Supremacist pleads guilty in death threat trial in Tucson

Supremacist pleads Guilty in Death Threat Trial

Roberto Rodriguez, Mexican American Studies professor, and author banned by Tucson Public Schools, describes the trial of the supremacist who threatened him

by Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez
Posted at Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

Roberto Rodriguez

TUCSON -- Today was a historic date of sorts; the supremacist, Randall Leon Thompson, who threatened me pled guilty today Aug. 7, 2012, for sending threats over the telephone. He will be under managed supervision for a year, after he completes another 18 months of probation from another unrelated case.

Yet, this is not the end of the story. Please read this statement, that I was permitted to read in court. The end will give you a clue as to why this is not over.

"Greetings Judge                                                                                                       Aug 7, 2012

Nehua no toca, Professor Roberto Rodriguez, I am Macehual and a Tucson resident.

I have never met Mr. Thompson and I don’t know where he lives. Yet in his messages to me, he claimed I was trying to take his house and as such, threatened the use of a 357 magnum, to take me out, and to wage war against Mexicans.

He called my office phone not once, not twice, but three times.

The calls are full of hate and lots of anti-Mexican vitriol. It is the kind of hate that unfortunately has become common in this state. If you doubt me, look at the comments section in media, particularly here in our daily newspaper.

What puzzles me is why Mr. Thompson isolated me? Apparently, he is not the only one who seems to believe that I am a ringleader of sorts.

I do teach in Mexican-American Studies at the University of Arizona. During the past several years, the TUSD’s Mexican American Studies department and the discipline have been under unrelenting attack… and I do freely admit to defending both. Yet, I have not insulted or disrespected anyone. I have simply asked that the teachers, students and parents – and their views – be respected in this process.

The right to culture, history, identity, language and education (chile) are the linchpin of any society and are protected by the 2007 UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, along with 8 other international treaties.

Defending the department and discipline and asserting my rights as a full human being, should not warrant threats to my life or other forms of violence against anyone else, regardless of their race or culture.

It doesn’t have to be this way. In Tucson, we teach In lak Ech-Tu eres mi otro yo-you are my other me and Panche Be-buscar la raiz de la verdad-to seek the root of the truth. We teach our students to see themselves in each other, regardless of race or nationality or culture. But we also do teach them to stand up for their rights.

Somehow, all this has been severely distorted. The Atty. Gen., Tom Horne, continues to insist that we teach a highly racist curriculum. He appears not to understand that that is highly insulting. Combating inequalities or fighting against racial supremacy is part of a historic struggle to treat all people as full human beings.

I don’t want anything else. I don’t want anybody's land… especially nobody else’s house… just the right to be treated as a full human being. I don’t want anything from the court, except to ask Mr. Thompson why he isolated me… yet I do have a question for the court: do these threats – given Justice Department definitions -- not rise to the level of hate crimes?"

After I read this, the judge said it was a good question and a question that I need to ask of the U.S. Attorney for the region. And I do plan to do this.

In part, I pursued this case because apparently, lots of people receive death threats in Tucson/Arizona. I was aware that human rights icon, Isabel Garcia, receives death threats for her heroic work, particularly with the human rights/migrant rights organization Derechos Humanos, but I was not aware that death threats are as common as saguaros here.

When I received these threats, it had come on the heels of the threat posted on YouTube against the UNIDOS students who had just taken over the Tucson school boardroom on April 26, 2012. That threat, which urged viewers to "shoot them in the head," had been dismissed by the Tucson Police Department as but "a joke."

When I received the death threats on May 9, 2011, people from all walks of life told me they had received death threats too. In part, that was the motivation for pursuing the charges against Mr. Thompson. Not many people followed through with pressing charges, or in some cases, they were simply ignored or dismissed.

That's why I will continue to pursue federal hate crime charges. Death threats should not be business as usual. They are illegal and they should not be treated casually. Let's see what happens at the federal level.

