Death by police and COINTELPRO: UN Reviews US Human Rights Violations on Monday

United Nations hears US human rights violation on Monday: Death by police, theft of Indigenous children, coal and uranium mining cancer alleys, border migrant abuse, unjust imprisonment, spying, torture and assassinations

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

English and Dutch

http://webtv.un.org/

The United States human rights violations will be reviewed on May 11, 2015, before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. The murder of unarmed blacks by police officers, COINTELPRO, and freedom for Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu Jamal, are on the agenda.

Racial discrimination and unjust imprisonment top the list of human rights violations by the United States. The seizure of Indigenous children from their homes, and death by environmental pollution, particularly for Native Americans in the Southwest, are included in the United States human rights atrocities. 

The fact that the US continues to fund Israel, while Israel carries out Apartheid in Palestine, is in the human rights violations. As expected, the US has already attempted to defend its record on spying, torture and targeted assassinations.

Taking the lead, the US Human Rights Network, in its statement for the upcoming Universal Periodic Review on Monday, calls for the release of political prisoners Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu Jamal.

"More than 20 racial and social justice activists and human rights defenders languish in prisons throughout the U.S. These political prisoners are COINTELPRO/Civil Rights Eraxxvi activists who were persecuted because of their political beliefs and activities. They are now indigent, aging, infirmed, and entitled to immediate relief. UPR Recommendations 92.94, 92.153 and 92.154 call on the U.S. government to “end the discrimination against persons of African descent;' and to 'release all of its political prisoners…including Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu Jamal.”

The US Human Rights Network points out the environmental racism, which has resulted in widespread death for the poor in the US. The example is New Mexico, where coal-fired power plants, uranium mining and atomic testing poison the region, and target both Native American and Chicano communities. Coal-fired power plants and uranium mining poison the Navajo Nation, while the Pueblos have been scarred with the legacy of death from both uranium mining and atomic testing.

The Human Rights Network states, "Throughout the U.S., communities of color and Indigenous Peoples are disproportionately exposed to environmental pollution. In New Mexico for example, they suffer disproportionate health impacts - primarily cancer - from pollution caused by industrial and extractive activities (including uranium mining and processing), yet many are denied effective legal recourse."

On the issue of global human rights, the US Human Rights Network points out that the US continues to fund Israel, in the face of Israel's ongoing human rights atrocities in Palestine.

"Since 2010, Israel is, by far, the largest recipient of U.S. foreign military assistance. Providing military assistance to Israel in the face of longstanding impunity for human rights crimes represents an ongoing failure of the U.S. to fully implement International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and accountability measures required under the U.S. Leahy Laws." Read the full report of the US Human Rights Network: http://www.ushrnetwork.org/sites/ushrnetwork.org/files/upr_exec_summary_of_stakeholder_reports.pdf

US State Department glosses over violations

Meanwhile, in what Russell Means, Lakota, often called "another dog and pony show," the US State Department has already submitted a statement glossing over its human rights violations.

In the US State Dept. response, there is no mention of the United States drone assassinations. The US has little to say in its own defense about spying on its citizens (which the US Appeals Court has just ruled illegal) or spying on the world's leaders and citizens.

As for the US response concerning its own spying, if it were not tragic, it would be laughable.

The US State Dept. response is brief: "See general comments. We collect information about our citizens only in accordance with U.S. law and international obligations."

The US State Dept. actually denies its own assassination programs, which has been well-documented by former CIA agents and whistleblowers. The US responds in its statement:

Recommendation 142: Halt selective assassinations committed by contractors, and the privatization of conflicts with the use of private military companies.

U.S. position: See general comments. Our contractors are not authorized to engage in direct hostilities or offensive operations or to commit assassinations. Like U.S. government personnel, contractors may only use force consistent with our international and domestic legal obligations. We have expressed support for the International Code of Conduct for Private Security Service Providers.

As expected, the US State Dept. denies it has violated the Geneva Conventions by carrying out widespread torture, disappearances and targeted assassinations. Further, the US denies its role in the ongoing abuse of migrants at the borders and prison-for-profit schemes involving migrants. The US assumes no responsibility in the militarization of the US border, or confesses that US Homeland Security selected Israel's defense contractor Elbit Systems to build spy towers on the Arizona border this year, including on the Tohono O'odham Nation.

Read the US State Department's full statement for the Review: http://www.state.gov/j/drl/upr/2015/237250.htm

UN High Commissioner lists some violations of Indigenous rights

Meanwhile, in its summary for the upcoming Review, the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights has listed US human rights violations -- as stated by what the UN refers to as "stakeholders."

The children who never came home
Carlisle Indian School, Penn.
Photo by Brenda Norrell

The removal of Indigenous children from their homes is among the current human rights violations listed. This follows generations of abuse, torture and murder of Native American children who were kidnapped by US agents and forced into US boarding schools, leaving behind missing children, fractured families and generations of trauma. The boarding schools also militarized Native children, resulting in Natives joining the US armed forces in large numbers and serving in the same US military force responsible for the widespread genocide of Native Americans.

