You would think that a multi-billion-dollar War on Terrorism would
not be limited to international terrorism, but would include some kind of action against
eco-terrorists who attack
chinchilla farms, throw dye on fur coats, burn down legitimate businesses and
deliberately disrupt military training and testing. I'm no lawyer, but at
the very least, many of these cases appear to be organized crimes as defined
in (18 U.S.C. § 1961),
the RICO laws, and most of them probably constitute "interference with commerce by threats or violence" as defined
in (18 U.S.C. § 1951). So
why aren't these people already in prison?
Ironically, radical environmentalists, anti-war and animal rights activists destroy property
and provoke violent confrontations in the name of non-violence. Moreover,
they are legally incorporated nonprofit organizations under U.S. tax
law.* However,
many environmental activists don't even maintain the pretense of non-violence. Some
organizations, like the Animal Liberation Front, openly condone and endorse violent activities
against legal businesses, and even
offer detailed advice about
what to do and how to get away with it.
More information about misguided animal rights activists (mainly the non-violent ones) can be
found here.
The
Truth About Terror. On February 12, the U.S. Congress
held a hearing on eco-terrorism — that ugly homegrown branch of the environmental
and animal rights movements. Called to testify was Craig Rosebraugh,
former spokesman for the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), which took credit
for 137 attacks in 2001 — many of them coming after September 11. Asked
about the terrorist operations of ELF, Rosebraugh pled the Fifth Amendment
over 50 times. While hiding behind the Constitution, he also attacked it,
refusing to affirm that it represents the law of our nation.
Who Will Defend Industry from Eco-Terrorism?
Few of us intellectually grasp, and then rise to defend, the irreplaceable values under attack by environmental
terrorists. Their targets are not, fundamentally, a particular ski resort, logging company, meatpacking
center or medical research project, but what these represent: human technology, human progress, human life.
Animal Rights, Human Wrongs. Animal
rights extremism — which the FBI has labeled the biggest domestic terrorism threat — has
encountered a number of serious reverses recently. These reverses are a great victory for science, free
inquiry and public health. In particular, Americans could learn from a popular movement in the UK that
is standing up to the threats and intimidation of the animal "liberation" movement and asserting the moral
arguments for animal testing.
Hundreds of mink set loose
from Utah farm. Animal rights activists broke into a mink farm and released hundreds of the
animals from their pens, police said. Lindsey McMullin said "animal rights terrorists" hit his South
Jordan farm, about 18 miles south of Salt Lake City, the morning of Aug. 19 [2008] and released
about 600 mink. Breeding records were also destroyed, he said.
FBI Investigating Terror Attacks on California
Scientists. Scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz are victims of the latest in
a surge of firebomb attacks against animal researchers. One scientist was forced to flee his home with
his children after a bomb was ignited on his porch.
Scientists Targeted in California
Firebombings. Early Saturday morning [8/2/2008], a Molotov-cocktail-like device set fire to the
home of a developmental neurobiologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). His family
escaped by climbing down a fire escape from a second-story window. Around the same time, a similar
device destroyed the car of another UCSC researcher.
Two
UC-Santa Cruz Researchers Victims of Firebombing. The university is calling the most recent
attacks "criminal acts of antiscience violence," and Santa Cruz police are calling the house fire an act of
domestic terrorism and are treating it as an attempted homicide, according to the Chronicle.
Pamphlets threatening UC-Santa Cruz researchers
found at coffee shop. The flyers, which police are investigating as threats of a possible attack
following a string of incidents this winter, target scientists who use mice, fruit flies and other animals in
their work.
The Editor says...
THAT is what all this is about? Special rights and privileges for fruit flies and mice?
Firebombs show new
tactics of animal activists. Two firebombs targeting UC Santa Cruz biologists appear to mark an
escalation in violence by militant opponents to animal research, a transition from threats and harassment to
acts of terrorism and attempted homicide, authorities said Monday [8/4/2008]. "There has definitely been
an increase in the volume of harassment, and now we've seen an increase in the stakes of the violence that
they're willing to spread in the name of this cause," Santa Cruz police Capt. Steve Clark said. "This
signals a new level of aggressiveness."
The war on scientists
in America: Extremist animal rights groups have organized anonymously to intimidate and terrorize
medical researchers until they abandon their studies out of fear for their children's safety and their own peace
of mind. They perfected the art of intimidation in the United Kingdom. First, extremists vandalized
research labs. Then, they targeted companies that did business with researchers. In 2004, activists
finally went too far when they dug up the remains of the mother-in-law of a guinea-pig breeder.
Santa Cruz
firebombs look familiar. The devices used in two firebombings targeting UC Santa Cruz biologists
are similar to some used in the past by animal rights activists, investigators said Sunday [8/3/2008].
The bombs were so powerful they were like "Molotov cocktails on steroids," said Santa Cruz police Capt. Steve
Clark.
Animal
Liberation Front renews its threat to Oxford. Animal rights campaigners are threatening a new wave
of attacks on Oxford University as its biomedical laboratory nears completion. Groups such as the Animal
Liberation Front have been waging a campaign of arson and vandalism since work on the controversial
facility — which will house all of the university's animal testing labs — began
in 2004.
Eco-Freaks.
Eco-terrorism is simply another form of terrorism. We have long since gone past Earth First's simple spiking
of trees, which itself resulted in severe injuries and should not be trivialized. But now these groups
are perpetrating acts of destruction with the some of the same characteristics — such as the use of
cells and timing-device explosives — that we associate with terrorism aimed at foreign policy.
As the Christian Science Monitor has reported, "somewhere along the way, vandalizing log trucks and 'liberating'
lab rats escalated into firebombs, plots to blow up electrical towers and dams, code names, and anonymous
communiqués boasting of destroying millions of dollars in property."
American
terrorist: The terrorists behind the American firebombs were not Islamic fanatics, but animal-rights
jihadists bent on harming and intimidating scientists who conduct medical research on animals. They also
have targeted employees of businesses that might work with researchers, as well as harassed the spouses and
young children of researchers. Americans for Medical Progress President Jacquie Calnan warned that the
latest incident "marks a disturbing escalation in the tactics of intimidation and harassment."
Acts of
Ecoterrorism: A list of self-proclaimed Earth Liberation Front ecoterrorism acts.
Yes,
They're Terrorists. Lawyers for the people who pled guilty and are now being sentenced for a crime
spree that included the 1998 Vail Mountain arson naturally argue that their clients are not terrorists, no
indeed. … Chelsea Gerlach's attorney argued that Gerlach's name didn't belong on a list of terrorists that
included Timothy McVeigh, among others.
Eco-Terrorism: When Violence Becomes An Environmentalist
Tactic. Violence by environmental radicals has become depressingly common in the U.S. Radical eco-terrorists
commit arson and corporate sabotage, and some groups have a decentralized structure that seems modeled after jihadists'
diffuse networks of terrorist cells. Regrettably, mainline environmentalist groups have not taken a lead in denouncing
direct-action radicals who care little about human life.
Briefly Noted: A federal judge in Oregon has
sentenced convicted eco-terrorist Kevin Tubbs to a prison term of 12 years and seven months for his role in setting
fire to a police substation, a forest ranger station, a dealership selling sport utility vehicles, and a tree farm.
Tubbs is a member of The Family, a cell of the radical groups Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front. "Fear
and intimidation can play no part in changing the hearts and minds of people in a democracy," U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken
said at sentencing.