I will leave here what I found in terms of the federal definition of a hate crime:

DEFINITION OF A HATE CRIME
Here is what I found, though it is undated: http://www.justice.gov/crs/pubs/htecrm.htm
U.S. Department of Justice
Community Relations Service
Rose Ochi, Director, Community Relations Service
Hate Crime: The Violence of Intolerance
The Community Relations Service (CRS), an arm of the U.S. Department of Justice, is a specialized Federal conciliation service available to State and local officials to help resolve and prevent racial and ethnic conflict, violence and civil disorders. When governors, mayors, police chiefs, and school superintendents need help to defuse racial crises, they turn to CRS. CRS helps local officials and residents tailor locally defined resolutions when conflict and violence threaten community stability and well-being. CRS conciliators assist in identifying the sources of violence and conflict and utilizing specialized crisis management and violence reduction techniques which work best for each community. CRS has no law enforcement authority and does not impose solutions, investigate or prosecute cases, or assign blame or fault. CRS conciliators are required by law to conduct their activities in confidence, without publicity, and are prohibited from disclosing confidential information.
In 1997, CRS was involved in 135 hate crime cases that caused or intensified community racial and ethnic tensions. As authorized by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, CRS became involved only in those cases in which the criminal offender was motivated by the victim's race, color, or national origin. Of all hate crime incidents reported to the U.S. Department of Justice's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 1996, 72 percent were motivated by the victim's race, color, or national origin.

Hate Crime
Hate crime is the violence of intolerance and bigotry, intended to hurt and intimidate someone because of their race, ethnicity, national origin, religious, sexual orientation, or disability. The purveyors of hate use explosives, arson, weapons, vandalism, physical violence, and verbal threats of violence to instill fear in their victims, leaving them vulnerable to more attacks and feeling alienated, helpless, suspicious and fearful. Others may become frustrated and angry if they believe the local government and other groups in the community will not protect them. When perpetrators of hate are not prosecuted as criminals and their acts not publicly condemned, their crimes can weaken even those communities with the healthiest race relations.
Of all crimes, hate crimes are most likely to create or exacerbate tensions, which can trigger larger community-wide racial conflict, civil disturbances, and even riots. Hate crimes put cities and towns at-risk of serious social and economic consequences. The immediate costs of racial conflicts and civil disturbances are police, fire, and medical personnel overtime, injury or death, business and residential property loss, and damage to vehicles and equipment. Long-term recovery is hindered by a decline in property values, which results in lower tax revenues, scarcity of funds for rebuilding, and increased insurance rates. Businesses and residents abandon these neighborhoods, leaving empty buildings to attract crime, and the quality of schools decline due to the loss of tax revenue. A municipality may have no choice but to cut services or raise taxes or leave the area in its post-riot condition until market forces of supply and demand rebuild the area.

Victims and Perpetrators
In 1996, the FBI received reports of 10,706 hate crimes from State and local law enforcement agencies, involving 11,039 victims, and 10,021 known perpetrators. The crimes included 12 murders, 10 forcible rapes, 1,444 aggravated assaults, 1,762 simple assaults, and 4,130 acts of intimidation.
Among the known perpetrators, 66 percent were white, and 20 percent were black. Some perpetrators commit hate crimes with their peers as a "thrill" or while under the influence of drugs or alcohol; some as a reaction against a perceived threat or to preserve their "turf'; and some who out of resentment over the growing economic power of a particular racial or ethnic group engage in scapegoating.

Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez
XColumn@gmail.com
http://drcintli.blogspot.com/

The censoring of Rosalie Little Thunder

Tucson schools banned books: Just what was so provocative, so dangerous, about Rethinking Columbus?

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

TUCSON -- Still delirious from the relentless heat, I stumble into the university bookstore, in search of cold air. Then, I see them. Spread on a table near the front door, neatly arranged, are the banned books I've been searching for.

Picking up 500 Years Anos del Pueblo Chicano, 500 Years of Chicano History in pictures, I then see that my long search is over. I've finally found a copy of Rethinking Columbus, The Next 500 Years, among the first seven books banned by the Tucson Unified School District. The list of banned books was bloated into dozens of books when Mexican-American Studies was forbidden in January. The books in the classrooms were placed on the extricating cart and doomed for the depository.

So, just what was so naughty, so provocative, so dangerous, in Rethinking Columbus?


Rethinking Columbus is packed full of famous Native American authors.

The powerful Native American women's voices censored by Tucson public schools includes the voice of Rosalie Little Thunder, in, "The Sacred Buffalo." Little Thunder's letter describes the massacre of buffalo at Yellowstone National Park. It includes a personal family story of massacre and survival and her arrest at Yellowstone.

Above all, Little Thunder's letter describes the significance of the slaughter of buffalo. For the colonizers, the buffalo must die to eradicate Indians, just as in the minds of Tucson public school officials, the voices of Lakota survivors must be banned and silenced.

Little Thunder writes in Rethinking Columbus, "Just as I am a survivor of massacre, so too are the Yellowstone buffalo survivors of massacre."

