The Joint Terrorism Task Force Division of the FBI Visits an Austin Peace Activist at Home to Question Her About Pre-Crimes ...

-thanks to Social Justice Now

Peace Groups Permanently Shut Down the AEC!

June 10, 2010

Army announcement made just days before planned protest. Several large demonstrations, non-violent civil resistance, and regular vigils contributed to its demise

Franklin Mills Mall, Philadelphia, PA – A coalition of thirty peace groups has proven triumphant in their goal of forever shutting down the “Army Experience Center” in a suburban shopping mall in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported today that the Army plans to permanently close the facility. http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/96031939.html

After almost two years of glorifying the “Army experience” and U.S. wars through video and war games, the Army Experience Center at Franklin Mills Malls announced it will shut down on July 31, 2010. The $13 Million, 14,500 square foot Army Experience Center at Franklin Mills Mall boasts dozens of video game computers and X-Box video game consoles with various interactive, military-style shooting games. The facility has sophisticated Apache helicopter and Humvee simulators that allow teens to simulate the killing of Arabs and Afghans. Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Rob Watson compared the Army Experience Center to “a heavy dose of candy cigarettes.”

Dozens of local and national peace groups joined the “Shut Down the Army Experience Center” effort in January 2009, soon after the heavily marketed Center got national press coverage. The mall was the site of several protests of hundreds of people, with more than a dozen arrests.

Six of those arrested were acquitted by a Philadelphia trial judge on May 24, 2010, and prior to that at a trial last year, six arrested were also acquitted.

Elaine Brower, one of those arrested twice, whose son joined the Marines at age 17 and served 3 tours in Afghanistan & Iraq, became a vocal opponent of the AEC. She said today,

“This is a victory for the entire peace and anti-war movement. The team work and coalition building that was accomplished led to our success. We were relentless in our struggle to shut this center down, and we did it strategically. As they say 'a people united will never be defeated!'”

When the center opened the Army announced it was designed as a pilot program and would decide whether to launch them nationally. As recently as August, 2009, however, Jared Auchey, Company Commander at Franklin Mills, was boasting of the center’s “success” and claiming others were being planned.

Former US Army SSgt. Jesse Hamilton, now a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, stated today, “By portraying war as a game, the AEC glorified violence to our children and disrespected those Soldiers who gave their lives in combat. As a combat veteran, nothing makes me happier than to know that the AEC will no longer have the ability to corrupt our children’s minds and disrespect our deceased war heroes.”

Bill Deckhart, Coordinator of the BuxMont Coalition for Peace Action stated, “I am just elated. Being a peace activist we don’t get a lot of wins so we must savor this victory. There’s still lots of work to do and we need to help create a world that can be peaceful and does not need to think about military recruiters and sending people to kill or be killed for corporate profits.”

The Army is planning an official announcement today and a news conference tomorrow, before another large demonstration planned for Saturday.

A Peace Walk will be conducted on June 19th. More information posted below.

-thanks to Shut Down the Army Experience Center

Military Neglecting Fort Hood Soldiers' Medical Needs

Dahr Jamail, t r u t h o u t | Report, Tuesday 08 June 2010

At least 50 soldiers from Fort Hood who have medical profiles that should prohibit them from military training have been sent to the National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, California, regardless of their conditions.

Truthout spoke with some of these soldiers on June 7, before they were to fly back to Fort Hood the next day.

"We were brought out here to NTC after being told we would be given some of the best medical treatment out here," a soldier who is an Iraq war veteran diagnosed with post-traumatic-stress disorder (PTSD), speaking on condition of anonymity because he feared military reprisals, told Truthout. "But when we were here at Ft. Irwin, nobody would see us. It took my wife calling the Chaplain to get my medication refilled. We've gone a month without seeing a psychiatrist. Some of us see them weekly, some twice a week, and we haven't been able to receive any of this."

This, despite the soldier having been given his PTSD diagnosis by the military itself.

He admitted to Truthout that he needs the medication because of anxiety, depression, and homicidal thoughts.

"There're people out here who've had to cancel 17 psychiatric appointments to be out here," the soldier added. "There are people needing physical treatment that have thrown out their backs."

The soldier, who is based at Fort Hood, explained that his commander, Captain Ryan McDonald, "talked to my doctor and told him I could continue my treatment at Ft. Irwin. This obviously isn't happening, so my doctor has been trying to get me back, and I've been unable to see anyone. They are two months behind here and can't see us, but said they couldn't help anyway because we're not permanently stationed there, we're supposed to be at Ft. Hood."