Currently the seizure of Native American children from their homes and families by social services and other US agents, in violation of law, is being fought by Lakotas in the Dakotas and other Native Americans throughout the US.

In its report, the High Commissioner states: "JS10 stated that indigenous children are removed from their families and communities at disproportionate rates as compared to other children and once removed they often suffer psychological, economic and cultural harms."

One of the crimes largely ignored by the media in the US is medical research targeting people of color without their knowledge. What type of research was Johns Hopkins carrying out at Fort Defiance PHS hospital in Arizona, and elsewhere, all those years? Many of the Navajos who went there did not speak English and trusted the doctors and translators to make decisions for them. Johns Hopkins is being sued for infecting Guatemalans with STDs.

Also, has Indian Health Service been collecting DNA without American Indian patients knowledge? (A Native youth was recognized for her achievement in creating a DNA kit for IHS.) 

The facts are known that Indian Health Service systematically sterilized American Indian women in the US, many in the 1970s, as documented by Censored News in this video interview with Jean Whitehorse, Dine', at the AIM West gathering. Extensive investigations are now revealing how Native children in Canada in boarding schools were secretly used in medical and psychological experiments. Less is known about those experiments in US boarding schools and hospitals. Video interview with Jean Whitehorse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26-QlIGhXcE

In the High Commissioner's report on the United States, some of the human rights violations of "Minorities and indigenous peoples" are listed.

JS46 stated that Alaska and Hawaii were each a state of peoples recognized under the law of nations and international law as nations, claiming self-determination and self governance. According to JS46, the US submitted misleading reports to cloak the violations of the Charter of the United Nations and international law.250 87. While acknowledging the efforts made by the Government in recent years to advance the rights of indigenous peoples, JS5 noted with deep concern that indigenous peoples, including American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian peoples, still face significant challenges that are related to historical discrimination, acts of oppression, and inadequate government policies.251 JS5 recommended the Government to adopt measures to effectively protect sacred areas of indigenous peoples against environmental exploitation and degradation. 252 JS19 made similar recommendations.253 88. JS48 requested that the UPR Working Group recommend that the US fully implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples without seeking to diminish the inherent rights of Indigenous Peoples to, inter alia, self-determination, free, prior and informed consent, rights to traditionally owned, occupied and used lands, territories and resources, cultural rights and sacred areas.254 JS44 made similar remarks and recommended protecting cultural landscapes and sacred areas of indigenous peoples and A/HRC/WG.6/22/USA/3 11 ensure that consultations are held with the communities affected by development projects and exploitation of natural resources.255 JS42 made a similar recommendation.256 89. JS26 stated that the principle of free, prior and informed consent relating to indigenous peoples must be central to domestic and foreign policy. Sacred sites must be protected across the country.257 90. JS40 stressed that the reclamation of traditional lands and natural resources is a primary goal for the Nipmuc Nation and the Chappaquiddick Wampanoag Tribe. 258 Tribal members are continually challenged in their right to hunt and fish without license. Some cases have resulted in arrests of tribal members.259 WSNC recommended that the Government respond to WSNC requests for negotiation on treaty and land rights.260 91. JS48 indicated that the US continues to make unilateral decisions to extract resources (gold, uranium, coal, timber, water, etc.), and to carry out development projects with devastating impacts on the sacred areas, including waters and other resources. 261 92. JS48 requested that the UPR WG recommend that the US reconsider its rejection, in its first UPR review, of recommendation 92.154262 regarding the end of the incarceration of the Indian activist Leonard Peltier. 263 93. JS42 asked the UPR WG to recommend that the US engage in peace processes with Indigenous Peoples by providing safe access to land, water and education, and safety from violence. 264

Besides the United States, the Human Rights Council will also review human rights in Belarus, Liberia, Malawi, Mongolia, Panama, Maldives, Andorra, Bulgaria, Honduras, Marshall Islands, Croatia, Jamaica and Libya during the session, which is the 22nd session, May 4 -- 15, 2015.

Read the UN High Commissioners full statement: http://www.ushrnetwork.org/sites/ushrnetwork.org/files/summary_of_stakeholders_information_usa_upr_2015.pdf

Also see: Hungry Aboriginal children used in bureaucrats experiments in Canada:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/hungry-aboriginal-people-used-in-bureaucrats-experiments-1.1317051


NOTE: Please forward additional statements submitted to the UN, for publication in Censored News to: brendanorrell@gmail.com

Dutch translation by Alice Holemans, NAIS

Home » Nieuws » * DOOD DOOR POLITIE EN COINTELPRO: VN ZAL SCHENDINGEN VAN MENSENRECHTEN BEOORDELEN.

* DOOD DOOR POLITIE EN COINTELPRO : VN ZAL VS SCHENDINGEN VAN MENSENRECHTEN BEOORDELEN

 Verenigde Naties horen VS mensenrechtenschendingen op maandag: Dood door politie, diefstal van inheemse kinderen, kolen en uranium mijnbouw –kankers, mishandelingen van migranten aan de grens, onrechtvaardige opsluitingen, spionage en moorden.

