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<font size=3><br><br>
</font><font size=6><b>Green Scare 2006: Who’s Scaring
Who?</font><font size=3> <br>
</font><font size=4>The monkeywrench as a weapon of mass
destruction</font><font size=3> <br>
By Melissa Roberts<br><br>
</font><font size=1>(originally printed in Works In Progress Vol. 17 No.
1, May 2006)</font><font size=3> <br>
<br>
</b>It should come as no shock that the U.S. government has perfected the
art of deception while simultaneously criminalizing dissent. The agenda
is clear: it intends to protect those with wealth and power, and will do
so by any means necessary. The past year alone has revealed a campaign
which includes: warrantless wiretapping; Presidential “signing
statements” contradicting laws passed by Congress; and secretive
“declassification” of information with intent to harm high-level
dissenters. In short, those in power whose interests revolve around
short-term profits at the expense of the long-term health of the planet
and the majority of its inhabitants, are not to be hindered. <br>
<br>
<b>The Green Scare and “Operation Backfire”<br>
</b> <br>
A recent example is the “Green Scare”—a modern-day witch hunt of
environmentalists reminiscent of the McCarthy-era “Red Scare”. December
7th, 2005, marked the beginning of the largest roundup of environmental
and animal rights activists in U.S. history. The FBI sting centered on
incidents of sabotage allegedly committed by the Earth Liberation Front
(ELF) and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) primarily in the Pacific
Northwest—Eugene, Olympia, Seattle—and extending to Colorado and
California. Two Olympia activists have been arrested. Unfortunately, this
is only the beginning of the campaign’s impact on the Olympia community.
The nation-wide sweep of arrests, or “Operation Backfire,” is part of an
FBI campaign against environmentalists who engage in a variety of
tactics—including property destruction—as a means to defend wild lands,
animals, and the integrity of the earth’s delicate balance. But here’s
the clincher: they’ve been dubbed “terrorists”. In his campaign send-off,
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales issued a January 2006 televised
statement announcing a sweeping 65-count indictment which included
conspiracy charges and declared “eco-terrorism” as “the number one
domestic terrorist threat”. <br>
<br>
<b>Section 802 of The Patriot Act<br>
</b> <br>
The term ‘domestic terrorism’ was used to describe the deadly Oklahoma
City bombing. After the introduction of the Patriot Act, the term was
redefined as: “activities that involve acts dangerous to human life that
are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any
State; appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian
population, to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or
coercion, or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction,
assassination, or kidnapping…” <br>
<br>
According to ACLU spokeswoman, Catherine Hazouri, the organization
believes, “the current definition of terrorism is too broad. It sweeps up
people who have no intent to harm human life, and this criminalizes
dissent.” Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center adds, “What’s
happened over the last few years is that both the FBI and the Department
of Homeland Security have said that ‘eco-terrorism’ is the number one
domestic terrorist threat facing the United States. And in my opinion,
that’s simply ludicrous.” <br>
<br>
An April 13, 2006, “Office of Intelligence and Analysis, Homeland
Security Assessment Bulletin” cuts to the heart of the agency’s reasoning
for labeling eco-activists as terrorists: “Attacks against corporations
by animal rights extremists and eco-terrorists are costly to the targeted
company and, over time, can undermine confidence in the economy.” <br>
<br>
The Bulletin goes on to advise corporations about the potential “attacks”
they can expect to encounter—citing actions allegedly inflicted by the
recently-targeted group, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC):
“Inundating a company’s computer server with email, causing it to crash
(estimated damage: $1.25 million); using an auto-dialer to overwhelm the
telephone services of an investment firm—which prevented customers from
calling; an email harassment campaign which demanded that a firm sell its
shares of HLS stock (the company lost $1.4 million from the sale);
jamming phone lines with repeated calls to prevent it from doing business
with potential customers.” <br>
<br>
The Ruckus Society teaches a variety of civil disobedience skills, and
founder John Sellers, has this to say about the Green Scare: “The fact
that the FBI and the Attorney General… can stand there with straight
faces and say that the radical fringe of the environmental movement is
the number one domestic threat to our national security is just
outrageous. The founding fathers were very clear in writing that the duty
of a citizen in an unjust society is to refuse to cooperate with the
injustice.” <br>
<br>
Traditionally, the people of the United States have cherished their right
to dissent. As historian Howard Zinn notes, when the patriots of 1773
felt unfairly treated by the ruling British government, they rebelled.
