness with nature."
Louise said they struggle and do everything they can to get this land grab reversed.
Louise said Navajo Generating Station near Page might close in 2019.

"We are hoping it will," she said, adding that it is time for solar to replace coal-fired power plants.
The whole Four Corners has oil and gas wells, coal mining, and there are seven power plants in the region. All this is causing a lot of greenhouse gasses, she said.
"We're impacted, we have a lot of health issues," Louise said, describing the toxins and contaminated waters.
"A lot of people lost their lives struggling against these different diseases and toxifications of the air, water, and the environment."
"There are no regulations on these coal-fired power plants."
Now, there is the drought.
"We had no winter in 2017," Louise said, adding that there was very little rain.
"The land is basically dying."
"We don't have green grass."
It is devastating. Our food didn't come back. We hope and pray that they will shut these coal-fired power plants down."
The struggle has been endless.
Joining the gathering at Dine' CARE, Louise said they are all practitioners of the old ways, and it doesn't matter what label people wear.
"We have to unify and stand together in the best way we can."
The water table has dropped, and the aquifer is not providing enough water for the windmills.
The water around Peabody Coal is contaminated, and the people are hauling their water from there.
Louise said Dine' could dig into the ravines at Big Mountain when she was a child, and by morning there would be water coming out.
But that doesn't happen anymore.
The water has been drained in the aquifer for the electricity that is now going to southern Arizona.
"The drought is so severe, and there is no water in some of these windmills."
"Water is life, everything requires water to live."
She said the corporations want all of the water, there is no conversation about leaving water for the people.
"People don't want to know the reality," Louise said, explaining that Dine' people are not fully involved in the conversation about what is happening, and the discussion of water for the future, 20 or 30 years from now.
Louise lives 15 miles from the coal mine, and she has no electricity, no power, and because they are resisting, they have no social services from the Navajo Nation, the U.S. government or anyone else.
"They are trying to starve us out."
Now Hopi rangers are "stealing our animals." That is the peoples' food, she said.
"We are not allowed to grow food. We have so many laws stacked against us."
Louise encouraged people to come out. She said she can be messaged on Facebook, Louise Benally.
Louise said there are many needs and people can help. She needs a vehicle to haul water, and windows for her home.
Her root cellar roof collapsed because Hopi rangers drove over it.
There is currently a resistance camp that people can come to.
Describing how the Navajo Nation government is an arm of the U.S. federal government, Louise said the Navajo Nation government "is in bed" with the corporations, signing away the resources with leases.
"We are saying 'No.'"
Because of this resistance, the Navajo Nation government "doesn't want to do anything for us."
"They are an entity of the federal government."
Traditional Dine' are land-based people and are different from the Navajo Nation government, which is an entity of the U.S. federal government, she said.
The IRA Indian governments are what has always been working with the corporations to sign the energy leases.
And United States' taxpayer dollars are making these corporate deals possible, she said.
In conclusion, Louise said, "Pray for us to have rains."

Navajo Water Contamination more Horrific than Flint's -- By Brenda Norrell, Censored News

Navajo water has long been contaminated by Peabody Coal mining on Black Mesa, Cold War uranium spills and strewn radioactive tailings.
Recently, the US EPA poisoned the Animas and San Juan Rivers with a gold mine spill. The spill devastated Navajo farmers who depend on the water to irrigate their crops.
Further, the U.S. government knew when it relocated Navajos from Black Mesa to the Sanders, Arizona, area that radiation from the Church Rock, N.M. uranium spill on July 16, 1979, would poison the water when it flowed down the Rio Puerco wash to the Navajo Nation and Arizona communities near Flagstaff.
Today, tests confirm the radioactivity in the drinking water in the Sanders area, at the Navajo Nation's southern border.
In the Four Corners region on the Navajo Nation, three dirty coal-fired power plants poison the water with runoffs, one near Page, Arizona, and two near Farmington, N.M.
The dirty coal electricity lights up Phoenix, Tucson and other cities. Meanwhile, Navajos suffer from coal mining and power plant pollution. Many Navajos have no running water and are forced to haul their water long distances.
The media, both in Indian Country and the mainstream media, have failed to expose the truth.
The public remains unaware of the extensive pollution and corporate exploitation on the Navajo Nation.
From Robert Seals:
"My name is Robert Seals. I have been following the Flint, Michigan water crisis story and wish to shine a light on another water contamination story that is much older and just as horrific as Flint's.
"The Navajo Black Mesa water supply has, for decades, been destroyed by Peabody Mining Company. The wells have been drained to make a slurry in order to pipeline coal and the remaining water supply is contaminated with uranium which is now leaching into the Colorado River."

