Who are the real terrorists

[Guest guest]

for peter

 

Eugene Weekly

03.09.06

BOOM!

Who are the real terrorists?

BY ALAN PITTMAN

 

President George Bush's administration has charged a dozen

environmental and animal rights activists with " terrorism "

for allegedly destroying property, and is threatening life

sentences behind bars.

 

" We will not tolerate any group that terrorizes the American

people, " Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said at a Jan. 20

Washington, D.C., press conference.

 

But as the government brings the massive post-9/11 security

apparatus to bear against activists accused of burning

gas-guzzling SUVs, a ski resort, and corals at a wild horse

slaughtering facility, the really burning question may be,

what is terrorism?

 

Despite the fact that the nation has supposedly been at war

against it for almost five years, there's no clear

definition. A recent U.N. report notes that international

efforts against terrorism have been hampered by the lack of

a universally accepted definition. " One man's terrorist is

another man's freedom fighter, " is an often quoted aphorism

among terrorism experts. When the Taliban were fighting the

Soviets in Afghanistan, they were freedom fighters. When the

Taliban were fighting the U.S., the same people became

terrorists.

 

Environmental and Animal Rights activists say the true

ecoterrorists are the corporations that are destroying the

Earth with global warming, logging and other " atrocities, "

and who are unnecessarily torturing thousands of animals for

profit.

 

Of course, the Bush administration has a different

definition, but even it's not consistent. The State

Department terrorism definition focuses on violence against

people, but the very broad FBI definition of domestic

terrorism includes any politically motivated crime,

including property sabotage. Even protest acts as small as

clogging a toilet or graffiti are included in the FBI's

lists of domestic terrorism incidents by animal rights and

environmental groups.

 

The FBI describes such political property damage as

" violent. " That contradicts the rules in the FBI's national

Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) system. In the UCR, the

leading source of U.S. crime statistics, the FBI defines

" violent crime " as murder, rape, robbery and assault.

 

Without being asked, Bush's political appointees insisted at

the D.C. press conference that the administration's focus on

property crime by left-wing protesters wasn't politically

motivated. AG Gonzales said " the indictment proves " that the

government will go after any terrorist group " no matter its

intentions or objectives. "

 

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, III told the cameras that

" animal rights and environmental extremism is one of the

FBI's highest domestic terrorism priorities " and claimed " no

person -- no matter what his or her political or moral

convictions are -- is above the law. "

 

Priorities

 

But critics have questioned why property damage by animal

and environmental protesters is the Republican

administration's top domestic terrorism priority.

 

Last May the U.S. Senate Republican majority staged a

committee hearing on " ecoterrorism, " which Republican Sen.

James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) described as the nation's #1

domestic terror concern.

 

Democrats at the hearing condemned the property destruction,

but questioned whether the Republican administration has its

priorities straight. Sen. Barak Obama (D-Illinois) noted

that incidents of environmental sabotage are declining and

said that the threat is not equivalent to other crimes.

Obama cited FBI statistics from 2003 showing 7,400 hate

crimes committed and 450 environmental crimes involving

threats to workers, public health or the environment. Obama

said the Senate environment committee's time would be better

spent on larger threats, such as the failure of the EPA to

protect thousands of children from lead poisoning.

 

" We need to keep things in perspective, " Sen. Frank

Lautenberg (D-New Jersey) said. " The Oklahoma City bombing

killed 168 people. The attacks of 9/11 killed 3,000. Since

1993, there have been at least five fatal attacks on doctors

who performed legal abortions. Eric Rudolph recently pleaded

guilty to placing a bomb in a public area during the Olympic

Games in 1996, as well as bombing a Birmingham women's

clinic and a gay nightclub. All of these cases involved the

loss of human life. To date, not a single incident of

so-called environmental terrorism has killed anyone. "

 

 

Abortion activists can't claim that. Since 1977,

anti-abortion activists have perpetrated more than 59,000

acts of violence and destruction in the U.S. including seven

murders, 17 attempted murders, 41 bombings, 165 arsons,

three kidnappings, 122 assaults, 343 death threats and, most

recently, 480 anthrax threats, according to the National

Abortion Rights Action League.

 

Sen. James Jeffords, a Vermont independent, noted that while

the FBI is focused on eco-terrorists, it is not doing enough

to fight right-wing domestic terrorists such as the KKK,

skin heads and the militia members who bombed Oklahoma City.

Jeffords also noted that the administration has failed to

require adequate security at chemical and nuclear plants --

" pre-positioned weapons of mass destruction " -- that

threaten millions of people.

 

At the hearing Inhofe and corporate lobbyists sought to

paint mainstream environmental and animal rights groups as

somehow linked to the " ecoterrorist " label and questioned

their non-profit status.

 

Lautenberg and other Democrats objected to the tactic.