The most famous example of early American sabotage was the Boston Tea
Party. Early direct actions include: the Stamp Act protests of 1765,
numerous acts of civil disobedience by slaves and abolitionists, strikes
and sit-ins—all violated private property laws, but won rights for
colonists, workers, and African Americans which we consider “basic human
rights” today. <br>
<br>
Despite this honorable tradition, today’s Patriot Act distorts the
freedom that our patriot ancestors fought for. <br>
<br>
<b>Threat Level: GREEN<br>
Crafting the Eco-Terrorist Myth<br>
</b> <br>
The Homeland Security “Citizen Advisory System” conveniently distills the
nation’s “terrorist threat level” into a color-coded system, not
dissimilar from weather-report icons. The “lowest risk” point on the
scale is aptly colored: green. Environmentalists couldn’t agree more. In
fact, they see themselves more as caped crusaders—selflessly risking life
and limb to protect the planet and its inhabitants. <br>
<br>
In 1989, a multi-year FBI COINTELPRO sting—complete with paid agent
provocateurs and costing over $2 million—entrapped four Earth First!ers,
and framed the perceived leader of EF!, Dave Foreman. Ilse Asplund speaks
about the Arizona action, for which she was arrested and imprisoned: “I
was involved in trying, very actively, to stop uranium mining and
development on the San Francisco peaks—which is a mountain that is held
sacred to twelve indigenous tribes that live in the area. One of the
actions that we did was cut down some power lines to the Canyon Uranium
Mine, which is situated at Red Butte—land that is sacred to the Havasupai
and is essential to their creation story and the enactment of their
ceremonies. <br>
<br>
“Our legal system has a very hard time dealing with land as anything
other than as a commodity, to be transferred into wealth to put in the
pockets of certain individuals. And many people pay dearly for that
transfer of natural resources and wealth. I felt that it was extremely
important to make a statement that there are values in the land that
support and nourish us that are above and beyond the rights of
commodification.” <br>
Rather than threatening human life, the Arizona 5 were motivated by a
human, as well as environmental threat. Dozens of Navajo people in
Arizona have died prematurely of mining-related diseases, and passed on
genetic defects after the first wave of uranium mining on their
reservation in the late 1950s. "You look around the reservation and
see so many elderly people who are crippled and can barely breathe,"
said Robert Stewart, Sr. of Tuba City, a Navajo who worked for five years
in a mine in the mid- to late 1950s. "This pretty much devastated
much of a generation." <br>
<br>
Today’s ELF and ALF strongly advocate “equality, social justice and
compassion for all life." An equal respect for life is expressed in
the Earth First! Journal’s definition of monkeywrenching: “nonviolent
resistance to the destruction of natural diversity and wilderness. It is
never directed against human beings or other forms of life. It is aimed
at inanimate machines and tools that are destroying life. Care is always
taken to minimize any possible threat to people, including the
monkeywrenchers themselves.” <br>
<br>
However, the competitive “man vs. nature” mythology appears quite rooted
in the industry viewpoint. A February 2006 article entitled “Who Will
Defend Industry Against Eco-Terrorism” which appears in none other than
Capitalism Magazine, provides a glimpse. Author and resident fellow of
the Ayn Rand Institute, Onkar Ghate asserts, “Environmental terrorism is
a consistent expression of environmentalism's worship of wilderness. By
making the preservation of untouched nature the ideal, environmentalism
necessarily makes man, who survives by exploiting nature, the enemy.”
<br>
<br>
Ghate believes, “the ideology of environmentalism is not concerned with
improving man's life on earth. If it were, it would not oppose but
champion industrial progress—luxury homes, dams, highways,
bioengineering, food irradiation, etc.—and the individuals who create
it.” He goes on to warn: “If we value our lives, we must never make
common cause with environmentalism, no matter how appealing a particular
environmentalist project may seem. We must fight not only against
particular environmental terrorists but also against the ideology that
inspires them. But even more important, we must fight for rational
values: man's life and industrial civilization.” <br>
<br>
<b>Government Response to Comparable Crimes<br>
<br>
</b>Environmentalists as “number one” in the domestic terrorism lineup
flies in the face of unsolved, and in many cases, uninvestigated crimes
that better fit under the moniker of terrorism—including 7400 hate
crimes, and 450 (corporate) environmental crimes threatening workers,
public health, or the environment. Sabotage/vandalism crimes committed
without political motivation receive far shorter sentences. And those
with political motivation from the right wing side of the spectrum
somehow escape the limelight. <br>
<br>
According to Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, “In the last
10 years or so, we have seen on the order of 60 major domestic terrorist
plots coming from the radical right… aimed at… in many cases, mass
murder… of human beings. One of these plots—a plot to blow up a natural
gas refinery by some Klansmen in Texas in 1997—would have resulted in…
the deaths of some 30,000 people. The kind of fringes of the animal
rights and environmental movements, on the other hand, while they engaged
in arson and those kinds of acts, have killed… no one. I think what the
Patriot Act has the effect of doing is taking things like arson, which
might have been punished by a few years in prison, and raised them to the
level of bonafide international terrorism. That’s a bit of a frightening
development.” <br>
<br>
Meanwhile, Michael Fortier, who was convicted for his involvement in
