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Stingray Tracking Devices ACLU - 31 MAY 2017
Stingrays, also known as “cell site simulators” or “IMSI
catchers,” are invasive cell phone surveillance devices that mimic
cell phone towers and send out signals to trick cell phones in the
area into transmitting their locations and identifying information.
When used to track a suspect’s cell phone, they also gather
information about the phones of countless bystanders who happen to
be nearby.
Law enforcement agencies all over the country possess
Stingrays, though their use is often shrouded in secrecy. The ACLU
has uncovered evidence that federal and local law enforcement
agencies are actively trying to conceal their use from public
scrutiny, and we are continuing to push for transparency and reform.
In order to protect both privacy and First Amendment rights,
the law needs to keep up with technology. The government must be
open about the use of these powerful tools and put rules on their
usage in place to protect people’s Fourth Amendment rights and
prevent abuse....
PSC Issues Dakota Access Hearing Notices
Fox News - 31 MAY 2017
BISMARCK, N.D. - Dakota Access discovered possible Native
American artifacts in October 2016 and didn't notify the Public
Service Commission. The PSC issued a notice of a hearing for that
complaint and one other at Wednesday's meeting.
The PSC also issued a hearing on charges that Dakota Access
cleared more trees and shrubs then they were allowed to, but the
unanticipated discovery last fall made headlines across the country.
The commission was not notified when workers found a series
of rock cairns consistent with other Native American artifacts along
the route.
Contractors then began to reroute the pipeline around the
discovery but again failed to notify the PSC. Dakota Access did
however notify the State Historic Preservation Office, but not the
PSC until the commission's inspectors found the discovery
themselves....
Stingray Tracking Devices: Who's Got Them? ACLU - 31 MAY 2017
The map below tracks what we know, based on press reports and
publicly available documents, about the use of stingray tracking
devices by state and local police departments. Following the map is
a list of the federal agencies known to have the technology. The
ACLU has identified 72 agencies in 24 states and the District of
Columbia that own stingrays, but because many agencies continue to
shroud their purchase and use of stingrays in secrecy, this map
dramatically underrepresents the actual use of stingrays by law
enforcement agencies nationwide.
Stingrays, also known as "cell site simulators" or "IMSI
catchers," are invasive cell phone surveillance devices that mimic
cell phone towers and send out signals to trick cell phones in the
area into transmitting their locations and identifying information.
When used to track a suspect's cell phone, they also gather
information about the phones of countless bystanders who happen to
be nearby....
Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman David Archambault Found Not
Guilty of Disorderly Conduct Fox News - 31 MAY 2017
MORTON COUNTY, N.D. - Claps and sighs of relief in a Morton
County courtroom, where a jury acquitted Standing Rock Tribal
Chairman Dave Archambault and Tribal Council member Dana Yellow Fat
of disorderly conduct charges.
Alayna Eagle Shield was also acquitted.
The cases go back to a protest near a Dakota Access Pipeline
site last August.
Both men testified at Wednesday's hearing and are satisfied
with the outcome.
It was one not guilty verdict after another involving very
prominent figures with the Dakota Access Pipeline protest.
"I feel relieved you know, this is something that has been
hanging over my head for a long time for almost a year now and not
knowing when this was ever going to end is kind of an uneasy feeling
and now that it's done I'm thankful," said Archambault....
Leaks and Militarized Policing: Water Protectors are Proven Right
by Michael J. Sainato, CounterPunch - 30 MAY 2017
The water protectors’ efforts to stop the Dakota Access
Pipeline were a historic mobilization of Native American tribes from
all across the country coming together in solidarity for the
Standing Rock Sioux. The original route of the pipeline was moved
from Bismarck, North Dakota, onto Standing Rock Sioux reservation
land and sacred tribal grounds.
Despite the overt violation of treaties between the federal
government and the Standing Rock Sioux, the pipeline’s construction
persisted while mainstream media outlets and Democratic Party
leaders all virtually remained silent on the issue.
The void in media coverage was filled by alternative media
outlets and citizen journalists. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) and
Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) were two of the small handful of
elected officials willing to speak out on behalf of the NoDAPL
fight.Throughout months of living at the Standing Rock camps, water
protectors endured constant abuse, violence, and a propaganda
campaign from the Morton County Sheriff’s Office and hired security
contractors.
