Posted on 06/05/2005 2:27:57 PM PDT by Crackingham
The trial of seven animal rights activists under domestic terrorism laws focuses attention on a threat which law enforcement officials say has become greater than that of the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, and right-wing militias. Defendants in the federal trial in New Jersey, which has just begun and is expected to last into August, are charged with conspiracy and interstate stalking involving the vandalism and harassment of employees of labs that use animals to test drugs and chemicals. Officials say this is part of a growing trend that in recent years has included more than 1,200 incidents of arson, bombings, theft, animal releases, vandalism, and office takeovers. Targets of what activists call "direct actions" have included laboratories, mink ranches, SUV dealerships, fast-food outlets, and new housing developments. Damages have totaled hundreds of millions of dollars.
"We have seen an escalation in violent rhetoric and tactics," John Lewis, the FBI's deputy assistant director for counterterrorism, told a Senate hearing recently. "Attacks are also growing in frequency and size. Harassing phone calls and vandalism now coexist with improvised explosive devices and personal threats to employees."
The FBI currently has 150 pending investigations involving 35 agency field offices working with other law enforcement agencies on such cases. "The FBI and its partners have made a number of high-profile arrests of individuals involved with animal rights extremism or ecoterrorism," Mr. Lewis told lawmakers.
A federal judge in California recently ruled that William Jensen Cottrell, a graduate student in physics at the California Institute of Technology, should serve at least seven years in federal prison and pay more than $3.5 million in restitution for firebombing more than 100 sport utility vehicles at dealerships and homes near Los Angeles.
Activists reject the "ecoterrorist" label, a controversial phrase coined by those who tend to be critical of anything (or anybody) involved with environmental activism.
Likening their activity to that of the anti-Nazi resistance in Europe or the underground railroad helping slaves escape the South, activists say that those carrying out the attacks take "all necessary precautions against harming any animal, human and non-human."
It may be true that, unlike such right-wing domestic terrorists as Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolph, they have not been responsible for any loss of life - other than the odd mink that's been "liberated" into the tooth-and-claw world of nature and would have been killed for its fur anyway. Still, some animal rights and environmental extremists are ratcheting up their threats. One is quoted as saying, "If someone is killing, on a regular basis, thousands of animals, and if that person can only be stopped in one way by the use of violence, then it is certainly a justifiable solution."
While no one has been killed in any "direct action," there have been several close calls, officials say.
"The most worrisome trend to law enforcement and private industry alike has been the increase in willingness by these movements to resort to the use of incendiary and explosive devices," says Carson Carroll, of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
In Texas deadly force may be used to stop commission of various property crimes, including: murder, sexual assault, kidnapping, burglary, criminal mischief at night and arson.
Those ecoterrorists are considered as fair game as a rapist or murderer caught in the act and should be treated as such.
More MSM lies to apologise for the enviro-nazis. They've obviously never heard of "tree spiking," where steel spikes are driven into the trunks of trees so that chainsaw blades are broken-- or worse to the chainsawyer.
Hang 'em High ~ Bump!
Spiking of trees is dangerous.
The Unabomber certainly killed (and was an ecoterrorist).
Timothy McVeigh was not "right wing".
Ah, the bogeymen of McVeigh and Rudolph. Where does the Unibomber fit in to all of this?
As always, conveniently forgotten.
APf
Humans belong to the animal family. Why aren't these whacos protesting the slaughter of innocents at abortion mills?
Welcome to FR. The "animal rights" advocates violate other peoples' rights.
If animals are not property, "liberate" someone else's livestock for your dinner tonight. "Liberate" their pet dog.
ALF the Animal Liberation Front is on Scotland Yards terrorist watch list when a few years ago they blew up a testing lab killing 3 employees there. ALF and PETA have a close working relationship.
Nothing much happens with a chain saw, a spike just dulls the chain in a big hurry.
It's at the sawmill where a spike can be a lethal killer.
If it's a circular sawmill, the saw is 4 to 8 feet in diameter and spinning at about 750 RPMs.
When that type of saw hits a spike, the saw can come apart in large chunks travelling at high speed, which can slice up people or anything else it hits.
In a bandsaw mill, the saw blade can break and/or come off its guides and/or wheels with similar deadly consequences.
Anyone who spikes a tree should be lashed to a log as it's run through a sawmill.
Is that what terrorism is about? Body counts? How do you count the net toll from medical research that has been disrupted or abandoned?
Terrorism--and in this I fully include the animal rights animals--is aimed not at life and limb, but at the structure of our society. Is there no value to our society, beyond the sum of the values of our lives?
One point he made was that ELF et al do not claim responsibility immediately after an "incident",
but wait a few days just to make sure no one died, otherwise, they'd be admitting to a homicide.
MSM-covering-for-Unibomber-barf-alert-bump!
I guess we shouldn't bother to solve the crimes they commit, and the people they "terrorize" (you know, stalking, harrassment, threats) should just give in to their wishes.
These nitwits are taught about "the environment", (God, I hate that word) while they are in grade school. Yank that b/s out of the curriculum.
The seeds planted in the young minds start in the universities, hotbed for eco extremism. No NeoNazi or KKK group began their indoctrination in our universities or university clubs. Ecoterrorist start their indoctrination in the campuses. The government and bloggers should concentrate their public light there.
I wonder how he feels about abortion.
Exactly. That's why the media has been very careful to portray Ted Kaczynski as just your run-of-the-mill crazy, disheveled, lunatic and downplayed his quite articulate political motivations.
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