Bomber Tim McVeigh was a member of the National Rifle

Association, and abortion clinic bombers were involved in

mainstream right to life groups, but that doesn't make them

terrorists, Lautenberg said. " We must take care not to lump

legitimate groups with terrorists. To do so would only

minimize the very real threats against our society. "

 

The FBI's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has also

questioned the department's " ecoterrorism " priorities. In a

2003 report, the OIG recommended that the FBI take its

anti-terrorist staff off of environmental and animal rights

property crimes to focus on more serious threats. " To the

extent that the FBI seeks to maximize its counterterrorism

resources to deal with radical Islamic fundamentalist

terrorism, WMD, and domestic groups or individuals that may

seek mass casualties, we believe that FBI management should

consider the benefit of transferring responsibility for

criminal activity by social activists to the FBI's Criminal

Investigative Division. " The FBI refused to alter its

priorities.

 

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama questions the FBI's priorities.

 

In that sense, not much has changed since 9/11 at the FBI.

While al Qaeda was planning to crash airliners into the

nation's largest buildings, the FBI was focused on

" ecoterrorism. " Six months before the mass casualties, then

FBI director Louis Freeh testified to a congressional

committee on terrorism threats, giving about the same amount

of time to environmental and animal rights groups as he gave

to Osama bin Laden and Middle-East terrorist groups.

 

EPD

 

The Eugene Police Department apparently shares the FBI's top

prioritization of environmental property crime. The EPD has

frequently complained that it doesn't have enough time to

pursue bike and car thieves, burglars and even domestic

violence cases. But the EPD apparently has prioritized ample

time to participate in the FBI's years-long " intensive "

Joint Terrorism Taskforce investigation of property crime by

environmentalists. One EPD officer was even sent to New York

City to pursue a suspect, according to court documents.

 

Another EPD officer, Chuck Tilby, had the time to research

and co-author a treatise on " criminal anarchists. " The

report in the journal Studies in Conflict & Terrorism

describes anarchists today as " no less vexing for law

enforcement " than the " terrorist siege " of the

bomb-throwing, assassin anarchists of two centuries ago.

Tilby's article on the " threat posed by anarchists " attempts

to link and lump together criminal anarchists with

" ecoterrorism " incidents, violence, armed militias and

mainstream environmental and anti-war groups and low level

civil disobedience like sit-ins and hanging banners, and

even independent media activities protected by the First

Amendment.

 

The Tilby article acknowledges that not all anarchists

advocate or engage in violence and that many law enforcement

professionals " view modern anarchists simply as a protest

group " and " may be tempted to ignore the movement. " But

Tilby says law enforcement should infiltrate, grand jury

subpoena, and use informants against anarchists " because of

the tactics that may be used " to enact their revolutionary

ideas.

 

EPD spokesperson Pam Olshanski refused to provide any

information on how much time and taxpayer money local

officers spent on the environmental property crime

investigation. In Portland, local police participation in

the terrorism taskforce sparked heated debate about police

priorities, civil rights and officer supervision. But in

Eugene there has been no such discussion.

 

Anti-Environmental Violence

 

While law enforcement has focused on property destruction by

environmental and animal rights activists, it has largely

ignored a long list of alleged violent crimes by

anti-environmentalists.

 

Ignored anti-environmental crimes include: a car bomb

directed at protesters against redwood logging that

seriously injured two activists in 1990; Eugene police

dousing non-violent tree sitters with pepper spray, and

northern California deputies using Q-tips to apply the

burning spray directly to protesters' eyes in 1997; a logger

who allegedly intentionally fell a tree on a forest

protester, killing him in 1998; and complaints by

tree-sitters last year that they had been shot at with

bullets and a hunting arrow in the McKenzie River headwaters.

 

Anti-environmentalists have also largely gotten away with

targeting government workers with violence. Public Employees

for Environmental Responsibility documented a three-year

string of serious incidents from 1995 to 1998 including: an

anti-government landowner who ran over a park service ranger

in Arizona; shootings and attacks against Vermont National

Parks Service Employees; the beating of an EPA employee in

Missouri by suspected pro-mining activists; a car bomb that

seriously injured a federal mine inspector and his wife in

California; and a Forest Service Ranger beaten by cattle

ranchers.

 

These violent incidents don't include the many incidents of

property destruction anti-environmental groups have also

engaged in without facing prosecution or labeling as

terrorists. For example, in 2001 angry ranchers near Klamath

Falls cut through fences and forced open dam gates to

release water held back for endangered fish during a drought.

 

Big Brother

 

In going after environmental property crime, critics fear

that the federal government is not only misusing the massive

anti-terrorism resources created after 9/11 but also the

huge spying apparatus set up to eavesdrop on the Soviets

during the Cold War.