"This is the short version of the little known story that desperately needs to be told. There has been no potable water on the reservation for decades. When a city like Flint is in crisis, everyone gets agitated/involved. However, there is no one talking about the tragic situation that has been taking place on the Navajo Black Mesa and no one is being held accountable for this travesty. The spokesperson for Black Mesa is Louise Benally. She will give you the complete story."
(louisebenally6@gmail.com)
Here is a brief statement from Louise: "Our water has been impacted since the 1950s on to today. When different minerals were discovered on the Navajo Reservation in the 1940s-1950- through to this day (now 2016), groundwater has been used to extract uranium."
"The ground and surface waters have been used and released back into holding ponds and/or released into the surface waters. Coal Mining on Black Mesa used water to transport coal for 276 miles and continued pumping groundwater for pushing Black Mesa Coal to Laughlin, Nevada. Today there are holding ponds that are not monitored at Black Mesa which seep into the runoffs/into the surface waterways- headwaters.
"There is a lot of contamination on our reservation, in most of the regions, including New Lands in Sanders, Arizona. There is no water that is safe for people to drink."
"In the western agency area, there has been no safe drinking water since the 1950s, after the uranium companies moved on. Black Mesa water is being pumped for Peabody Coal Company's mining operation. The contamination is currently seeping into the Colorado River."
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2016/01/navajo-water-contamination-more.html







Copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News, may not be used without permission.




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Quitobaquito Springs -- Border Wall Construction Destroying Sacred and Fragile Sonoran Desert Ecosystem

Photos above copyright by the photographer

 Quitobaquito Springs

              By Brenda Norrell
               Censored News

Quitobaquito is a rare oasis in the desert that supplies life-sustaining water to many animal species, as shown here. This Sonoyta mud turtle is found nowhere else in the world. Nearby, as shown below, border wall construction has already started near Lukeville, Arizona.
Trump is using diverted military funds to build this monster, the border wall, and has eliminated all laws protecting endangered and sacred places and species. In this fragile Sonoran Desert, it is a crime against nature, a crime against all life forms.
These expensive pieces of a border wall -- between the long border stretch from east Texas to the California coast -- are targeting the most fragile regions, and will only serve to push migrants into more deadly zones. Instead of halting immigration, these pieces of the border wall will be no more than a symbol of white nationalism and destruction.
Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham who lives on the border nearby on the Tohono O'odham Nation, asked, "Where are the Water Protectors?"
"Sources say each foot of border wall will require 2 cubic yards of concrete. A yard of the concrete takes 39 gallons of water. This means each mile of wall = 411,840 gallons of water," Rivas told Censored News.
As the monster construction is ongoing nearby, the photographer, a border resident, explained that the border vehicle barrier, shown in the top photo, is already in place and the enormous wall is not needed here, in this fragile zone.
"The vehicle barrier seen in the background allows wildlife to move freely across the southern border in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. It keeps vehicles from driving across the border that could be very damaging to the sensitive environment."
Arizona Republic Raphael Carranza photos below: Trump uses diverted military funds to build border wall near Lukeville, Arizona, this week.