Door Brenda Norrell, Censored News:http://bsnorrell.blogspot.be/2015/05/death-by-police-and-cointelpro-un.html

Vertaald door NAIS: www.denaisgazet.be

De mensenrechtenschendingen door de VS zullen op maandag 11 mei 2015 beoordeeld worden door de Verenigde Naties in Genève. De moord van ongewapende zwarten door politieagenten, COINTELPRO, en vrijlating van Leonard Peltier en Mumia Abu Jamal, staan op het agenda.

Rassendiscriminatie en onrechtvaardige opsluitingen kronen de lijst van schendingen tegen mensenrechten gepleegd door de Verenigde Staten.

Het wegnemen van inheemse kinderen, en dood door vervuiling van het milieu, in het bijzonder voor Native Amerikanen in het Zuidwesten, maken ook deel uit van de wreedheden tegen mensenrechten.

Het feit dat de VS doorgaat met het financieren van Israël, terwijl Israël openlijk Apartheid voert in Palestina, is een schending van mensenrechten.

Zoals te verwachten was heeft de VS reeds een poging gedaan om zijn dossier over spionage, folteringen en doelgerichte moorden te verdedigen.

Het US Human Rights Network zal maandag de spits af bijten met zijn verklaring voor de komende ‘Periodic Review’ over de roep tot vrijlating van politieke gevangenen Leonard Peltier en Mumia Abu Jamal.

“ Meer dan 20 raciale en sociale activisten voor rechtvaardigheid en mensenrechten kwijnen weg in de VS gevangenissen. Deze politieke gevangenen zijn COINTELPRO/Civil Rights Eraxxvi activisten die werden vervolgd voor hun politieke overtuiging en activiteiten.

Nu zijn zij behoeftig, oud, ziek, en hebben zij recht op onmiddellijke vrijlating.

UPR Recommendations 92.94, 92.153 and 92.154 roept de VS regering op om een einde te maken aan de” discriminatie tegen personen van Afrikaanse afkomst; en al zijn politieke gevangenen, waaronder Leonard Peltier en Mumia Abu Jamal, vrij te laten.”

Het US Human Rights Network wijst op het milieu racisme, dat resulteerde in wijdverspreide sterfgevallen bij de armen in de VS.

Het voorbeeld is New Mexico, waar door kolenaangevoerde elektriciteitscentrales, uraniumontginningen en kernproeven het gebied vergiftigen, en zowel de Native Amerikaanse als de Chicano gemeenschappen bedreigen.

Kolenaangevoerde elektriciteitscentrales en uraniummijnen vergiftigen de Navajo Natie, terwijl de Pueblo’s getekend zijn met de erfenis van sterfgevallen door uraniummijnen en kernproeven.

Het Human Rights Network stelt: “Doorheen de Verenigde Staten zijn gekleurde gemeenschappen en inheemse volken onevenredig blootgesteld aan milieuvervuiling. In New Mexico bijvoorbeeld, zijn er onevenredige gevolgen voor de volksgezondheid- voornamelijk kanker- door pollutie veroorzaakt door industriële en extractive activiteiten (inbegrepen uraniumontginningen en verwerkingen), maar velen worden effectieve juridische bijstand geweigerd.”

Over de kwestie van mondiale mensenrechten, wijst het US Human Rights Network erop dat de VS Israël blijven financieren, ondanks de wreedheden tegen mensenrechten in Palestina.

“ Sinds 2010 is Israël veruit de grootste ontvanger van VS buitenlandse militaire assistentie. Het militaire assistentie verlenen aan Israël, gelet op de langdurende straffeloosheid voor zijn misdaden tegen de mensheid,geeft het falen van de VS weer om volledig de ‘International Humanitarian Law’ (IHL) te implementeren en aansprakelijkheidmaatregelen vereist onder de US Leahy Laws”

Lees het volledige verslag van het Human Right Network hier, ‘Engels):http://www.ushrnetwork.org/sites/ushrnetwork.org/files/upr_exec_summary_of_stakeholder_reports.pdf

Ondertussen, in wat Russel Means, Lakota, meermaals “een andere hond en pony show” noemde, heeft de VS reeds een verklaring, die zijn mensenrechtenschendingen mooi met een laag vernis bedekt heeft, ingediend.

In de verklaring van het VS State Dept wordt met geen woord gerept over de drone- moorden. De VS kon niet veel aanvoeren tot zijn eigen verdediging over spionage op zijn burgers ( wat het beroepshof van de VS net als onwettig verklaard had), of het bespioneren van de leiders en burgers van de wereld.

Moest het antwoord van de Vs betreffende zijn eigen spionage niet zo tragisch zijn, zou het lachwekkend zijn.

Het antwoord van het VS State Dept is kort: “ Zie algemene opmerkingen. Wij verzamelen enkel informatie over onze burgers in overeenstemming met de VS wet en internationale verplichtingen.”

Het US State Dept. ontkent daadwerkelijk zijn eigen moord- programma’s, die wel degelijk gedocumenteerd werden door voormalige CIA agenten en klokkenluiders.

Het VS antwoord in zijn verklaring: “ Recommendation 142: Halt aan selectieve moorden uitgevoerd door opdrachtnemers, en de privatisering van conflicten door het gebruik van private militaire bedrijven.