 

Greenpeace, renowned for its efforts to block international

whaling, has joined the American Civil Liberties Union

(ACLU) and other groups to sue the federal government for

warrantless wire taps. " A government that can't maintain a

distinction between terror and civil dissent is not a

healthy or democratic government, " Greenpeace said in a

statement.

 

Bush has proclaimed that because of his declared " War on

Terror " he has the inherent power to tap anyone's

international phone calls whenever he wants. The ACLU says

wiretaps without a court warrant are illegal. The Bush

administration hasn't said that it used warrantless wiretaps

against Greenpeace or any other environmentalists, but, of

course, such wiretaps are generally secret and rarely

acknowledged.

 

In what appears to be a reference to wiretaps in the Senate

hearing last year, FBI Deputy Assistant Director John Lewis

testified that the FBI employs its " expertise in the area of

communication analysis to provide investigative direction "

for " ecoterrorism " investigations.

 

The EPD's Tilby writes as if he and others are already

engaged in spying on anarchists who aren't discussing

crimes. " Infiltration into large affinity group meetings is

relatively simple, " his article states.

 

The law against warrantless wiretaps and law enforcement

guidelines against spying on political groups came about

after abuses in the late 1960s and early '70s when the FBI

used its COINTELPRO program to spy on and disrupt the civil

rights movement and peace groups opposed to Vietnam. Targets

of the spying included Martin Luther King Jr. and John

Lennon. Now, the Bush administration has resumed the

wiretaps and political spying, civil liberties groups say.

 

Harsh Sentences

 

And now the dozen recently arrested environmental and animal

rights activists face harsh sentences.

 

" Persons who conduct this kind of activity are going to

spend a long time in jail, " FBI Director Mueller said.

 

Most of the defendants could face life sentences, with some

sentences of over 300 years possible. By comparison, the

average federal sentence for murderers convicted in federal

court is 20 years, robbers average six years and assaulters

two years.

 

" It's outrageous, " said Karen Picket, a San Francisco Earth

First! activist. " If there is a political reason for doing

the same act, and it's a political reason the federal

government doesn't like, the sentence is altogether

different and often several times worse. "

 

Ironically, someone who steals an SUV out of greed faces a

far lower sentence than an environmentalist who destroys the

vehicle because it pollutes. In Oregon, the average sentence

for motor vehicle theft was 17 months in 2001. In 2001 a

state judge sentenced Jeff " Free " Luers to 23 years in

prison for burning three SUVs and attempting to set fire to

an empty fuel truck. The average arson sentence in Oregon

that year was just under six years, rapists averaged 10

years and murderers 14 years.

 

But law enforcement and anti-environmental politicians are

pushing for even harsher sentences for those who commit

property crimes for environmental and animal rights reasons.

Corporate and hunter groups have circulated model laws to

state legislatures that would set up special crimes and

harsh sentences for sabotage by environmental and animal

rights activists. The laws are working their way through

nine state legislatures and some could make reducing

business profits by protesting a crime, civil rights

advocates fear.

 

In 1999, Oregon passed a law making it a crime to interfere

with agricultural or timber operations, including logging.

 

An existing federal law already makes disrupting animal

enterprises a crime. Last year, the FBI and Senate

Republicans called for strengthening the law and expanding

it to apply to business disruptions by environmental activists.

 

Long prison sentences can be especially hard on

environmental and animal rights activists. The non-violent

activists can fall prey to violent inmates, suffer

malnutrition from lack of nutritious vegan food and lose

access to the nature they love. One of the alleged

" ecoterrorists " recently arrested suffocated himself with a

plastic bag in an Arizona jail cell. He reportedly left a

note calling the suicide a " jail break. "

 

Backfire

 

Mueller said the long sentences will have a " dramatic impact

on persons who contemplate these crimes. "

 

Environmental activists are calling the " ecoterrorism "

crackdown a " green scare, " comparing it to the " red scare "

periods of anti-communist repression and civil rights abuses

after World War I and in the 1950s.

 

Jim Flynn, a local Earth First! activist, said that after

the indictments " people were quite intimidated " in the

environmental protest movement.

 

John Zerzan, a local anarchist author, said the arrests and

the recent conviction of seven animal rights activists in

California for what they wrote on a website " is very scary. "

 

Zerzan said the government is pushing back the line on what

before was considered free speech. " That's a police state

kind of move. "

 

Lauren Regan, a local attorney who directs the Civil

Liberties Defense Center, noted that Congress also just made

permanent the FBI's extensive secret search powers under the

PATRIOT Act. " It is very, very scary to see what's going on. "

 

Environmentalists worry that the government's target goes

beyond even property destruction to previously accepted

lawful protests.

 

In his anarchist article, the EPD's Tilby lists law

enforcement strategies used against free speech protest

rights supposedly protected by the Constitution. Tilby

described attempts to " create 'protest zones' so far away

from the event that it was impractical or unattractive to

protesters who wanted their message heard by event

participants, " and " requiring demonstration permits with

high fees and designating approved parade routes in remote

areas. "

 

Although Mueller may have hoped that the FBI's " Operation

Backfire " would intimidate environmental protesters, that

goal may have itself backfired.

