Free Republic

By FRANK ELTMAN, Associated Press Writer Wed May 18, 8:46 AM ET COMMACK, N.Y. - Last month, animal rights extremists followed the wife of a pharmaceutical company executive to her job, rifled through her car and stole a credit card. They used it buy $20,000 in travelers checks, which they then donated to four charities. A Web site announcement boasting of the act included a more sinister threat: "If we find out a dime of that money granted to those charities was taken back we will strip you bear (sic) and burn your (expletive). This is OUR insurance policy." The...

In 1997, two figures clad in black slipped through the northern Wisconsin pines and let hundreds of minks out of their cages. Nearly eight years later, a man identified by authorities as one of those figures, Peter Daniel Young, is about to be brought to Madison for trial on federal charges in a case that could open a window on the radical animal rights movement, which federal authorities regard as a growing terrorist threat. While his alleged accomplice was captured six years ago, Young was on the run for more than seven years before a San Jose, Calif., beat cop...

One day last month, animal welfare extremists followed the wife of a pharmaceutical company executive to her job, went into her car and stole a credit card to buy $20,000 in traveler's checks that they then donated to four charities. A Web site announcement boasting of the act included a more sinister threat: ``If we find out a dime of that money granted to those charities was taken back we will strip you bear (sic) and burn your (expletive). This is OUR insurance policy.'' The actions by the radical Animal Liberation Front appear to be the latest salvo in an...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - In 1997, two figures clad in black slipped through the northern Wisconsin pines and let hundreds of minks out of their cages. Nearly eight years later, a man identified by authorities as one of those figures, Peter Daniel Young, is about to be brought to Wisconsin for trial on federal charges in a case that could open a window on the radical animal-rights movement, which federal authorities regard as a growing terrorist threat. While his alleged accomplice was captured six years ago, Young was on the run for more than seven years before a San Jose,...

AN animal rights activist charged after he added ham to animal feed to stop the export of live sheep to the Middle East, has been cleared. Ralph Hahnheuser, 42, pleaded not guilty in the County Court in Geelong to contaminating feed to cause economic loss. A jury yesterday found him not guilty. Animal Liberation activists welcomed the verdict as a "fantastic win". "This couldn't come at a better time with the news the live export trade to Saudi Arabia is about to resume," Animal Liberation NSW executive director Mark Pearson said. "This is despite the Government's own Keniry inquiry report...

A federal judge ruled on April 18 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. Cottrell will be required to serve at least 85 percent of the eight-year, four-month sentence handed down by U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner. Cottrell was convicted in November 2004 of seven counts of arson and one of conspiracy. He was acquitted of the most serious charge, using a...

TORONTO - Broadcaster, author and journalist Bob Hunter, who co-founded the environmental action group Greenpeace, has died. He was 63. Hunter, who was the ecology news specialist for CHUM's Citytv, had been battling prostate cancer. Co-founder of Greenpeace, Bob Hunter, dies at age 63 Hunter was also known in Toronto for his early morning Paper Cuts segment on the network where he would appear in his bathrobe and comment on the stories of the day in the newspapers. Hunter, born in Manitoba, helped launch the pro-environmental group Greenpeace in 1971 after sailing to Amchitka to oppose nuclear weapons testing. "This...

Please has Bambi called the Animal Liberation Front (ALF, and Im not making that up) and asked for a reprieve from the likes of Jon Kerry crawling on his belly in the mud shooting deer in the kneecaps? Earth Liberation Front The ELF is an underground movement with no leadership, membership or official spokesperson. ....well atleast they are organized. Where is Santa in this mess? Their site chronicles house burnings, vehicles fires to SUVs of course etc. etc.

Medic92: Earth Liberation Front doesn't waste any time! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I received this wonderful message in my email this morning about righthook.org, a website we're working on launching: Quote: WARNING TO YOU FROM ELF WE WILL DESTROY RIGHTHOOK.ORG WE WILL DESTROY YOU & BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN D0 NOT OPEN THE WEBSITE I feel so honored! ___________________________ Sawhitt: I'm the co-organizer. It's my address on the domain registration. I've dealt with these assholes before. (Some of you know that I spent a number of years in the hazwaste industry in the 80's and 90's.) While I believe it's just wind, I...

The self-righteous violent environmental and animal rights extremists who think you and I are poisoning the earth merely by existing are about to get their comeuppance. A Senate committee has launched an investigation of domestic environmental terrorists. The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) have committed acts of violence because they have decreed that they have the right to decide whether you deserve your own property, or whether you are fit to decide what to wear or what to eat, or, for that matter, whether the rest of us are fit to live on the same...

Britain February 17, 2005 Oil on troubled waters: a protester is led to a bus requisitioned by police to hold them (RICHARD POHLE) Kyoto protest beaten back by inflamed petrol traders By Laura Peek and Liz Chong WHEN 35 Greenpeace protesters stormed the International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) yesterday they had planned the operation in great detail. What they were not prepared for was the post-prandial aggression of oil traders who kicked and punched them back on to the pavement. “We bit off more than we could chew. They were just Cockney barrow boy spivs. Total thugs,” one protester said, rubbing...