On May 27, the Intercept reported, “a SHADOWY INTERNATIONAL
mercenary and security firm known as TigerSwan targeted the movement
opposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline with military-style
counterterrorism measures, collaborating closely with police in at
least five states, according to internal documents obtained by The
Intercept.”...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Bemidji, MN – Early this morning the Intercept published an
article revealing leaked documents that prove Energy Transfer
Partners (ETP), the parent company of the Dakota Access Pipeline,
and law enforcement from five states were using counterterrorist
tactics during the time the #NoDAPL camps were operating. A
contractor who worked with TigerSwan, the security company hired by
ETP, leaked over 100 internal documents revealing that “TigerSwan
spearheaded a multifaceted private security operation characterized
by sweeping and intrusive surveillance of protesters.” The documents
also show that the security company compared the Water Protectors to
jihadist fighters.
The following are statements from the Indigenous
Environmental Network: ...
The Keystone XL Pipeline Fight Continues
by Adam Wernick, PRI - 27 MAY 2017
President Donald Trump has given TransCanada a permit to
continue construction of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, but
a coalition of citizens, farmers, ranchers, Native American tribes
and environmental groups have united to oppose the pipeline’s route
through Nebraska’s Sandhills area.
President Barack Obama had rejected the pipeline on the
grounds that it would aggravate global warming, but the Trump State
Department overturned that ruling. The Natural Resources Defense
Council, the Center for Biological Diversity and Bold Alliance/Bold
Nebraska have sued the administration, alleging that the move
violated the law.
TransCanada also needs a permit from the state of Nebraska,
but activists there say the pipeline would be harmful to Native
American communities and would threaten the Sandhills ecosystem. The
Sandhills is a fragile part of the prairie, where water recharges
the massive Ogallala Aquifer. The aquifer stretches from West Texas
to South Dakota and serves 30 percent of irrigated crops in the US.
“The great news,” says Jane Kleeb, president of Bold
Alliance/Bold Nebraska, “is that in our country, we still have
something called states’ rights, [and] oil pipelines are permitted
at the state level. So, TransCanada still has to get a state-issued
permit to cross into our state for the Keystone XL route. It's a
very rigorous process. It'll actually be the first time that the
Public Service Commission reviews an oil pipeline route in
Nebraska.”
Nebraska politics are unusual because the state has a
unicameral, nonpartisan legislature. There is no party
identification on the ballot when citizens vote. The Public Service
Commission, however, is a partisan political body, Kleeb
explains....
Stand With Nebraska and Fight the Keystone XL
NRDC - 27 MAY 2017
The Trump administration gave the Keystone XL pipeline the
green light, but the pipeline can't move forward without an approved
route through the state of Nebraska. This disastrous tar sands
pipeline poses a grave threat to our land, water, communities and
climate — but the state of Nebraska has the power to stop it in its
tracks. Stand with the people of Nebraska who are united against the
Keystone XL and urge the Nebraska Public Service Commission to block
the pipeline....
Leaked Documents Reveal Counterterrorism Tactics Used at Standing
Rock to “Defeat Pipeline Insurgencies” TigerSwan Tactics, Part 1
by Alleen Brown, Will Parrish, Alice Speri; The Intercept
- 27 MAY 2017
A shadowy international mercenary and security firm known as
TigerSwan targeted the movement opposed to the Dakota Access
Pipeline with military-style counterterrorism measures,
collaborating closely with police in at least five states, according
to internal documents obtained by The Intercept. The documents
provide the first detailed picture of how TigerSwan, which
originated as a U.S. military and State Department contractor
helping to execute the global war on terror, worked at the behest of
its client Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the Dakota
Access Pipeline, to respond to the indigenous-led movement that
sought to stop the project.
Internal TigerSwan communications describe the movement as “an
ideologically driven insurgency with a strong religious component”
and compare the anti-pipeline water protectors to jihadist fighters.