 

Environmental activists at the Public Interest Environmental

Law Conference last week at the UO said that after the

initial scare, the repression would bring unity, public

sympathy, new recruits and increased determination. " The

time for action is now, " said Kim Marks, a Portland forest

activist.

 

Sessions on environmental sabotage drew more attendance than

previous years at the conference and less debate about

whether sabotage was an appropriate tactic.

 

Craig Rosebraugh, a former spokesman for an environmental

sabotage group, ran through a list of " atrocities. " The

millions of people in poverty, global warming, a 90 percent

loss of old-growth trees, and 100,000 dead in Iraq demand

direct action, he said to loud applause from about 200

activists. " We have an obligation to do whatever we can by

any means necessary to stop that. "

 

The environmentalists invoke the nation's long history of

civil disobedience against repression to justify their

actions -- from the Boston Tea Party, to the underground

railway for slaves, to the women's suffrage, labor and civil

rights struggles. " Without debate and without dissent we do

not have a democracy, " Regan said.

 

 

" NOTICE: Due to Presidential Executive Orders, the National Security Agency may

have read this email without warning, warrant, or notice. They may do this

without any judicial or legislative oversight. You have no recourse nor

protection save to call for the impeachment of the current President. "

[Guest guest]

Which Peter? and why? I know Peter (not VV) doesn't support breaking

the law.

 

Jo

 

, fraggle <EBbrewpunx wrote:

>

>

>

> for peter

>

> Eugene Weekly

> 03.09.06

> BOOM!

> Who are the real terrorists?

> BY ALAN PITTMAN

>

> President George Bush's administration has charged a dozen

> environmental and animal rights activists with " terrorism "

> for allegedly destroying property, and is threatening life

> sentences behind bars.

>

> " We will not tolerate any group that terrorizes the American

> people, " Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said at a Jan. 20

> Washington, D.C., press conference.

>

> But as the government brings the massive post-9/11 security

> apparatus to bear against activists accused of burning

> gas-guzzling SUVs, a ski resort, and corals at a wild horse

> slaughtering facility, the really burning question may be,

> what is terrorism?

>

> Despite the fact that the nation has supposedly been at war

> against it for almost five years, there's no clear

> definition. A recent U.N. report notes that international

> efforts against terrorism have been hampered by the lack of

> a universally accepted definition. " One man's terrorist is

> another man's freedom fighter, " is an often quoted aphorism

> among terrorism experts. When the Taliban were fighting the

> Soviets in Afghanistan, they were freedom fighters. When the

> Taliban were fighting the U.S., the same people became

> terrorists.

>

> Environmental and Animal Rights activists say the true

> ecoterrorists are the corporations that are destroying the

> Earth with global warming, logging and other " atrocities, "

> and who are unnecessarily torturing thousands of animals for

> profit.

>

> Of course, the Bush administration has a different

> definition, but even it's not consistent. The State

> Department terrorism definition focuses on violence against

> people, but the very broad FBI definition of domestic

> terrorism includes any politically motivated crime,

> including property sabotage. Even protest acts as small as

> clogging a toilet or graffiti are included in the FBI's

> lists of domestic terrorism incidents by animal rights and

> environmental groups.

>

> The FBI describes such political property damage as

> " violent. " That contradicts the rules in the FBI's national

> Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) system. In the UCR, the

> leading source of U.S. crime statistics, the FBI defines

> " violent crime " as murder, rape, robbery and assault.

>

> Without being asked, Bush's political appointees insisted at

> the D.C. press conference that the administration's focus on

> property crime by left-wing protesters wasn't politically

> motivated. AG Gonzales said " the indictment proves " that the

> government will go after any terrorist group " no matter its

> intentions or objectives. "

>

> FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, III told the cameras that

> " animal rights and environmental extremism is one of the

> FBI's highest domestic terrorism priorities " and claimed " no

> person -- no matter what his or her political or moral

> convictions are -- is above the law. "

>

> Priorities

>

> But critics have questioned why property damage by animal

> and environmental protesters is the Republican

> administration's top domestic terrorism priority.

>

> Last May the U.S. Senate Republican majority staged a

> committee hearing on " ecoterrorism, " which Republican Sen.

> James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) described as the nation's #1

> domestic terror concern.

>

> Democrats at the hearing condemned the property destruction,

> but questioned whether the Republican administration has its

> priorities straight. Sen. Barak Obama (D-Illinois) noted

> that incidents of environmental sabotage are declining and

> said that the threat is not equivalent to other crimes.

