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<b>Protection of Wealth or Protection of People?: Biodiversity Ain't Even
on the Radar Screen<br>
</b>by Karen Pickett<br>
from the<i> Earth First! Journal</i> May-June 2006<br><br>
When the FBI announced in 2004 that the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) was
its number one priority for domestic terrorism, it was clear the
government would ultimately produce warm bodies to shore up this
illogical prioritization. A difference between the current
criminalization of dissent and past COINTELPRO operations is revealed in
the drive to put property damage on par with injury to life.<br><br>
Galloping in to help the FBI is the business lobby, represented by groups
like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a conservative
public policy lobbying organization funded by more than 300 corporations.
ALEC, in collaboration with the US Sportsman's Alliance, has written
model legislation upping the ante for action taken against corporations
in the business of development, logging, mining and vivisection. Thanks
to ALEC, legislation has been introduced in nine states in the last
couple of years seeking to brand politically motivated property
destruction, trespass or arson as acts of domestic terrorism.<br><br>
Of course, arson, trespass and vandalism are already illegal, but ALEC
wants to add codified layers so that those who support those
activities-financially or otherwise-could also be prosecuted. The
terrorist label, addition of conspiracy charges and aggressive public
relations surrounding the grand jury indictments (like the Washington, DC
press conference with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director
Robert Mueller on January 20) are meant to marginalize and vilify people
already facing criminal charges and to enhance sentencing options. This
effectively denies the accused their right to a presumption of innocence
until a trial, thanks to the Bush-crafted culture of fear.<br><br>
Branding property destruction as terrorism rather than sabotage heightens
the sensationalism surrounding this politically charged situation, and it
is designed to send potential support running in the opposite direction.
The authorities even call those arrested "The Family" in an
undisguised attempt to evoke images of the notorious Manson Family. But
the Manson Family were cold-blooded murderers. <br><br>
There's no body count or bloodletting connected with the alleged ELF
actions. Yet those actions are called "terrorism" even as
violent attacks by right-wing militants have gone unprosecuted-7,400 hate
crimes motivated by race, ethnic, religious or sexual orientation,
according to the FBI's own 2003 statistics. The National Abortion Rights
Organization cites seven murders, 17 attempted murders, 41 bombings, 100
acid attacks and 655 anthrax threats, in addition to literally thousands
of incidents of kidnapping, burglary and stalking over the last 25 years.
And burning SUV tires and a horse corral is terrorism? "You
betcha," say ALEC and the FBI because it's corporate
property-sacrosanct in the capitalist US.<br>
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Criminalization of dissent has long been within the purview of the FBI,
but the agenda flying under the radar screen is the protection of wealth
and private property. ALEC would put damage to property on par with
threat or actual harm to life. Nowhere in the FBI's demonization of these
acts it calls "terrorism" is a body count or even a litany of
injuries. The "injury" is defined in millions of dollars lost
by corporations that are in the business of building multi-million-dollar
developments on endangered species habitat.<br><br>
If property destruction is put on par with threat to life, the question
must be asked whether the next step will be increased prosecution for the
revered tradition of nonviolent civil disobedience or vilification of the
successful market campaigns carried out by the likes of Rainforest Action
Network and ForestEthics. After all, those activities, as well as
boycotts and strikes, put a dent in the bottom line of profit margins. In
fact, attacks disguised as Internal Revenue Service investigations and
other back-door strategies are already on the rise against organizations
that carry out civil disobedience and market campaigns.<br><br>
A bill before the governor of Pennsylvania right now makes terrorists out
of those arrested for civil disobedience and increases penalties for
actions that interfere with resource extraction, agricultural research or
animal experimentation. A similar bill is under consideration in Maine's
state legislature.<br><br>
"Ecoterrorism," a term trumpeted in the media, was invented in
the early 1990s by the public relations firm Hill and Knowlton, while
employed by corporations in the extractive industries. It was then put
into popular use by right-wing ideologues like Ron Arnold, long known as
a vehement anti-environmentalist whose self-professed goal is to destroy
the environmental movement. Property destruction is sabotage, not
terrorism. Dump "ecoterrorism" from the vernacular. Ecological
terrorism is perpetrated by the likes of ExxonMobil, Monsanto,
Louisiana-Pacific and Union Carbide. Seize the moment. Seize the
language.<br><br>
<i>Karen Pickett is the director of the Bay Area Coalition for
Headwaters. She has been an EF! activist since the early 1980s.<br>
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