US positie: Zie algemene opmerkingen. Onze aannemers zijn niet gemachtigd om zich te mengen in directe vijandelijkheden of offensieve operaties of om moorden te plegen. Zoals het VS personeel mogen aannemers enkel macht gebruiken wanneer het consistent is met onze internationale en binnenlandse wettelijke verplichtingen. Wij hebben onze steun uitgesproken voor de Internationale gedragscode voor private Security Service Providers.”

Zoals te verwachten was, ontkende het VS State Dept. dat ze de conventie van Genève heeft geschonden door het uitvoeren van wijdverspreide folteringen, verdwijningen en doelgerichte moorden.

Verder ontkent de VS zijn rol in de voortdurende mishandelingen van migranten aan de grenzen en ‘gevangenis -voor winst- systemen’ ten koste van de migranten.

De VS neemt geen aansprakelijkheid aan in het militariseren van de VS grens, of geeft toe dat US Homeland Security dit jaar Israël’ s ‘defense contractor Elbit Systems uitgekozen heeft om spionnentorens te bouwen op de grens van Arizona, spionnentorens die ook gericht staan op de Tohono O’odham Nation.

Lees de volledige verklaring van het US State Dept hier, (Engels):http://www.state.gov/j/drl/upr/2015/237250.htm

Ondertussen heeft de UN High Commissioner voor mensenrechten in zijn samenvatting voor de komende beoordeling, de schendingen van mensenrechten door de VS opgelijst.

Het verwijderen van inheemse kinderen uit hun families is opgenomen in de lijst van mensenrechtenschendingen.

Deze volgen op generatielange mishandelingen, folteringen en vermoorden van Native Amerikaanse kinderen die ontvoerd werden door VS agenten en in VS kostscholen gedwongen werden, verdwenen kinderen, gebroken families en generaties van trauma achterlatend.

De UN Hihg Commissioner zegt: “JS10 stelt dat inheemse kinderen weggenomen werden van hun families en gemeenschappen in onevenredige getallen in vergelijking met andere kinderen, en eens weggenomen psychologische, economische en culturele schade ondergingen.”

Sommige van de mensenrechtenschendingen van ‘Minderheden en inheemse volken’ worden opgelijst in het rapport van de High Commissioner.

JS46 stelt dat Alaska en Hawaii erkend werden als naties onder de wet van naties en international law; die aanspraak maakten op zelfbeschikking en zelfbestuur.

Volgens JS46 diende de VS misleidende rapporten in om de schendingen van de ‘Charter of the United Nations en International Law250 87’ te verhullen.

Terwijl de inspanningen van de afgelopen jaren die gemaakt werden door de regering om de rechten van inheemse volken te verbeteren wel erkent worden, merkt te JS5 met diepe bezorgdheid dat inheemse volken, waaronder Amerikaanse indianen, Alaska Natives en Native Hawaiian volken, nog steeds belangrijke uitdagingen moeten aangaan die gerelateerd zijn aan historische discriminatie, daden van onderdrukking, en inadequaat overheidbeleid.

251 JS5 adviseert de overheid om maatregelen te treffen die daadwerkelijk sacrale gebieden van inheemse volken beschermen tegen exploitatie van milieu en degradatie.

252 JS19 heeft overeenstemmende aanbevelingen gemaakt.

253 88.JS48 verzoekt dat de ‘UPR Working Group’ adviseert dat de VS de VN verklaring van de rechten van de inheemse volken volledig eerbiedigt, om onder meer: zelfbeschikking, vrije voorafgaande en geïnformeerde instemming, rechten tot traditionele, bezette en gebruikte gronden, territoria en grondstoffen, culturele rechten en sacrale gebieden, zonder te proberen om de inherent rechten van inheemse volken te minimaliseren.

254 JS42 maakt soortgelijke opmerkingen en adviseerde de bescherming van culturele landschappen en sacrale gebieden van inheemse volken en A/HRC/WG.6/22/USA/3 11 verzeker dat raadplegingen gehouden worden met de gemeenschappen die getroffen worden door ontwikkelingsprojecten en exploitatie van natuurlijke bronnen.

255 JS42 gaf een soortgelijke aanbeveling.

256 89.JS26 stelde dat het principe van vrije, voorafgaande geïnformeerde instemming centraal moet staan in het binnenlandse en buitenlandse beleid. Sacrale sites moeten heel het land door beschermd worden.

257 90.JS40 benadrukt dat de terugwinning van traditionele gronden en natuurlijke bronnen de hoofdbekommernis is voor de Nipmuc Nation en de Chappaquiddick Wampanoag Tribe. 258 tribale leden worden voortdurend beknot in hun recht om te jagen en te vissen zonder licentie. Sommige gevallen resulteerden in arrestaties van tribale leden.

259 WSNC adviseert dat de overheid het verzoek van WSNC voor onderhandelingen over Treaty en landrechten inwilligt.

JS48 gaf aan dat de VS verdergaat met het maken van eenzijdige beslissingen om grondstoffen te onttrekken (goud, kolen, hout, water, enzovoort), en met ontwikkelingsprojecten uit te voeren met verwoestende effecten voor de sacrale gebieden, waaronder water en andere bronnen.