> Obama cited FBI statistics from 2003 showing 7,400 hate

> crimes committed and 450 environmental crimes involving

> threats to workers, public health or the environment. Obama

> said the Senate environment committee's time would be better

> spent on larger threats, such as the failure of the EPA to

> protect thousands of children from lead poisoning.

>

> " We need to keep things in perspective, " Sen. Frank

> Lautenberg (D-New Jersey) said. " The Oklahoma City bombing

> killed 168 people. The attacks of 9/11 killed 3,000. Since

> 1993, there have been at least five fatal attacks on doctors

> who performed legal abortions. Eric Rudolph recently pleaded

> guilty to placing a bomb in a public area during the Olympic

> Games in 1996, as well as bombing a Birmingham women's

> clinic and a gay nightclub. All of these cases involved the

> loss of human life. To date, not a single incident of

> so-called environmental terrorism has killed anyone. "

>

>

> Abortion activists can't claim that. Since 1977,

> anti-abortion activists have perpetrated more than 59,000

> acts of violence and destruction in the U.S. including seven

> murders, 17 attempted murders, 41 bombings, 165 arsons,

> three kidnappings, 122 assaults, 343 death threats and, most

> recently, 480 anthrax threats, according to the National

> Abortion Rights Action League.

>

> Sen. James Jeffords, a Vermont independent, noted that while

> the FBI is focused on eco-terrorists, it is not doing enough

> to fight right-wing domestic terrorists such as the KKK,

> skin heads and the militia members who bombed Oklahoma City.

> Jeffords also noted that the administration has failed to

> require adequate security at chemical and nuclear plants --

> " pre-positioned weapons of mass destruction " -- that

> threaten millions of people.

>

> At the hearing Inhofe and corporate lobbyists sought to

> paint mainstream environmental and animal rights groups as

> somehow linked to the " ecoterrorist " label and questioned

> their non-profit status.

>

> Lautenberg and other Democrats objected to the tactic.

> Bomber Tim McVeigh was a member of the National Rifle

> Association, and abortion clinic bombers were involved in

> mainstream right to life groups, but that doesn't make them

> terrorists, Lautenberg said. " We must take care not to lump

> legitimate groups with terrorists. To do so would only

> minimize the very real threats against our society. "

>

> The FBI's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has also

> questioned the department's " ecoterrorism " priorities. In a

> 2003 report, the OIG recommended that the FBI take its

> anti-terrorist staff off of environmental and animal rights

> property crimes to focus on more serious threats. " To the

> extent that the FBI seeks to maximize its counterterrorism

> resources to deal with radical Islamic fundamentalist

> terrorism, WMD, and domestic groups or individuals that may

> seek mass casualties, we believe that FBI management should

> consider the benefit of transferring responsibility for

> criminal activity by social activists to the FBI's Criminal

> Investigative Division. " The FBI refused to alter its

> priorities.

>

> U.S. Sen. Barack Obama questions the FBI's priorities.

>

> In that sense, not much has changed since 9/11 at the FBI.

> While al Qaeda was planning to crash airliners into the

> nation's largest buildings, the FBI was focused on

> " ecoterrorism. " Six months before the mass casualties, then

> FBI director Louis Freeh testified to a congressional

> committee on terrorism threats, giving about the same amount

> of time to environmental and animal rights groups as he gave

> to Osama bin Laden and Middle-East terrorist groups.

>

> EPD

>

> The Eugene Police Department apparently shares the FBI's top

> prioritization of environmental property crime. The EPD has

> frequently complained that it doesn't have enough time to

> pursue bike and car thieves, burglars and even domestic

> violence cases. But the EPD apparently has prioritized ample

> time to participate in the FBI's years-long " intensive "

> Joint Terrorism Taskforce investigation of property crime by

> environmentalists. One EPD officer was even sent to New York

> City to pursue a suspect, according to court documents.

>

> Another EPD officer, Chuck Tilby, had the time to research

> and co-author a treatise on " criminal anarchists. " The

> report in the journal Studies in Conflict & Terrorism

> describes anarchists today as " no less vexing for law

> enforcement " than the " terrorist siege " of the

> bomb-throwing, assassin anarchists of two centuries ago.

> Tilby's article on the " threat posed by anarchists " attempts

> to link and lump together criminal anarchists with

> " ecoterrorism " incidents, violence, armed militias and

> mainstream environmental and anti-war groups and low level

> civil disobedience like sit-ins and hanging banners, and

> even independent media activities protected by the First

> Amendment.

>

> The Tilby article acknowledges that not all anarchists

> advocate or engage in violence and that many law enforcement

> professionals " view modern anarchists simply as a protest

> group " and " may be tempted to ignore the movement. " But

> Tilby says law enforcement should infiltrate, grand jury

> subpoena, and use informants against anarchists " because of

> the tactics that may be used " to enact their revolutionary

> ideas.