Captain McDonald heads a unit that has, according to the soldiers Truthout spoke with at Ft. Irwin, at least 55 members at the NTC who have medical profiles that are supposed to exclude them from being around combat training, weapons, and ammunition.

Brandi Owen, whose husband was sent to the NTC along with the rest of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment told Truthout she believes that Capt. McDonald is responsible for pressuring doctors of many of the 3rd ACR soldiers into allowing them to be sent to the NTC.

"[My husband's] psychiatrist here at Ft. Hood cleared him to go [to NTC] at the last minute because his commander told him he'd get the same treatment there as he did here," Owen explained to Truthout. "He left here May 16, and his next appointment was supposed to be the next day. He had none of his sedating medication. He was given a profile by his doctor saying he was not to have combat training exposure, but NTC is training soldiers for deployment."

Owen's husband, an Iraq war veteran who has also been diagnosed with PTSD, suffers from that, along with anxiety disorder and depression.

"His doctor released him to go to NTC, assuming he'd get treatment," she continued. "Since he's been there, not once has he seen a doctor. It took them three days to fill his meds. Once you're off those meds, you get suicidal."

Cynthia Thomas runs the Under the Hood Café in Killeen, Texas, on the outskirts of the base. The café is described as a place meant to provide support for soldiers and their families.

"There are dozens of spouses here at Fort Hood whose husbands who are soldiers here have been diagnosed with PTSD, traumatic brain injury (TBI) and other problems and they are being sent to NTC anyway," Thomas told Truthout. "Even though their doctors are telling them they can't be around live-fire or weapons, they are being sent there anyway."

Capt. McDonald, who is in charge of many of the soldiers, has, according to Thomas and all of the spouses Truthout spoke with, been "calling their doctors and telling them the soldiers can be taken to NTC, and that they would be given medical treatment there."

Brandi Owen, outraged at the lack of medical treatment for her husband, contacted her congressman, John Carter, of the 31st District of Texas.

"I contacted Congressman Carter on May 13, just before my husband was sent to NTC, and his aid told me that there had already been 26 Congressional complaints about these guys being sent to NTC," Owen explained.

Her attempts to get answers via her husbands' chain of command and various generals have only been met with frustration.

"I've talked to all of his chain of command, the generals here, and at Ft. Irwin, they always transfer me to someone else, or say they can't help me or there is nothing they can do," Owen said. "I have a notebook full of numbers they refer me to, or tell me to make an IG [Inspector General] complaint, which I do, but I still haven't heard from any of them. The Chain of Command doesn't do anything. He's going on two and a half months without seeing a doctor. He needs meds! He needs a doctor! NTC has given him flashbacks from Iraq. He can't sleep and can't eat. Now I'm worried about what he'll be like when he gets back. It's going to be worse than when he left."

Truthout spoke with another soldier at the NTC, a facility that describes itself as "The World's Premier Training Center for the World's Finest Military."

"About three days before I was told I was leaving for NTC, I went home to pack and flipped out and tore my house apart," the soldier, speaking on condition of anonymity because he too feared reprisals for speaking to the media, told Truthout. "I went to the ER, they talked about putting me in the psych ward, but they put me on homicide watch because they feared I would kill my chain of command. They sent me out here, supposedly with a 30-day supply of narcotics, but I ran out. I went four days without my meds, and they didn't even fill one of them."

The soldier, an Iraq war veteran, said of his time there, "I had friends blown up. I've seen all kinds of shit I'd really preferred not to have seen and it is messing with my head."

"I can't be around simulated combat or combat exposure," he explained while talking with Truthout from the NTC on June 7. "But I'm here on a FOB, there are 50 caliber machine guns and ammo everywhere, and I have access to all this, and nobody in my chain of command gives a shit. I can't sleep at night. It's ruthless shit out here. I haven't seen anything like this before."

The soldier believes he is not going to be deployed because his medical profile lists him as being "non-deployable."

Truthout asked him why, he believed, he was sent to NTC.

"I got sent out here because they get $8,000 per head for every soldier out here for their budget," he said. "You have people here on respirators, people with cervical cancer, it's not just me…there are about 50 soldiers here that should not be here, just from my unit, 3rd ACR. There're about 5,500 soldiers in the regiment right now, and about 50 of us that are absolutely not supposed to be out here, period."