planning the Oklahoma City bombing which killed 168 people, was released
from jail on January 20, 2006—coincidentally occurring the same day as
several Green Scare arrests. Fortier served 10 years. In contrast, the
government is threatening the environmentalists with extraordinary
sentences ranging from 30 years to life plus 335 years. <br>
<br>
<b>Where Unchecked Power is Headed<br>
</b> <br>
In post 9-11 America, questioning official policy is considered
suspicious activity—even those “working within the system”. Victims of
warrantless spying include Quaker meetings, Code Pink, and Greenpeace, to
name a few. The Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights,
Bob Goodman illustrates how broad the government’s scope of
dissent-quashing spreads: “There’s a Quaker meeting in Florida, for
example, which was infiltrated and spied upon by the FBI and the
Department of Defense. These are the Quakers, and the reason they were
targeted was because they went around to high schools and talked against
military recruitment. But even if we don’t agree with that, this is
activity that is traditionally a part of robust free speech in the United
States.” <br>
<br>
Goodman talks about the ramifications of the government’s re-definition
of ‘domestic terrorism’: “The legal definition of terrorism is clear. It
is the use of illegal mechanisms—mechanisms that are criminal under
American law—in order to affect public policy. This is a very disturbing
turn in American jurisprudence… because it says that people who, for
example, engage in trespass, in a sit-in, when they’re told to leave a
lunch counter, or sitting in a nuclear facility—that because they’re
attempting to change public policy, are guilty of the crime of terrorism.
Under this definition, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King and many other
great people—great Americans—would have been guilty of terrorism. And
that’s absurd.” <br>
<br>
“…[T]o call it terrorism means that you’re importing this idea… into the
notion of domestic political protest. So that people who are protesting
now become, not political protesters (and if they commit a crime, they
need to be charged with a crime, and convicted of it if that’s the
evidence), now they’re terrorists. This means that now we can loosen all
the constitutional guarantees… in order to go after these political
protesters.” <br>
<br>
“…[O]nce there are ‘terrorists’ inside the United States, why can’t they
be tortured? Under what circumstances will that be acceptable? And once
someone is defined as a ‘terrorist’, or attempting to help a ‘terrorist’,
it’s a short step, if a step at all, to being an ‘enemy combatant’—which
means indefinite detention—which means there’s nothing to prevent them
from dumping these people in Guantanamo so that there are no trials at
all. That is the direction which this government is moving. And it’s
terrifying.” <br>
<br>
<b>Grand Jury 101<br>
</b> <br>
Grand juries were originally formed to create a filter to stop
unjustified felony cases at an early stage. Unlike a trial jury, which
decides whether a suspect is guilty, a grand jury merely decides whether
there’s probable cause to prosecute. Unfortunately, somewhere along the
way, it all went very wrong. <br>
<br>
Grand juries actually function as modern-day inquisitions, and can
include the following: detention and interrogation without probable
cause; suspension of 1st, 4th, 5th (through forced immunity), and 6th
amendments of the Bill of Rights; a defense attorney’s presence is
forbidden; no judge is present; and the jury is not screened for bias.
Those subpoenaed to testify are pressured under threat of imprisonment
for the duration of the grand jury (usually a maximum of 18 months) if
they decline. Any line of questioning can be pursued—regardless of its
relevance to the indictment. Grand juries are used by prosecutors to cast
a wide net into an entire community—gathering names, contact information,
associations, personal history, romantic interests—in short, anything
that can be used against activists and their community. <br>
<br>
A common association with the word “indictment” is “guilty”. The Oxford
American Dictionary’s two definitions explain why: “Indictment (n)—(1) a
formal charge or accusation of a serious crime; (2) something which
illustrates that a system or situation is bad and deserves to be
condemned.” Thus, a contradiction exists within the word itself—one who
is indicted is both “accused” and “guilty”. Thus, the vilification of a
grand jury indictment, in effect, denies the accused their right to a
presumption of innocence until a trial. <br>
<br>
<b>Resist the Grand Jury: It works!<br>
</b> <br>
In a September 2004 law enforcement analysis, authors Randy Borum of the
University of South Florida and Chuck Tilby of the Eugene, OR Police
Department admit: “Although Grand Jury investigations are routinely
successful against criminals, they have been less successful against
activists and ‘true believers.’ The criminal is generally motivated
solely by his or her own self-interest, whereas activists are often more
concerned with their beliefs and the effects their actions may have on
others and on the movement more generally.” <br>
<br>
Former Black Panthers Ray Boudreaux, John Bowman, Richard Brown, Hank
Jones, and Harold Taylor, were subpoenaed to the SF Grand Jury in October
2005, but refused to cooperate. In an attempt to coerce testimony, the
government then imprisoned the five in Bay Area jails for the life of the
Grand Jury. However, they all remained strong, resistant, and
non-cooperative throughout, and all were released the next month. <br>
<br>
<b>What Can We Do? <br>
(Your Rights: Use ‘Em or Lose ‘Em)<br>
<br>
</b>For starters, we can follow the Department of Homeland Security’s
Security Advice to Corporations—simply substituting the word “community”
for “corporate or company” and “recycling” for “trash”:
<ol>
<li>Encrypt outgoing electronic communication and attachments.