SAVING THE SONOYTA MUD TURTLE
The Center for Biological Diversity said, "The Sonoyta mud turtle has evolved as an aquatic species in one of the driest parts of the Sonoran Desert. With webbed feet and an innate ability to swim, this turtle depends heavily on what little water remains in the Southwest. The easiest way to identify a Sonoyta mud turtle is by its location since it's the only turtle inhabiting its very small range. The U.S. population has been reduced to a single reservoir within the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, named Quitobaquito Springs. In Mexico, these turtles inhabit a couple of small, still-flowing sections of the Rio Sonoyta."
Among the rare creatures found at Quiobaquito Springs is the endangered pupfish.
"The largest body of water at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is Quitobaquito springs and pond, home to the Quitobaquito pupfish," writes Wild Sonora.
"The cultural significance of the Quitobaquito area dates to approximately 11,000 B.P. (before present)."The pond is the home of the Quitobaquito spring snail, the Sonoyta mud turtle, and the desert caper plant. This is the only spot in the United States where these species can be found naturally occurring," the National Park Service said.
"The desert caper supports the caper butterfly (ascia Howarthi) that is only found coexisting with the plant. The Quitobaquito spring snails are so small that they are hard to find."
"You can sometimes spot the snail, about the size of a grain of black pepper, in the spring-fed streams serving the pond. Quitobaquito is also the only place where the Sonoyta mud turtle is found in the United States and has been deemed a candidate for protection under the Endangered Species Act."

Call and/or write your Congressional Representatives and Senators and ask them
1. To stop the funding for this wall.
2. To repeal section 102 of the Real ID Act that dismisses decades of protective environmental, public health, and safety laws passed by congress.
FYI - Section 102 of the Real ID Act of 2005 waives 28 environmental and other laws (listed below) during a national emergency or under a threat of a terrorist attack. Since #45 declared an emergency at the border in order to get funding for the wall, the builders do not have to abide by laws that are required by all other types of construction.
Laws waived...

1)The National Environmental Policy Act

2)The Endangered Species Act

3)The Clean Water Act

4)The National Historic Preservation Act

5)The Migratory Bird Treaty Act

6)The Migratory Bird Conservation Act

7)The Clean Air Act

8)The Archeological Resources Protection Act

9)The Paleontological Resources Preservation Act

10)The Federal Cave Resources Protection Act

11)The Safe Drinking Water Act

12)The Noise Control Act

13)The Solid Waste Disposal Act

14)The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act

15)The Archaeological and Historic Preservation Act

16)The Antiquities Act

17)The Historic Sites, Buildings, and Antiquities Act

18)The Farmland Protection Policy Act

19)The Coastal Zone Management Act

20)The Federal Land Policy and Management Act

21)The National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act

22)The National Fish and Wildlife Act

23)The Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act

24)The Administrative Procedure Act

25)The River and Harbors Act

26)The Eagle Protection Act

27)The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act

28The American Indian Religious Freedom Act



Organ Pipe nature photos: copyright by photographer, published with permission at Censored News

Monsters Arrive to Destroy Sonoran Desert for Border Wall -- Trucks Arrive for Organ Pipe Destruction in Arizona

Trump quickly gave the border wall contract at Organ Pipe to
Southwest Valley Contractors of New Mexico, who arrived this week
to begin the destruction of the fragile Sonoran Desert.

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Construction vehicles and staged panels for the border wall along a two-mile stretch of the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, near Lukeville, Arizona about 110 miles southwest of Tucson, Aug. 20.
Photos above and below provided to Tucson Sentinel.

Trump's Grotesque Behavior Now Has Border Wildlife and Endangered Species in Imminent Danger

Article by Brenda Norrell
Censored News
Updated Wednesday

LUKEVILLE, Arizona -- The trucks arrived to destroy the pristine Sonoran Desert at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument to build Trump's border wall.
Trump quickly gave the $646 million contract to Southwest Valley Constructors, a company in New Mexico.
All laws protecting the wild things and endangered species have been smashed. The area is adjacent to the western side of the Tohono O'odham Nation and near Ajo, Arizona.
The Tucson Sentinel reported today of the work that has started and the concern for Organ Pipe Cactus National  Monument, located west of Lukeville, Arizona.
Laiken Jordahl, a spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity, said that there was also heavy construction machinery near Quitobaquito Spring, a natural spring in Organ Pipe that is home to a few unique species, and that this was "extremely concerning."

