Biden Administration Denies Apache Religious and Treaty Rights in New Oak Flat Court Filing

  

Contact:  Dr. Wendsler Nosie, Sr. Apache Stronghold, apaches4ss@yahoo.com

                

BIDEN ADMINISTRATION DENIES APACHE RELIGIOUS AND TREATY RIGHTS IN NEW OAK FLAT COURT FILING

By Apache Stronghold

Censored News

OAK FLAT, Ariz. – The Biden Administration's Department of Justice ("DOJ") filed papers in the U.S. 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals this evening trying to stop the traditional Apache from protecting their religious and treaty rights at Oak Flat in eastern Arizona. 

On March 18, 2021, Apache Stronghold appealed to the 9^th Circuit to stop the destruction of Oak Flat or Chi'chil Bildagoteel by foreign mining companies which violates both the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the 1852 Treaty between the Apache and the U.S. government.

Pronghorns on the bombing range: Targeted assassinations in a world where leaders mumble

The Reckless Disregard for Life

By Brenda Norrell 

Censored News

My mind is on the pronghorns in the Sonoran Desert, west of the Tohono O'odham Nation, and the drones used for targeted assassinations.

The last time I visited the center designed to protect the pronghorns, the staff told me they went out to the Goldwater Bombing Range to take the small pronghorn herd food and water.

"Are the pronghorns being bombed?" I asked, shocked. Their answers were mumbled. The small herd of endangered Sonoran Pronghorn struggled to make their way across the border during their annual migrations.

Today, a border wall violating all natural laws has been built. And worse, the bombing does continue. The pristine desert here, and in northern Nevada, are testing grounds for the U.S. drones used in targeted assassinations and kill flights. Jet fighters pierce the air in their war games.

Today, on the other side of our world, bombs fall on Palestine -- and the world leaders mumble.

Palestinian children are killed in the reckless act of war. They are locked in the prison by border walls. One of those responsible for both the Palestinian wall, and manufacturing drones for killing civilians, is Elbit Systems of Israel.

Today Elbit is at work on the Tohono O'odham Nation constructing spy towers, integrated fixed towers, for surveillance by the U.S. Border Patrol. Border Patrol agents can now stalk traditional O'odham using Israeli technology.

What has become of the pronghorns?

What will become of a world where Palestinian children are killed with reckless impunity?

Photo by Brenda Norrell

Censored News 2007: Pronghorns on the Bombing Range

The Sonoran Pronghorn can run 60 miles per hour, but can it outrun an out-of-control Bush Administration building border walls

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

AJO, Arizona (2007) – The Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge visitor center looks like a typical national park office from the outside. Inside, however, the mysteries unfold of the Sonoran Desert, the endangered Sonoran pronghorn and the delicate complexion of the desert ecosystem.

Truth-tellers on border lands make Censored News possible

Human rights abusers and profiteers on the Arizona border: The U.S. Border Patrol, Elbit Systems based in Israel, militarized security.

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

The people who live on the land at the border are the ones who expose the truth.

Many years ago, one of my friends on the border spotted an Israeli ATV on the border south of Tucson.

I researched it and found out that border contacts were going from the U.S. government to the Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems. It is based in Israel and protested around the world for human rights abuses in Palestine.

That was more than 15 years ago.

Currently, Elbit has completed 10 spy towers -- integrated fixed towers -- on the Tohono O'odham Nation, violating O'odham burial places, and placing vulnerable O'odham at risk.

Borders of Repression -- Israel's Elbit on Tohono O'odham Nation and in Palestine

Borders of Repression -- Israel's Elbit on Tohono O'odham Nation and in Palestine 

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

The 'Divest in Elbit' panel presentation reveals how the Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems has built 10 surveillance towers on the Tohono O'odham Nation and tracks O'odham 24 hours a day.

Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham living on the border on her homeland, describes the surveillance, and devastation to O'odham burial places, from the construction by Elbit on the Tohono O'odham Nation.

The United States government disregarded all federal laws which protect Native sacred sites, animals and the environment in order for the spy towers -- integrated fixed towers -- to be constructed, she said.

The Tohono O'odham Nation government approved Elbit's spy towers on their sovereign land, over the objection of the Gu-Vo District and traditional O'odham.

Rivas, founder of O'odham Voice Against the Wall, describes the militarization and abuses by the U.S. Border Patrol. Border Patrol agents abuse O'odham on this side of the border, and prevent O'odham in Mexico from traveling on their homeland for food and necessities on this side of the border.

There is daily violence and death directed at her own people, and the migrants. There is also the deportation of O'odham to Mexico.

"We are under 24 hour surveillance."

The restriction of movement effects the lives of O'odham and their children.

"This psychological game has always been played," Rivas said.

Investigative reporter Will Parrish describes how Elbit's drone was marketed to law enforcement who monitored Standing Rock Water Protectors in 2016.

The U.S. Border Patrol provided a drone to law enforcement for surveillance of Standing Rock Water Protectors, and recently loaned out its drones to police monitoring George Floyd actions, Parrish said during the panel.

Parrish exposed the covert surveillance of Dakota Access Pipeline and its hired security TigerSwan in his reporting for The Intercept. He also exposed the paid FBI informant Heath Harmon who set up Red Fawn for imprisonment.