Violin teacher
sentenced to six years in prison for UW arson. Briana Waters, a California woman convicted in
March of assisting in the 2001 arson that destroyed the University of Washington's Urban Horticulture Center,
was sentenced this morning to six years in prison. … Federal prosecutors sought the 10-year sentence under
a "terrorism enhancement" because they claimed the arson met the legal definition of a violent act "calculated
to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion," according to a court filing.
Global Warming
Hypocrites. I've come to the conclusion that many of these people are mentally ill. They
won't accept any rational opposition, scientific or otherwise, that refutes the global warming theory.
Drew Johnson reported that after his organization first revealed Al Gore's electric bill to the general
public, his group received a number of death threats. Their computers were hacked. Phoned
obscenities were common.
Coal train ambushed near power
station in climate change protest. Climate change campaigners halted a coal train yesterday [6/13/2008]
outside Drax, Britain's biggest power station, and shovelled its contents on to the only line into the plant. More
than 20 tonnes of coal blocked the tracks as protesters strung ropes between the train and the girders of a river
bridge as police watched from a distance.
The War on Animal Research.
This is an edited excerpt from The Animal Research War by P. Michael Conn and James V. Parker,
to be published by Palgrave Macmillan in May 2008.
Eco-terrorists top
the FBI's threat list after wave of arson attacks. It began 16 years ago with a meeting of
disaffected environmentalists in Brighton. Today the radical organisation they created — the
Earth Liberation Front — is described as a decentralised al-Qaeda-style network and America's
No 1 domestic terrorism threat.
California
Regents Sue Animal Activists. It was late into the night when 25 people in ski masks descended
on professor Dario Ringach's family home. Pounding on the door, frightening his small children, they
screamed into megaphones, "Animal killer! We know where you live! We will never give up!"
The fight over what
"green" means: It was the People's Choice and Best in Show in the 2007 Street of Dreams, the
Best in American Living for 2007, according to the National Association of Home Builders, and the first home
in Snohomish County to earn a five-star rating as a Built Green home. But with 4,750 square feet, a
four-car garage and a location in a rural area where subdivisions aren't supposed to sprawl, was it really
green? The Urban Lodge was one of four mega homes burned in an act of arson this month near Maltby.
Environmental
Extremists Likely to Attack, Says NIE. The most dangerous domestic terrorists in the United States
may have nothing to do with Islam or Iraq but may be little-known extremists who regard violence against animals
as akin to violence against people, according to FBI officials. This week, a declassified portion of the
latest National Intelligence Estimate for the United States warned that Americans can expect attacks from these
groups within the next three years.
Luxury
Homes Burn in Apparent Eco-Attack. Three seven-figure dream homes went up in flames early Monday
[3/3/2008] in a Seattle suburb, apparently set by eco-terrorists who left a sign mocking the builders' claims
that the 4,000-plus-square-foot houses were environmentally friendly.
Fur dealers under attack. Never before
has Norway's fur industry been as under attack as it is now. Some Oslo fur dealers have been the repeated targets of
vandalism and threats, and even some established animal rights activists are calling the attackers "animal terrorists."
They put the fur in furious.
Arson Near Chicago Mayor's
Home May Be Linked to Cougar's Killing. Authorities are investigating whether an arson fire near Chicago Mayor
Richard M. Daley's summer home in Michigan last month is linked to threats against the mayor from someone furious about
the April 14 killing of a cougar that had roamed into downtown Chicago.
Animal
rights group turns its fire on celebrity meat-eaters. Animal rights protesters have launched a series of angry
campaigns against A-list carnivores. They are shifting their focus from celebrities who wear fur to others who
encourage the "exploitation" of animals by eating them. In its latest campaign, Peta — People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals, which became infamous for dousing fur-wearers in red paint — has launched an attack
on the singer Jessica Simpson.
Greenpeace activists board
nuclear waste ship. Three Greenpeace activists boarded the Atlantic Osprey carrier as it was
making its way to Sellafield with a shipment of nuclear waste for reprocessing.
Green group 'sinks whaling ship'.
Norwegian police say they are investigating a green group's claim that it deliberately sank a whaling ship last
month. Activists calling themselves Agenda 21 claimed responsibility for the sinking "to celebrate the
end of commercial whaling in Iceland," according to a message posted on the US-hosted website…. The
activist group said its actions were "a rational response to a world where tens of thousands of species
disappear every year."
The Editor says...
Really? Tens of thousands of species disappear every year? Show me the list of
species that "disappeared" last year. One researcher
has shown that the number of bird
extinctions per decade is about one or two. His page also has information on about
50 rediscovered species that were once thought to be extinct.
Furrier's
suit against animal rights groups thrown out. The case of a Portland furrier who sued the city
and animal rights activists was thrown out by a judge Tuesday. Schumacher Furs filed the lawsuit against
In Defense of Animals and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals for protests that eventually drove the
store out of downtown Portland. The suit charged them with a vulgar pattern of harassment that included
public nudity, insults, obscene gestures and threats of physical harm. The protests at the store began
in late 2005.
Schumachers
ordered to pay $97,000 in protesters' legal fees. A federal judge has ordered one of Portland's
last furriers to pay nearly $97,000 in legal fees to the animal-rights protesters he has accused of
destroying his family business.
Protesters
having a whale of a time. Paul Watson is a walking thermometer. Put him
anywhere and you'll see how sick we are. … After all, this is the man who's already
alienated even green groups by calling humans the "AIDS of the Earth", ramming whaling
ships, demanding we slash the world's population by six billion, and boasting that he
invented tree-spiking — which puts loggers in mortal danger if they chainsaw a sabotaged
tree.
UCLA:
Animal Research Leads to Threats. A judge issued a temporary restraining order Thursday [2/21/2008]
against animal rights groups and activists accused of threatening UCLA employees and graduate students because
they conduct research using animals. The order by Superior Court Judge Gerald Rosenberg forbids the activists
from engaging in acts of harassment and threats of violence, and requires that they stay away from anybody who
is known to be a university employee involved in animal research, UCLA's attorney John C. Hueston said.
PETA
infiltrates primate center. For the second time in a decade, an animal-rights activist has
slipped past employment screeners at the Oregon National Primate Research Center, taken a job as a monkey
handler and accused the facility of routinely abusing animals.
ALF ...
Six degrees of separation. Who at [the Animal Liberation Front] has not taken prescription drugs
or taken their pet to the vet for treatment that ultimately led to some kind of drug treatment? It is
impossible for even the most stringent ALF anarchist to walk through life without using the benefits of animal
testing.
Ex-University
of Chicago 'genius' turned ecoterrorist. Two years after his 2002 graduation with
honors as a double major in physics and math, [William] Cottrell was charged and convicted as
one of the nation's first ecoterrorists of the post-Sept. 11 era. He was found
guilty of conspiracy and arson in the 2003 firebombings of Hummer and other sport-utility
vehicle dealerships in the Los Angeles area to advocate a radical environmentalism. Two
conspirators remain at large.
Fire set at UCLA scientist's
house. Authorities are investigating a fire caused by a device left Tuesday [2/5/2008] at a house owned by
a UCLA professor who conducts animal research — the second time the house has been targeted in less
than four months.
'Ecoterrorism' case stirs debate in US.
When law-enforcement agencies arrested 10 animal rights activists and environmental radicals 18 months
ago, it was a major breakthrough in the fight against what officials call "ecoterrorism." Among the
crimes solved were a string of arsons and other attacks across five Western states totaling more than
$40 million in damage.
