At Common Dreams, Nika Knight reports on the 2,000 military veterans who are standing with the water protectors in North Dakota who oppose the building of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The project will carry oil pried out of the Bakken shale formation by hydraulic fracturing. It was designed to transport up to 440,000 barrels of fracked oil each day, about half the region’s daily production.
As tensions grow in North Dakota, with multiple eviction orders facing the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in their battle against the Dakota Access Pipeline, U.S. military veterans on Friday began arriving at the Oceti Sakowin protest camp.
The 2,000 veterans, which include Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), plan to act as an unarmed militia and peaceful human shields to protect the Indigenous activists from police brutality.
"I signed up to serve my country and my people and I did that overseas," Indigenous U.S. Navy veteran Brandee Paisano told the CBC. "I didn't think I'd have to do it here, on this land, so here I am. This is what I need to be doing."
The "deployment" is officially planned for December 4-7, but veterans who have arrived early have already taken their stand in front of the militarized police blockade stopping traffic into and out of the camp: [...]
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe also pushed back earlier this week against Dakota Access Pipeline company CEO Kelcy Warren, who has claimed that the pipeline would have been rerouted if only the tribe had spoken up sooner, with the release of a recording that showed the tribe had officially opposed the pipeline since at least 2014.
"[T]he recording provides audio from a Sept. 30, 2014, meeting in which Standing Rock officials expressed their opposition to the pipeline and raised concerns about its potential impact to sacred sites and their water supply—nearly two years before they raised similar objections in a federal lawsuit," the Bismarck Tribune reports.
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2002—The Bush Administration is out of control:
Bush is enraged that—get this—UN weapons inspectors are not finding any hidden weapons.
The lack of a confrontation thus far between Iraq and inspectors has the White House worried that the Iraqi president might be winning the early public relations battle by creating an impression that he is complying. Aides said those fears prompted the president and Vice President Dick Cheney (news-web sites) to deliver separate speeches Monday casting doubt on Saddam's intentions.
How about this—if the Bush Administration has proof that Iraq is hiding weapons of mass destruction, then release this evidence! Otherwise, shut up. It's telling that the best the Bushies can do is whine.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, Greg Dworkin notes the varied ways in which Trump voters react to post-election contradictions. HuffPo reporters watch sausage making in action. Josie Duffy Rice on the expanding climate of fear, and reminds us of Trump’s enthusiasm for SLAPP suits.
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