The ability to monitor every aspect of our lives, seeing every moment in minute detail, is something out of Orwell’s futuristic warnings, but it’s being played out on our own borders, on the Tohono O’odham Reservation in Arizona on the US-Mexico border. And it’s being carried out with Israeli technology, was honed on its own separation wall, and is being used by the Customs and Border Protection agency. It’s known by its acronym CPB and it watches not just the border, but even our own American citizens.
In an extensive study published by The Intercept, Will Parrish reveals how the Israeli company Elbit Systems developed technologies, which were then procured by CPB to invade the privacy of the Tohono O’odham people themselves. Media outlets like PBS, ABC News, CBS, others, often report on the Tohono O’odham Reservation as a weak point in the US-Mexico border where some of the forces and the focus seems to be on blaming members of the Tohono O’odham Nation for smuggling drugs into the United States.
They do extensive reports and interview Customs and Border Protection people all the time, but rarely do they bother to interview any of the people on the res themselves. Here’s a rare interview on PBS with Francisco Valenzuela, who’s a member of that nation.