One report, dated February 27, 2017, states that since the movement
“generally followed the jihadist insurgency model while active, we
can expect the individuals who fought for and supported it to follow
a post-insurgency model after its collapse.” Drawing comparisons
with post-Soviet Afghanistan, the report warns, “While we can expect
to see the continued spread of the anti-DAPL diaspora … aggressive
intelligence preparation of the battlefield and active coordination
between intelligence and security elements are now a proven method
of defeating pipeline insurgencies.”
More than 100 internal documents leaked to The Intercept by a
TigerSwan contractor, as well as a set of over 1,000 documents
obtained via public records requests, reveal that TigerSwan
spearheaded a multifaceted private security operation characterized
by sweeping and invasive surveillance of protesters.
As policing continues to be militarized and state legislatures
around the country pass laws criminalizing protest, the fact that a
private security firm retained by a Fortune 500 oil and gas company
coordinated its efforts with local, state, and federal law
enforcement to undermine the protest movement has profoundly
anti-democratic implications. The leaked materials not only
highlight TigerSwan’s militaristic approach to protecting its
client’s interests but also the company’s profit-driven imperative
to portray the nonviolent water protector movement as unpredictable
and menacing enough to justify the continued need for extraordinary
security measures. Energy Transfer Partners has continued to retain
TigerSwan long after most of the anti-pipeline campers left North
Dakota, and the most recent TigerSwan reports emphasize the threat
of growing activism around other pipeline projects across the
country....
Faulty Weld Behind Dakota Access Leak
Commissioning process identified fault before line
went into service
by Renée Jean, Williston Herald - 26 MAY 2017
A faulty weld on the Dakota Access pipeline was responsible
for a 20-gallon leak reported March 5 at an above-ground station in
Mercer County, while an 84-gallon spill at a pipeline terminal in
Watford City on March 3 was actually owned and operated by a
different company, Caliber Midstream — though ultimately the line
will feed oil into the Dakota Access system.
The faulty weld that caused the 20-gallon leak on the Dakota
Access line in Mercer County was identified during a standard
commissioning process designed to identify problems before a
pipeline is put into service, ensuring a line’s integrity before it
begins operation. The spill was not reported to North Dakota, but
was reported to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety
Administration, as required.
“Our crews were on site at this valve site as the
commissioning process was under way, so it was immediately
remediated,” Vicki Granado, a spokeswoman for Dakota Access, said.
“It occurred during the process of getting the pipeline ready to go
into service.”
Caliber Midstream CEO Dave Scobel confirmed their company was
also engaged in a commissioning process for their line, which will
tie into Dakota Access in Watford City once it is put in service....
Standing Rock: Where the Movement Is Now, From First Protester on
the Front Lines
by Josh Schlossberg, Westword - 26 MAY 2017
LaDonna Brave Bull Allard is a Lakota historian and member of
the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota. In April 2016 she
started the Sacred Stone Camp, the first occupation to oppose the
Dakota Access Pipeline.
Allard was named 2017’s Rebel With a Cause Honoree at
Conservation Colorado’s Rebel With a Cause Gala on May 24 in Denver.
Westword sat down with her to get her perspective on the NoDAPL
movement, renewable energy, and the future of life on Earth.
Westword: What does it mean for you that 300 Native American
tribes planted flags at Standing Rock? Does this signal a new dawn
for Native American movements? The environmental movement?
LaDonna Brave Bull Allard: It’s a new movement for the world.
It was not only 300 tribal nations; it was the Sami from Norway and
Sweden, the Mongolians from China and Russia, Aboriginals from
Australia, many African nations, aboriginals from India, the Maori
from New Zealand. But as far as American history goes, this was the
largest tribal gathering ever. This is the first time we stood among
our enemies as allies...
Canada's PM Trudeau claims climate champion role while embracing Big
Oil?
by Brian Mann (Adirondack Bureau Chief) in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada;
North Country Public Radio - 23 MAY 2017
May 23, 2017 — Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has
offered himself as a global leader on climate change, unveiling an
ambitious new environmental plan that includes phasing out
coal-fired power plants, a tax on carbon, and big investments in
renewable energy.
But at the same time, Trudeau has promised to help expand
Canada’s role as an energy exporter.