During the border panel today, Parrish reveals how Elbit marketed its surveillance and weapons to the U.S. Border Patrol at expos in Marana, Arizona and San Antonio, Texas.

Parrish said Elbit's video surveillance of Tohono O'odham individuals on their homeland on the Arizona border is now viewed, tracked and stored by the local U.S. Border Patrol.

Photo: US Border Patrol surveillance of traditional Tohono O'odham home on the Tohono O'odham Nation. Photo copyright Ofelia Rivas.

Parrish visited Ofelia's home and saw the U.S. Border Patrol surveillance, including a mobile surveillance truck with a camera parked outside her home.

Parrish witnessed the extensive surveillance on the Tohono O'odham Nation: The multiple checkpoints and build-up of U.S. Border Patrol vehicles around traditional O'odham homes.

The border, he said, is a laboratory for systems to oppress and criminalize populations.

During the panel, Dov Baum, an Israeli Jew and activist in Palestine, described how the U.S. funds Israel and Elbit's militarization and death patrols in Palestine.

The atrocities by Elbit in Palestine include the use of cluster bombs, which kill children who play with the scattered bombs, and white phosphorus, which ignites in the air and burns inside the peoples' lungs.

Describing her time in Palestine and sleeping in a tent during the construction of the wall, Baum said Elbit killed Palestinians with impunity and continues to kill with impunity.

"This is part of the land grab," Baum said, describing how Palestinian farmers were pushed off their lands.

"It is a border of repression."

"It is a big prison," she said. "Borders of oppression, borders of theft."

Among the weapons are unmanned vehicle -- armed trucks without drivers -- targeting civilians with death in Palestine. They fire tear gas and shoot to kill with live ammunition.

"They are used as a threat, to scare them," she said of the killings of Palestinians without cause.

"Resistance on the ground is the key," she said, pointing out that living one's full life in this area of oppression, is resistance.

The panel today was hosted by Water Protector Legal Collective created at Standing Rock. Cofounder Michelle Cook, Dine' (Navajo) moderated today's powerful panel.

It was hosted by Natali Segovia and the National Lawyer's Guild, Indigenous Peoples Rights Committee.


Photo: Unmanned drones are among the weapons of surveillance and death that Elbit markets around the world. 

Read more:

Elbit drones killed 551 Palestinian children in 2014:

Canada urged to reject Elbit drone

The US Border Patrol in Grand Forks, North Dakota, provided law enforcement with the use of its drone for surveillance on George Floyd protests in Minneapolis. Earlier, the U.S. Border Patrol drone was used by law enforcement to spy on Standing Rock Water Protectors.

Forbes

Elbit Sytems is among 23 border profiteers, and human rights abusers, exposed in new global report.

Read global report


The DIVEST BORDER PANEL SERIES: Indigenous peoples and allies discuss the impacts of Integrated Fixed Towers (IFTs) and their impact on Indigenous peoples rights in the United States and globally.

Research by O’odham VOICE Against the Wall

Hosted by the Indigenous Peoples Rights Committee and the NLG International Committee

Support from Water Protector Legal Collective, and the Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Defenders and Corporate Accountability Program

Moderated by:
Michelle Cook (Dineh) Founder, Divest Invest Protect; Director, Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Defenders and Corporate Accountability Program

Divest Invest Protect

Panelists:
Ophelia Rivas (Tohono O’odham) is founder of O’odham VOICE Against the WALL and has spent her life speaking out against the U.S. Border Patrol and militarization of O’odham lands.

O'odham Rights

Will Parrish is an investigative journalist based in Northern California. His web site is Will Parrish Reports

Dov Baum, Ph.D., is the director of Economic Activism for the AFSC – the American Friends Service Committee.

These days, they lead the Investigate project mapping companies complicit in mass incarceration and immigrant detention, border security and mass surveillance industries, Israeli apartheid and occupation industries.

Hosted by Natali Segovia, National Lawyers Guild (NLG) Indigenous Peoples Rights Committee, The Indigenous Peoples Rights Committee is organized to take up the struggles of indigenous peoples in the US and throughout the world.

The Tohono O'odham Nation and Palestine are laboratories for surveillance, oppression and death, a border panel said Friday.

The United States government funds these atrocities by contracting Elbit Systems, the Israeli military contractor, to construct surveillance towers on the Tohono O'odham  Nation.

The U.S. funds the military of Israel. Elbit drones killed 551 Palestinian children in 2014. Today, Elbit weaponized unmanned trucks kill with impunity.

The U.S. Border Patrol contracts Elbit. The Border Patrol targets specific groups, providing drones for the surveillance of Standing Rock Water Protectors in 2016, and recently of George Floyd actions in Minneapolis, the border panel said.

Photos: Elbit surveillance tower on Arizona border. US Border Patrol drone for surveillance. US Border Patrol mobile surveillance outside traditional O'odham home. Photo copyright Ofelia Rivas. Panel speakers Ofelia Rivas, O'odham Voice Against the Wall, and investgative reporter Will Parrish. Ofelia Rivas on her homeland. Photo copyright Jason Jaacks.