261 92.JS48 verzoekt dat de UPR WG aanbeveling doet dat de VS zijn afwijzing, in zijn eerste UPR review, van aanbeveling 92.154262 om de opsluiting de Indiaanse activist Leonard Peltier ongedaan te maken.

263 93.js42 vraagt de UPR WG om de VS te adviseren om zich te engageren in vredesprocessen met inheemse volken door een veilige toegang tot land, water, onderwijs en veiligheid tegen geweld te voorzien.

Lees de volledige verklaring van de VN High Commissioners, (Engels):http://www.ushrnetwork.org/sites/ushrnetwork.org/files/summary_of_stakeholders_information_usa_upr_2015.pdf

United Nations to hold COINTELPRO review in May under Human Rights Treaty

Black Panther Party, American Indian Movement and Vietnam War Protesters
were all targets of the US government's COINTELPRO

United Nations to hold COINTELPRO review in May under Human Rights Treaty

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
Dutch translation by Alice Holemans, NAIS

The United Nations will review the United States government's COINTELPRO program that targeted the Black Panthers, American Indian Movement, Martin Luther King, Jr., and all protesters of the Vietnam War.

Among those voices against the Vietnam War was Buffy Sainte Marie. Buffy said she was blacklisted out of the music industry in the US because of her song, "Universal Soldier," and her stance against the Vietnam War. 

In a long-censored interview at Dine' College on the Navajo Nation, Buffy said that President Johnson played a key role in forcing radio stations to stop playing her songs. She said entire shipments of her records simply disappeared.
Operation Chaos also targeted AIM

COINTELPRO was not the only US operation that targeted the American Indian Movement.

Censored News discovered that in 1967 President Johnson created Operation Chaos to spy on the American Indian Movement, Black Panthers, student movements and anti-war movements.
The CIA operation gathered documents on 7,200 US citizens, tracking their contacts with so-called 'dissidents' in other countries.
Operation Chaos was a highly classified, secret intelligence project of the CIA, which targeted the American Indian Movement after the Occupation of Wounded Knee.

American Indians involved in the anti-war movement were targeted.

US cables reveal that the State Department was focused on spying on Russell Means.

The US State Department took notice and sent out a cable when Russell Means, Lakota, said a delegation to Eastern Europe planned to "ram the human rights issue down President Carter's throat." https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1977STATE226024_c.html

Means promised to expose the genocide of American Indians in Europe and seek support for the ongoing "foreign occupation" in the US. The US was also concerned that the delegation to Europe in 1977 would use "Iroquois passports," according to the US spy cable.

One document in Wikileaks shows that after Wounded Knee, the American Indian Movement was planning an Indian Treaty Convention near Mobridge, South Dakota, in 1974. The US was concerned that Bolivia and Mexico would attend. "The USG (United States government) would regard official participation in this event by any foreign government as inappropriate." The US continued to try and find out who was coming. Read more at Censored News: http://indigenousresistancejuly2014.blogspot.com/2014/08/operation-chaos-targeted-american.html

Indian news website receives US spy contract

Now, even the American Indian media ownership is involved in spying for the United States. Recently, Ho-Chunk, Inc, in Nebraska, owners of the Indian news website www.indianz.com received a multi-million dollar spy contract for domestic and international spying, with an office at the Pentagon. Ho-Chunk Inc. already had separate contracts for services in Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

Black Panthers begin focus at United Nations

In the upcoming review of COINTELPRO in Geneva by the United Nations, which begins in early May, two of Amnesty International's Prisoners of Conscience, Edward Poindexter and Mondo we Langa aka David Rice, are among those summoning justice. They were imprisoned because of convictions related to the Black Panther Party in Omaha, Nebraska.

The Examiner reports, "The United States Human Rights Network has announced that the United States will undergo a five-year Universal Periodic Review on May 11 of its compliance with human rights treaties to which the United States is a signatory. The issue of political prisoners from the COINTELPRO era has been put before the treaty review team.

Operation COINTELPRO was a clandestine and illegal counterintelligence program directed against political activists from 1956 to 1971, under J. Edgar Hoover’s close supervision. The 'Black Nationalist-Hate Groups' was the most vicious and lethal counterintelligence effort of the Federal Bureau of Investigation during that era."

Read the article in the Examiner: http://www.examiner.com/article/united-nations-to-hold-cointelpro-review-may-under-human-rights-treaty

.

Amnesty International: Prisoners of Conscience
Edward Poindexter and Mondo we Langa aka David Rice
Black Panther Party Omaha, Nebraska

United Nations racism treaty forces Obama to explain COINTELPRO black political prisoners

By Mo Barns, Rolling Out

A United Nations treaty on racism, which the United States is a signatory, is being enforced against the Obama administration. The enforcement of the treaty deals with the details of black prisoners, especially in the 1960s. Under the FBI program COINTELPRO dozens of black political prisoners were incarcerated during the Civil Rights Era. In some cases, these prisoners were deliberately targeted by the FBI under instruction from Director J. Edgar Hoover. The UN report states “The Committee requests the State party to provide its next periodic report, detailed information on … The current status of political activists from the Civil Right Era who reportedly continue to be incarcerated.” The complaint was filed by an organization known as Jericho Movement, the organization has said that 19 Black Panthers remained in prison after unfair trials. An additional report to the UN committee from the Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination, indicated some prisoners whose situation needed urgent attention. The prisoners known included the Omaha Two, these prisoners are Edward Poindexter and Mondo we Langa aka David Rice.