He’s backed controversial pipeline projects including
Keystone XL that would cross into the United States and is pushing
for big new investments in the tar sands oil fields of northern
Alberta.
Trudeau insists that he’s striving for a kind of third way,
embracing big oil while also acknowledging the imminent threat of
climate change and respecting aboriginal sovereignty. Critics say
he’s making promises that contradict each other and risks alienating
the progressive voters who elected him in 2015.
Trudeau the climate champion
Speaking last year before the United Nations assembly in New
York City, Prime Minister Trudeau made the case that swift action is
needed to curb carbon pollution, especially by prosperous developed
societies like Canada.
“We know that it will be the world’s poorest citizens who
will be hardest hit by climate change, displace by rising sea
levels, left hungry by failed crops, more vulnerable to disease,”
Trudeau said...
A team from the
University of Arizona collects water samples from the San
Juan River. Karletta Chief
Scientists Tell Navajo Farmers Their Water Is No Longer Contaminated
Navajo farmers have been wary of the San Juan river ever since a
mine spill in 2015 turned the water bright yellow. Data just
presented to them shows that lead and arsenic levels meet the EPA’s
drinking water guidelines.
by Nidhi Subbaraman, BuzzFeed - 24 MAY 2017
On August 5, 2015, a crew of EPA workers and contractors surveying
the abandoned Gold King Mine in Colorado dislodged a plug at the
site, letting 3 million gallons of trapped water — containing
arsenic, mercury, lead, and more — wash into a tributary of the
Animas River.
The river carried the sludge southwest, and within days the Animas
and San Juan rivers turned an alarming shade of yellow. After two
weeks, the EPA announced an investigation into the causes of the
event and the agency’s response to it.
Downstream in New Mexico, in the Navajo community of Shiprock,
farmers use river water to irrigate corn and cantaloupe, and raise
sheep and goats. The spill caught farmers in the middle of their
growing season.
Navajo Nation community health representative Mae-Gilene Begay
mobilized a crew to warn residents to steer clear of the river
water. “A lot of them were concerned because they go fishing in the
river either for recreation for livestock or for farming,” she told
BuzzFeed News.
The community closed the irrigation canals for eight months, until
April 2016. A few months later, the Navajo Nation sued the EPA and
mine owners and operators, claiming that the parties' negligence
caused an accident they should have foreseen and prevented.
Over the last year and a half, a group of scientists from the
University of Arizona has been working to help the Navajo understand
the impact of the spill, by presenting data about contaminant levels
to the community so that they feel empowered to decide whether to
start using river water again....
DAPL
Springs 3rd Oil Leak Before Going Operational RT America - 23 MAY 2017
Bears Ears 'Review' a Sham, Against the Law?
Help Save Bears Ears National Monument -- Take Action EcoWatch - 23 MAY 2017
An anti-public lands official in Utah said Interior Sec. Ryan
Zinke has already made up his mind to repeal Bears Ears National
Monument, a move experts say could be against the law.
According to a report from E&E News, Zinke has already told
some officials in Utah that he will recommend revoking Bears Ears
National Monument's protected status. This suggests the Trump
administration has already made up its mind about the outcome of its
so-called "review" of national monuments created under the
Antiquities Act, for which it is ostensibly soliciting public
comments.
The Department of the Interior is claiming no decision has
been made about Bears Ears, but the E&E report dovetails with news
that Zinke mostly met with opponents of the monument while in Utah,
as well as the Trump administration's presumptive goal of stripping
its protected status.
Meanwhile, a new paper from legal scholars concludes that
President Trump's abolition or diminution of a national monument
would be against the law. Such a move would also undermine tribal
sovereignty and undercut the appointment of official tribal
representatives to the newly created Bears Ears Commission, which is
supposed to help govern the management of the monument....
Police face off
against Water Protectors occupying a bridge immediately
north of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in Cannon
Ball, North Dakota, October 28, 2016. (Photo: Angus
Mordant / The New York Times)
Footing the $15 Million Bill for the Dakota Access Pipeline's
Private Army
by Ruth Hopkins, ICTMN; Truthout - 23 MAY
2017
Last fall, the eyes of the world were fixated on Standing
Rock.