Fearing a flood of criminal defendants will dodge paying restitution to their victims, state attorneys are appealing a federal bankruptcy judge's decision that absolved an arsonist of nearly $240,000 in debt. It is the first time a Utah judge has ruled that court-ordered criminal restitution can be erased in bankruptcy court. The March federal ruling had a ripple effect this week when a West Valley City judge relied on it to dismiss $80,000 in restitution ordered for Rebecca Mecham, a 27-year-old Kearns woman injured by a drunken driver. State attorneys believe both decisions are wrong. They have asked U.S. Bankruptcy...

Animal Rights Groups and Ecology Militants Make DHS Terrorist List, Right-Wing Vigilantes Omitted By Justin Rood, CQ Staff The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not list right-wing domestic terrorists and terrorist groups on a document that appears to be an internal list of threats to the nation’s security. According to the list — part of a draft planning document obtained by CQ Homeland Security — between now and 2011 DHS expects to contend primarily with adversaries such as al Qaeda and other foreign entities affiliated with the Islamic Jihad movement, as well as domestic radical Islamist groups. It also...

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- An aspiring physicist was sentenced Monday to more than eight years in prison and ordered to pay $3.5 million for his role in a spree of arson and vandalism that targeted gas-guzzling Hummers and other sports utility vehicles. Rejecting pleas for clemency from William Cottrell, a 24-year-old doctoral candidate in physics at the California Institute of Technology, U.S. District Judge Gary Klausner added more time to the sentence after finding that Cottrell was trying to sway consumers with his anti-SUV message. The slogans Cottrell spray-painted onto vehicles included "Fat Lazy Americans," "No Respect for Earth"...

  MSNBC.comCalif. student gets 8 years for SUV vandalism Sentenced for 2003 spree that torched Hummers, other gas guzzlersReuters Updated: 9:45 p.m. ET April 18, 2005 LOS ANGELES - An aspiring physicist was sentenced to more than eight years in prison on Monday and ordered to pay $3.5 million for his role in a spree of arson and vandalism that targeted gas-guzzling Hummers and other sports utility vehicles.Rejecting pleas for clemency from William Cottrell, a 24-year-old doctoral candidate in physics at the California Institute of Technology, U.S. District Judge Gary Klausner added more time to the sentence after finding that Cottrell...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A graduate student was sentenced Monday to more than eight years in prison and ordered to pay millions of dollars in restitution for firebombing scores of sport utility vehicles. William Jensen Cottrell, 24, was convicted in November of conspiracy to commit arson and seven counts of arson for an August 2003 vandalism spree that damaged and destroyed about 125 SUVs. Prosecutors estimated the total damage was about $2.3 million. U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner sentenced Cottrell to 100 months and ordered him to pay $3.5 million in restitution. Cottrell hung his head upon hearing the...

Firebombings early yesterday at two homes under construction in Sammamish are believed to have been the work of a serial arsonist or arsonists aligned with the Earth Liberation Front -- described by the FBI as one of the top domestic terrorism groups in the country. An early-morning attack at a home on Inglewood Hill Road failed when the fuse of a rudimentary firebomb went out before it exploded, according to federal criminal justice sources. It followed a firebombing at another home under construction just a few blocks away that resulted in significant fire damage to the home's garage. At about...

WASHINGTON -- What are the biggest charity abuses in America? The answers coming from witnesses testifying at a Senate hearing last Tuesday pointed to practices by nonprofit, tax-exempt groups that are technically legal but violate the spirit of private charity. Those answers are wrong. The biggest abuse is nonprofits that deliberately and habitually break the law. The Senate Finance Committee is currently investigating practices of groups that enjoy exemption from taxation under section 501(c)(3) of the IRS Code. In the past few years, more and more news stories have detailed the questionable practices of nonprofits, from huge CEO compensation packages...

Animal rights activists are to blame for falling research and development budgets for new drugs in Britain, the pharmaceutical industry claimed yesterday. Spending on research fell by £100m between 2002 and 2003, according to new figures from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry. "It is clear that the continuing threat posed by animal extremists is a contributory factor," said Vincent Lawton, the president of the trade association and an executive at the American drugs firm Merck. "I hope that these figures indicate just a temporary blip but the dangers of the UK losing out to other countries are very...

HOMEWOOD - Before the threats to burn it down or paint it blood red, the cabin nestled in the woods on Tanager Drive near Lake Tahoe was clearly owned by bear lovers. The front door featured a bear artfully etched in glass. A wood-carved bruin had a cherished place in a bedroom. And on the hour, when a cuckoo clock chimed, bears circled a merry-go-round and bobbed on a teeter-totter. Then, three real bears -- a mother and two cubs that had denned under the house -- busted in while Russ and Diane Tonda were away, ripping furniture, defecating on...