[News] Wikileaks : US targets Indigenous Peoples in 2011

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Wikileaks : US targets Indigenous Peoples in 2011
<http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/12/wikileaks-revealed-us-espionage-of.html>http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/12/wikileaks-revealed-us-espionage-of.html

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

In the Censored News pick for the Best of the 
Best in 2011, Wikileaks claims first prize. 
Wikileaks exposed the US corporate schemes, 
espionage, promotion of mining and efforts 
globally to halt passage of the UN Declaration on 
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Wikileaks revealed extensive espionage of 
Indigenous Peoples, including the Mapuche and 
Mohawks, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and 
Bolivian President Evo Morales, who ushered in a 
new Indigenous global rights campaign.
The release of the US diplomatic cables of the US 
State Department confirmed that the US feared the 
power of Indigenous Peoples, specifically their 
claims to their traditional territories, a right 
stated in the UN Declaration on the Rights of 
Indigenous Peoples. Further, the Declaration 
states the right of free, prior and informed 
consent before development proceeds and protects 
intellectual and cultural property rights.

Here are the top six ways that the United States 
and Canada, as revealed by Wikileaks, worked 
against the rights of Indigenous Peoples, by 
engaging in espionage and the promotion of 
mining, while violating Indigenous autonomy, self determination and dignity.

1. The United States worked behind the scenes to 
fight the adoption of the Declaration on the 
Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In Ecuador, the US 
established a program to dissuade Ecuador from 
supporting the Declaration. In Iceland, the US 
Embassy said Iceland's support was an 
"impediment" to US/Iceland relations at the UN. 
In Canada, the US said the US and Canada agreed 
the Declaration was headed for a "train wreck."

2. The United States targeted and tracked 
Indigenous Peoples, community activists and 
leaders, especially in Chile, Peru and Ecuador. A 
cable reveals the US Embassy in Lima, Peru, 
identified Indigenous activists and tracked the 
involvement of Bolivian President Evo Morales, 
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Bolivia 
Ambassador Pablo Solon, prominent Mapuche and 
Quechua activists and community leaders. 
President Chavez and President Morales were 
consistently watched, and their actions analyzed. 
Indigenous activists opposing the dirty Tar Sands 
were spied on, and other Indigenous activists in 
Vancouver, prior to the Olympics.

3. The United States was part of a five country 
coalition to promote mining and fight against 
Indigenous activists in Peru. A core group of 
diplomats from U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, 
Switzerland and South Africa formed an alliance 
with mining companies to promote and protect 
mining interests globally. In other illegal 
corporate profiteering, Peru’s government 
secretly admitted that 70-90 percent of its 
mahogany exports were illegally felled, according 
to a US embassy cable revealed by Wikileaks. 
Lowe's and Home Depot sell the lumber.

4. Canada spied on Mohawks using illegal 
wiretaps. Before Wikileaks hit the headlines, it 
exposed in 2010 that Canada used unauthorized wiretaps on Mohawks.
Wikileaks: "During the preliminary inquiry to 
Shawn Brant's trial, it came out that the Ontario 
Provincial Police, headed by Commissioner Julian 
Fantino, had been using wiretaps on more than a 
dozen different Mohawks without a judge's 
authorization, an action almost unheard of recent history in Canada."

4. The United States and Canada tracked Mohawks. 
In one of the largest collections of cables 
released so far that targeted Native people and 
named names, the US Embassies in Montreal and 
Toronto detailed Mohawk activities at the border and in their communities.

5. The arrogant and insulting tone of the US 
Embassies and disrespect for Indigenous leaders 
is pervasive in US diplomatic cables. The US 
Embassy in Guatemala stated that President of 
Guatemala, Álvaro Colom, called Rigoberta Menchu 
a "fabrication" of an anthropologist and made 
other accusations. Menchu responded on a local 
radio station that Colom was a "liar."

6. The collection of DNA and other data, makes it 
clear that US Ambassadors are spies abroad. US 
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton states that 
the Intelligence Community relies on biographical 
information from US diplomats. In cables to 
Africa and Paraguay, Clinton asked US Embassy 
personnel to collect address books, e-mail 
passwords, fingerprints, iris scans and DNA.

“The intelligence community relies on State 
reporting officers for much of the biographical 
information collected worldwide," Clinton said in 
a cable on April 16, 2009. Clinton said the 
biographical data should be sent to the INR 
(Bureau of Intelligence and Research) for 
dissemination to the Intelligence Community.

Meanwhile, the US was part of a five country team 
that supported mining as Indigenous Peoples were 
dying to protect their homeland.

The arrogance of the US and its cheerleading for 
corporate copper mining in Peru is obvious in two 
cables just released from Wikileaks. The 
diplomatic cables reveal the US promoting 
multi-national corporations, while targeting 
Indigenous activists and their supporters.

The cables reveal that a core group of diplomats 
formed an alliance with mining companies to 
promote and protect mining interests globally. 
The diplomats were from the U.S., Canada, U.K., 
Australia, Switzerland and South Africa.
Read more at 
<http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/02/wikileaks-peru-us-ambassador-targeted.html>http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/02/wikileaks-peru-us-ambassador-targeted.html

The US spied on the Mohawks in Canada, as 
revealed in these diplomatic cables released by 
Wikileaks. Canadian border guards admitted that they feared the Mohawks:
<http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2011/05/wikileaks-cables-on-mohawks.html>http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2011/05/wikileaks-cables-on-mohawks.html

Wikileaks exposed the fact that not only were 
Indigenous Peoples spied on globally by the US 
State Department, but those who supported them 
were also spied on. Actor and activist Danny 
Glover was the focus of at least five US diplomatic cables.


Posted by 
<mailto:brendanorrell at gmail.com>brendanorrell at gmail.com 
at 
<http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/12/wikileaks-revealed-us-espionage-of.html>7:30 
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