Among the images burned into the brains of so many abroad
were those of Morton County sheriff's department, joined by law
enforcement officers from across the country, bedecked in military
gear and armed to the teeth, brutalizing defenseless water
protectors for expressing their first amendment rights and freedom
of religion. Eyes were opened when mercs sicced vicious attack dogs
on women and children guarding sacred burial grounds with their
lives. Folks thousands of miles away watched in horror as they
witnessed concussion grenades being thrown into crowds and elders
being maced in the midst of sweat lodge raids. People will never
forget live stream video picked up by mainstream media, showing
hundreds of civilians being shot with water cannons in subzero
temperatures by a corporate police state army. Some photos of
injuries were judged too graphic to post by social media, as they
revealed a young woman with a near severed limb and another who'd
been blinded in one eye.
This was not Iraq or Afghanistan. There was no foreign enemy
invading our shores. These events occurred in the middle of the
United States, on Lakota treaty lands; and the only thing these
innocent people had done was dare to stand in the way of the Dakota
Access Pipeline, the same one Bismarck, North Dakota residents
rejected due to fears it would contaminate their water supply. This
war zone created by Dakota Access and Morton County was meant to
subdue Standing Rock residents and water protectors and force them
to accept an unwarranted risk to their fresh water and the
desecration of ancestral graves, under the barrel of a gun.
Here in the states, hundreds of Native Nations and the
American public sided with Standing Rock. Scores came to camp along
the shores of the Mni Sosa (Missouri River). Others rallied in the
local cities, signed petitions, and called the White House. Millions
were outraged by the injustice.
Yet who is paying for the corporate police state brutality I
just mentioned? You are....
North Dakota Again Passes Discriminatory Voter ID Law Native American Rights Fund - 09 MAY 2017
On April 24, 2017, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum signed
House Bill 1369. This restrictive voter ID law continues to put
North Dakota beyond the norms of voter ID laws and violates the
constitutional rights of the state’s citizens. Just like North
Dakota’s previous law, which was found unconstitutional by a federal
court last year, this law makes it harder for some
citizens—specifically Native American citizens—to exercise their
right to vote.
What happened last year?
North Dakota has had a voter ID law since 2004. For years,
the law functioned without issue. During that time, the law required
voters to show identification, but allowed a voter without ID to
cast a ballot if either:
- A poll worker could vouch for the voter’s identity as a
qualified voter; or
- The voter signed an affidavit under penalty of perjury that
he or she was qualified to vote.
In 2013, the North Dakota legislature greatly narrowed the
law by restricting the acceptable forms of ID and eliminating the
voucher and affidavit fail-safes. The following session, the
legislature amended the law again to even further restrict the forms
of acceptable ID.
In 2016, eight Native Americans filed suit to block the voter
ID law, alleging that it disenfranchised Native American voters and
violated both state and federal constitutions as well as the Voting
Rights Act....
2 More Leaks Found Along Dakota Access Pipeline
by Blake Nicholson, Associated Press, Missoulian -
22 May 2017
BISMARCK, N.D. — The Dakota Access pipeline system leaked
more than 100 gallons of oil in North Dakota in two separate
incidents in March — the second and third known leaks discovered as
crews prepared the disputed $3.8 billion pipeline for operation.
Two barrels, or 84 gallons, spilled due to a leaky flange at
a pipeline terminal in Watford City on March 3, according to the
state's Health Department. A flange is the section connecting two
sections of pipeline. Oil flow was immediately cut off and the spill
was contained on site. Contaminated snow and soil was removed. No
people, wildlife or waterways were affected, according to the
department's environmental health database.
A leak of half a barrel, or 20 gallons (75 liters), occurred
March 5 in rural Mercer County, data from the federal Pipeline and
Hazardous Materials Safety Administration show. Contaminated soil
was removed, and no waterways were affected. There were no reported
injuries to people or wildlife. The administration is part of the
Department of Transportation.
The online report says an above-ground valve failed due to a
manufacturing defect, causing the leak. Upstream and downstream
valves were closed to isolate the leak. Later, all other such valves
on the line were inspected and found to be OK.
