[News] Activists speak at FBI class in Quantico

[Anti-Imperialist News]

By Claude Marks and friends – October 8, 2006

The FBI has recently asked several activists to 
speak to a class at its Academy in Quantico, 
Virginia about the very social movements that 
they are targeting for repression. The agent in 
charge, Andrew Bringuel, is a retired Major and 
worked with military intelligence. In his 
solicitation letter to activists he writes:

"I am an instructor/researcher at the FBI Academy 
at Quantico, Virginia. I teach a course that 
deals with understanding the motives and tactics 
of activist groups/individuals and the 
government’s response options. The class is 
taught to police executives from the United 
States and around the world through the FBI’s National Academy program.

"The class studies both historical and 
contemporarily significant groups in order to 
understand their motives and tactics. They also 
look at ways government can respond to maintain 
social order while resolving conflict. The class 
is taught as a graduate level course through a 
partnership between the FBI and University of Virginia."

Some people agreed to be part of the class. This 
decision raises serious questions about the 
principles guiding activists in their dealings 
with the FBI.  One person invited, Dr. Jerry 
Vlasak, refused the invitation (his exchange with 
the FBI follows). Unfortunately others have 
accepted the invitation, including some who have 
been leaders of radical movements in the past. 
While many young activists around the country are 
soul searching about whether they should talk to 
one of the numerous grand juries that have been 
convened around the country, some people decided 
that their input at the FBI’s class might, in 
some Machiavellian slight of hand,  help widen 
the split between the Bureau and its fascist 
masters. Despite attempts to justify this 
decision with left sounding language, it is clear 
that the real winners in this game of cooptation are the state and the FBI.

In a period of growing fascism, one of the 
benchmarks of activist resistance must be non 
collaboration with the state and all its 
agencies. As the FBI has amped up its attacks 
over the past couple of years against Muslims, 
Black Panthers eco-justice activists and animal 
rights organizers, they are eager to redefine all 
acts of resistance as terrorism and to get those 
who once might have supported militant resistance 
to repudiate it in the name of 
non-violence.  Apparently, some people were 
seduced by the FBI assurance that “With 100 years 
of history of course mistakes were made.  Lessons 
learned from mistakes like COINTELPRO have led to 
reforms and oversight of the agency.”  This 
assertion strains credibility if one looks at the FBI’s recent track record.

Five former Black Panthers were jailed in 2005 
for not cooperating with the same agents that 
tortured them in New Orleans in 1973. The Green 
Scare rounded up dozens of animal rights and 
eco-justice activists several of whom were set up 
by the FBI. The threat of many years of 
imprisonment has shaken the principles of many 
young activists who agree to turn on their 
friends and cooperate for life with FBI 
investigators.  Members of the Black community in 
Florida were set up by an FBI agent provocateur. 
Blacks and/or Muslims are prosecuted and 
imprisoned as terrorists in Buffalo and Portland, 
Oregon. Middle East scholars are convicted for 
“aiding terrorists” because they support the 
Palestinian resistance against Israeli genocide 
and colonialism. Other professors are denied 
entry to the u.s. and their jobs have been 
threatened because they challenge the notion that 
it is irrational to hate the u.s. People are 
pulled off planes or denied entry into the u.s. 
because of their names, others are deported, 
communities flooded with agents whose purpose is 
to intimidate and frighten people into 
cooperation. Animal enterprise terrorism becomes 
a new club against people whose impact on 
business and animal research is effective – long prison terms are meted out.

So what would possess activists to help teach a 
class to the FBI at Quantico in this atmosphere? 
Have they been oblivious to their recent 
activities or is there something more self-serving going on here?

We wonder when given the opportunity whether they 
questioned the FBI about the current CIA 
practices of dehumanizing the enemy through 
extraordinary rendition, torture and denial of 
basic human rights protected by international 
law.  Is it comforting to any of us that were 
able to sit down and have a “human” conversation 
with these FBI agents on a one-to-one level?  Or 
is it, in fact, deeply disturbing?

Many victims of COINTELPRO still languish in u.s. 
prisons like Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu-Jamal, 
Herman Bell, Oscar Lopez-Rivera and Marilyn Buck. 
How long and how many lives will it take for 
people to realize that whatever you say to the 
FBI can be used against you and your friends? Are 
these activists somehow above the fray?

Let us not forget that today’s agency has never 
been held accountable for the hundreds of victims 
of the FBI’s wrath – the Fred Hamptons and Ana 
Mae Aquashes of the world
or to Filiberto Ojeda 
Rios who was assassinated by the “reformed” FBI 
just a year ago in Puerto Rico?