>

> EPD spokesperson Pam Olshanski refused to provide any

> information on how much time and taxpayer money local

> officers spent on the environmental property crime

> investigation. In Portland, local police participation in

> the terrorism taskforce sparked heated debate about police

> priorities, civil rights and officer supervision. But in

> Eugene there has been no such discussion.

>

> Anti-Environmental Violence

>

> While law enforcement has focused on property destruction by

> environmental and animal rights activists, it has largely

> ignored a long list of alleged violent crimes by

> anti-environmentalists.

>

> Ignored anti-environmental crimes include: a car bomb

> directed at protesters against redwood logging that

> seriously injured two activists in 1990; Eugene police

> dousing non-violent tree sitters with pepper spray, and

> northern California deputies using Q-tips to apply the

> burning spray directly to protesters' eyes in 1997; a logger

> who allegedly intentionally fell a tree on a forest

> protester, killing him in 1998; and complaints by

> tree-sitters last year that they had been shot at with

> bullets and a hunting arrow in the McKenzie River headwaters.

>

> Anti-environmentalists have also largely gotten away with

> targeting government workers with violence. Public Employees

> for Environmental Responsibility documented a three-year

> string of serious incidents from 1995 to 1998 including: an

> anti-government landowner who ran over a park service ranger

> in Arizona; shootings and attacks against Vermont National

> Parks Service Employees; the beating of an EPA employee in

> Missouri by suspected pro-mining activists; a car bomb that

> seriously injured a federal mine inspector and his wife in

> California; and a Forest Service Ranger beaten by cattle

> ranchers.

>

> These violent incidents don't include the many incidents of

> property destruction anti-environmental groups have also

> engaged in without facing prosecution or labeling as

> terrorists. For example, in 2001 angry ranchers near Klamath

> Falls cut through fences and forced open dam gates to

> release water held back for endangered fish during a drought.

>

> Big Brother

>

> In going after environmental property crime, critics fear

> that the federal government is not only misusing the massive

> anti-terrorism resources created after 9/11 but also the

> huge spying apparatus set up to eavesdrop on the Soviets

> during the Cold War.

>

> Greenpeace, renowned for its efforts to block international

> whaling, has joined the American Civil Liberties Union

> (ACLU) and other groups to sue the federal government for

> warrantless wire taps. " A government that can't maintain a

> distinction between terror and civil dissent is not a

> healthy or democratic government, " Greenpeace said in a

> statement.

>

> Bush has proclaimed that because of his declared " War on

> Terror " he has the inherent power to tap anyone's

> international phone calls whenever he wants. The ACLU says

> wiretaps without a court warrant are illegal. The Bush

> administration hasn't said that it used warrantless wiretaps

> against Greenpeace or any other environmentalists, but, of

> course, such wiretaps are generally secret and rarely

> acknowledged.

>

> In what appears to be a reference to wiretaps in the Senate

> hearing last year, FBI Deputy Assistant Director John Lewis

> testified that the FBI employs its " expertise in the area of

> communication analysis to provide investigative direction "

> for " ecoterrorism " investigations.

>

> The EPD's Tilby writes as if he and others are already

> engaged in spying on anarchists who aren't discussing

> crimes. " Infiltration into large affinity group meetings is

> relatively simple, " his article states.

>

> The law against warrantless wiretaps and law enforcement

> guidelines against spying on political groups came about

> after abuses in the late 1960s and early '70s when the FBI

> used its COINTELPRO program to spy on and disrupt the civil

> rights movement and peace groups opposed to Vietnam. Targets

> of the spying included Martin Luther King Jr. and John

> Lennon. Now, the Bush administration has resumed the

> wiretaps and political spying, civil liberties groups say.

>

> Harsh Sentences

>

> And now the dozen recently arrested environmental and animal

> rights activists face harsh sentences.

>

> " Persons who conduct this kind of activity are going to

> spend a long time in jail, " FBI Director Mueller said.

>

> Most of the defendants could face life sentences, with some

> sentences of over 300 years possible. By comparison, the

> average federal sentence for murderers convicted in federal

> court is 20 years, robbers average six years and assaulters

> two years.

>

> " It's outrageous, " said Karen Picket, a San Francisco Earth

> First! activist. " If there is a political reason for doing

> the same act, and it's a political reason the federal

> government doesn't like, the sentence is altogether

> different and often several times worse. "

>

> Ironically, someone who steals an SUV out of greed faces a

> far lower sentence than an environmentalist who destroys the

> vehicle because it pollutes. In Oregon, the average sentence

> for motor vehicle theft was 17 months in 2001. In 2001 a

> state judge sentenced Jeff " Free " Luers to 23 years in

> prison for burning three SUVs and attempting to set fire to

> an empty fuel truck. The average arson sentence in Oregon

> that year was just under six years, rapists averaged 10

> years and murderers 14 years.

>

> But law enforcement and anti-environmental politicians are

> pushing for even harsher sentences for those who commit

> property crimes for environmental and animal rights reasons.