<li>Implement a process to periodically change users’ computer passwords.
<li>Install firewalls and continuously test systems to ensure hackers do
not penetrate systems.
<li>Install locks on all doors, filing cabinets and overhead storage
areas.
<li>Protect corporate rosters to prevent extremists from acquiring
personal information such as organization structure, employee names,
positions, phone numbers, email addresses, and home addresses.
<li>Never discuss proprietary information with anyone without a need to
know. Suspicious inquiries should be reported immediately. Inquiries may
appear innocent at first, but gradually become more detailed.
<li>Protect itineraries, vacation dates, locations, and reservations when
traveling, targeting can occur at any time and in areas outside the work
place and residence.
<li>Always shred documents rather than throwing them in the trash.
Seemingly innocuous information can be used to answer questions or fill
information gaps that could later be used to target a company or
employee.
</ol><b>What to do if the FBI Knocks on Your Door… <br>
…to “just ask a few questions”</b>
<ul>
<li>Remember the magic words: “I am going to remain silent. I would like
to see a lawyer”. If your memory is prone to failure, attorney and
anti-nuclear activist, Katya Komisaruk, recommends tattooing this mantra
on a visible body part.
<li>Take notes: time & date of visit; any information you have (name;
physical descriptions; car make, model, color, license plate); anything
about how the conversation went. Take their business card, if offered.
</ul><b>…with a Subpeona</b>
<ul>
<li>You are not required to open your door for anyone. The server is
legally required to hand it to you, or can throw it at your feet if you
are in the same room.
</ul><b>…if they ask to search your home, car or belongings</b>
<ul>
<li>Ask for a Search Warrant and ensure it explicitly matches their
search. If they do not have a warrant or there is a mistake on it, say:
“I do not consent to a search.”
<li>If they have a legitimate Search Warrant, you are required to
cooperate, but still have the right to remain silent (remember the
tattoo).
</ul>Report all FBI knocking campaign “visits” to the Olympia Civil
Liberties Resource: (360) 556-6878, email:
<a href="mailto:olycivlib@riseup.net"><i>olycivlib(at)riseup.net</a></i>.
<br>
Learn about the history of COINTELPRO and FBI entrapment, and take common
sense precautions against infiltration—without succumbing to the
paralyzing fear of inaction. <br>
<b>For more information<br>
</b>See the books <i>Beat the Heat: How to Handle Encounters with Law
Enforcement</i> by Katya Komisaruk, (AK Press 2003), and <i>War at Home:
Covert Action Against U.S. Activists and What We Can Do About It</i> by
Brian Glick (South End Press, 1989). <br>
Also visit the following websites:
<a href="http://www.olycivlib.org/"><i>www.olycivlib.org</a>,
<a href="http://www.ecoprisoners.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.ecoprisoners.org</a>,
<a href="http://www.fbiwitchhunt.com/">fbiwitchhunt.com</a>,
<a href="http://www.cldc.org/" eudora="autourl">www.cldc.org</a>,
<a href="http://portland.indymedia.org/en/topic/greenscare/">
portland.indymedia.org/en/topic/greenscare</a>.</i> <br>
For Videos,
<a href="http://sourcecode.freespeech.org/sc302Ecotage/"><i>
sourcecode.freespeech.org</a> (requires Quicktime). <br>
<br>
Melissa Roberts is an Olympia-based activist who worked from 1992-94 as
Administrator for Earth First! activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney’s
civil rights lawsuit against the FBI and Oakland police department. In
2002, the jury found that the agencies violated the activists’
Constitutional rights, and mishandled the still unsolved 1990 car bombing
that nearly killed Bari.</i> <br><br>
<br>
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