Read the article in Rollingout: http://rollingout.com/politics/united-nations-racism-treaty-forces-obama-explain-black-political-prisoners/

Also see the Blacklisting of Buffy Sainte Marie by Brenda Norrell, Censored News:

The censoring of Buffy Sainte Marie by Indian Country Today played a pivotal role in the creation of Censored News nine years ago. Buffy was among the many activists censored by the editors of Indian Country Today while I was a staff writer there, which was the majority of the years between 1995 and 2006. After being censored repeatedly, then terminated by Indian Country Today, I created Censored News.

In her interview at Dine' College on the Navajo Nation, which was censored at the time by Indian Country Today, Buffy said that because of her song, 'Universal Soldier,' and her voice against the war in Vietnam, she was blacklisted out of the music industry in the US. She later learned that President Johnson played a key role in pressuring radio stations not to play her songs, and entire shipments of her records simply disappeared.

http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-blacklisting-of-buffy-sainte-marie.html

US Sterilization of Native American women:
.

US government's sterilization of American Indian women: Jean Whitehorse, Dineh (Navajo) tells what happened to her. Video by Brenda Norrell, Censored News, at American Indian Movement's AIM West in San Francisco.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26-QlIGhXcE

Velocity of Movement: Civil Rights Movement, American Indian Movement and the Zapatistas

Velocity of Movement: Civil Rights Movement, American Indian Movement and the Zapatistas

By Brenda Norrell

Article copyright Censored News
Dutch translation by Alice Holemans, NAIS

The Civil Rights Movement and the American Indian Movement had this in common: They survived the attempts by the US government's COINTELPRO and other secret ops to eradicate them. They survived the attempts by the media to discredit them.

The US government and its media attempted to vanish these movements by focusing on the shortcomings of individuals in those movements.

But the movements surged forward, as a runaway train, not because of the train itself, or its conductor, but because of the sheer velocity, the sheer force, of the movement itself. It was the movement, the compelling movement forward on the side of right, the side of justice, that made each a force independent of who the conductor was, or whether there was a conductor at all.

When the Freedom Riders rode those buses into Mississippi, they faced death at the hands of white Mississippi police officers in the 1960s. Many Freedom Riders went to prison, forced onto prison chain gangs, others were beaten and murdered. Black and white, those youths rode the buses. Regardless of who was the catalyst, those youths were fearless in the face of death and imprisonment.

AIM facing off with Lewis and Clark re-enactors
Photo Brenda Norrell

The American Indian Movement faced the bullets of the US military at Wounded Knee. They stood their ground on the steps of the BIA building in Washington.

But their certitude was the same, whether the television cameras were rolling or not. On the banks of the Missouri River, the American Indian Movement faced off with the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Here was the same impenetrable force that held Wounded Knee. When Carter Camp, Russell Means, Floyd Hand, Alex White Plume and Vic Camp exposed the root of genocide in the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and told the re-enactors to leave Lakota Territory, it was with this force of movement. It was that same force of the absolute which corrected the bowels of the history books. Debra White Plume gave the Lewis and Clark re-enactors a symbolic blanket of smallpox.

For those who were ever in the presence of Lakota Chief Frank Fool's Crow, Hopi elders Thomas Banyacya and Dan Evehema, or Muskogee Creek Phillip Deere, there was no question of this absolute power of the invincible spirit. Being in their presence was transforming and emboldened the spirit.

On the Zapatista Caravan through Mexico, this impenetrable force of movement was literally like a runaway train. The Caravan rushed forward so fast that those of us in the buses seldom knew where we were going, or even what city we were in. Leading the caravan of buses rushing through Mexico, Subcomandante Marcos and the Comandantes rallied for justice, autonomy and dignity -- racing ahead of bullets yet to be fired at us.

When we came to Iguala, Guerrero, there was a spirit like non other, an indomitable force. 

Here were the Freedom Fighters, here was Frank Fool's Crow, and here were the Zapatistas of Guerrero. They were the sheer force of unstoppable movement, and there was no doubt the people here were that run away train. They were the velocity itself. 

Photos of 43 disappeared students held
by Zapatistas in 2014.

The Zapatistas of Guerrero, with the blood of the Nahuatl charging through their veins, were each a fortress. Resolute, they were peerless.

Perhaps this is why the police and military disappeared and murdered the students of Guerrero in 2014. They recognized that this spirit of the absolute could never be dissipated, could never be conquered.

But they were wrong. The students were not silenced. 

Do you hear them -- do you hear them now? 