Sonoyta mud turtle

The endangered pupfish has no one to protect it.

Organ Pipe area has a cultural history of at least 11,000 years.

Among the rare creatures found here is the endangered pupfish.

"The largest body of water at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is Quitobaquito springs and pond, home to the Quitobaquito pupfish," writes Wild Sonora.

"The cultural significance of the Quitobaquito area dates to approximately 11,000 B.P. (before present)."The pond is the home of the Quitobaquito spring snail, the Sonoyta mud turtle and the desert caper plant.This is the only spot in the United States where these species can be found naturally occurring," the National Park Service said.

"The desert caper supports the caper butterfly (ascia Howarthi) that is only found coexisting with the plant. The Quitobaquito spring snails are so small that they are hard to find."

"You can sometimes spot the snail, about the size of a grain of black pepper, in the spring-fed streams serving the pond. Quitobaquito is also the only place where the Sonoyta mud turtle is found in the United States and has been deemed a candidate for protection under the Endangered Species Act."

Phoenix New Times reports, "When the Department of Homeland Security announced in May that it planned to build the wall, it offered few details other than that it would be a wall of concrete-filled steel bollard, 18 to 30 feet high and four inches apart. The bollards would sit atop a cement foundation about 10 feet deep and eight inches to a foot wide.
"It gave other agencies and individuals until July 5 to submit public comments on its vague plans, but nevertheless awarded a $646 million contract to Southwest Valley Constructors, a New Mexican company, in mid-May to build the wall. Jordahl took this timing as a sign that the department had no plans to consider the comments anyway."
Tucson Sentinel reports that on May 15, the Defense Department officials also announced that BFBC LLC, out of Bozeman, Montana would receive more than $141 million to design and build similar projects in the El Centro Sector near El Centro, California, and in the Yuma Sector, which straddles the Colorado River and includes parts of California and Yuma County.
The project is expected to be completed by Jan. 31, 2020. 
Border wall construction is also underway farther to the west on the Arizona border, near the California border in Yuma, Arizona. This construction targets the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge.
At Cabeza Prieta, the endangered Sonoran Pronghorn migrate from Arizona to Sonora, Mexico. The proposed border wall will halt its migrations. Already, the Pronghorn are bombed at the Goldwater Bombing Range and few have survived.
In southern Arizona, three jaguars have been spotted and identified, and the border wall construction will destroy their remote and wild habitat.
The border wall construction proposed is only pieces of a border wall between California and Texas, and will cause irreparable harm to endangered species in the fragile Sonoran Desert.
The Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson has filed an injunction to halt the work and destruction.

Injunction Sought to Halt Trump’s Wall in Arizona

Bulldozers Aimed at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, San Pedro River

