Spin sets up Blackwater at border, while military smuggles drugs

By Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

SOMEWHERE ON THE BORDER -- While the news media joins Bush Inc., to push for more hired guns at the border, Blackwater is ready to fill that role. After being outed in Iraq, Blackwater is poised and ready to start killing for profit at the US/Mexico border from its planned new base in Potrero, Calif:
CounterPunch/John Ross: Blackwater goes to Mexico:
http://www.counterpunch.org/ross11092007.htmlerpunch.org/ross11092007.html
Television news is ready to pump you up, and deliver the agenda.
Meanwhile, after writing about all the National Guardsmen rushing to smuggle cocaine from the Arizona border, there was a lingering question: "Why weren't any Border Patrol agents arrested?" Sure, Border Patrol agents have been charged with murder and rape at the border, but why weren't any Border Patrol agents caught smuggling drugs during the sting, Operation Lively Green?
Here's a list (below) of the agencies responsible for Operation Lively Green, which includes immigration officials conducting the sting.
There's another question, what happened with all those huge loads of cocaine delivered in Phoenix and elsewhere that were revealed in the sting, over the years?
A National Guard recruiter in Tucson public schools was allowed to continue recruiting in the schools for years while he was smuggling cocaine.
Operation Lively Green is the FBI sting that was shut down because so many National Guard and Air Force soldiers, along with a Nogales police officer and a Arizona prison guard, were eager to smuggle cocaine from Nogales, Ariz., to Tucson and Phoenix.
The FBI released a statement regarding the recent court sentencing of public officials caught in Operation Lively Green, which includes the agencies carrying out the sting:
The FBI said, "These cases are part of a joint investigation being conducted by the Southern Arizona Corruption Task Force ( SACTF ), which is comprised of the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Department of Homeland Security, and the Tucson Police Department. Though not part of the SACTF, the Arizona Air National Guard, Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service are also participating in the investigation. The cases are being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Michael Ferrara, Andrew Levchuk, and Peter Koski of the U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Public Integrity Section, headed by Chief William M. Welch II. The United States Attorney's Office for the Western District of Oklahoma has also secured the guilty pleas of 14 defendants in a related investigation, Operation Tarnish Star."
Read more ...
http://media-newswire.com/release_1057636.html

Photo: Near the border in Calexico, Calif., a white flag. Photo Brenda Norrell

Arizona copper mining: Putting on an ugly face

.

.

.

.

.

Copper mining, deforming the face of mountains, poisoning the water, air and land

By Brenda Norrell

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

HAYDEN, Ariz. -- The Arizona mountain slopes in these two photos are just across the road from one another. The photos reveal the devastation of copper mining on Arizona's scenic saguaro hillsides, near Hayden and Winkleman.

ASARCO/Grupo Mexico has poisoned the area with copper mining, between Tucson and Globe, leaving a health-damaging trail of arsenic, lead and copper:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASARCO

While this devastating pollution has not been cleaned up, another copper mine is in the works, about two hours drive southeast of here.

Currently, the new scheme for polluting copper mining is by Rosemont Copper, now seeking to pump Central Arizona Project water to the Santa Ritas, near Green Valley, Ariz., to replace the water that would be used by its planned copper mine.

Puyallup celebrate Native elders on new website

Watch Puyallup online video interviews:

http://www.NativeElders.org/

Floyd "Red Crow" Westerman
Marilyn Wandry Suquamish Tribe
Chief Frank Nelson Musgamagw Tsawataineuk Tribe
Nancy Shippentower-GamesPuyallup Tribe
Billy Frank Jr Nisqually Tribe - Frank's Landing Band
Tom Jackson and How-ee-sha-ta Quileute Tribe

©2007 Cedar Media
Also Visit:

PuyallupTribalNews.comNativeArtists.org

Read more about the Puyallup's new websites and how they reach out for respect:

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/218578.html

Indigenous Peoples speak out on racism and oppression

By Brenda Norrell
Print edition, Navajo Times

TUCSON, Ariz. – Indigenous Peoples remembered the teachings of Indian spiritual leaders, as they spoke out on the right of passage in their ancestral territories, demanding respect for human rights for Native people in their borderzones, during the International Day of Indigenous Peoples celebration in August.

Jose Matus, Yaqui and director of the Indigenous Alliance without Borders, said Indigenous Peoples have a right to travel their ancestral lands without harassment and abuse by border agents.

“We have the right to cross the border without inspection. We have been here from time immemorial – Tohono O’odham, Akimel O’odham, Kickapoo, Kumeyaay and Yavapai. We all have that historic background,” Matus told dozens of Indigenous Peoples and news reporters.

Michelle Cook, Navajo, spoke of the struggle of Indigenous Peoples and an Anishinabe prophecy known as the teachings of the seven prophets, and the seven fires.

Read article:

http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2007/12/indigenous-peoples-speak-out-on-racism.html

This article appeared in the print edition of Navajo Times, following the Indigenous Peoples Day event in August. It is published here with permission. Photo 1: Jose Matus, Shannon Rivers and Julian Hernandez. Photo 2: Michelle Cook, Shannon Rivers, Julian Hernandez, Kat Rodriguez and Tupac Enrique. Photos Brenda Norrell