Here, too, in Rethinking Columbus, is the powerful account of "Resistance at Oka," by Mohawk author Peter Blue Cloud Aroniawenrate. The censorship of Aroniawenrate by Tucson public schools was so powerful that the publisher of his book of poetry re-released it in response. Gary Lawless at Blackberry Books, re-released Back Then Tomorrow. http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/05/aroniawenrate-peter-blue-cloud_10.html

Meanwhile, the dramatic photos in the book of 500 Years of Chicano History, reveal plenty of photos to inspire. There are photos of farm workers being beaten bloody, and photos of the Southwest Organizing Project, fighting toxic dumping on Indian lands and elsewhere in the Southwest.

History, you see, is dangerous.

In 500 Years of Chicano History, there are also photos from southern New Mexico, where the wives of miners picked up the picket signs and manned the picket lines of the famous mining strike. The women faced brutality, while striking for running water and decent housing. Even their children were jailed.

Here, the past and present come together. When the movie about the mining strike, Salt of the Earth, was filmed in Silver City, N.M., in 1953, with the real life heroes of this strike, McCarthyism struck, and the filming went underground. In the next 10 years, only 12 theaters showed the film.


Wikipedia states about Salt of the Earth, "Director Herbert Biberman was one of the Hollywood screenwriters and directors who refused to answer the House Committee on Un-American Activities on questions of CPUSA affiliation in 1947. The Hollywood Ten were cited and convicted for contempt of Congress and jailed. Biberman was imprisoned in the Federal Correctional Institution at Texarkana for six months. After his release he directed this film.^[3] Other participants who made the film and were blacklisted by the Hollywood studios include: Paul Jarrico, Will Geer, Rosaura Revueltas, and Michael Wilson."

Today, those miners and the movie have survived the tentacles of McCarthyism. The attacks to banish Salt of the Earth only served to cement it as legend.

The banning of Rethinking Columbus, 500 Years of Chicano History, and all the other books banned by Tucson public schools, reserves their place in history. The voices of Rosalie Little Thunder, Lakota, Peter Blue Cloud, Mohawk, and all the others, are now assured of standing the tests of time.

For permission to repost in full, contact brendanorrell@gmail.com, or feel free to share the link.

Also see:
Heatstroke: Scrounging for banned books in Tucson, with list of banned books and Censored News videos with Tucson students:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/07/heatstroke-scrounging-for-banned.html

Copyright Brenda Norrell

Navajo Human Rights Commission report on relocation rights violations

NNHRC releases its relocation public hearing report citing human rights violations

By Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission
Posted at Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

Navajo human rights officials release their “Public Hearing Report: The Impact of the Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act of 1974—P.L. 93-531 et al.”

SAINT MICHAELS, Navajo Nation -- The Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission distributed its report, “Public Hearing Report: The Impact of the Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act of 1974—P.L. 93-531 et al.,” to representatives of the Navajo Nation about Diné citizens’ human rights violations on Friday, August 3, 2012. To read the report, go to www.nnhrc.navajo-nsn.gov.

On July 6, 2012, commissioners for NNHRC unanimously adopted the public hearing report in a resolution (NNHRCJULY-21-12) as one of two last actions before ending their four year term on July 14, 2012.

NNHRC adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2008 as a minimum standard of achievement for NNHRC when advocating for and protecting the human rights of Navajo citizens. With that, UNDRIP provided the standard to ascertain human rights violations in NNHRCs public hearing report.

Presently, NNHRC is the only Navajo Nation governmental entity using the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a minimal standard of achievement.
What is not widely known is that the Navajo Nation officials presented recommendations to a working group when the Declaration was in draft form and had advocated its adoption by the U.N. General Assembly for nearly 15 years. In 2007, the United Nations adopted UNDRIP and later the United States as a member state to the United Nations did too, in 2010.
Interestingly, “[m]any of the Navajo families who are suffering from the Navajo-Hopi relocation program have journeyed to faraway places such as Geneva, Switzerland, in order to present their stories to international bodies,” according to NNHRCs resolution. Further, “[m]any of these international travels coincided with the Navajo Nation’s advocacy for the adoption of UNDRIP.” As a result, “the input and advocacy by the Navajo families who are directly impacted by the Navajo-Hopi relocation resulted in the United Nations General Assembly adopting Article 10 of UNDRIP.”
Article 10 of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states,
“Indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or territories.” No relocation shall take place without the free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous peoples concerned and after agreement on just and fair compensation and, where possible, with the option of return.”
Decisively, according to NNHRCs resolution the commission found that, “Navajo families and individuals [who] were relocated from their traditionally owned and used homelands, including those [who] remained on their lands under arrangements, have egregiously suffered, and continue to grieve, largely from the long lasting and devastating impacts on their lives.”
Glimpse at the Report
The report provides a sincere acknowledgement section from the commissioners, a summary of the historical account of the Navajo-Hopi land settlement, an overview of the international human rights laws including standards of assessing the impacts of relocation, a comprehensive summary of the testimonies provided by Diné and non-Diné individuals, 22 findings, and 16 recommendations.