Brenda Norrell has been a journalist in Indian country for 32 years. She began at Navajo Times, during the 18 years that she lived on the Navajo Nation. She was a freelance writer for AP and USA Today. After being censored repeatedly, then terminated as a staff reporter at Indian Country Today, she began Censored News. She has traveled with the Zapatistas and reported from the Southern border and throughout the west. Censored News is now in its 9th year, with no advertising, grants or sponsors, and 3.7 million pageviews from around the world.

Please share our Censored News link for this original article! 

Click link, then copy and paste from your browser:

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Home » Nieuws » * DE SNELHEID VAN BEWEGING: BURGERRECHTENBEWEGING, AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT EN DE ZAPATISTAS.

* DE SNELHEID VAN BEWEGING: BURGERRECHTENBEWEGING, AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT EN DE ZAPATISTAS.

Door: Brenda Norrell: www.besnorrell.blogspot.com

Vertaald door NAIS Gazet: www.denaisgazet.be

De Burgerrechten beweging en de American Indian Movement hebben dit alvast gemeen: zij overleefden de pogingen van COINTELPRO en andere geheime operaties van de VS regering om hen uit te roeien. Zij overleefden de pogingen van de media om hen in diskrediet te brengen.

 De VS regering en zijn media probeerden deze bewegingen in de grond te boren door de focus te richten op tekortkomingen van enkele personen in die bewegingen.

Maar de golf van bewegingen blijft doorgaan, zoals een op hol geslagen trein, niet door de trein zelf, of zijn bestuurder, maar door de grote snelheid, de grote kracht van de bewegingsgolf zelf.

Het was de beweging, de dwingende beweging voorwaarts aan de kant van recht, de kant van rechtvaardigheid. Dat maakte van hen een macht, ongeacht wie de leider was, en zelfs zonder leider.

Toen in 1960’s de Freedom Riders hun bussen in Mississippi rondreden wisten ze dat zij gedood konden worden door de blanke Mississippi politie. Veel Freedom Riders werden in de gevangenissen opgesloten, zij werden aan handen en voeten geketend naar de gevangenis gebracht

Anderen werden afgeranseld en vermoord. Zwart en wit, deze jongeren reden de bussen zonder acht te slaan op wie de katalysator was, deze jongeren waren zonder vrees in het aangezicht van de dood en gevangenisstraffen.

De American Indian Movement kreeg de kogels van het US leger te verduren bij de bezetting van Wounded Knee.

Zij hielden stand op de trappen van de BIA gebouw in Washington.

Maar hun zekerheden bleven hetzelfde, of de televisie camera’s er waren of niet.

Op de oevers van de Missouri rivier confronteerde de American Indian Movement de re- enactors van de Lewis and Clark expeditie. Hier was dezelfde ondoordringbare kracht van Wounded Knee voelbaar.

Wanneer Carter Camp, Russell Means,Floyd Hand, Alex White Plume en Vic Camp duidelijk maakten dat de wortels van de genocide in de Lewis en Clark Expeditie lagen, en de re-enactors dringend verzochten om het Lakota territorium te verlaten, was het met de kracht van de beweging. Het was diezelfde kracht van het absolute die de leugens van de geschiedenisboeken onderuithaalden.

Debra White Plume overhandigde de Lewis en Clark re- enactors een symbolische -met pokken besmette deken.

Voor hen die ooit in het gezelschap hebben vertoefd van Lakota Chief Frank Fool’s Crow, Hopi elders Thomas Banyacya en Dan Evehema, of Muskogee Creek Philip Deere, was er geen twijfel over deze absolute kracht van de onzichtbare geest. In hun aanwezigheid te zijn transformeerde en moedigde de geest aan.

In de Zapatista karavaan die door Mexico reed was deze ondoordringbare kracht van beweging letterlijk te vergelijken met een losgeslagen trein. De karavaan snelde haastig voorwaarts, zo snel dat diegene onder ons die in de bus zaten niet wisten waar we naartoe reden of in welke stad we waren.

Subcomandante Marcos en de Comandantes die de karavaan leidden vlogen als het ware door Mexico om het volk te organiseren voor rechtvaardigheid, autonomie en waardigheid -om de kogels voor te blijven die men ons navuurden.

 Toen wij in Iguala, Guerrero aankwamen was de geest, een onverzettelijke kracht voelbaar zoals we nog nooit gevoeld hadden.

“Hier waren de Freedom Fighters, hier was Frank Fool’s Crow, en hier waren de Zapatistas van Guerrero.

Zij waren de formidabele kracht van een onstuitbare beweging.”

De Zapatistas van Guerrero, met het bloed van de Nahuatl in hun aderen, vormden, ieder voor zich een fort.

Resoluut, onverstoorbaar.

Misschien is het daarom dat de politie en het leger in 2014 de studenten heeft doen verdwijnen en vermoord. Zij voelden dat deze geest van het absolute nooit zal verdwijnen, nooit overwonnen zal worden.

Maar de studenten zijn het zwijgen niet opgelegd. De studenten zijn niet monddood gemaakt.

 Kan je hen horen – hoor je hen nu?

