American terrorist

A gasoline-filled device in a car bomb fails to go off. Authorities investigating another bombing incident find that after a first bomb exploded, a second bomb was timed to go off when first responders arrived. A recent event in the United Kingdom? Yes, but also in California.

Last week, the Los Angeles Times reported that a bomb was discovered outside the Westside home of Dr. Arthur Rosenbaum, the chief of pediatric ophthalmology at UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute. The car bomb failed to explode, despite apparent attempts to detonate it.

In 2003, two bombs exploded at biotech firm Chiron's Emeryville office. Agents believed the second bomb was timed to go off when first responders arrived.

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."

Last year, animal-rights activists went after another UCLA researcher by placing a firebomb at her doorstep -- except that they put the bomb at the wrong home. Fortunately, that bomb, too, failed to ignite.

While the bombs did not go off, FBI Special Agent Kenneth E. Smith observed, "the devices could have detonated, resulting in significant damage."

So far, animal rights activists have not killed anyone in the United States, but that does not mean Americans should not fear these extremists. In October 2005, Dr. Jerry Vlasak, a Southern California trauma surgeon who is a leader of the North American Animal Liberation Front, testified before the U.S. Senate and defended killing researchers in order to stop research using animals.

"I don't think you'd have to kill -- assassinate -- too many," Vlasak opined. "I think for 5 lives, 10 lives, 15 human lives, we could save a million, 2 million or 10 million nonhuman lives.''

And the threats of violence and intimidation work. Last year, UCLA researcher Dario Ringach sent an e-mail to Vlasak in which he proclaimed, "You win" -- he would stop research with animals. Vlasak sent out a triumphant press release.

Vlasak told the Daily Bruin that activists had tried to stop Rosenbaum's research by appealing to UCLA administrators but had failed. "All reasonable attempts have failed, so we're going to take it to the next level," Vlasak told the student paper.

When abortion foes have harassed -- even killed -- abortion clinic workers, outrage rightly has followed. Oddly, when animal rights activists threaten and harass people who are trying to cure diseases, the silence is deafening.

When they've expanded their harassment to include people who work for targeted companies, and companies that will not pledge to not do business with targeted companies -- as Chiron refused to do -- there is little outcry.

When animal-rights activists' vandalism cowed the New York Stock Exchange so that it pulled the planned listing of Life Sciences Research -- a medical-research firm -- in 2005, the New York Times didn't bother to report it.

Now Vlasak says that animal-rights activists will move to the next level. Expect more firebombs, more harassment campaigns -- and less research. And because there is no partisan angle to this story -- no Democratic or Republican bogeyman -- there is no outrage.

I'm very much against animal testing, unless it's absolutely unavoidable. But this is a bit much.

There's a difference between animal testing (as, say, to test the safety of a floor cleaner by putting it into the eyes of animals) and doing medical research using animals. Probably there's no use of animals that's "unavoidable"--we could simply stop seeking out cures for cancer or, as in the case of the doctor in the article, cures for blindness. Do we as a society want to do that? Or should we continue trying to allay human suffering and death by using animals, taking the best care of them we can in the meanwhile?

Anyway, I have never heard of one of these animal-rights hypocrites forego medical treatment for a serious disease just because all drugs are testing on animals. Watch one of them get a painful cancer and I'll bet they won't be nobly abstaining from treatment or pain medication.

CNN.com

FBI, ATF address domestic terrorism Officials: Extremists pose serious threat From Terry Frieden CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Violent animal rights extremists and eco-terrorists now pose one of the most serious terrorism threats to the nation, top federal law enforcement officials say.

Senior officials from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms (ATF) and Explosives told a Senate panel Wednesday of their growing concern over these groups.

Of particular concern are the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF).

John Lewis, the FBI's deputy assistant director for counterterrorism, said animal and environmental rights extremists have claimed credit for more than 1,200 criminal incidents since 1990. The FBI has 150 pending investigations associated with animal rights or eco-terrorist activities, and ATF officials say they have opened 58 investigations in the past six years related to violence attributed to the ELF and ALF.

In the same period violence from groups like the Ku Klux Klan and anti-abortion extremists have declined, Lewis said.

The ELF has been linked to fires set at sport utility vehicle dealerships and construction sites in various states, while the ALF has been blamed for arson and bombings against animal research labs and the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry.

No deaths have been blamed on attacks by those groups so far, but the attacks have increased in frequency and size, said Lewis.

"Plainly, I think we're lucky. Once you set one of these fires they can go way out of control," Lewis said.

ATF Deputy Assistant Director Carson Carroll agreed with Lewis' assessment.

"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," he said.

The FBI also identified a British-based group, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, as a U.S. terror threat. The group targets Britain's Huntingdon Life Sciences Laboratory, which has an American facility in East Millstone, New Jersey.

Last year a federal grand jury indicted seven people identified as members of the group on charges they vandalized company property and harassed lab employees and customers.

Inhofe alleges PETA link

Senate Environment Committee Chairman James Inhofe estimated the cost of damages from militant environmental and animal rights supporters at more than $110 million in the past decade.

"Just like al Qaeda or any other terrorist movement, ELF and ALF cannot accomplish their goals without money, membership and the media," the Republican senator from Oklahoma said.

Inhofe said there was "a growing network of support for extremists like ELF and ALF," and he singled out People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals for giving money to members of both groups.

PETA claims more than 800,000 members. Its president, Ingrid Newkirk, declined to appear at the hearing, but general counsel Jeffrey Kerr denied Inhofe's allegation in a written statement.

"PETA has no involvement with alleged ALF or ELF actions. PETA does not support terrorism. PETA does not support violence," Kerr said.

"In fact PETA exists to fight the terrorism and violence inflicted on billions of animals annually in the meat, dairy, experimentation, tobacco, fur, leather, and circus industries." excerpt

Find this article at: http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/19/domestic.terrorism

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