By Center for Biological Diversity

WASHINGTON— Conservation groups today asked a federal court to block construction of President Donald Trump’s border wall through protected wilderness in Arizona until a judge rules on a pending lawsuit.
Today’s motion for a preliminary injunction, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., involves the groups’ July lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s waiver of dozens of environmental and public health laws to speed border-wall construction in Arizona.
“It’s senseless to let bulldozers rip a permanent scar through our borderlands’ wildlife refuges and national monuments before the court decides whether the waiver is legal,” said Jean Su, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity.
“Trump’s ignoring laws and diverting funds to build this destructive border wall. His grotesque barrier would destroy some of the border’s most spectacular and biologically diverse places. We’ll do everything in our power to stop that.”
If the preliminary injunction is granted, wall construction would be blocked until U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson rules on the merits of the underlying lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s waiver authority.
A recent Supreme Court ruling lifted an injunction in a separate case involving Trump’s use of military funds to build the border wall, allowing construction to proceed in Arizona, Texas, and California. Without action from Judge Jackson, wall construction in Arizona could begin later this month.
“Every American should be outraged that the border wall in Arizona will be built across some of our most iconic national wildlife refuges and national parklands,” said Bryan Bird, the southwest representative for Defenders of Wildlife. “If the wall is constructed through these spectacular landscapes it will disrupt migration for animals like the Mexican gray wolf, the jaguar, the Sonoran pronghorn, and the bighorn sheep. It will tear through lands so precious that Congress chose to protect them for all American’s posterity and enjoyment. Defenders will continue to fight to stop this abuse.”
The lawsuit says the Department of Homeland Security lacks authority to waive the Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act and other laws that protect clean air, clean water, public lands and wildlife in the borderlands.
The department wants to sweep aside these laws to speed construction of border walls through the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area, Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge, Coronado National Memorial and numerous designated wilderness areas. The bollard-style barriers will block wildlife migration, damage ecosystems and harm border communities.
“These most recent waivers of vital environmental and animal-protection laws demonstrate the administration’s continued disregard for wildlife, including the most fragile species that could be pushed to extinction by these projects,” said Animal Legal Defense Fund Executive Director Stephen Wells. “Building a wall that cuts through the heart of vital federally protected forests, wildlife refuges and conservation areas will have devastating effects on these critical areas and the wildlife that calls these areas their home, which is why we are asking the court to immediately enjoin these border wall-related projects.”
The Center and allies have sued to challenge Trump’s emergency declaration, which would fund this border-wall construction. The Center’s first border-related lawsuit ― filed in 2017 in U.S. District Court in Tucson with U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva ― seeks to require the Trump administration to do a detailed analysis of the environmental impacts of its border-enforcement program. All of these suits are pending.
A 2017 study by the Center identified more than 90 endangered or threatened species that would be threatened by wall construction along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border.
Beyond jeopardizing wildlife, endangered species and public lands, the U.S.-Mexico border wall is part of a larger strategy of ongoing border militarization that damages human rights, civil liberties, native lands, local businesses and international relations. The border wall impedes the natural migrations of people and wildlife that are essential to healthy diversity.

August 6, 2019

Contact:

Jean Su, Center for Biological Diversity, (415) 770-3187, jsu@biologicaldiversity.org Jake Bleich, Defenders of Wildlife, (202) 772-3208, jbleich@defenders.org Natalia Lima, Animal Legal Defense Fund, (201) 679-7088, nlima@aldf.org

Study: Trump's Border Wall Threatens 93 Endangered Species

Jaguars, Wolves, Owls Among Those in Harm's Way

By Center for Biological Diversity

TUCSON, Ariz.— President Trump's border wall threatens 93 endangered and threatened species, including jaguars, ocelots, Mexican gray wolves and cactus ferruginous pygmy owls, according to a new study by the Center for Biological Diversity.

The study also found that 25 threatened or endangered species have designated “critical habitat” on the border, including more than 2 million acres within 50 miles of the border.

“Trump's border wall is a disaster for people and wildlife alike,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center. “It could drive magnificent species like the jaguar and ocelot to extinction in the United States.”

The new study identified all threatened, endangered and “candidate” species (those being considered for protection) that have ranges near or crossing the border. These include 57 endangered species, 24 threatened species, 10 species under consideration for protection and two species of concern, golden and bald eagles. Construction of Trump's 1,200-mile wall — along with related infrastructure and enforcement — will have far-reaching consequences for wildlife, including cutting off migration corridors, reducing genetic diversity, destroying habitat, and adding vehicles, noise and lights to vast stretches of the wild borderlands.

“The border wall won't be effective at stopping people seeking a better life from getting to this country, but it will destroy habitat and divide wildlife populations,” Greenwald said. “Building a wall across the entirety of the border would cause massive damage to one of the most biologically diverse regions in North America and would be a boondoggle of the highest order.”