> Corporate and hunter groups have circulated model laws to

> state legislatures that would set up special crimes and

> harsh sentences for sabotage by environmental and animal

> rights activists. The laws are working their way through

> nine state legislatures and some could make reducing

> business profits by protesting a crime, civil rights

> advocates fear.

>

> In 1999, Oregon passed a law making it a crime to interfere

> with agricultural or timber operations, including logging.

>

> An existing federal law already makes disrupting animal

> enterprises a crime. Last year, the FBI and Senate

> Republicans called for strengthening the law and expanding

> it to apply to business disruptions by environmental activists.

>

> Long prison sentences can be especially hard on

> environmental and animal rights activists. The non-violent

> activists can fall prey to violent inmates, suffer

> malnutrition from lack of nutritious vegan food and lose

> access to the nature they love. One of the alleged

> " ecoterrorists " recently arrested suffocated himself with a

> plastic bag in an Arizona jail cell. He reportedly left a

> note calling the suicide a " jail break. "

>

> Backfire

>

> Mueller said the long sentences will have a " dramatic impact

> on persons who contemplate these crimes. "

>

> Environmental activists are calling the " ecoterrorism "

> crackdown a " green scare, " comparing it to the " red scare "

> periods of anti-communist repression and civil rights abuses

> after World War I and in the 1950s.

>

> Jim Flynn, a local Earth First! activist, said that after

> the indictments " people were quite intimidated " in the

> environmental protest movement.

>

> John Zerzan, a local anarchist author, said the arrests and

> the recent conviction of seven animal rights activists in

> California for what they wrote on a website " is very scary. "

>

> Zerzan said the government is pushing back the line on what

> before was considered free speech. " That's a police state

> kind of move. "

>

> Lauren Regan, a local attorney who directs the Civil

> Liberties Defense Center, noted that Congress also just made

> permanent the FBI's extensive secret search powers under the

> PATRIOT Act. " It is very, very scary to see what's going on. "

>

> Environmentalists worry that the government's target goes

> beyond even property destruction to previously accepted

> lawful protests.

>

> In his anarchist article, the EPD's Tilby lists law

> enforcement strategies used against free speech protest

> rights supposedly protected by the Constitution. Tilby

> described attempts to " create 'protest zones' so far away

> from the event that it was impractical or unattractive to

> protesters who wanted their message heard by event

> participants, " and " requiring demonstration permits with

> high fees and designating approved parade routes in remote

> areas. "

>

> Although Mueller may have hoped that the FBI's " Operation

> Backfire " would intimidate environmental protesters, that

> goal may have itself backfired.

>

> Environmental activists at the Public Interest Environmental

> Law Conference last week at the UO said that after the

> initial scare, the repression would bring unity, public

> sympathy, new recruits and increased determination. " The

> time for action is now, " said Kim Marks, a Portland forest

> activist.

>

> Sessions on environmental sabotage drew more attendance than

> previous years at the conference and less debate about

> whether sabotage was an appropriate tactic.

>

> Craig Rosebraugh, a former spokesman for an environmental

> sabotage group, ran through a list of " atrocities. " The

> millions of people in poverty, global warming, a 90 percent

> loss of old-growth trees, and 100,000 dead in Iraq demand

> direct action, he said to loud applause from about 200

> activists. " We have an obligation to do whatever we can by

> any means necessary to stop that. "

>

> The environmentalists invoke the nation's long history of

> civil disobedience against repression to justify their

> actions -- from the Boston Tea Party, to the underground

> railway for slaves, to the women's suffrage, labor and civil

> rights struggles. " Without debate and without dissent we do

> not have a democracy, " Regan said.

>

>

> " NOTICE: Due to Presidential Executive Orders, the National

Security Agency may have read this email without warning, warrant, or

notice. They may do this without any judicial or legislative

oversight. You have no recourse nor protection save to call for the

impeachment of the current President. "

>

[Guest guest]

peter VV

 

 

>heartwerk <jo.heartwork

>Mar 14, 2006 11:40 PM

>

> Re: Who are the real terrorists

>

>Which Peter? and why? I know Peter (not VV) doesn't support breaking

>the law.

>

>Jo

>

> , fraggle <EBbrewpunx wrote:

>>

>>

>>

 

 

" NOTICE: Due to Presidential Executive Orders, the National Security Agency may

have read this email without warning, warrant, or notice. They may do this

without any judicial or legislative oversight. You have no recourse nor

protection save to call for the impeachment of the current President. "

[Guest guest]

Wot did I miss something? do I recomend breaking the law? The Valley Vegan................fraggle <EBbrewpunx wrote: peter VV>heartwerk >Mar 14, 2006 11:40 PM> > Re: Who are the real terrorists>>Which Peter? and why? I know Peter (not VV) doesn't support breaking >the law.>>Jo>> , fraggle wrote:>>>> >> "NOTICE: Due to Presidential Executive Orders, the National Security Agency may have read this email without warning, warrant, or notice. They may do this without any judicial or legislative oversight. You have no

recourse nor protection save to call for the impeachment of the current President."To send an email to -

[Guest guest]

Probably not - but I didn't want to speak for you :-)

 

Dol you still have snow in your neck of the woods?