As an example, the first finding in the report states, “Because the Navajo-Hopi Relocation Act falls within the scope of human rights violations under the standards of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission recommends P.L. 93-531 et al., be repealed. Navajo lands should be returned to the Navajo Nation and all efforts to compete relocation should be halted immediately.”

Finally, NNHRC states, “The legacy of [Public Law] 93-531 et al. has been a source of profound dislocation, alienation, and trauma for Diné citizens who have been forced to relocate from their homeland and based upon investigation, NNHRC finds the forced relocation of over [ten] thousand Navajos is a clear violation of their human rights.”

The Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission, initiated this process with its charge to conduct public hearings on and off the Navajo Nation to determine the state of race relations between Navajos—Diné, and non-Navajos.  The state of race relations was assessed after NNHRC held a series of public hearings in 25 neighboring communities surrounding the Navajo Nation to determine if Navajo human rights were being violated. At that time, about 158 people testified. Many of whom were relocated as a result of the Navajo-Hopi Settlement Act of 1974—P.L.93-531.

Following the race relations hearings, two months later in 2009, to focus directly about the impact of the Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act of 1974, NNHRC conducted seven public hearings and received 124 testimonies. NNHRC conducted public hearings in Birdsprings, Navajo Nation; Dilkon, Navajo Nation; Tonalea, Navajo Nation; Pinon, Navajo Nation; Sanders, Navajo Nation; Flagstaff, Ariz., and in Tuba City, Navajo Nation beginning on November 17, 2009 to January 14, 2010. 

Throughout the week, NNHRC will provide a series of statements to better provide a comprehensive overview of the testimonies, NNHRC findings and recommendations, redress, and Commissioners’ concerns to the public through different media efforts. 


Rachelle Todea,Public Information Officer
Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission
P.O. Box 1689
Window Rock, Navajo Nation (AZ)  86515
Phone: (928) 871-7436
Fax: (928) 871-7437
rtodea@navajo-nsn.gov
www.nnhrc.navajo-nsn.gov

"Indigenous peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development," according to Article 3 of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, G.A. Res. 61/295, U.N. Doc A/RES/295 (Sept. 13, 2007), 46 I.L.M 1013 (2007).

First Nations march against tarsands

    
More Than 250 First Nations and Allies From Across North America Gather In Alberta To Raise Awareness
First Nations delegations from British Columbia and Ontario show growing concern and resolve against tar sands infrastructure projects across Canada.

Tar Sands Healing Walk
Press statement
http://acfnchallenge.wordpress.com/2012/08/04/tar-sands-healing-walk-press-release/