Crystal Hess, herself a veteran of two tours in Iraq and two in Afghanistan, is dismayed by the fact that her husband, Specialist Cory Hess, despite his having a broken hand and PTSD, was sent to NTC.

"He was sent to NTC in order to prepare to deploy to Iraq in August," Hess told Truthout. "He's got anger and depression issues. He's been blown up multiple times in Iraq, he has issues with his knees, back, shoulder, and I'm pushing for him to be screened for TBI, because he has persistent headaches."

Hess explained that she has tried talking with commanders at Fort Hood about her situation, "and asked them to step up and take care of this, because it's affecting our home life. Cory has anger issues because of his deployment."

While her husband was sent back to Fort Hood early from NTC only because "I called the Department of Army IG, and bitched them all out and said, 'fix it.' So they said he needed immediate surgery and sent him home. Now he's been home for six days, he has no medicine, he's in pain, every move he makes with his hand leaves him on the ground in pain. I'm probably going to have to take him to the ER to get him pain meds. They are doing nothing to help him."

Hess also blames Capt. McDonald for having pressured Cory's doctor into sending him to NTC, despite his injuries.

Capt. McDonald was deployed to Iraq from 2007-2008 out of Ft. Riley, Kansas, as a Logistics Advisor, with the National Police Transition Team and the Iraq Assistance Group. In 2009 he became the Deputy Regimental S4 with the 3rd ACR. This is apparently his first time in direct command of soldiers.

"Capt. McDonald was not deployed with the guys in 3rd ACR but took command of the unit after they came back from Iraq in January 2009," Thomas explained. "The soldiers could not tell me much about him other than that McDonald has no leadership skills and does not take the family members into consideration."

According to Thomas, McDonald is not married, "Which could explain why he doesn't give a crap what the spouses have to say."

She added, however, that the problem is not only with Capt. McDonald, but with "the entire chain of command at Fort Hood."

When asked about this situation, a public affairs officer at Ft. Hood told Truthout, "All the soldiers sent to NTC have, when necessary, been cleared to go by both their commanders and their doctors."

"The military are not taking care of our husbands," Stephanie Wallin, whose husband was also sent to NTC despite his having a medical profile, told Truthout. "Honestly they don't care about our soldiers, or the families. My husband has PTSD and should not have been sent to NTC, but they sent him. And when they sent him, they said he'd get meds and attention, and he didn't."

Wallin explained that she and several other wives called a military chaplain to plead for help.

"I told them I was scared because my husband was saying he didn't know what to do and couldn't deal with it anymore," she said. "It's really hard on me. My husband has homicidal thoughts, and I have three kids. So I don't know how he's going to deal with the kids. I want to know why the chain of command lies. I don't know why they say they are all about soldiers and families and they'll make sure they'll get the help they need. They don't. He was diagnosed with PTSD. It's very, very hard. I'm very, very stressed out. My husband is not the man I married. They pushed him until he broke, and then they've pushed him beyond that."

Wallin said that she has "talked to everyone; generals, chaplains, commanders, and nobody wants to listen to us spouses."

Wallin said that when she attempted to talk to her husband's commander about the situation to ask for help,

"they told my husband, 'Why don't you have your wife on a leash?' Then they tried to punish him for my coming there to try to help him and said I was trying to get him in trouble."

"The Army is not what it says it is," Wallin continued. "Recruiters make it sound so good, but once you sign up, you're screwed. My kids wonder what they did wrong because of what the Army is doing to their father. They feel like they've lost their father. I don't know what to do anymore. There's a whole bunch of soldiers who need this story out. They need help, and they are not getting the medical help they need."

Vietnam Veteran Ron Kovic salutes US Iraq War Resisters

New Caravans heading to the Gaza strip and Oaxaca, Mexico

Posted by Ahni on June 8, 2010

Despite the armed attacks on two separate aid caravans on April 27th and May 31st, the international community is determined to bring desperately needed supplies to Palestinians in Gaza city and a Triqui village, on the other side of the world, in Oaxaca, Mexico.

On April 27, the international community was stunned to learn that a paramilitary group known as UBISORT had attacked a peaceful humanitarian aid caravan en route to the indigenous Triqui village of San Juan Copala in Oaxaca.

