Linking the issues in Albuquerque

 

 

Ground-based laser at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, New Mexico. US is helping Israel develop the technology.

 

By Bob Anderson

I did a talk last Friday to link the war industry here to the genocide in Gaza, but I presented  it as one part of a larger global imperial strategy and task for us, ie Ukraine. 

I found some information about the general scope of what is going on in the space war machine structure building as it is developing here.  It is immense and they are pushing fast to incorporate all the civilian satellite and other technologies into the space conflict planning.

The conference they had here earlier this month was all about pulling in commercial resources to solve their technical problems.  It was disgusting, the groveling about contract money for this and that by all the contractors.  War profiteers.  There is a push here for a Space Valley of space war research and development.  In doing some research from the conference I came upon the university’s link into the AFRL [Air Force Research Lab at Kirtland] and it is big - directed energy weapons and space war planning.  Trying to get the divestment group focused on this rather than university investments.  The university has a huge building complex down by the base I had not realized until this latest phase, it has been kept low key.  

And the mayor and city held a Space Fiesta for contractors too, trying to sell the militarization of space as a fun fiesta.  I did not find out about it till the morning of the event downtown.  They kept it a secret apparently from the public, announcing it in the newspaper that morning in an article.  It was supposed to be for the public but war companies had to pay up to $20k to set up a table booth.  They closed it to the public quickly.  There is a push here to make this state of NM a big part of space militarization, and profiteering tied to the needs of the AFRL, they were the main presenters at all the events.  This whole area is being developed into the infrastructure that goes into the intelligence, recon and targeting and training for the massacre in Palestine, on top of all the other R&D that goes on here with nuclear weapons.  It is like wrestling with an octopus with teeth here if one is aware of it.  The whole Democratic Party is solidly behind it.

Did I ever tell you I was in Gaza in the 1988 Intifada?  I was in Al Shifa hospital, gone now, and some of the homes that were flattened by the 2,000 lb US bombs in Jabalya, guided by Boeing JDAM units.  We did a protest here at the local Boeing facility early on.

Thanks for keeping the network going…

Bob

~ Bob Anderson is a Vietnam veteran and former college instructor. He joined the Wounded Knee occupation in South Dakota in 1973. He lives in Albuquerque and helps organize the group Stop the War Machine.