The federal database shows no leaks along the pipeline in
Iowa or Illinois.
The Associated Press reached out to Texas-based pipeline
developer Energy Transfer Partners for comment Monday. The company
maintains the pipeline is safe, but the Cheyenne River, Standing
Rock, Yankton and Oglala Sioux tribes in the Dakotas fear
environmental harm and are fighting in federal court, hoping to
convince a judge to shut down the line.
The Dakota Access pipeline will move North Dakota oil 1,200
miles (1,930 kilometers) through South Dakota and Iowa to a
distribution point in Illinois. ETP plans to begin commercial
operations June 1....
Protect America's National Monuments Audubon - 22 MAY 2017
Send your public comments to urge the Department of the
Interior to reject any changes to our national monuments.
For more than one hundred years, presidents of both parties
have protected sensitive habitat and historic sites as national
monuments. Now, a new executive order has placed millions of acres
of these iconic lands and waters at risk by threatening to eliminate
or shrink as many as thirty national monuments. Note: Your comment, including your name and optional
zip code, will become part of the public record. Photo: Daniel O'Donnell/Audubon Photography Awards
Rover Pipeline Owner Disputing Millions Owed After Razing Historic
Ohio Home
Energy Transfer Partners finds itself embattled anew
over the preservation of historic sites, this time in Ohio.
by Steve Horn, Nation of Change - 22 MAY 2017
After taking heat last fall for destroying sacred sites of
the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the owner of the Dakota Access
pipeline finds itself embattled anew over the preservation of
historic sites, this time in Ohio.
Documents filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
(FERC) show that Energy Transfer Partners is in the midst of a
dispute with the Ohio State Historic Preservation Office over a $1.5
million annual payment owed to the state agency as part of a
five-year agreement signed in February.
Energy Transfer Partners was set to pay the preservation
office in exchange for bulldozing the Stoneman House, a historic
home built in 1843 in Dennison, Ohio, whose razing occurred duing
construction of the Rover pipeline. Rover is set to carry natural
gas obtained via hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) from the Utica
Shale and Marcellus Shale – up to 14 percent of it – through the
state of Ohio. The pipeline owner initially bulldozed the historic
home, located near a compressor station, without notifying FERC, as
the law requires.
FERC provides regulatory and permitting oversight for
interstate pipeline projects like Rover, and as a result, is tasked
with performing an environmental and cultural review. Because Energy
Transfer Partners didn’t notify the commission of the plan to tear
down the historic home, citizens and other concerned stakeholders,
including the Ohio State Historic Preservation Office, did not have
the ability to file a formal protest of the action.
In May 2015, Energy Transfer Partners purchased the Stoneman
House from the Ohio State Historic Preservation Office for $1.3
million and bulldozed it just two weeks later, according to FERC
documents. The $1.5 million annual payment owed to the Ohio State
Historic Preservation Office was in addition to the initial cost of
purchasing the home....
Photo Illustration by
Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast
The Next Standing Rocks: 4,800 Miles of Oil Pipelines Planned Under
Trump
U.S. companies are set to carve up Native American
and private lands in more than a dozen states in order to sell
petroleum and natural gas overseas. Activists are gearing up.
by Sandy Tolan, The Daily Beast - 22 MAY 2017
This story is cooperation with Reveal from The Center for
Investigative Reporting.
A high-stakes battle is underway on multiple front lines
across America, as Native American and climate change activists
square off against oil and pipeline companies racing to lay as much
infrastructure into the ground as quickly as possible.
The U.S. oil industry is enjoying a surge in production,
which has shot up 86 percent since 2008. Unshackled by Congress and
enabled by the most oil-friendly president in decades, the industry
aims to transform the American landscape with tens of billions of
dollars in new pipelines, storage depots, and export terminals.
That includes the Dakota Access pipeline, scene of the
yearlong protests at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, which was
slated to begin transporting oil on Sunday.
Yet despite oft-repeated claims by politicians and oil
executives about the danger of relying on foreign oil, this U.S.
petroleum renaissance never was designed to make America energy
self-sufficient: A growing amount of that oil will end up in China,
Japan, the Netherlands, even Venezuela....