The government of Oaxaca has since blamed the attack, which resulted in the deaths of two human rights observers, on the actual organizers of the caravan. An absurd claim to say the least.

The caravan was attempting to cross an illegal blockade that UBSIORT (an organization founded by members of Oaxaca's ruling party, the Institutional Revolution Party, or PRI) has imposed on the the Triqui village since January 2010. The blockade has made it impossible for the villagers to leave or gain access to food, water or other basic necessities.

Since April 27, there have been two additional attacks on the Triqui village. On May 14, UBISORT kidnapped six women and five children who had made it past the blockade to the UBISORT controlled community of La Sabana, "where they were told that they would be executed if they tried to return to Copala with food and medicine", notes a press release from Oaxacan Voices Constructing Autonomy and Freedom (VOCAL). Fortunately, the group of women and children have since been released.

The second attack occurred 6 days later, on May 20. UBISORT shot and killed Timoteo Alejandro Ramírez, leader of the Indigenous Autonomous Municipality, and his wife Cleriberta Castro.

Despite the clear and immediate danger in Oaxaca, a new caravan has been organized for the Triqui People.

The caravan, officially announced on May 13, has been

Named “Bety Cariño and Jyri Jaakkola” in honour of the two human rights observers who died on April 27, the caravan was officially announced on May 13.

The caravan, with its accompaniment of about 300 people, is already on its way to San Copala and it is expected to arrive sometime today, June 8.

With “Bety Cariño and Jyri Jaakkola” travelling in Oaxaca, Mexico, the international community continues to cry out over the Israel government's shameful attack on the Gaza-bound aid flotilla on May 31.

In total, nine activists were killed and nearly 700 were arrested after Israeli troops raided the convoy of six ships dubbed "the Freedom Flotilla". The flotilla was carrying roughly 10,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza.

Israel has imposed a blockade on Gaza since 2007, when Hamas took control of the Palestinian territory from the rival Palestinian group Fatah. The military blockade has stranded more than 1.4 million Palestinian men, women and children to utter poverty.

It's a form of "collective punishment," says Amnesty International. "Rather than targeting armed groups, the blockade mainly hits the most vulnerable, such as children (who make up more than half of the population in Gaza), the elderly, the sick and the Gaza Strip's large refugee population." The region is plagued by mass shortages and military attacks.

The Freedom Flotilla, with its 700 unarmed civilians from 40 different countries, was going to pass through the military blockade when it was headed off by Israeli forces.

According to the Flotilla's organizers, the troops opened fire as soon they stormed the convoy. The government, on the other hand, claims that activists on the flagship attacked them first.

Hundreds of thousands of people around the world have condemned the brutal military assault; and they, along with scores of human rights groups, the United Nations and several governments are demanding a full and impartial investigation. Others are also calling for a Boycott and for Sanctions against the state of Israel.

Sadly, another Gaza-bound aid ship was seized by Israeli forces 3 days ago, on June 5. The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC), which dispatched the aid ship dubbed "Rachel Corrie", has released a statement condemning the "hijacking," stating, "For the second time in less then a week, Israeli forces stormed and hijacked an unarmed aid ship, kidnapping its passengers and forcing the ship toward Ashdod Port in southern Israel. It is not yet known whether any of the Rachel Corrie's passengers sustained injuries during the attack, but they are believed to be unharmed."

The Free Gaza Movement has since announced that they will be sending a second flotilla in place of the Rachel Corrie; but it's not expected to set out for another couple months.

-thanks to Intercontinental Cry

Laura released by border guards, makes it a little late to War Resister event in Buffalo

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'Campaigners' come to Babeville

Once again armed border guards held and harassed Laura while she was on her way to our War Resister event here in Buffalo. She works with the War Resister Support Campaign in Toronto and is doing nothing illegal. In her blog she wrote:

"I was in Buffalo, New York, last night for a screening of "War Resisters Speak Out" and a discussion about Iraq War resisters in Canada, and why we work to win them sanctuary.

It was a great event. I think people learned a lot and were moved by the resisters' stories, told on film in their own words. We strengthened connections with the peace movement across these artificial national borders, and people gave generously to the war resister legal defense fund. The organizers are building support for a larger event on the Canadian side which will bring together peace activists and war resisters, and continue this important work."