The Editor says...
Just as in the case of hate crime prosecution, the
thoughts, ideology and motivation of criminals should not be a consideration when it comes to handing
out punishment. Crime is crime regardless of what goes through a criminal's mind while laws are broken.
The
Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act: On Monday, November 27, 2006, President Bush signed into
law S. 3880, the "Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act," which expands criminal prohibitions against the use
of force, violence, and threats involving animal enterprises and increases penalties for violations of these
crimes.
Why the FBI watches the
Left: In March 2003, I reported on a manifesto disseminated across the Internet by infamous
eco-radical Craig Rosebraugh — former spokesman for the violent Earth Liberation Front —
who called on fellow leftists to take "direct actions" against American military establishments, urban centers,
corporations, government buildings and media outlets.
Tree-sitter
charged with threat to officer. A leader of tree-sitters who oppose a proposed
athletic training center next to UC Berkeley's Memorial Stadium was charged Monday [2/26/2007]
with two felony counts of threatening a police officer. Zachary Runningwolf Brown, 44, was
arrested Friday after he threatened to shoot a campus police officer, said UC Assistant Police
Chief Mitch Celaya.
With
their heads in the trees. Never before has so much been done for a cause so trivial. The
tree-sitters argue that in fighting to save some 100 trees, they are protecting "a healthy, functioning native
oak ecosystem." One problem: The stadium property is not pristine wilderness. Most of those
trees owe their existence to UC landscaping. "People call us crazy monkey hippies," one tree-squatter
told The Chronicle's Carolyn Jones, "but this is the greatest thing I've ever done." Except the tree
squatters have achieved nothing.
Senator
Inhofe Applauds 65-count Ecoterror Indictment. "FBI counter-terror experts have warned time and
again that ecoterror is the most dangerous domestic terror threat our nation faces, and I applaud our Federal
agents' ongoing efforts in cracking down on groups like ALF, ELF and SHAC in the name of protecting property
and saving lives."
Whaling
acid attack terrorist act: Japan. Japan has expressed outrage after anti-whaling activists
lobbed acid onto the decks of a whaling ship in the Southern Ocean and slightly injured two crew members,
terming their activities "piratical, terrorist acts".
Pom
Bomb: Fruit-Juice Diarrhea 'Terror Strike'. Animal-rights terrorists say they've contaminated
487 bottles of trendy Pom pomegranate juice sold in stores all along the East Coast, including in outlets of
at least two grocery chains that do business in New York City. People who drink the juices will suffer
"diarrhea, vomiting and headaches," the Animal Rights Militia promised in a communiqué.
Activists' passion turns to
violence. Jennifer Kolar and Lacey Phillabaum seem unlikely criminals. Well-educated
young women passionate about environmental causes, they share a love of the outdoors and similar
backgrounds. Both grew up in Spokane and attended the same public high school. … But
their activism morphed into something more dangerous — and now both are headed to prison.
Airport protesters
chained. Environmental activists said on Thursday [8/16/2007] they had chained themselves to the
gates of a small English airport to protest the impact of private air traffic on climate change.
Conspirator in
1998 arson attack may get 10-year term. [Chelsea] Gerlach is scheduled to be sentenced this month
for her role in the fires as well as other incidents, including an arson at a meat plant and knocking down an
electrical tower. She pleaded guilty to the crimes in July. Prosecutors are recommending a sentence
of 10 years in prison.
Update:
Radical Environmentalist Gets 9-Year
Term. By the time Chelsea D. Gerlach was 16, she was putting her passion for the environment
into action. She drove alone from Oregon to Idaho to protest a timber sale. She spoke at a
university conference here alongside professors. Interviewed by her high school newspaper, The Axe, she
said, "Our generation was born to save the earth." Now Ms. Gerlach is 30, and although she may
continue to be an environmentalist, a federal judge said Friday that she was a terrorist, too.
ELF
Arsonist Sentenced to 9 Years. A judge sentenced a radical environmentalist Friday to nine years
in prison for torching a police substation and a tree farm and for downing a power line, deeds the judge called
acts of terrorism. Chelsea Dawn Gerlach, 30, is the third of 10 members of The Family, a Eugene-based
cell of the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front, to be sentenced.
When Violence Becomes An Environmentalist Tactic:
Violence by environmental radicals has become depressingly common in the U.S. Radical eco-terrorists commit
arson and corporate sabotage, and some groups have a decentralized structure that seems modeled after jihadists'
diffuse networks of terrorist cells. Regrettably, mainline environmentalist groups have not taken a lead
in denouncing direct-action radicals who care little about human life.
Woman Pleads
Guilty in University of Washington Ecoterrorism. A woman pleaded guilty Wednesday [10/04/2006]
to conspiracy and arson in the 2001 firebombing of the University of Washington's horticulture center, one of
the Northwest's most notorious acts of ecoterrorism. … The fire on May 21, 2001, severely damaged
the building, which was rebuilt at a cost of about $7 million. The center had done work on
fast-growing hybrid poplars in hopes of limiting the amount of natural forests that timber companies log.
PETA & The ALF, Coming To A
Theater Near You. The radical animal rights group [PETA] is actively promoting a new
film that glorifies the domestic-terrorist Animal Liberation Front (ALF). Along with several
leaders of the violent animal rights fringe — including ALF arsonist Rodney Coronado, maritime
saboteur Paul Watson, and the murder-endorsing Jerry Vlasak — the movie includes an interview
with PETA president Ingrid Newkirk. In her close-up moment, Newkirk praises masked
criminals for being "smart enough to know that they need to fight another day. They
don't want to be recognized by law enforcement."
Animal
activists escalate threats to brokerage's executives. Animal rights activists are
targeting executives of a Portland brokerage to coerce the firm into severing its distant ties to
a global animal-testing company. Activists held protests last December outside the houses of
two of Wachovia Securities' top executives. Then they posted photos of their homes on the
Internet, along with their names, addresses and phone numbers.
Activists Threaten World Food
Supply. When Kenyan biologist Florence Wambugu developed a virus-resistant sweet potato
that promised to feed millions, the Earth Liberation Front destroyed her lab and her crops. In another
blow to scientific progress, eco-fanatics bombed a Minnesota plant genetics center to keep it from producing
life-saving agricultural research. When activists don't approve, poor people don't eat.
Pennsylvania Toughens Eco-Terror
Law. The new law increases penalties for arson, criminal mischief, vandalism, crop destruction,
burglary, criminal trespass, and theft intended to intimidate people who participate in lawful activities
regarding animals, plants, or natural resources.
Animal activist campaign
backfires. Extreme action by animal rights activists has backfired, according to a
new poll that suggests British voters are now more supportive than before of medical tests on
animals.
People
are fed up with protesters' thuggery. Holding placards at peaceful demonstrations is
acceptable. Death threats, vandalism, posting names on the internet, even shouting abuse,
are not. … I have hesitated in the past to use the word "terrorists" to describe such people
but today's poll shows that only 15 percent of the public think that it is unfair to use
that word.
Animal rights group
targeted UCLA professor. The Animal Liberation Front tried to attack the Bel-Air home of a UCLA
primate researcher with a "Molotov cocktail," but left it at the wrong house, an FBI official said.
Ecoterrorism is
real. These criminal acts are wholly intended to intimidate and demoralize people to change
their behavior and change public and political policy. That is a classic definition of terrorism.