*****************************************************************************

What Follows is an exchange made public in July 
by Dr. Jerry Vlasak who chose to reject the FBI’s 
offer of participating at the Quantico class and which is posted on the web:

<http://animalliberationfront.com/ALFront/AgainstALF/NAALPO-FBI.htm>http://animalliberationfront.com/ALFront/AgainstALF/NAALPO-FBI.htm

7 July 2006

Press Officer Turns Down FBI Offer to Speak at HQ in Quantico

Canoga Park, CA: Two weeks ago one of the North 
American Animal Liberation Press Officers 
received an unsolicited offer by email from FBI 
Headquarters in Quantico, Virginia to speak to a 
classroom full of "police executives".

As long as non-human animals continue to be 
oppressed, imprisoned, tortured and murdered by 
humans for their personal pleasure and profit, 
the Press Office will continue to support those 
brave warriors who risk their lives and freedom 
to fight for animal liberation. And we certainly 
have no plans to educate state police agencies on how to catch them.

The following reply was returned this week; the 
original request is reprinted below that.


July 4, 2006
Dear Mr. Bringuel:

While I appreciate your offer to speak to "police 
executives" from around the world at the FBI 
Academy in Quantico, VA, I must decline to do so. 
My role as Press Officer with the North American 
Animal Liberation Press Office is to explain and 
support the liberation of animals who are 
imprisoned, tortured, exploited, and murdered by 
the billions; the role of the Federal Bureau of 
Investigation and other state police agencies is 
to target, harass, imprison, or otherwise 
"neutralize" those who break unjust laws that 
perpetuate the oppression and slaughter of innocent, defenseless animals.

Because our goals are ideologically and 
diametrically opposed, there is no reason to 
believe that any information I impart to your 
classes will be employed in any manner other than 
to further your own illicit goals of suppression 
of liberation activities. I have no intention of 
aiding and abetting your agency by providing 
information and insights that might be used against activists.

I am aware that others from the animal 
rights/liberation movement have cooperated with 
your agency, but I am not interested in doing so. 
As you are no doubt aware, I have chosen in the 
past to speak to members of the U.S. Senate 
Environment and Public Works Committee on the 
subject, but they constitute an elected body that 
presumably can be educated to effect change that 
might benefit animals. Your agency has goals 
pertaining only to the maintenance of the status 
quo (or - as you state it so characteristically - 
the "social order") by quashing those who challenge immoral and unjust laws.

Perhaps one day the state will recognize its 
obligation to stop the oppression of non-human 
animals - not unlike governments that have been 
forced to recognize the rights of various human 
groups in places like Algeria, South Africa, Viet 
Nam, and here in the United States where black 
humans suffered (and continue to suffer) from inhumane treatment by whites.

Some nations have stopped the most cruel 
practices of veal crates, chicken battery cages, 
and cosmetic testing on animals - while others, 
like Barcelona, are legislating rights for some 
non-human primates. Until that day when non-human 
beings are afforded the right to be free of human 
domination, I will support those who risk their 
freedom for the animals and will continue to 
educate the media about why some activists decide 
to go underground to liberate animals and stop 
the horrific crimes perpetrated daily - and with 
your express blessings - against non-humans.

Sincerely:

Jerry W. Vlasak, MD
Press Officer
North American Animal Liberation Press Office
<http://www.animalliberationpressoffice.org/>www.animalliberationpressoffice.org


"When a person places the proper value on 
freedom, there is nothing under the sun that she 
will not do to acquire that freedom. Whenever you 
hear a person saying he wants freedom, but in the 
next breath she is going to tell you what she 
won't do to get it, or what he doesn't believe in 
doing in order to get it, he doesn't believe in 
freedom. A person who believes in freedom will do 
anything under the sun to acquire...or preserve his freedom."-- Malcolm X


Bringuel, Andrew wrote:

Dr. Vlasak;
My name is Andrew Bringuel and I am an 
instructor/researcher at the FBI Academy at 
Quantico, Virginia. I teach a course that deals 
with understanding the motives and tactics of 
activist groups/individuals and the government’s 
response options. The class is taught to police 
executives from the United States and around the 
world through the FBI’s National Academy program.
The class studies both historical and 
contemporarily significant groups in order to 
understand their motives and tactics. They also 
look at ways government can respond to maintain 
social order while resolving conflict. The class 
is taught as a graduate level course through a 
partnership between the FBI and University of 
Virginia. I bring in different speakers 
representing many different world views. I am 
looking to establish a speaker’s bureau so I have 
a ready group of available speakers for future classes.
I believe your insights as a leader in the animal 
rights community would be beneficial for the 
students. I have hosted Anthony Nocella and 
Charlotte Laws.*  Both provided valuable insight 
and felt the experience to be a positive one. I 
don’t have much of a budget for guest instructors 
but I can pay $600 for your expenses and time. 
The block of instruction would be 2 hours and I 
am looking for a speaker for the 2nd quarter of 2007 (February/March).
Let me know if you are interested or if you have any questions.
Thank you,
Andy Bringuel

* While the FBI mentions these two activists by 
name, there are others who attended. Be aware 
that this ‘friendly’ and educational approach may be ongoing!


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