Posted on 08/27/2005 11:39:46 AM PDT by FairOpinion
WASHINGTON -- Political terrorism, exemplified by 9/11 and most recently in London, may pose the greatest security threat facing most nations. But other terrorists also lurk among us, mostly in the guise of animal rights and environmental activists. They "see themselves in a war against the entire government and industrial democracy itself," explains Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project. Frankie Trull, president of the Foundation for Biomedical Research, notes: "These are unbelievably mean-spirited people" who "operate in a classic terrorist organization mode."
Over the last decade the Animal Liberation Front has committed 700 criminal acts in America, according to the FBI. ALF activists recently broke into a pharmaceutical executive's wife's car, stole her credit cards, and charged $20,000 in charitable "donations."
At the University of Iowa ALF members destroyed laboratory equipment, removed animals, ruined research papers and threatened school employees.
Slightly less extreme is the British group Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), which focuses on the one company. Last month six SHAC members went on trial in the U.S. for allegedly vandalizing autos and homes and attacking computer and fax systems. The judge sealed the jurors' names to prevent any harassment of them.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, has begun to mimic SHAC's tactics. For instance, PETA has accosted Kentucky Fried Chicken executives, intimidated company advertising pitchmen and breached KFC events.
More recently, the group has targeted Covance, an American contract laboratory. PETA illegally infiltrated an employee into Covance to videotape firm research, claiming that the company abused research monkeys.
Still, PETA general counsel Jeffrey Kerr proclaims: "PETA has no involvement with alleged ALF or ELF [Environmental Liberation Front] actions. PETA does not support terrorism. PETA does not support violence."
Yet PETA president Ingrid Newkirk complained three years ago that nonviolence isn't effective. In contrast, she noted, "someone makes a threat, and it works." PETA's number three official, Bruce Friedrich, told a 2001 animal rights conference that "blowing stuff up and smashing windows" is "a great way to bring about animal liberation."
Wishing it so doesn't make it so, of course. But Newkirk seems to speak for ALF when she disseminates documents purloined in ALF break-ins.
She bluntly declared: "I will be the last person to condemn ALF." Moreover, observed Newkirk: "More power to SHAC if they can get someone's attention."
PETA itself asserts: "The Underground Railroad and the French Resistance are both examples of people breaking the law in order to answer to a higher morality." The group has given money to ELF and supported several violent animal rights activists.
Most significantly, PETA provided $71,000 to Rodney Coronado, an ALF member who was convicted of arson. At Coronado's sentencing the judge "implicated Miss Newkirk in the crime," reports Michael Fumento of the Hudson Institute.
In May the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works held hearings on eco-terrorism. FBI officials cited more than 1,200 attacks since 1990 causing roughly $112 million in damage.
"There is nothing else going on in this country over the last several years that is racking up the high number of violent crimes and terrorist actions," argued John E. Lewis, bureau deputy assistant director. The fact that no one has been killed is just "dumb luck," in his view.
Moreover, worries Potok, "the fringes of the animal welfare and environmental rights movements have become increasingly radicalized." Similarly, Trull allows: "Regrettably, I think this is actually a growing industry."
Obviously, animals should be treated humanely. (Curiously, PETA, which presents itself as a defender of animals, killed 12,400 animals between 1998 and 2004, in some years euthanizing as many as 86 percent of the animals that it took in.)
Thus, the charges against Covance, if true, warrant action. But the company denies them and has faced no prior claims. Moreover, PETA's celebrated videotape, acquired only through espionage, apparently doesn't back up PETA's claims.
Michael Fumento reports that the tape shows no abuse: "Other than a tap on the head, we see nothing more beastly than cursing at some unruly animals."
Moreover, the organization is advancing these charges as part of a broader agenda. Newkirk admits that "Even if animal research resulted in a cure for AIDS, we'd be against it."
And PETA just might stop such a cure from being developed. Trull says his fear is that "in this climate they have managed to drive away really brilliant minds."
PETA doesn't look much like al-Qaeda, and the groups are very different. But the danger of animal rights and environmental terrorism is exacerbated by the enabling role of supposedly more mainstream groups such as PETA. We shouldn't wait until people die to combat this threat.
==== Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and the author of "Tripwire: Korea and U.S. Foreign Policy in a Changed World."
Right you are.
PETA is probably loosly connected to ELF and ALF... im sure many supporters of PETA support and possibly participate in the 'actions' of ALF and ELF... these are also the same wackos that will chain them selves to a tree for months and lay down on a logging road
wow, it must be great to not have a job and to have parents that are willing to support you until your 35 yrs old while protesting a useless cause (Heavy Sarcasm)
Oh! I know!! Financial terror doesn't count, even though it threatens entire ways of life around an entire mountain range with yet one more massive bureaucratic layer of faceless bureaucracy with a token of local elected voting members too small to stop anything Socialistic!!!
Anyone living in CA, between the great valley floor and the NV line, from Bakersfield to the OR border is going to, or has already been instilled with fear by the very Governor they proudly voted for in CA's first historic Recall Election and... A Republican (so to speak) at that!!!
I see you haven't forgotten Bonnie:
Hollywood ‘Green’ Activist is Top Schwarzenegger Aide
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/979591/posts
Of course not! Go see the reply I just pinged you to over on the other thread to "doodlelady!" She is oblivious to the bitterness this huge blunder is causing in what should have been Arnold's base!!!
Animal rights wackos want to do good, go clean up Asian food markets.
Are these guys going after the Mythbusters after they punched sharks in the Jaws episode?
Is this Rodney Coronado AKA Tre Arrow? If it is, he is fighting extradition from Canada...
They're all WATERMELONS: green on the outside, red on the inside.
Hang 'em High ~ Bump!
True enough. But anyone who simply views the green movement as a bunch of street level criminals is missing the big picture.
This is a well organized, well funded pincer move against regular American citizens. On the lower level, groups such as ALF, ELF, PETA, Earth First! and Greenpeace do provide support and sanctuary to the terrorists.
On the higher plane are groups such as (but not limited to) the Sierra Club, World Wildlife Fund and the Nature Conservancy. These organizations interface with the EPA, Dept. of Energy, Dept. of the Interior, various UN projects, other governmental agencies (both US and foreign), multinational corporations and grant providing tax-exempt foundations .
These are the groups which lobby for and litigate against changes in policy.
Both prongs of the pincer ultimately serve the same masters who stand to gain from these various forms of terrorism.
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