French translation:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.fr/2012/08/first-nations-march-against-tarsands.html
http://www.chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=915
FORT MCMURRAY ALBERTA (August 4, 2012) – Hundreds of First Nations leaders from BC, Alberta, the NWT and Ontario along with First Nation actress Tantoo Cardinal and allies from across North America, gathered in Fort McMurray today, to walk 13-kilometres through the visceral landscape of tar sands operations to bring attention to the destructive impacts of tar sands projects and pipelines on surrounding communities and the environment.
First Nation representatives from the Heiltsuk (BC), Yinka Dene (BC), Coastal First Nations (BC), the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, Six Nations (Ontario) and Aamijiwnaang (Ontario) joined with local First Nations leaders in a traditional mixing of the waters ceremony, bringing water from their respective territories as a symbol of importance of the protection of water and the sacred connection to mother earth.
Local elders led the group in prayers along the route that was once valuable northern Boreal forest and fertile traditional hunting, fishing and gathering grounds, stopping in the four directions to lay down tobacco as an offering for healing of the land.
“We have come from all over North America to walk together through the heart of the destruction caused by the ever-expanding tar sands and offer prayers for the healing of the land and its people,” said Dene National Chief Bill Erasmus. “For more than 500 years governments have fought over our lands and resources. It’s time the provincial and federal governments sit down with the First Nations, the rightful owners of these lands and resources, to decide if and when these lands should be developed.”
The third annual healing walk was organized by Keepers of the Athabasca, a network of First Nation, Metis and allied communities along the Athabasca River that includes people whose lives have been directly impacted by tar sands operations.
“The places where we used to pick berries and find our medicines have been destroyed by rapid tar sands projects,” said Anthony Ladouceur, Councillor of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. “Our people have lived here for thousands of years, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to continue to live off the land with industry expanding all around us.”
The Alberta tar sands currently produce approximately 1.8 million barrels of oil per day; if industry and government’s expansion plans are approved that number could reach six million barrels per day. Local opposition to Shell’s two proposed open pit mine applications is growing, along with North American-wide resistance to pipeline proposals. Four pipelines are being proposed to transport tar sands oil: Enbridge Northern Gateway, Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain, Trans Canada Keystone XL, and Enbridge Line 9 reversal.
“I am deeply honoured to have the opportunity to participate in the 3rd Annual Tar Sands Healing Walk,” said Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs. “This sacred walk serves to remind us that we, as parents and grandparents, have the unconditional responsibility to safeguard and pass on the legacy of respecting and caretaking Mother Earth, entrusted to us by our ancestors, to our children and grandchildren.”
“This walk creates strength and unity among the people who have to live with the destructive impacts of tar sands. Together, we are more empowered to ensure a clean and healthy world for future generations,” said Roland Woodward Chair of the Keepers of the Athabasca.
The walk was not a protest, but a spiritual gathering to offer prayers for the healing of Mother Earth and all those negatively impacted by tar sands projects and associated infrastructure. Participants walked along Highway 63 past Suncor and Syncrude’s operations to help heal what has been destroyed and to give each other the spiritual strength to carry on.

US Citizens to lead anti-drone march in northern Pakistan

Medea Benjamin in Tucson: Obama's Tuesday kill list responsible for assassination of 16-year-old from Denver

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

TUCSON -- President Obama's Tuesday kill list is responsible for the assassination of a 16-year-old boy from Denver, Medea Benjamin of CodePink said here today. Describing the US program of targeted assassinations using drones, the CIA out of control, and the US Congress refusing to act, Benjamin said it is time for US citizens to show the world they do not support US drone assassinations in Pakistan and elsewhere.

Benjamin called for citizens in Tucson to join the march with Pakistanis in northern Pakistan, during the week of September 21, and show the world that the people of the US seek global peace and understanding, and do not support US drone killings.

"President Obama signs off on the kill list," Benjamin said, speaking at a public gathering in the downtown Tucson library.

Obama meets with his advisers on Tuesday to review the list. "They decide who will live and who will die," Benjamin said. Any male on the ground of military age is considered fair game.

She said that in a signature strike, drone operators manning the computer screens can fire at anything that looks suspicious, on the other side of the world, without the suspect being given a chance to surrender, or defend themselves against charges.

Benjamin, author of "Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control," described the drone warfare that has killed both the US Constitution and innocent people, including children and teens, in Pakistan and Yemen.

During the Bush administration, drone strikes were every 40 days. During the Obama administration, the drone strikes increased to 1 every 3 days. Currently, there is a drone strike every 4 days.

US drone killing in western Pakistan.

Those drone strikes have killed 175 children. Few US citizens ever see the photos of those children who are disintegrated or burned by those drones. Sometimes only pieces of their flesh can be found for burial. A drone's victim never hears the missile that kills him or her.

Benjamin described how one teenager, Tariq Aziz, attempted to take the case of a relative killed by a US drone to court in Pakistan. After meeting with attorneys, Tariq was assassinated by a US drone.

Benjamin pointed out that this type of US killing is counter-productive and driving people in other countries toward extremists out of despair and desperation.

Anwar Al-Awlaki was a 16-year-old from Denver. He was on Facebook and his friends said he was a normal teen, not interested in politics, who enjoyed rap and hip hop. He was enjoying an evening sharing a meal with his cousin in his family's home village in Yemen, when he and his cousin were assassinated by a US drone strike.

Obama refuses to respond to questions about the US drone killing of Anwar Al-Awlaki of Denver.

"Barack Obama is responsible for this killing," Benjamin said.