Brenda Norrell has been a journalist in Indian country for 32 years. She began at Navajo Times, during the 18 years that she lived on the Navajo Nation. She was a freelance writer for AP and USA Today. After being censored repeatedly, then terminated as a staff reporter at Indian Country Today, she began Censored News. She has traveled with the Zapatistas and reported from the Southern border and throughout the west. Censored News is now in its 9th year, with no advertising, grants or sponsors, and 3.7 million pageviews from around the world.

http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2015/01/velocity-of-movement-civil-rights.html

_________________________________________________________________________

Nota van NAIS: Op 5 februari stelt NAIS de documentaire COINTELPRO 101 voor in Antwerpen.

Lees meer: http://www.denaisgazet.be/activiteiten/nais-stelt-voor-op-5-februari-2015

Article copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News. Content may not be used without permission.

COINTELPRO: They Got Shut Down for Standing Up

COINTELPRO: They Got Shut Down for Standing Up

by Karima Amin
Sent in by Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee

From the late 1950's into the 1970's, the F.B.I. conducted a series of actions in a counterintelligence program (COINTELPRO) designed to disrupt, discredit, and destroy certain individuals and groups in this country. The Communist Party, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (N.A.A.C.P.), the Black Panther Party, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (S.C.L.C.), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (S.N.C.C.), the Black Liberation Army (B. L. A.), the Socialist Workers Party, La Raza Unida ("the Unified Race"), MOVE, the American Indian Movement (A.I.M.) and others were among the targets. Dedicated activists who fought for justice were arrested for their political beliefs, tried in criminal courts, and incarcerated with exorbitant and punitive sentences. These political prisoners were effectively shut down for standing up. Though some of them still strive for justice behind bars, COINTELPRO has taken a toll on their lives.

During COINTELPRO's heyday, the F.B.I. didn't hesitate to use thuggery, unauthorized wiretapping, warrantless break-ins and searches, harassment, burglaries, manufactured evidence, witness tampering, infiltration, and even murder to neutralize the aforementioned organizations and their individual members. In 1971, F.B.I. agents, convicted for counterintelligence crimes, were pardoned by President Ronald Reagan. Their targets are still in prison, having now spent decades (30-plus years) behind bars. Approximately 100 men and women in the U.S. are political prisoners, for having taken a stance or expressing a view that the government deems objectionable. They dared to stand up, speak out, and struggle for the liberation and self-determination of oppressed people. The U.S. government does not recognize the designation of political prisoner; in the government's view, they are merely dissidents.

In the past, Prisoners Are People Too has presented programs on COINTELPRO, the San Francisco 8, Jalil Abdul Muntaqim, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and MOVE. Several PRP2 members have voiced their support for political prisoners: Lynne Stewart and Robert Seth Hayes. Unfortunately, the names of these individuals are rarely mentioned in the "real world" and their stories are even more rarely told. Most of us can't name five U.S. political prisoners and far too few of us are actively engaged in supporting/defending a political prisoner. Further, we make the mistake of assuming that what happened to them could never happen to us. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Nowadays, "The Patriot Act" and "Homeland Security" make it all the more likely for any one of us to come face-to-face with Amerikkka's ugly side. While alleging "freedom and justice for all", this country ignores the shameful realities of incarceration and rampant injustice for individuals and organizations that participate in the kind of revolutionary direct action that is needed to make changes in government or social conditions. F.B.I. agents who engaged in illegal activity through COINTELPRO, got a proverbial "slap on the wrist" and nothing changed. Political prisoners, their families, and communities have suffered for nearly forty years.

On Monday, November 24, 2008, at 6:30-8:30pm, at the Pratt-Willert Community Center, at 422 Pratt Street in Buffalo, Leonard Peltier's story will be told. Leonard Peltier was a COINTELPRO target because of his involvement with the American Indian Movement (A.I.M.). In 1977, this Native American activist was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment for the murder of two F.B.I. agents who died during a 1975 shoot-out on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, near Oglala, South Dakota. Leonard and his supporters believe that he did not receive a fair trial and that his conviction and imprisonment were results of his activism. He is currently imprisoned in a federal penitentiary in Lewisburg, PA. The documentary film, "Murder on a Reservation", from the Arts and Entertainment Channel's "American Justice" series will be screened. In the film, Leonard Peltier, F.B.I. representatives, and witnesses to the incident that led to the agents' death, tell their stories.

Our guest speaker will be Mr. Michael Kuzma, a Buffalo, NY defense attorney who has supported Leonard Peltier for several years. Mr. Kuzma practices in NY as well as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd, 8th, and 10th Circuits. He is seeking to obtain the release of 140,000 government documents concerning Leonard Peltier. Mr. Kuzma joined the legal profession believing that the law is a tool to bring about social, political, and economic change. He further believes that what happened to Leonard Peltier could happen to any one of us.

This program is sponsored by The Circle of Supporters for Reformed Offenders and Friends of BaBa Eng. For more information: 716-834-8438 or karima@prisonersarepeopletoo.org.
IPF WEBSITE:
http://users.skynet.be/kola/index.htm
and
www.myspace.com/leonardpeltierisinnocent
IPF e-mail:
ipforum@skynet.be
Also, please visit the website of the
Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee (LPDOC):
http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/
LPDOC e-mail:
contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info