Attempts to soft-pedal the sabotage as somehow less ugly and threatening because it is aimed at property, not
people, is insulting. All of the fiery menace and destruction is focused directly at people who construct,
sell or study things and ideas that offend and incense a radical minority.
Animal rights arsonist is
jailed. An animal liberation campaigner was jailed indefinitely yesterday [12/7/2006] after he
admitted carrying out an arson campaign against those he believed were linked to the animal testing laboratory
Huntingdon Life Sciences.
Accused
eco-terrorist to be deported to U.S.. Federal Justice Minister Vic Toews has ordered the
extradition of Tre Arrow, who is being held in a jail in Victoria. Mr. Arrow, who is on the
FBI's 10 Most Wanted list, is a well-known environmentalist from Oregon who fled to Canada after he
was charged with conspiring to commit arson against two logging companies in the Portland area and
causing $250,000 in damage in 2001.
Judgment Day for
Extremists. Six of America's most committed animal-rights activists will soon find themselves
entering cages instead of smashing them. Along with their organization, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty,
they were convicted on federal terrorism charges in March. Their campaign of fear and intimidation
targeted employees, customers, and suppliers of a medical research laboratory that uses animals.
Yesterday [9/14/2006] in Trenton, three were sentenced to six years in jail. The remaining three
face sentencing this week and next.
Greenie-Weenies
Kill. It's easy to become indignant — even enraged — with greenie
weenies. After all, "Eco-terrorists" have committed over 1,100 crimes with property damage at
over $110 million in the past few years.
Violinist
mom charged with being US environmental terrorist. A mother that gives violin lessons will
face trial in the northwestern US state of Washington on charges she was an environmental terrorist,
prosecutors said.
Animal Rights Activists Convicted in NJ Federal
Court. Six animal rights activists were convicted in federal court in Trenton, New Jersey
on March 3 [2006] of orchestrating a campaign of aggressive harassment and veiled death threats
against persons associated with a pharmaceutical company. While the jury rejected defense arguments
that the activists' conduct violated no laws, the trial nevertheless reinvigorated support for the Animal
Enterprise Terrorism Act, currently being debated in Congress.
Jury convicts
animal welfare activists. An animal-rights group and six members were convicted Thursday
[3/2/2006] of using their Web site to incite threats, harassment and vandalism against a company that
tests drugs and household products on animals. The group, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty,
maintained its actions were protected under the First Amendment.
Six Suspects Arrested for String of
Eco-Terrorist Attacks. From 1998 to 2001, terrorists in Oregon and Washington launched
a series of very similar attacks on tree farms and botanical research centers. In what officials
have described as sophisticated fire-bombing techniques, the terrorists constructed fire bombs out of
gasoline, road flares, batteries, and digital timers. Some of the attacks occurred simultaneously
at different locations, indicating collaboration.
Are They Arsonists? Dr.
ALF Can't Decide. Which is it? Are these activists a bunch of committed restaurant,
research lab, and SUV-dealership arsonists or just innocent bystanders? [Dr. Jerry] Vlasak seems
to want it both ways. He told the Associated Press that raising animals for meat and fur "should
be stopped by any means necessary. If that means going onto their farms, releasing their animals
and burning the place to the ground, that's morally justifiable."
Indicted Eco-Terror Teacher
Has A History Of Arson Instruction. Animal-rights and environmental extremist Rodney Coronado
… spent 57 months in prison during the 1990s for his role in an animal-rights arson that destroyed
a research facility at Michigan State University. Court records show that People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals (PETA) president Ingrid Newkirk "arranged … days before the MSU arson occurred"
for Coronado to send her overnight packages containing stolen documents from inside the lab and a videotape
of the arson fire being started.
Arrested: Yesterday
[2/22/2006] in Tucson, federal agents arrested animal-rights militant Rodney Coronado on charges that
during an August 2003 "revolution summer" event in San Diego, he taught a room full of activists
how to make incendiary devices out of common household materials. Coronado offered a similar
firebomb-building demonstration earlier in 2003 during a "Conference on Organized Resistance" held
at American University in Washington, DC.
Rock Icon Endorses PETA,
Violence. Stop us if you think you've heard this one before, but another friend of People for
the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has gone on the record advocating violence in the name of animal rights.
Six
Arrested Years After Ecoterrorist Acts. Two men were arrested this week in the
2001 burning of a building on a tree farm in Clatskanie, Ore. But on Thursday [12/8/2005], after
years of investigation, federal officials announced one of the biggest roundups yet of people involved
in a string of ecoterrorist attacks in the Pacific Northwest dating to 1998.
Grand
jury indicts three for 'eco-terrorism'. A federal grand jury indicted three alleged
"eco-terrorists" on Wednesday [1/25/2006] on charges of plotting to blow up facilities like dams
and cell phone towers. "These three individuals planned to commit a number of dangerous and
destructive acts in our region, all in the name of the Environmental Liberation Front," U.S. Attorney
McGregor Scott told a news conference in the California state capital.
FBI brands animal rights
terrorists 'highest domestic terrorism' priority. Testifying May 18 at a U.S.
Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on "Animal Rights: Activism vs. Criminality," John E.
Lewis, the FBI's deputy assistant director for counterterrorism, said "The Animal Liberation
Front … is our highest domestic terrorism investigative priority." In support of
the FBI's stance, Lewis detailed animal rights activists' use of "improvised explosive
devices" and "threats of more, larger bombings and even potential assassinations of
researchers, corporate officers, and employees."
Statement of John E. Lewis Before the
Senate Judiciary Committee May 18, 2004: Good morning Chairman Hatch, and members of the
Committee, I am pleased to have this opportunity to appear before you and discuss the threat posed by
animal rights extremists and eco-terrorists in this country, as well as the measures being taken by
the FBI and our law enforcement partners to address this threat, and some of the difficulties faced
by law enforcement in addressing this crime problem.
11 People Indicted in
Ecoterrorism Plot. Eleven people were indicted in a series of arsons in five
Western states that have been claimed by the radical groups Earth Liberation Front and Animal
Liberation Front, the Justice Department said Friday [1/20/2006]. The 65-count indictment said
the suspects are responsible for 17 incidents in California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming,
including sabotaging a high-tension power line, in a conspiracy that dates back to 1996.
Eco-Terrorists Firebomb Washington
Homes. Eco-terrorists affiliated with the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) torched one suburban
Seattle home and attempted to firebomb another in an April 13 night of terror, say federal Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives investigators. Nobody was hurt in the attacks, although police
narrowly escaped harm when a firebomb planted in one of the homes failed to ignite.
The Rainforest Action Network:
Major corporations are in the crosshairs of the Rainforest Action
Network. This radical environmentalist group regularly resorts to illegal "direct action" tactics
and even exploits school kids in order to intimidate and shake down its business adversaries. So
why does the IRS still grant RAN tax-exempt status?
Equator
Principles: Bad for business and freedom. Following the lead of Willie Sutton who said he
robbed banks "because that's where the money is", the Rainforest Action Network, an anti-business activist
organization, has systematically intimidated the largest U.S. banks to adopt RAN's vision of corporate social
responsibility. RAN wants to hold banks responsible for the social and environmental impacts of their
loans in developing countries.
Greenpeace
intruders arrested. Three Greenpeace activists were arrested Thursday and charged with mischief
after they boarded an ore carrier hauling coal across Lake Erie to a power plant in Ontario. Five
activists initially boarded the Algomarine in a bid to delay the delivery of nearly 30,000 tonnes of coal to
the Nanticoke power plant and draw attention to the issue of global warming, said Greenpeace spokeswoman
Joslyn Higginson.