An elderly woman is escorted to a transport van after being arrested
by law enforcement at the Oceti Sakowin camp as part of the final
sweep of the Dakota Access pipeline protesters in Morton County,
Feb. 23, 2017, near Cannon Ball, N.D. (Mike McCleary/The Bismarck
Tribune)
The Federal Government Wants To Imprison These Six Water Protectors
These cases likely mark the first time that United States
authorities have pursued felonies against individuals involved in
demonstrations against fossil fuel infrastructure.
by Will Parish, Mint Press News - 22 MAY 2017
Published in partnership with Shadowproof.
In February, a federal grand jury issued indictments of four
Standing Rock water protectors on charges of Federal Civil Disorder
and Use of Fire to Commit a Federal Crime.
The federal investigators accused the four men—James White,
Brennan Nastacio, Dion Ortiz, and Brandon Miller-Castillo—of
involvement in setting three highway barricades on fire, which
obstructed police during a highly-militarized October 27 raid of the
“Front Line Camp” just north of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation.
Another water protector, Michael Markus, was indicted on
identical charges on January 24, and his case has been combined with
those of the other four men. Prosecutors are also pursuing three
federal felonies against a 38-year-old Oglala Sioux woman named Red
Fawn Fallis. They accuse her of firing a gun during her arrest, even
as multiple police officers had her pinned face-down on the ground.
Fallis’ arrest also occurred on October 27.
These cases likely mark the first time that United States
authorities have pursued felonies against individuals involved in
demonstrations against fossil fuel infrastructure.
All six people facing the charges are indigenous. Under
sentencing guidelines, Red Fawn Fallis faces 25 years or more in
prison. The other federal defendants—Markus, White, Nastacio, Ortiz,
and Miller-Castillo—face up to fifteen years....
A federal judge dismissed a civil lawsuit Friday filed by Dakota
Access LLC against five activists for their opposition to the
company's controversial pipeline . File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI |
License Photo
Judge Tosses Dakota Access Pipeline's Suit Against Protesters
by Doug G. Ware, UPI - 19 MAY 2017
May 19 (UPI) -- A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a civil
lawsuit by the owner of the Dakota Access Pipeline against several
activists who opposed the project.
Dakota Access LLC argued in their suit that members of the
Standing Rock tribe and other protesters interfered with the
pipeline's construction, endangered the safety of its workers and
cost the company more than $75,000 with their weeks-long
demonstrations.
North Dakota-based U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland
disagreed that five of the defendants -- which included Standing
Rock Indian Reservation tribal chairman Dave Archambault -- caused
fiscal disruptions that exceeded $75,000, which is the minimum limit
required for federal civil cases.
The judge said the court did not have jurisdiction over the
case.
"Dakota Access cannot aggregate the alleged harm from all
pipeline protesters in calculating the value of an injunction
against individuals acting independently," Hovland wrote....
NORTH DAKOTA'S PEACE OFFICER CODE OF CONDUCT AND OATH by Al Swilling, SENAA International
- 24 OCT 2016
North Dakota Law Contains a Detailed Code of Conduct and Oath of
Office That Its Peace Officers Must Vow to Uphold--That Applies to
the Morton County, ND, Sheriff, His Deputies, and Reinforcements
from Other Sheriff's Departments Who Are Working Temporarily for the
Morton County Sheriff, or for any other Law Enforcement entity in
the state of North Dakota....
A Word About Brenda
Norrell and Censored News Al Swilling, SENAA International - 14 FEB 2015 For those wondering why the vast majority of shared
posts on SENAA International's Web site and Facebook page are from
Brenda Norrell's Censored News, it's very simple—and very complex. For
many years, Brenda Norrell was a major journalist for (forgive me,
Brenda) Indian Country Today (ICT) until they censored Brenda's articles
and terminated her without cause. After leaving Indian Country Today,
Brenda created the appropriately
named Censored News.
While at
ICT, Brenda was a voice for the Dineh (Navajo) people at
Black Mesa, Arizona, where bed partners Peabody Coal and the BIA were trying to
forcibly remove Dineh residents from their ancestral homes in order to
strip mine the land of its coal. That greed took the form of a
contrived, fictional "land dispute" between Dineh' and Hopi....