She went on to say: ". . . yes, I was detained. Same drill as last time, but they held me twice as long. The border guard in the booth asks the usual questions, then swipes my passport. As soon as he does that, I am asked to surrender my car keys, four armed guards descend on the car and escort me inside. This time the inside guard also asked a series of ridiculous and meaningless questions, seemingly trying to trip me up or catch me in a lie. They held me for an hour, then returned me to the car, which had been searched."

There are so many outrageous events occurring in the world, I'm out of breath. Really. I'm wishing I had a better handle on what I should be doing. I'm not a writer like Laura Kamminker or Dahr Jamail. I don't have the ability to organize and share or even think like Noam Chomsky or Howard Zinn. But like many of us, I'm hoping that together we can find some answers.

I've learned so much in the past year about resisters around the world and have met some phenomenal people. The more I learn the more I realize how little we ever see of the courageous efforts by so many against the huge vehicles of injustice. When I might have been overwhelmed by the onslaught of cruel acts and policies, these efforts continue to spark hope for me.

'Campaigners', Christine, Michelle and Janet with Marilyn and Bill from Rochester's Military Families Speak Out

The turning point for Canadian policy towards US war resisters during the Vietnam War came when some border guards stopped a war resister at the border and turned him over to the US military. Trudeau heard about it and opened the borders to "draft dodgers" and "deserters". An estimated 150,000 went to Canada with about half of them staying permanently.

The problem is the current Prime Minister, Harper, has a completely different attitude. His position is that these soldiers should fulfill the military contract they signed. Although Canada never agreed with the Iraq war and sent no troops, he still holds these men and women to an agreement they made with a government that lied to them and went to war illegally and under false pretenses. He also is not concerned with the fact that many of these soldiers changed their views after experiencing the mistreatment of the Iraq people by the US military. They are actually defending their constitution by refusing to participate.

Harper puts these soldiers and their families in a precarious position as they go through Canadian legal system trying to win their right to stay in Canada. When they run out of appeals, Harper sends them back across the border into the arms of the military to serve prison time for doing the right thing.

Thankfully there are the people in Canada who don't agree with the Prime Minister. The wonderful men and women who came down to share their stories with us are doing everything they can to feed, house, find jobs and provide legal assistance for our GI Resisters.

Toronto 'Campaigner' and Vietnam War Resister, Charlie Diamond

While the Canadians work to make Canada a safe and hospitable refuge for GI resisters once again, the work needed on our side of the border is huge. If these Canadians are willing to do all the work they do, we should be prepared to do even more since it is our government's illegal policies we oppose. It is our soldiers and their families being forced to defend the constitution by escaping the military.

Michelle Robideaux and Mary Byer

A tribute to Rachel Corrie

I was hurrying about trying to get some last minute things done. Patty needed some help rounding up a few things for her show later in the day and I needed to put some last minute things together for the GI Resisters event with the War Resister Support Campaign that evening. And I wanted to make sure Quincy got to play with his friends at the Bark Park.

There was Dan on the side of the Elmwood with his huge peace flag sticking out the window of his car and several posters condemning the Israeli massacre of humanitarian activists on the aid ship, the Mavi Marmara. The ship was in International waters headed to break the blockade of Gaza when they were boarded by Israeli state pirates who murdered nine of the activists.

I stopped to let Dan know I thought of him twice in the last two days. The first time was when I was listening to a report about the Rachel Corrie, another ship headed to Gaza with humanitarian aid. He is the only person I encounter who makes some reference to Rachel Corrie just about every other time I see him. Sometimes it’s verbal, often it’s visual.

The second time was earlier in the day. I was putting up a poster about the War Resister event later that evening at Spot Coffee on Chippewa. There was a little postcard-sized picture of Rachel on the shelf under the bulletin board. I thought about her for a few minutes and then continued on. I mentioned it to him and he said he had been there earlier in the day.

Israeli pirate flag

He pops up anywhere, but more often than not I see him doing his counter recruitment work in front of a recruiter’s lair. He is committed to his issues and often defends them verbally from his post. The last time I saw him, he was on his way to do his annual vigil commemorating Rachel Corrie. She died after being mashed under the blade of an Israeli-operated CAT bulldozer while she was protesting the Israeli destruction of Palestinian homes. She was 23. All the reports I ever read indicated it was not an accident.

It seemed so right to honor Rachel by naming the Irish aid ship after such a heroic figure. She and the ship were on peaceful humanitarian missions into uncharted territories trying to help the Palestinian people with their basic needs. Needs denied by Israel and their main supporter, the United States.