Greenpeace accused of
piracy. Two Greenpeace vessels, the Esperanza and the Arctic Sunrise, have
spent the past week engaged in a cat and mouse game with a fleet of six whaling ships.
Japanese claim
second attack. A Japanese whaling group has accused the Sea Shepherd activist group of
attacking a second ship in the Southern Ocean.
Sea Shepherd running out of
fuel. Activists who have halted Japan's whaling in the Antarctic Ocean are were set to return to
shore because they are running out of fuel. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's announcement came
two days after the more mainstream environmental movement Greenpeace also said it was ending its pursuit of
Japan's controversial annual whaling expedition.
The Editor says...
Running out of fuel? How can that be? Don't they use "renewable" wind and
solar energy?
Salmon sabotage
feared. The Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) has asked Norway's salmon
industry to be vigilant to the threat of sabotage from militant environmentalists after several
facilities have been damaged.
Ecoterrorist Will Spend Seven Years in Federal
Prison. A federal judge ruled on April 18 [2005] that 24-year-old William Jensen Cottrell
should serve more than seven years in federal prison and pay more than $3.5 million in restitution for an
August 2003 firebombing spree that damaged or destroyed some 125 sport utility vehicles at dealerships and
homes outside Los Angeles.
PETA's
ties to terrorism: Should PETA be investigated for possible ties to terrorist
groups like the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front, two domestic terror
groups responsible for a series of arsons, bombings, and other violent acts that have caused
hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage?
Animal
rights terrorists threaten our safety. We must be willing to speak out against
these acts of terror. To date they've destroyed over 100 million dollars worth of
property and their rhetoric and actions are becoming increasingly more violent.
Animal
extremism versus human rights: Last month the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told the Senate that animal rights extremists, along with
eco-terrorists, pose one of the most serious and fastest-growing national terrorist
threats. Unlike such organizations as the Animal Liberation Front, PETA takes no
credit for such actions as torching laboratories. But it does support them both
vocally and financially.
Fur
flies as Elle tries to escape contract. Elle Macpherson is trying to
get out of a $2.3 million contract to promote fur after receiving a threat from
animal rights activists. The 42-year-old model, who signed on as the new "face" of
Blackglama mink in July, believes she will be terrorised by anti-fur extremists.
Anti-fur group
cream pies American Vogue's Wintour. French anti-fur activists said they struck Anna
Wintour, editor of the U.S. edition of Vogue, in the face with a cream pie on Saturday to protest
against her support for the use of animal fur by the fashion industry.
Bomb attack
on Glaxo executive. Animal rights activists have targeted an Oxford college
and the chief executive of a pharmaceutical company in a fresh wave of attacks.
Ecoterrorism redefined. The
kind of activities they did, by today's terror standards, seem pretty juvenile: pouring sugar into vehicle
fuel tanks, cutting up seismic cable, pulling up survey stakes. … The name of their group was
Earth First! — exclamation theirs.
The
Terrorist Wore Green. Law enforcement officials say the threat of attacks
from ecoterrorists has become greater than from the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and right-wing
militias. John Lewis, the FBI's deputy assistant director for counterterrorism, says
his agency has seen an escalation in violent rhetoric and tactics with attacks growing in
frequency and size. Harassing phone calls and vandalism now coexist with improvised
explosive devices and personal threats to employees.
Animal
rights activists face trial under terror law. New Jersey
is using an anti-terrorism law for the first time to try six animal rights activists
charged with harassing and vandalizing a company that made use of animals to test
its drugs. Prosecutors say the activists used threats, intimidation and cyber
attacks against employees of Huntingdon Life Sciences, … with the intention of
driving it out of business.
Green
bigots international. First they destroyed the gasoline station, so
that you have to drive miles out of your way to get gas. Then they destroyed
a parking lot. Now they want to destroy a dam and a reservoir that supplies
more than 2 million people with water. No, these are not al-Qaeda
terrorists. These are our own home-grown fanatics — and the
places mentioned are all in Yosemite National Park.
The animal-right
extremists. Animal-right fanatics have gained infamy by firebombing university laboratories,
sending envelopes rigged with razorblades to researchers, and dousing fur coats with lighter fluid and
igniting them — while still on the backs of their owners.
Environmentalism: Freedom's Foe for the '90s.
In April 1987 the Animal Liberation Front torched a university research building in Davis, California. In
October 1988 the same group tossed paint and acid on the homes and cars of people working for the San Diego
Zoo. Bombs have been planted at British fur stores and, this year, at up-scale department stores around
San Francisco. Women wearing furs have been attacked on the streets of New York City. One woman
there was recently convicted for attempting to murder the president of U.S. Surgical Corporation, which uses animals
to teach doctors surgical procedures; this animal lover was captured with two pipe bombs filled with nails.
The Terror of "Animal
Rights". Thanks to intimidation by animal rights terrorists, Cambridge University
has dropped plans to build a laboratory that would have conducted cutting-edge brain research
on primates. According to The Times of London, animal-rights groups "had
threatened to target the centre with violent protests … and Cambridge decided that it
could not afford the costs or danger to staff that this would involve." The university
had good reason to be afraid. At a nearby animal-testing company, Huntingdon Life
Sciences, "protestors" have for several years attempted to shut down the company by threatening
employees and associates, damaging their homes, firebombing their cars, even beating them
severely.
Why animal activists forced widow,
67, to give up her fight. Halfway down a remote country lane in Staffordshire, May Hudson leads an
unremarkable life in a rented cottage, passing the time with word puzzles, television and walking her terrier
dog. Yet for the last five years Mrs. Hudson, a 67-year-old widow, has attracted the attention of an
international animal rights campaign. [She is the cleaning lady at a guinea pig farm.]
Liberal
terror: The nation obviously has been focused very heavily on terrorism
for the last three years. Unfortunately, the overwhelming attention paid to foreign
terrorist threats has tended to make people complacent about homegrown, domestic
terrorism. Those living in the Washington, DC area got a wake-up call on this last
week, when an apparent group of environmental terrorists torched a housing development
under construction in nearby Charles County, MD.
The Mounting Threat of Homegrown
Terrorism: We have seen the results of ignoring early signs of terrorist threats; why are we
now disregarding the growing danger of eco-terrorism?
Are Animal Rights Militants Like
Mandela? Jerry Vlasak is hardly the only animal rights crusader happy to pervert historic
struggles. PETA's "humane lecturer" Gary Yourofsky (a convicted Animal Liberation Front felon) insists
that he's just like Gandhi and Jesus — and, in the same breath, condones violence and even arson.
Blunkett
told to treat animal rights extremists as terrorists. One of Britain's leading research scientists
yesterday [7/29/2004] urged David Blunkett to treat extremist animal rights protesters "like the terrorists
they are".
Lobster
Liberation Front declares war on fishermen. Police are investigating a claim by an animal rights
extremist group that it was responsible for releasing a fisherman's lobsters, seriously damaging his boathouse
and splashing red paint around his home. The statement by an organization calling itself the Lobster
Liberation Front included a warning that "the war against the lobster industry has begun".
Animal Rights Leaders Predict
Violence and Death. The cast of characters at the recently concluded "Animal Rights 2004" convention
including a tenured university professor, a self-described ocean-going pirate, and a husband-and-wife team
seemingly dedicated to "animal liberation" by any means necessary.
