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Fighting Eco-Terror
The owners and management of Vail Resorts were less than enthused to see an ad that appeared
recently in Newsweek and is scheduled for further runs in Time and US News and World Report. Showing the fire at
Two Elk Lodge in October of 1998, the quotation under the blazing building is from a co-founder of People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals - PETA. It says "Our non-violent tactics are not as effective. We ask nicely
for years and got nothing. Someone makes a threat and it works." The ad's caption asks "PETA: As warm
and cuddly as you thought?"
The current ad is a part of a concerted effort to regain the initiative from the eco-terrorist organizations that
have, according to the FBI, committed some 600 criminal acts in the United States since 1996 and caused damages
in excess of 43 million dollars. The ad is the creation of the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) in Washington.
The ad and others can be found at www.consumerfreedom.com.
Two other groups have joined in the fray. They are the Frontiers of Freedom Foundation (www.ff.org) and the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise (www.cdfe.org).
Buoyed by the election results, these groups and others hope to re-introduce legislation that has been sidetracked
by the obstructionist Senate. Two bills - H.R. 2795, "The Agro terrorism Prevention Act of 2001" and
H.R. 2583, "The Environmental Terrorism Reduction Act" - will form the backbone of new legislation. There
is bi-partisan support in the House for controlling eco-violence. Leaders include Rep. Nick Rah all (D-WV), Darlene
Holey (D-OR), Greg Walden (R-OR) and George Nethercutt (R-WA).
While it is too early to predict the exact form of the bill, it will probably deal with these points.
- As with other terrorists, improve intelligence, free the hand of law enforcement, isolate terrorists from their
allies and assistance and cut off funding.
- Give the FBI authority to investigate eco-terror incidents under anti-racketeering provisions (RICO).
- Create an information clearing house to connect fragmentary evidence.
- Stiff penalties include 1-5 years for acts of eco-terrorism, 5-20 for firebombing and a mandatory death sentence
for murder.
- Federal funding for security systems at ecological and agricultural research facilities.
The immediate call for action comes from the increased virulence of the rhetoric of ELF (Earth Liberation Front)
and ALF (Animal Liberation Front) during this past summer and fall. Because they caste themselves as sharing the
same goals as the environmental left, ELF/ALF have sabotaged, vandalized, firebombed and harassed with impunity
for many years. However, beginning this past fall, the organization's public rhetoric has begun to include phrases
such as we "will no longer hesitate to pick up the gun to implement justice." The risk of accidental
or purposeful injury or death to a human being has grown to unacceptable levels.
This past summer, for example, ALF activists announced to Iowa farmers and farm researchers that "until every
animal confinement operation is empty and every slaughterhouse is burned to the ground, we will continue to terrorize.
In the fight for freedom of these animals, all is justified." Testifying before Congress this summer, activist
Craig Rosebraugh submitted 11 pages of written testimony and then took the Fifth. His document condemned America
and concluded with a strident call for revolution, violent if necessary.
Within the past few days, a car dealer in Richmond, Virginia had 25 SUVs vandalized by the use of axes on tires
and an acidic etching compound on the glass areas of the vehicles. The ELF website explained "The ELF realizes
the profit motive caused and reinforced by the capitalist society is destroying all life on this planet."
Getting the bureaucracy to set aside their fear of violating political correctness is a huge problem. We can hope
that it doesn't take a death or a maiming to get them to move.
100 Years Later. We should not let this week pass without a salute to Sen. Strom Thurman (R-SC) who celebrated
his 100th birthday Thursday in his Senate office. Thurman won his first election to a local office in 1928. With
the exception of time in the service during WW II (he participated in D-Day) he has held public office ever since.
His longevity also helped Sen. Fritz Hollings set a Senate record of his own. He has been the state's junior senator
for 36 years.
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