The sections of the border wall that have already been built have had a range of negative effects on wildlife, including direct destruction of thousands of acres of habitat, indirect impacts from noise and light pollution, and division of cross-border wildlife populations like bighorn sheep and jaguars. The border wall would cut through the Cabeza Prieta, Buenos Aires, and several other national wildlife refuges, along with Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Big Bend National Park and many other natural areas that, besides acting as corridors for wildlife, are national treasures.

Last month the Center and Congressman Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), the ranking member of the House Committee on Natural Resources, sued the Trump administration over the proposed border wall and other border security measures, calling on federal agencies to conduct an in-depth investigation of the proposal's environmental impacts.

The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, is the first targeting the Trump administration's plan to vastly expand and militarize the U.S.-Mexico border, including the construction of a “great wall.”

Three wild jaguars have been spotted in southern Arizona and this is one of them. The endangered jaguar, once protected by the U.S. Endangered Species Act, has no one to protect it, as Trump slashes all protections to build a border wall as a symbol of white nationalism and hate.

The Fastest Land Mammal in North America
The endangered Sonoran Pronghorn migrate across the so-called border between Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. Now, Trump's border wall could halt their migrations. The Pronghorn have already been bombed in the Goldwater Bombing Range. Few Pronghorn have survived.

The Sonoran Desert Bighorn Sheep is one of the most majestic creatures. Its habitat is now being destroyed by a madman intent on building pieces of a border wall as a symbol of xenophobia and white nationalism in the U.S.

Article copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News

Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration Attack on Endangered Species Act

Endangered Red Fox

Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration Attack on Endangered Species Act

Environmental Groups Head to Court Over Trump-Bernhardt’s Extinction Plan

By Center for Biological Diversity

Censored News

August 21, 2019

WASHINGTON— Environmental and animal protection groups today sued the Trump administration over its new regulations that dramatically weaken the Endangered Species Act.

Earthjustice filed the lawsuit on behalf of Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, National Parks Conservation Association, WildEarth Guardians, and the Humane Society of the United States.

Whistleblower just exposed North Dakota spill on par with Exxon Valdez -- Desmog Blog

Whistleblower just exposed North Dakota spill on par with Exxon Valdez

Did North Dakota Regulators Hide an Oil and Gas Industry Spill Larger Than Exxon Valdez?
By Justin Nobel • Monday, August 19, 2019
Desmog Blog

Update: North Dakota admits the spill, after exposure by DeSmog Blog

In July 2015 workers at the Garden Creek I Gas Processing Plant, in Watford City, North Dakota, noticed a leak in a pipeline and reported a spill to the North Dakota Department of Health that remains officially listed as 10 gallons, the size of two bottled water delivery jugs. But a whistle-blower has revealed to DeSmog the incident is actually on par with the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, which released roughly 11 million gallons of thick crude."

Read the article in Desmog blog here.

Timeline by Censored News: DAPL, the spill, and the resistance

DAPL: "The $3.78 billion project was announced to the public in June 2014, and informational hearings for landowners took place between August 2014 and January 2015," states Wikipedia.

Federal documents show that the DAPL permit process began at the US Department of Energy in the spring of 2014, as reported by Censored News. Shortly after this, President Obama visited Standing Rock in June of 2014.

This concealed North Dakota major spill was in 2015.

Water protectors arrived at Standing Rock in 2016.

On March 20, 2016, we received this message at Censored News: "Dakota Access owned by Energy Transfer is out on land in violation of section 106 and direct violation of historic preservation laws and NEPA laws and a whole host of other laws across the river by Cannonball right now... it's 3:pm CST on Sunday, March 20... let EVERYONE KNOW!!!! They did not contact the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe THPO OFFICE or other tribes!" 

On March 30, 2016, we posted this statement below. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2016/03/standing-rock-spirit-camp-to-block.html
And everyone knows the rest of the story.