Ecoterrorist Hate Crimes on the Increase. The
Earth Liberation Front is taking responsibility for arson fires at three construction sites in an area in San Diego
that had been used for agricultural purposes. This is the fifth arson attack against construction sites
for which ELF has claimed responsibility in 2003. ELF claims to have caused $100 million in damages
to private property since 1997.
Environmental Groups Use Violent Tactics to
Advance Their Agenda. Radical groups like the Rainforest Action Network and the Ruckus Society
are tax-exempt nonprofits that hold fundraisers and accept foundation grants. They also destroy property,
disobey police orders, justify violence — and get away with it.
Did "Animal
Rightists" Inject Rat Poison Into Swedish Meat? Zealots have apparently struck
another blow at the civility of modern society, this time in broadly-tolerant
Sweden. Swedish police are dealing with two cases in which "animal rights" activists
may have injected rat poison into meat in supermarkets.
Atkins
lawsuit pushed by meat hating animal rights radicals. The Center
for Consumer Freedom has outlined the connections between PCRM and Stop Huntingdon Animal
Cruelty (SHAC), a subset of the terrorist Animal Liberation Front. SHAC members
have bombed cars and office buildings, threatened the lives of innocent Americans, and
beaten at least one medical researcher while his family watched in horror.
Animal Rights Terrorism Arrests Tied To
"Mainstream" Animal Charities. A five-count federal indictment accuses SHAC's leaders of
terrorizing and stalking people because of their connections to disease research involving animals.
Ecoterrorism is a Real Threat to Homeland
Security. We should bear in mind that the Islamic terrorism of Osama bin Laden isn't the only
threat to life and property posed by extremist groups. For years, the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and the
Animal Liberation Front (ALF) have been carrying out acts of violence all across the United States. The FBI
believes that the two organizations have committed over 600 acts of terrorism over the past seven years.
The Green Al-Qaeda: You
would think that at least some increased effort would be made in rooting out the evil terrorist cells that
inhabit our own country. These domestic terrorists have been hiding behind "Green" camouflage relatively
undisturbed and unnoticed. Since their acts of terrorism are done in the name of a tree, instead of in
the name of Allah, many do not consider them terrorists. This of course is false, because these
eco-terrorists are just as deranged and determined to cause damage as the Islamic extremists are.
Eco-Terrorists Stepping up Attacks Across
America. Environmental terrorists, already designated by the FBI as the nation's No. 1
domestic terrorism threat, ran rampant across America during summer and fall 2003.
Eco-terrorists and the Truly Endangered Species: An
underground environmental group called Earth Liberation Front (ELF) claimed responsibility for recently incinerating four ski
lifts and three buildings worth $12 million at Vail, Colorado. Vail's plans to expand its ski area apparently
clashed with environmentalists' plans to re-populate the "endangered" lynx in Colorado. ELF destroyed this property
"on behalf of the lynx" and warned skiers to ski elsewhere this winter.
Should Nonprofit Tax-Exempt
Corporations Promote Crime? It is time for the IRS to reconsider whether corporations which
promote crime or repeatedly break the law deserve tax-exempt status. If it decides that they do not, they
should be subject to fines or revocation of their status.
Animal Rights & Ecoterrorism: The Price
We Pay. Chronologies of Animal Rights and Environmental Terrorism [PDF file]
Environmentalism,
Eco-Terrorism and Endangered Species: While mainstream environmental
groups may try to distance themselves from the Earth Liberation Front and its "eco-terrorist"
methods, the truth is that ELF did directly what mainstream environmentalists have been doing
indirectly for years via the U.S. government's Endangered Species Act (ESA).
In US, a rise of violent environmental
tactics: A war on terrorism is escalating in the United States, but it's one that has nothing to
do with Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein. This form of violence — which the FBI says is the
most serious type of domestic terrorism in the country today — involves radical environmentalists
and animal-rights activists, some of whom now vow that they "will no longer hesitate to pick up the gun to
implement justice…."
Homegrown Terrorism: Militant
Environmentalism. We have seen the results of ignoring early signs of terrorist threats; why are
we now disregarding the growing danger of eco-terrorism?
Environmentalism: It's not about the pretty little
animals. Environmentalists are now taking their "case" to the streets. They are burning
down buildings on Long Island because they feel suburban sprawl has gone too far.
Environmentalism and Eco-Terrorism: While
few environmentalists openly endorse terrorism, most share this anti-industry sentiment. And they have
been busy zealously blocking (via "peaceful" demonstrations and political activism) industrial activities such
as forestry, mining, electric power generation and petroleum production — activities beneficial to
humans — in the name of "saving the environment."
Terrorists
with Tofu breath: The national press, which has put a happy green face on
the environmental movement for three decades, has largely ignored a recent rising tide of
violence being waged by eco-nuts across the country — and around the world.
American
eco-terrorists declare war. As war unfolds, Iraqi sleeper cells and al Qaeda
operatives aren't the only threats we face on the domestic front. Homegrown
environmental radicals cast their own fatwah on America. And they're not just
talking about lighting tea candles while they sing Bob Dylan tunes in their Birkenstocks.
FBI fears trouble from "extremist animal
rights group": The FBI alerted local law enforcement agencies Wednesday of potential violence over
the Thanksgiving weekend from what it termed an "extremist animal rights group," said to be planning events in
New York and New Jersey.
Suspicious
fire at mink farm has FBI looking at eco-terrorism: Eco-terrorism cannot be ruled out as the cause
of a fire at a Pennsylvania mink farm, because a radical environmental group has claimed responsibility for two
other area fires this year, according to the FBI.
43 Indictments in Connection with International Animal Rights
Extremist Group: Twelve people allegedly linked to an international animal rights extremist group
have been indicted on numerous charges, including attempted extortion, in connection with the alleged stalking,
harassment and threats made to a Boston business executive and his family over five months.
Acts of Ecoterrorism: Reports of acts of
ecoterrorism by and quotes from environmental organizations that have caused millions of dollars worth of
damage and disrupted the lives of ordinary citizens.
From Push to Shove: Radical environmental and
animal-rights groups have always drawn the line at targeting humans. Not anymore.
"Environmental Terrorism": Western
Governors, Bush Decry Fire Fiasco. Fox News Channel reported that the area around Show Low, Ariz.,
once had many lumber mills, all shuttered now, the jobs they provided all gone, thanks to lawsuits by "environmentalists." Show
Low resident Marc Ridenour, forced to leave his home because of the fires, is furious at the groups of leftists
that describe themselves as "environmental."
Animal-rights
fanatics: Doctor Dolittle gone bad. Seattle downtowners experienced a wave
of fear last Wednesday [7/10/2002] as military-style smoke grenades were set off on the
upper levels of two skyscrapers. Could this be the latest al-Qaida plot hatched
someplace far overseas? Hardly. It appears to be the work of an extreme
fringe of the animal-rights movement right here in the U.S.
Environmental
Extremism and Eco-Terrorism: The Costs Imposed on Americans.
Elusive radicals escalate attacks in
nature's name: While targets burn, FBI searches for way to strike back Episodes of "eco-terrorism"
have risen considerably in recent times, especially in the Pacific Northwest, with at least 45 unsolved crimes
against property in Washington and Oregon alone. Meanwhile, groups like the Earth Liberation Front
seem to exist only in cyberspace.
Eco-Terror Expert Calls For
Inquiry of Green Anarchists: An expert on eco-terrorism is calling on the FBI to investigate
an organization that is touting a nationwide tour to "destroy civilization" and raise money for convicted
eco-terrorists, but a spokesman for the FBI's Domestic Terrorism Program said the agency is taking a hands-off
approach for the time being.