The US drone operations have been largely kept secret until now and operated by the CIA and Joint Special Operations.

While Americans falsely believe that they are the only ones with drones, she said that globally, drones are part of the arms race. Israel is the number one exporter of drones, and the number two producer of drones. Meanwhile, Iran is working on its own drone production plans with Venezuela, after Iran retrieved a US drone. China now is speeding up production of drones.

Benjamin said that in the US, the FAA knows that drones are not safe. She pointed out that one large Global Hawk drone recently crashed in Maryland. Besides being affected by bad weather, she pointed out that drones are unsafe because they can be hacked into by computer hackers.

Because of Freedom of Information Act requests, it is now known that the US has issued 700 domestic drone permits. Of those, 200 are active. She pointed out that the Arizona governor is pushing for Arizona to become a test site for domestic use of drones. In an obvious reference to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Benjamin pointed out that the thought of drones in the hands of some Arizona law enforcement agencies is frightening to consider. The audience moaned when the Arizona governor was mentioned.

Benjamin said that eight drones are being used by the US Border Patrol. However, she also pointed out that the drones are not effective in locating illegal immigrants or in detecting illegal drugs along the US/Mexico border.

The universities in Arizona are among the US universities involved in developing drone technology. Now, police departments are using drones. The Montgomery County, Texas, SWAT team has a drone which can be equipped with tasers, weapons and devices to intercept cell phone calls.

"The CIA is committing mass murder," Benjamin said, pointing out that private contractors are also operating drones.

Benjamin said the CIA is out of control and Congress is doing nothing to bring the CIA back into control. She points out that the US has not declared war on Pakistan and that the US violates international law by carrying out assassinations without chance of surrender or trial.

Benjamin hopes the people of Tucson will follow the example of the Occupy Movement in Buffalo, New York. They plan to send three representatives to march with the people of Pakistan against drones, and for global peace, during the week of September 21.

Pointing out that there are many heroes among us, she described how Fr. Louis Vitale at the age of 80 just keeps going out there to protest and getting arrested. Among those arrests was Vitale's arrest near Tucson, when he knelt to pray, and oppose US torture, at the US Army Intelligence Center at Fort Huachuca.

Fort Huachuca, at Sierra Vista southeast of Tucson, is among the largest drone training centers.

Describing the US agenda of "spying and killing" with drones, Benjamin said there were only 50 drones, being used by the Pentagon, in the year 2000. Today, there are at least 7,000 US drones, and the number could be as high as 10,000 if the US were to release all the facts.

Benjamin said it is unknown how many drones the US is using as killing drones.

As outrage continues to grow over the US war in Afghanistan, even Republicans say it is time to halt spending $2 billion a week to keep the war going. When the US pulled troops out of Iraq, the drones were left behind with the US State Department.

Today, eight out of 10 Americans say it is OK to use drones to kill "suspects," who have not been given a chance to prove their innocence.

Currently, US drones can be as tiny as a dragonfly or hummingbird, and are now produced to look like both. Drones can also fit into backpacks. The Predator and Reaper drones are the size of small planes, while the larger drones, the Global Hawks, are the size of a large aircraft.

US killer drones are operated by Airforce personnel sitting in air-conditioned rooms all over the US, staring at a screen showing people thousands and thousands of miles away.

"They are pressing a button and killing people," Benjamin said.

The United Nations has objected to the US drone killings, stating that the US has promoted a "Play Station" mentality toward war.

Benjamin said soldiers pressing those buttons have the same level of post traumatic stress syndrome as those on the battlefield.

Pointing out how Wikileaks has revealed truth about the US role in deaths by drones, Benjamin said Bradley Manning remains in prison, while Bush and fellow criminals remain free. Further, she pointed out how news reporters today are faced with censorship, or being fired, if they report the truth about the United States program of drone assassinations.

Meanwhile, in Tucson, Censored News investigations reveal that the University of Arizona has been involved in drone research. This drone research led to an operation producing drones near the Tucson International Airport. The operation is on Tohono O'odham land of the San Xavier District. San Xavier District accepted the joint venture contract for Advanced Ceramics, after the Pascua Yaqui initially accepted, then rejected the project. Today, few details have been made public about the production of drones there.

Tohono O'odham human rights activists have boycotted the University of Arizona because of its role in the development of drones and border spy equipment, and oppose the manufacture of drones on O'odham land.

Article copyright Brenda Norrell, to repost in full, contact brendanorrell@gmail.com, or feel free to share the link.