Censored
News by Journalist & Publisher Brenda Norrell Censored News - 12 FEB 2015
Censored News was created in 2006 after staff reporter Brenda
Norrell was censored repeatedly, then terminated by Indian Country
Today. Now in its 9th year, with 3.7 million page views around the
world, Censored News is published with no advertising, grants or
sponsors.
Today, Censored News maintains a boycott of Indian Country Today,
whose reporters have relied on plagiarism of others' hard work for
years, instead of being present to cover news stories. Now, with a
collective of writers, Censored News focuses on Indigenous Peoples and
human rights.
www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Please Donate to and Support this important voice for Indigenous
people and human rights. --Al Swilling, Founder, SENAA International
Worldwide Prayer Gatherings Will Resume Weekly
by SENAA International - 28 OCT 2014 What Is a Worldwide Prayer
Gathering?
Though the specific details may vary from one support group to
another, and from one geographical location to another, the essential
concept remains the same.
A Worldwide Prayer Gathering is not so much a physical gathering into
one physical location as it is the spiritual gathering of individuals
and groups from around the world who are of one mind and one accord into
one spiritual place for a common purpose, which is to ask for the
Creator's help to bring about the circumstances that will accomplish our
common goal according to His promise.
TUTORIAL
LSO MANAGEMENT: What They Are
and What to Do About Them SENAA International - 16 FEB 2010
Introduction
The computing public is becoming increasingly aware
of the existence of Local Shared Objects (LSOs),
also called "Flash cookies" or "Persistent
Identification Elements" (PIEs), the dangers they
pose, and the unethical ways that they are placed on
our machines. LSOs are the busybodies of the
Internet, sticking their
noses in your personal
business at every opportunity without
your knowledge or consent; and like most
busybodies, they're being found out.
With growing public awareness of LSOs comes a growing
demand for effective, real time control of them. Most
LSO management solutions offer management or deletion of
LSOs after potentially malicious ones have had time to
do their damage. Stand-alone LSO management utilities do
not offer real time protection, either. This tutorial
provides real-time management of LSOs....
IF YOU DON'T KNOW YOUR
CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS, LEARN THEM! READ THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES
AND THE BILL OF RIGHTS!
Transcripts of the Constitution of the United States, the Bill of
Rights (1st 10 amendments), and other Constitutional Amendments for your
perusal. A public service endeavor of SENAA International.
$431,987 of $500,000
goal
Raised by 14,923 people in
6 months
GoFundMe - 21 NOV 2016 Sophia Wilansky is a water protector from New York.
She left New York City several weeks ago to help with the struggle
at Standing Rock. She been an active participate and family to the
activist groups NYC Shut It Down and Hoods4Justice. Sophia has
always been committed to confronting injustice through vigilance and
resistance.
Sophia was giving out bottles of water to protectors holding
down the space when she was shot with a concussion grenade. The
explosion blew away most of the muscles, femural and ulnal
arteries were destroyed, and one of her forearm bones was
shattered. She
was air lifted to County Medical Center in Minneapolis were she’s
currently undergoing a series of extensive, hours-long surgeries from
the injuries
sustained from the blast.
We
must to support our comrades when they need us the most. She needs
all of us right now. After all she is our family.
Please consider donating to help pay for her treatment.
Vanessa has been on the front lines fighting DAPL and working
security for Oceti Sakowin since September 11. During the action on
November 20 at the Backwater bridge, she was intentionally shot in the eye with a
tear gas canister from 6 feet away. It was aimed directly at her face by
a Morton County officer. She was seen at Bismarck Sanford hospital
and released because she had no insurance. She has a detached retina
and needs surgery to ensure her vision. She is now seeking medical
attention in Fargo. Donations will be used for the cost of the 2 ER
visits, surgery, medications, and recovery.
The PATRIOT Act's Impact on Your Rights - ACLU
The
ACLU’s National Security Project is dedicated to ensuring
that U.S. national security policies and practices are
consistent with the Constitution, civil liberties, and human
rights.