Environmentalists
See Threat in Mandatory Gun Laws: The city of Escalante, Utah, is thinking about making gun
ownership mandatory, something that environmentalists see as a thinly veiled threat. City leaders are
expected to vote on a proposed ordinance that would require all heads of households in Escalante to own a
gun. The town of Virgin, Utah, passed a similar law earlier this year. Supporters say such laws
are intended to make a clear statement about Americans' individual right to bear arms.
FBI Warns of
Ecoterrorists: The FBI recently issued a warning about the environmentalist terrorist group Earth
Liberation Front, which has admitted carrying out costly arson attacks across the country.
Environmentalists vs. Military Preparedness:
Batting
Ninth. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has made a cottage industry of serving up wacky decisions
for the Supreme Court to reverse. And yesterday [6/23/2008], the High Court agreed to swing at two more hanging curves
next year. The first concerns whether judges or admirals should command our Navy. As we wrote last
week, a federal judge in California has been trying, with the assistance of the Ninth Circuit, to order our
sailors to stand down from training exercises that are vital to Naval readiness.
Update:
Navy
approves plan for sonar training off Hawaii. The Navy has adopted a new plan for training in
Hawaii waters that it says will allow it to accelerate some exercises and hold them more frequently while
continuing to limit the effects of its sonar on marine mammals. The Navy created the training plan
after completing environmental studies to ensure the plan complies with federal law.
Pentagon: Navy Can Keep
Using Sonar. The Defense Department gave the Navy permission Tuesday [1/23/2007] to keep
training with sonar for another two years, a move denounced by activists who say the sound waves can
harm dolphins and other marine mammals.
Navy rejects
California sonar limits. The Navy says it won't comply with sonar training
restrictions that aim to protect marine mammals off the California coast, arguing that the
commission that imposed the rules does not have the jurisdiction to do so.
White House
Exempts Navy From Sonar Ban. The Bush administration jumped into a long-running legal fray in
California on Tuesday [1/15/2008], exempting the Navy from a law that environmental groups have used to
prevent the use of a type of powerful sonar that is believed to harm whales.
US navy sonar takes precedence
over whales: Bush. President George W. Bush has exempted the US Navy from an
environmental law protecting whales and dolphins from sonar devices used in military exercises off the coast
of California, the White House said Wednesday [1/16/2008]. Animal welfare groups maintain mid-frequency
sonar can disorient marine mammals with sometimes lethal results, while the White House argues the naval
exercises are crucial to national security.
Judge
restricts Navy's use of sonar. For the second time in less than a week, a
federal court has found that a Navy anti-submarine training program threatens to subject
whales and other sea creatures to harmful blasts of sonar and ordered protective measures in
several sensitive zones, including one near Monterey Bay.
Judges
hold no rank in military chain of command. Federal courts in San Francisco and in Los Angeles just
ordered the U.S. Navy to limit its use of sonar, the underwater technology essential for tracking enemy
submarines and detecting the ocean floor. These rulings tie the Navy's hands and are the latest outrage
committed by judicial supremacists. … The court rulings allow environmentalism to trump what the Navy
needs to do to protect U.S. national interest.
The
Military Faces Foes on a Second Front: The Shock Troops of Environmental
Extremism. Will some soldiers and Marines die in the Persian Gulf so that some
gnatcatchers and other federally protected birds and animals in the United States may
live? Rigid application of the Endangered Species Act and other environmental
laws — spurred on by lobbying and lawsuits from "green" groups that are stronger
on zealotry than common sense — is undermining military readiness.
Nelson: Oil
rigs would interfere with military training in Gulf. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson says the Bush
administration is "hell-bent" on offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, with some gas rigs as
close as 25 miles from Florida's shoreline. But he says the military may prevent
it. Nelson told reporters in Tallahassee that the Pentagon needs restricted air space
south of Eglin and Tyndall Air Force Bases, to test new types of jets and even secret weapons. He
said the Navy also does some weapons testing in the area, and can't have oil rigs in the way.
Attention all ruthless Communist dictators: If Senator Nelson is right — and
he isn't — all you have to do is put up some offshore oil drilling platforms
around your country and the U.S. military will be powerless against you.
Under Siege: The Left's
Assault on America's Military. Last year, Congressman Bob Filner wrote
President Bush demanding the U.S. Navy unconditionally withdraw from training facilities
in Puerto Rico for "environmental reasons." Why would a United States Representative
want to undermine the effectiveness of our military?
Judge Tells
Navy to Reduce Sonar Impact. A federal judge ordered the Navy on Thursday [1/3/2008] to adopt
measures that would lessen the impact of sonar on whales and other marine life during exercises near Southern
California. The preliminary injunction issued Thursday requires the Navy to create a 12-nautical-mile
no-sonar zone along the coast and have trained lookouts watch for marine mammals before and during exercises.
Navy,
Environmentalists Face Off on Whales. This week, environmentalists won a temporary restraining
order to stop the Navy from using a high-intensity sonar during this year's Rim of the Pacific 2006 exercise,
which had scheduled sonar use to start Thursday [7/6/2006].
Study
fails to link naval sonar with whale strandings. A year-long study has failed to explain
why 36 whales stranded themselves along the North Carolina coast in January 2005. At the time the
mass stranding attracted much media attention because of possible links to military sonar.
The Battle of Environmentalists versus the US Military:
As America's military deploys troops, armor, planes and ordinance to bases in the Middle East surrounding Iraq, they will do
so after years of fending off another kind of attack, one by the massed forces of environmental organizations that have done
everything in their power to reduce and restrict the ability of our military to train its soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen.
Environmental Regulations Impede Pentagon
Readiness: With the United States in the second year of its war on terrorism, the nation's
ability to prepare troops for the deadly business of combat is being undermined by environmental restrictions
being applied to military bases around the country.
Greens Continue to Hamper Military
Training. Military training across the nation has been hamstrung by environmental regulations
and lawsuits. For example, training for amphibious landing is severely controlled at Camp Lejeune in
North Carolina because of beach restrictions during turtle-nesting season.
Greens have undermined US
military for years: As America begins to mobilize to win the war against terrorism, the quality
and capability of our Armed Forces is going to become an important priority. For the years of the Clinton-Gore
administration, following the Gulf War, the destruction of our military was the priority. Helping in
that process were the faceless bureaucrats, many still in place, pledged to environmentalism at any cost.
Judge Ahab and the
Whales: In its storied history the U.S. Navy has defeated German U-boats and the British and
Japanese Imperial navies, but we are about to find out if it can be whipped by whales and activist judges.
Welcome to the new world of lawsuits as antiwar weapons.
Editor's Note:
The following items can appear under the heading of "Military Preparedness" only
if we assume that the Space Shuttle has something to do with
military activity and national defense. As I have
asserted elsewhere, that
would be the only way to justify the Space Shuttle as a Constitutional expenditure.
Cause
of Two Shuttle Disasters: Enviro Dogma. Now that a dramatic new
test has confirmed that a piece of thermal insulation flaking off of space shuttle
Columbia's external tank during launch was the most likely cause of its destruction
during re-entry, the typical second-guessing in the press has focused on NASA engineers.
Challenger,
Columbia … what next? When NASA's environmental concerns resulted in the
tragic deaths of the Columbia crew, it wasn't the first time a space shuttle crew was
lost because of misguided regulations and fads.
