Posted on 05/09/2007 1:44:55 PM PDT by jazusamo
May 09, 2007
Greensprings resident Jonathan Paul and federal prosecutors are squaring off in court filings over whether Paul's role in burning a Redmond meat-packing plant in 1997 on behalf of the Animal Liberation Front was arson or terrorism.
At the heart of the debate is whether the burning of the Cavel West plant and the overall ALF/Earth Liberation Front conspiracy were meant to be retaliation against, or coercion of, the government or the public.
In new court filings, federal prosecutors claim that the arson was to intimidate the Bureau of Land Management into disbanding its program of rounding up and selling wild horses off BLM lands. And Cavel West was targeted as the largest purchasers of those horses, whose meat was sold for human consumption and pet food, court papers claim.
"Although the government was not a direct victim, it was nonetheless a federal crime of terrorism because of the offenders' motivation," prosecutors claim in the Government's Sentencing Memorandum filed Friday in federal court.
Paul's defense team, however, claims that he joined three others in the $1.2 million arson solely to put the company out of the horse-slaughtering business, not as an attack on the BLM.
This singular act and Paul's rationale does not reach the federal "terrorist" threshold, according to defense attorney Marc Blackman.
"The objective and motivation of this act of destruction was to put a stop, at least at one location, to the inhumane treatment of horses and the commercial trafficking in horse meat by a private corporation," Blackman writes in a 32-page memorandum filed Friday.
The competing memorandums are the opening salvos in the arsonist vs. terrorist debate that will play out during a hearing Tuesday before U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken in Eugene.
Aiken is set to determine whether Paul, former Applegate...
(Excerpt) Read more at mailtribune.com ...
It was politically motivated, and is therefore terrorism. ALF, ELF, the Klan, and the rest of these radical murderous crackpots are all terrorists, IMHO.
How about we call it both arson and terrorism? There. Argument solved.
Right, he’s an “eco-INSURGENT” < /s >
Call him a racketeer and seize all of his affiliated organizations’ funds.
Defund the Left. They’ve done the same to pro-life groups when a single member attempts to burn a closed abortion clinic.
A judge actually has to hear arguments in this case to decide if the term “terrorist” fits? How about a dictionary and the law? It is really pretty clear-cut in this case.
Fry the terrorist!
It’s too bad this turkey didn’t hang himself in his cell like one of his cohorts did in (I believe) Flagstaff, AR a few years ago.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Peifer declined to discuss the memorandum.Anytime the government blows off questions about its case, you gotta wonder if there isn't a little budget-seeking puffery going on."It speaks for itself," Peifer said.
“The No. 1 domestic terrorism threat is the eco-terrorism, animal-rights movement,” said John Lewis, an FBI deputy assistant director and top official in charge of domestic terrorism.
“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, arsons, etc, that this particular area of domestic terrorism has caused,” Lewis testified to a Senate committee ...
Yes, Rogers is the one I was thinking of, thanks.
Read up on the reason the Klan came into being ,,,might do you good,,,might not..
No town I know of in AR (Arkansas) by that name. Do you by chance mean AZ (Arizona)?
Yep, I meant AZ. That Z isn’t even close to an R. :-)
Southern Oregon was known to be a hotbed of Klan activity in case you did not know...
Did not know that,,,why Oregon...???
I do not know. I do know the sun could not set on a black man in this neck of the woods a few years ago...
“Right, he’s an “eco-INSURGENT” < /s >”
Why, when some reporters get through with him he’ll be a “freedom fighter.”
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