Thank you Dan for taking the time to remind me and others about the people in these struggles.

Israelis storm aid ship in international waters: Estimates vary: up to 20 killed

Istanbul: 10.000 protest Israeli's military assault on six aid ships

(Thanassis Stavrakis/Associated Press)

Distress Video:

"If you're watching this that probably means that the flotilla has either been attacked or stopped at sea" Pre-recorded distress video from a freedom flotilla activist. I'ts a call for civil society to mobilize support.

-thanks to Victor Agosto

see also: Israel storms Gaza-bound aid ships

Jeremy Hinzman hearing in Toronto

I drove up to Jeremy’s hearing in Toronto with Bruce Beyer yesterday. We left early, he drove, I relaxed and we chatted. Bruce is passionate about the War resisters. He has a history with them. He left the US as a resister during the Vietnam War and has spent a lot of time in Canada. He follows their cases like they were his own children.

We met up with some resisters from the Vietnam war at the rally in front of the courthouse. Many of them had stayed in Canada, became citizens and now some work with the War Resister Support Campaign in Toronto. The "campaigners" as they call themselves work tirelessly to help our veterans who have chosen to follow their conscience rather than participate in the terror, occupation and killing our military has forced on the people of Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The campaigners have been meeting every week for years trying to figure out how they can prevent the deportation of these men and women.

The video clip was filmed by Alex Lisman.

VFP will be showing his movie, "War resisters Speak Out" in Buffalo on June 4th at Hallwalls.

Several of the campaigners will be coming to be part of the panel on War Resisters.

Jeremy came to Canada in 2004 with his family. He was the first GI War Resister from the Iraq war. Soon there would be many more.

Jeremy has been appealing decisions for years. When I see him with his family I am always amazed at how wonderful they are in spite of all they have had to go through. It has to be difficult planning a life as a family knowing that at any time they can forced out of the country and into an armed force in the States waiting to split up his family and throw him in prison. I remember the Vietnamese families being physically torn apart by our soldiers and beaten for trying to hold onto their children. This is the same military waiting to get a hold of Jeremy. Once you’ve seen these things over and over again, you know what we are capable of doing. He's been there; he knows what they are capable of doing.

To see them together tears me up. His wife's parents were refugees from the Vietnam War who managed to flee the country. I look into her eyes and see the beautiful women and children that lay in the rice paddy after we killed them. The irony is incredible. Jeremy was enough of a man to refuse to do the same thing to the people in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is a infinite circle of irony and regret that speeds through my head. I, like so many soldiers are free because we didn’t have the insight or humanity to refuse. Jeremy knew what it was about and chose resistance.

Most of these resisters have have been to the wars at least once. They won’t do it again.

In the courtroom, Jeremy's son sat between me and his dad, fidgeting just enough to remind me that he is a normal eight year old boy. Having to listen to a judge express a lack of comprehension over and over had to be as boring to him as it was annoying to me and many of the people observing the hearing. The judge's performance was only outdone by the incompetant attorney for the Crown, Gold. I couldn’t help but wonder if the attorney’s performance even mattered or if the decision had been made before the hearing ever began.

The two women judges not only seemed to understand the case, but had some pointed questions for the crown that had to remain unanswered when they bounced off the incompetent, never shining Gold.

This was juxtaposed by the defense attorney, Alyssa Manning. She was all my organizational fantasies garbed in the same black robes as Gold. I am constantly looking for the paper I just printed or the name of some signicant individual. She alone shined. The onslaught of referrals to the stacks of tabbed preparation materials with copies that had been distributed to each of the judges was just the beginning. Her understanding of the material combined with her presentation, both the content and her incisive delivery blew my mind again and again. She was never at a loss about her case.

You should read Laura's blog, We Move To Canada, for the specifics.

I was honored to sit in the courtroom beside Jeremy and his son and all his supporters who filled the room to capacity. We have grown to love Jeremy and his family.

OCCUPATION OF BORDER PATROL HEADQUATERS DAVIS-MONTHAN AIRFORCE BASE, TUCSON, AZ

MONDAY, MAY 24, 2010

Video by O'odham Solidarity Committee

FIRST NATION AND MIGRANTS OPPOSE SB1070

Demand dignity, human rights, and end to border militarization.