Earth
Worshippers Cause Death in Space: Environmental
dogma has led to the sacrifice of fourteen Astronauts on the Space Shuttle.
Troublesome Organizations:
The following list was compiled from material found at
Activist Cash, a new
website dedicated to exposing the ways in which many anti-consumer non-profit groups
are funded. Judge the merits of the groups and their missions yourself and, once you
have, you can form educated opinions and decisions regarding where their money
comes from.
(Activist
Cash Listed as Freedom Page of the Week)
PETA: People
for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has been described as "by far the most successful
radical organization in America." The key word is radical. PETA seeks "total animal
liberation," according to its president and co-founder, Ingrid Newkirk. That means no meat or
dairy, of course; but it also means no aquariums, no circuses, no hunting or fishing, no fur
or leather, and no medical research using animals. PETA is even opposed to the use
of seeing-eye dogs.
The Truth about PETA: The more I learn about
PETA, the less I think of them. The story of them killing animals isn't even unusual. According
to PETA's own filings, in 2004 PETA killed 86.3 percent of the animals entrusted to its
care — a number that's rising, not falling. Meanwhile, the SPCA in PETA's home
town (Norfolk, Va.) was able to find loving homes for 73 percent of the animals
put in its care. A shortage of funds? Nope: last year PETA took in $29 million
in tax-exempt donations.
The Physicians Committee for Responsible
Medicine is an animal rights group. Less than 5 percent of its members are actual
physicians. The group's goals are to stop medical research that requires the use of animals, and to
remove meat and dairy foods from our diet by demonizing them as "unhealthy."
Earth Liberation
Front: Environmentalist, anti-capitalist, eco-terrorist organization established
in 1992 by radical members of the group "Earth First". Advocates "economic sabotage and property
destruction" designed to "halt the destruction of the environment". Responsible since
1997 for more than $95 million in property damage. ELF has been declared America's top
domestic terrorism threat by the FBI.
Organic
Consumers Association: OCA works alongside the Chefs Collaborative, Center
for Food Safety, and Friends of the Earth on the "Keep Nature Natural" campaign, which is
designed to disparage genetically improved foods. This campaign gets its operating funds
from several organic marketers, including Whole Foods and Eden.
Center
for Science in the Public Interest: The Center for Science in the Public
Interest (CSPI) is the undisputed leader of the American food police. In its 30 years of
public disservice, CSPI's joyless eating club has promoted questionable reports on soft
drinks, fat substitutes, irradiated meat, biotech foods, coffee ice cream (does it really
need a caffeine warning label?), and just about everything else that tastes good.
United
Poultry Concerns: United Poultry Concerns (UPC) is led by the enigmatic Karen
Davis and routinely protests the eating of chicken, turkey, ducks, eggs, and other poultry
products. The group can be counted on to launch a letter-writing campaign every year around
Thanksgiving, attempting to lay down a guilt trip on those of us who choose to eat turkey.
The Ben & Jerry's
Foundation was established in 1985 from a donation of stock from Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc.,
the ice cream company founded by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield. … BJF recently endorsed a document
called the Earth Charter, which blames capitalism for many of the world's environmental, social, and
economic problems.
Greenpeace was
originally the brainchild of the radical "Don't Make a Wave Committee," a group of American
draft-dodgers who fled to Vancouver in 1969 and, supported by money from anti-war Quaker
organizations, got into the business of forcibly blocking American nuclear tests. Over the
years the group has loudly made its feelings known on a variety of issues (nuclear testing,
whaling, and global warming, for instance), and its Amsterdam-based activist moguls pull the
strings on what is estimated to be a $360 million global empire.
A Look at the Environmental Working
Group. The EWG playbook is simple: The group targets an issue and
releases a report, or participates in a "study," in order to promote the most alarmist
findings. Carefully orchestrated media coverage of these reports effectively
creates a public health scare, be it breast implants, alar, unsafe drinking water,
farmed salmon, or the EWG's latest blitz around mothers' breast milk. The findings
of these reports are largely based on junk science.
Natural
Resources Defense Council: The NRDC is the utility infielder of nanny
groups. Because its name implies a wide-ranging universe of issues, the group can be counted
on to inject itself into just about any debate where there's an environmental argument to be
made. Washington PR firm Fenton Communications has made use of the NRDC in a variety of public
campaigns, the most famous example of which was the 1989 "Alar-on-apples" food scare.
The National Environmental
Trust is really a public relations firm, but it sounds so good!
Gang Green: CRC
lists the ten worst environmental groups.
Web site: Undue Influence dot
com: Tracking the environmental movement's money,
power, and harm. "The environmental movement is not what you think
it is. It is not about the environment. It is about power."
More material of this kind can be found at Green Watch.
See also Product
Attack Groups Master Page.
Scare tactics — a form of low-level terrorism
Caught in the Act: Most
environmental organizations portray themselves as selfless watchdogs whose mission is to
alert the public to alleged risks. They are quick to make demands, sound false alarms,
point fingers and place blame. Do they really perform a public service or are they just
a public nuisance? Several independent organizations reviewed activist
scare-mongering activities.
Air pollution risk exaggerated.
Exaggerating the public's risk from air pollution is no better than ignoring real air quality problems. If
society misspends scarce resources based on inaccurate information, more people will suffer, not fewer.
Starbucks protestors spread false
fears about safe foods: As they did with the Alar-in-apples scare, activists often attack products
associated with children — like milk and ice cream — falsely linking these products with
horrible ills such as cancer to evoke the greatest fear among parents and the consuming public. The harm
and cost to consumers and farmers alike can be significant.
Environmental Group Accused of
Hypocrisy in Fight for Tree-Free Paper: A California man is out to expose what he calls the
hypocrisy of a prominent environmental group. John Campbell, a Los Angeles-based Republican
fundraiser, says the Rainforest Action Network sent out letters asking for financial help to "compensate for the
extra costs of using tree-free paper," but actually used regular wood-pulp paper to print the letters.
Behind the Environmental Working Group: The
EWG's main claim to fame is its anti-chemical fear-mongering. It scares pregnant women about the non-dangers
of chlorinated water and says that even one bite of some fruit sprayed with pesticides could cause "dizziness,
nausea and blurred vision." The group has also declared war on nail polish, hairspray, playgrounds,
portable classrooms and ABC News correspondent John Stossel.
Other related articles:
World Wide Fund For Nature vs. World Wrestling
Entertainment: A Switzerland-based environmental group (once called the World Wildlife Fund) is
suing a successful U.S. sports entertainment company (once called the World Wrestling Federation) because they
share the same logo letters.
George Soros: A Bridge to
Radicalism. In 2001, George Soros' Open Society Institute donated $103 million to causes in
the U.S. Much funding went to liberal and radical leftwing groups addressing a ranging of issues from opposing
the death penalty to undermining property rights.
The Philanthropy of the Celebrity
Left: Kim Basinger advocates animal rights. Martin Sheen advocates farm workers'
rights. Holly Hunter advocates abortion rights. Mike Farrell advocates death row inmates'
rights. Celebrity causes have become a cause celebre. America's celebrity culture has spawned a new
sub-industry — the philanthropy brokerage.
Greenpeace donation transfers accidentally
multiplied by 100. Approximately 10000 UK supporters of Greenpeace who make regular donations
by direct debit have have accidentally had their bank accounts debited by a hundred times their usual
amount, with its software adding two [zeros] to the latest batch of direct debit demands.
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