 

Jo

 

-

peter hurd

Wednesday, March 15, 2006 6:49 PM

Re: Re: Who are the real terrorists

 

Wot did I miss something? do I recomend breaking the law?

 

The Valley Vegan................fraggle <EBbrewpunx wrote:

peter VV>heartwerk >Mar 14, 2006 11:40 PM> > Re: Who are the real terrorists>>Which Peter? and why? I know Peter (not VV) doesn't support breaking >the law.>>Jo>> , fraggle wrote:>>>> >> "NOTICE: Due to Presidential Executive Orders, the National Security Agency may have read this email without warning, warrant, or notice. They may do this without any judicial or legislative oversight. You have no recourse nor protection save to call for the impeachment of the current President."To send an email to -

[Guest guest]

just like judas priest...

 

no....sent this in along the lines of wot you were talking about last month......... peter hurd Mar 15, 2006 10:49 AM Re: Re: Who are the real terrorists

Wot did I miss something? do I recomend breaking the law?

 

The Valley Vegan................fraggle <EBbrewpunx wrote:

peter VV

"NOTICE: Due to Presidential Executive Orders, the National Security Agency may have read this email without warning, warrant, or notice. They may do this without any judicial or legislative oversight. You have no recourse nor protection save to call for the impeachment of the current President."

[Guest guest]

No , the snow has all gone now. Was a bit dodgy last week. The Valley Vegan................jo <jo.heartwork wrote: Probably not - but I didn't want to speak for you :-) Dol you still have snow in your neck of the woods? Jo - peter hurd Wednesday, March 15, 2006 6:49 PM Re: Re: Who are the real terrorists Wot did I miss something? do I recomend breaking the law? The Valley Vegan................fraggle <EBbrewpunx wrote: peter VV>heartwerk >Mar 14, 2006 11:40 PM> > Re: Who are the real terrorists>>Which Peter? and why? I know Peter (not VV) doesn't support breaking >the law.>>Jo>> , fraggle wrote:>>>> >> "NOTICE: Due to Presidential Executive Orders, the National Security Agency may have read this email without warning, warrant, or notice. They may do this without any judicial or legislative oversight. You have no recourse nor protection save to call for the impeachment of the current President."To send an email to -

[Guest guest]

there are humungous battles here in florida right now,

the Bush administration VS environmental groups.

He is allowing companies/corporations to pollute, dump wastes

in our water and in return killing all living things

in the water.

 

he just wants to shut us up. intimidate us, so that we will

be afraid to speak. it's a mental manipulation, slavery.

 

people don't even realized that they are being censored,

this censorship has been creeping on our skin like a disease.

People walk around bottle up inside, instead of shouting, crying aoubt

the things that they care about.

telling it like it is.

 

but on the other hand.. some people really don't care.

 

 

, fraggle <EBbrewpunx wrote:

>

>

>

> for peter

>

> Eugene Weekly

> 03.09.06

> BOOM!

> Who are the real terrorists?

> BY ALAN PITTMAN

>

> President George Bush's administration has charged a dozen

> environmental and animal rights activists with " terrorism "

> for allegedly destroying property, and is threatening life

> sentences behind bars.

>

>

[Guest guest]

wait til they open up your offshore waters to more oil drilling and natural gas

exploration...

 

 

>Anouk Sickler <zurumato

>Mar 15, 2006 10:03 PM

>

> Re: Who are the real terrorists

>

>there are humungous battles here in florida right now,

>the Bush administration VS environmental groups.

>He is allowing companies/corporations to pollute, dump wastes

>in our water and in return killing all living things

>in the water.

>

>he just wants to shut us up. intimidate us, so that we will

>be afraid to speak. it's a mental manipulation, slavery.

>

>people don't even realized that they are being censored,

>this censorship has been creeping on our skin like a disease.

>People walk around bottle up inside, instead of shouting, crying aoubt

>the things that they care about.

>telling it like it is.

>

>but on the other hand.. some people really don't care.

>

>

> , fraggle <EBbrewpunx wrote:

>>

>>

>>

>> for peter

>>

>> Eugene Weekly

>> 03.09.06

>> BOOM!

>> Who are the real terrorists?

>> BY ALAN PITTMAN

>>

>> President George Bush's administration has charged a dozen

>> environmental and animal rights activists with " terrorism "

>> for allegedly destroying property, and is threatening life

>> sentences behind bars.

>>

>>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>To send an email to -

>