by Deep Green Resistance News Service | Feb 27, 2012 | Repression at Home
By The Associated Press
WikiLeaks said Monday it was publishing a massive trove of leaked emails from the U.S. intelligence analysis firm Stratfor, shedding light on the inner workings of the Texas-based think tank.
The online anti-secrecy group said it had more than 5 million Stratfor emails and it was putting them out in collaboration with two dozen international media organizations. So far, however, only a small selection of the Stratfor emails appear to have been published to WikiLeaks’ website.
“What we have discovered is a company that is a private intelligence Enron,” WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told journalists at London’s Frontline Club, a reference to the Texas energy giant whose spectacular bankruptcy turned it into a byword for corporate malfeasance.
Assange accused Stratfor of running a network of paid informants, monitoring activist groups on behalf of major multinationals and making investments based on its secret intelligence.
Stratfor rejected claims that there was anything improper in the way it handled its informants.
Read more from The Washington Post:
by Deep Green Resistance News Service | Feb 27, 2012 | Colonialism & Conquest, Indigenous Autonomy, Lobbying, Mining & Drilling
By Wirikuta Defense Front
The federal courts have definitively granted the suspension of the violations claimed by the Wixarika (Huichol) People in order that no exploitation permit be granted for the La Luz mining project, in the Municipality of Catorce in San Luis Potosí, so long as the core issue remains unresolved.
Given the failure of the Mexican government to guarantee their human rights and with the immovable objective of the integral protection of the sacred territory of Wirikuta, given the agroindustrial and metalurgical mining threats, the Wixarika people presented the judiciary with an injunction for legal protection demanding respect for the rights that the Mexican government had committed itself to protect at the national and international levels.
Wirikuta, sacred territory of the Wixaritari (Huichols), covers the municipalities of Catorce, Charcas, Matehuala, Villa de Ramos, Villa de Guadalupe y Villa de la Paz en el Estado de San Luis Potosí, was declared in 1994 a Natural Protected Area and Natural Sacred Site by the government of San Luis Potosí and includes approximately 140,000 hectares, a place where the federal government has granted at least 38 mineral concessions to exploit the mineral resources, putting at risk the biodiversity, the continuity of the Chihuahua Desert ecosystem, the water quality, the health of the population and the Wixarika people.
The territorial rights of the indigenous people recognizes not only the lands or surfaces in which the peoples are established, but also contemplates the spaces and territories where they traditionally have access, which includes the habitat and surroundings, meaning the integrity of the natural elements that conform the ecosystem.
The territory of Wirikuta represents for the Wixarika cosmogony the place where the essences of life and the birth of the sun are founded, which represents and indispensable element of their cultural identity and for their subsistence as a native people. In this context it is indispensable that the Mexican government consult with the Wixarika people to obtain their free, previous and informed consent in agreement with the current legislation, in order to guarantee in an effective manner their fundamental rights.
The demand for the rights of the Wixarika people has been accompanied by the National Commission for Human Rights and the Office of the UN High Commission for Human Rights in Mexico, who have shown their interest and disposition for the defense of the sacred territory.
Wirikuta Defense Front – Tamatsima Wahaa (the water of our elder brother) by the authorization of the Wixarika Regional Council for the Defense of Wirikuta.
From Frente en Defensa de Wirikuta: http://intercontinentalcry.org/long-live-wirikuta-mexico-judiciary-suspends-mining-concessions-on-wixarika-lands/
See older story: “Mining corporations greedily eyeing sacred mountains of Huichol Indians“
by Deep Green Resistance News Service | Feb 26, 2012 | Repression at Home
By Watertown Daily Times
Coming soon to the skies above you — drones, drones and more drones.
And all giving police and who knows who else the chance to peek into your backyard.
Legislation just signed by President Obama directs the Federal Aviation Administration to open the skies to remotely controlled drones within the next three years. It will begin in 90 days with police and first responders having authority to fly smaller drones of less than 4.4 pounds at altitudes under 400 feet. Gradually, all drones are to be allowed by Sept. 30, 2015.
The use of drones had been restricted out of civilian aviation safety concerns created by a sky full of drones flown by untrained operators in the same space as aircraft. But that was overridden by successful lobbying of drone makers and customers who will reap the financial benefits for commercial purposes. “The market for drones is valued at $5.9 billion and is expected to double in the next decade,” the New York Times reported.
