Heads in the Sand On Eco-terror Threats Naïve Grist Blogger Defends Eco-terror Against Appropriate Law Enforcement Crackdown

No one would ever suggest that the Grist online magazine is fair and balanced when it comes to reporting on the environment, but its bias toward environmental extremism is most evident in its December 27th blog posting, “‘Eco-terror’ and the ELF,” by David Roberts:

When the American Civil Liberties Union this week released a new batch of documents obtained from the FBI verifying that the federal agency has been monitoring domestic environmental- and animal-rights groups, it was only the latest evidence of government working on behalf of the anti-environmentalist industry and property-rights advocates to, as one of those advocates put it in 1992, “destroy the environmental movement.” … [LA Weekly’s Judith] Lewis goes on to question whether the ELF (Earth Liberation Front) actually exists as an organization at all. Its alleged website is little more than a hook for a bunch of advertising; its alleged spokesmen are self-promoting cranks; the criminals allegedly connected to it deny any such connections. … The documents the FBI has released so far, most of them heavily edited accounts of monitoring activities directed at Greenpeace and PETA, may be just the tip of the surveillance iceberg.

Fact:

First, what is an “alleged website?” It is a website.

More importantly, numerous devastating acts of arson, threats of physical violence, and even the blunt endorsement of murder by the “alleged” voice of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) himself, Jerry Vlasak, have prompted the FBI to take a closer look at extremist organizations like ELF, ALF and SHAC, as well as their links to other organizations such as PETA and Greenpeace. And rightly so. FBI Deputy Assistant Director for Counterterrorism John Lewis, who has twice testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, calls eco-terror the greatest domestic terror threat in the United States.

It is perfectly proper for the FBI to monitor groups such as PETA and Greenpeace, particularly because of Greenpeace’s long history of direct action against shipping and other facilities. Not widely known, PETA has a history of funding ELF and ALF operations, clearly detailed in, of all places, their IRS Form 990 – “Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax.” PETA also mysteriously paid $70,000 to an ALF member after a Michigan research was destroyed in an attack. That was hardly an “alleged” fire.

The FBI is working to protect every U.S. citizen and the American economy. To suggest otherwise is irresponsible.

EPW Hearing Exhibits

May 18, 2005

Exhibit #1: ALF Instructional Guide to Fire Bombs and Arson - Click here for link: (.pdf)

Exhibit #2a: ALF Raid University of Iowa Laboratory - Click here for link: (.pdf)

Exhibit #2b: ALF Raid University of Iowa Laboratory - Click here for link: (.pdf)

Exhibit #3: ALF Boasts of Raid on University of Iowa Laboratory Including Continuing Threat to Related Professors - Click here for link: (.pdf)

Exhibit #4: Largest ELF Attack in History-Garden Communities - Click here for link: (.pdf)

Exhibit #5: PETA Tax Return Claiming Grant to Terrorist Organization - Click here for link: (.pdf)

Exhibit #6: PETA Supports Terrorist Activity- ALF Army of the Kind - Click here for link: (.pdf)

Exhibit #7: Dr. Best Supports Terrorist Activity as Their Liaison to the Public - Click here for link: (.pdf)

Exhibit #8: Contributors blocked from financing ALF through the Internet - Click here for link: (.pdf)

Exhibit #9: ELF earned Commissions from Book Sales through ELF Web Site - Click here for link: (.pdf)

Exhibit #10: Dr. Steven Best with 2 ALF Members. All 3 Speakers at Fresno State Conference on “Revolutionary Environmentalism” Feb. 13-14, 2003 - Click here for link: (.pdf)

Exhibit #11: PETA Gives Over $70,000 to ALF Member After Burning Down Michigan State Research Lab - Click here for link: (.pdf)

Exhibit #12: ELF Attacks on Development and Car Dealership - Click here for link: (.pdf)