Friday, May 21, 2010 Leilani Clark (520)982-5687

“The militarized border imposed by the U.S. has lead only to cultural and environmental destruction of the indigenous peoples whose land is on or near the border. This militarization brings death and terror for indigenous peoples from other parts of the continent migrating to this land.”

Press statement
TUCSON – More than a dozen people occupied Border Patrol headquarters at Davis-Monthan Airforce Base today in an act of peaceful resistance. The group includes members of Indigenous Nations of Arizona, migrants, people of color and white allies. Six people used chains and other devices to lock themselves in the building. These Arizona residents disrupted the Border Patrol operations to demand that Border Patrol (BP), Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), their parent entity, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Obama administration end militarization of the border, end the criminalization of immigrant communities, and end their campaign of terror which tears families apart through increasing numbers of raids and deportations.

The protesters also call on the State of Arizona to repeal the racist Senate Bill 1070 that criminalizes immigrant communities on the state level, makes it illegal to transport or harbor an undocumented person regardless of family relationship, requires police agencies to engage in racial profiling, and ultimately is an attempt to ethnically cleanse Arizona of those with brown skin. This act of civil disobedience was only the latest in an increasing wave of direct action targeting the federal government’s terrorist immigration policies.

Border militarization destroys Indigenous communities.

The development of the border wall has lead to desecration of our ancestors graves, it has divided our communities and prevents us from accessing sacred places.

Troops and paramilitary law enforcement, detention camps, check points, and citizenship verification are not a solution to migration. We have existed here long before these imposed borders, my elders inform us that we always honored freedom of movement. Why are our communities and the daily deaths at the border ignored? The impacts of border militarization are constantly made invisible in the media, the popular culture of this country and even the mainstream immigrants rights movement which has often pushed for “reform” that means further militarization of the border, which means increased suffering for our communities.

Indigenous communities such as the O’odham, the Pascua Yaqui, Lipan Apache, Kickapoo, and Cocopah along the US/Mexico border have been terrorized with laws and practices like SB1070 for decades. Indigenous people along the border have been forced by border patrol to carry and provide proof of tribal membership when moving across their traditional lands that have been bisected by this imposed border; a border that has been extremely damaging to the cultural and spiritual practices of these communities. Many people are not able to journey to sacred sites because the communities where people live are on the opposite side of the border from these sites. Since the creation of the current U.S./Mexico border, 45 O’odham villages on or near the border have been completely depopulated.

On this day people who are indigenous to Arizona join with migrants who are indigenous to other parts of the Western Hemisphere in demanding a return to traditional indigenous value of freedom of movement for all people. Prior to the colonization by European nations (spaniards, english, french) and the establishment of the european settler state known as the United States and the artificial borders it and other european inspired nation states have imposed; indigenous people migrated, traveled and traded with each other without regard to artificial black lines drawn on maps. U.S. immigration policies dehumanize and criminalize people simply because which side of these artificial lines they were born on. White settlers whose ancestors have only been here at most for a few hundred years have imposed these policies of terror and death on “immigrants” whose ancestors have lived in this hemisphere for tens of thousands of years, for time immemorial.

In addition, the migration that the U.S. government is attempting to stop is driven more than anything else by the economic policies of the U.S. Free trade agreements such as NAFTA have severely reduced the ability of Mexicans and others from the global south to sustain themselves by permitting corporations to extract huge amounts of wealth and resources from these countries into the U.S. This has led to millions of people risking the terror and death that so many face to cross into the U.S. looking for ways to better support their families. Thousand of women, men, children and elders have died crossing just in the last decade. If the U.S. really wants to reduce migration it should end its policies of exploitation and wealth extraction targeted at the global south and instead pursue policies of economic, environmental and social justice for all human beings on the planet, thus reducing the drive to immigrate.

The protesters are demanding:

-An end to border militarization
-The immediate repeal of SB1070 and 287g
-An end to all racial profiling and the criminalization of our communities
-No ethnic cleansing or cultural genocide
-No border patrol encroachment/sweeps on sovereign native land
-No Deportations
-No Raids
-No ID-verification
-No Checkpoints

-Yes to immediate and unconditional regularization (“legalization”) of all people
-Yes to human rights
-Yes to dignity
-Yes to respect
-Yes to respecting Indigenous Peoples inherent right of migration

-thanks to Brenda Norrell at Censored News

more at:

Censored News

O'odham Solidarity Collective