They can be used by real estate agents to snap aerial photos. But then, given costs and ease of use, what will stop a member of the paparazzi or any other prying photographer from using them to get more personal snapshots? The Times report said a $300 drone can be flown from an iPhone.
The planned expansion extends the militarization of law enforcement that has been going with the adaptation of military technology and strategies to civilian law enforcement. Police see several advantages to drones over other surveillance.
The pilotless craft cost less, are cheaper to operate and can remain airborne longer. They can be used as a crimefighting tool to patrol from the skies. Authorities can monitor traffic, search remote areas for missing persons or watch criminal suspects. But, then, police can watch a political rally, silently from 30,000 feet overhead.
But also alarming is the danger of escalating their use to include weapons. Drone builders are researching the use of nonlethal weapons such as tear gas, tasers and stun guns fired from a drone, and lethal weaponry can be an easy next step on the slippery slope.
The drones will add to the erosion of privacy that has come with the ubiquitous cameras and global positioning systems that can monitor our whereabouts.
The new law is concerned with safety in establishing guidelines and training requirements for operators. It will be up to governments and even the courts to enact constitutional safeguards on their use.
From Watertown Daily Times: http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20120226/OPINION01/702269975/1036/opinion
For another source, see the New York Times, “Drones With an Eye on the Public Cleared to Fly“
by Deep Green Resistance News Service | Feb 26, 2012 | Mining & Drilling, Protests & Symbolic Acts
By Agence France Presse
China currently supplies about 95 percent of world demand for rare earths, which are used in high-tech equipment from iPods to missiles and have seen prices soar in recent years.
Lynas hopes to begin operations within months, producing an initial 11,000 tonnes of rare earths a year and effectively breaking the Chinese stranglehold on the materials.
But more than 5,000 people, many wearing green and holding banners reading “Stop pollution, stop corruption, stop Lynas”, gathered in Kuantan to call for the plant to shut down, chanting: “We want Lynas to close down”.
Lee Tan, an activist who helped organise the rally, said: “The plant is dangerous because it produces huge amounts of waste that is radioactive”, adding residents were worried the waste could leak into the ground and water.
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim also attended the protest and his colleague Fuziah Salleh said the plant should be relocated “in the middle of the desert”.
“The green rally is in support of sustainable development and Lynas is definitely not a sustainable development,” she told AFP.
Read more from The Australian
by Deep Green Resistance News Service | Feb 26, 2012 | Protests & Symbolic Acts, Repression at Home
By Will Potter / Green is the New Red
More than 70 cities will be protesting corporations that are part of a secretive lobby group called the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, that helps corporate interests literally write our laws.
Occupy Portland has called for a national day of protest on February 29. The protests will focus on corporations that pay tens of thousands of dollars to be part of ALEC, in exchange for the power to draft model legislation which is then introduced in state legislatures across the country — all the while, most state lawmakers have no idea the bills were actually written by corporations.
Corporations have used ALEC to draft model “eco-terrorism” legislation that classifies civil disobedience as terrorism. Other bills drafted by corporations attack union rights, environmental protections, and any attempt to restrict corporate profits. Here is a closer look at how ALEC stealthily drafts legislation.
In other words: ALEC is a trojan horse used by corporations to sneak legislation into statehouses across the country.
As organizers explain in their collective statement:
There has been a theft of our democratic ability to shape and form the society in which we live. The corporations, which run our government, place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and domination over equality. This situation stems from our society’s obsession with profit, consumption and greed, which corporations only take to its logical and frightening conclusion. In this obsessive pursuit of profit above all else, our voices have been drowned out…
I think this is a sentiment shared by countless Americans, whether they identify as part of any movement or not. It’s quite common even in apolitical crowds to hear people talk about the power that corporations have over the political process. However, the omnipresence of this corporate influence in our culture can make it difficult to identify the specific mechanisms that allow it to exist.
That’s what is so inspiring to me to see the Occupy Movement focus on ALEC. It demonstrates an increasingly sophisticated movement willing to engage complicated political processes, and merge widely-held public sentiments with concrete strategies that aim for the wheels of the trojan horse.
From Green is the New Red: http://www.greenisthenewred.com/blog/occupy-protests-alec-f29/5781/
