PATRIOT games.
mattd
mattd at useoz.com
Sat Dec 29 05:30:38 PST 2001
The PATRIOT shredding and flushing of the constitution was drawn up and
ready to go.Some background I want to store online,justin Case.
The Juvenile Justice Bill
After the Columbine High School shootings, the US Senate passed the May
1999 Juvenile Justice Bill. Though unrelated in any way to "juvenile
justice," several provisions were included that directly target animal
rights and environmental activists. Reflecting industry pressure and
influence, the Juvenile Justice Bill condemns people who commit politically
motivated nonviolent offenses with exceedingly disproportionate prison
terms. Unfortunately, this law is only one example of a systematic attempt
by industry and government to discourage direct action by punishing
activists with jail time that far exceeds time given to truly violent and
dangerous people. Such sentencing preferences illustrate the priority the
state (and our crypto-fascist , creep of creeps,Tim May btw.)gives to
property over human life. The Juvenile Justice Bill also:
1. Makes it a federal crime to distribute information on how to make bombs
(over the Internet or otherwise) or other weapons of mass destruction if
the "teacher intends" for the information to be used to commit a federal
violent crime, or knows that the recipient will use the information to
commit such a crime.
2. Enhances penalties under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act by changing
a minimum sentence to a mandatory five years instead of one.
3. Creates a "National Animal Terrorism and Ecoterrorism Incident
Clearinghouse" to "accept, collect and maintain" information on crimes
against animal enterprises or commercial activities because of their
perceived impact on the environment. Records of such incidents are
available for all law enforcement agencies.
4. Enhances sentences for "gangs," defined as the assembly of three or more
people. These sentencing guidelines promote selective and politically
biased prosecution by applying more serious penalties against those who
commit crimes in defense of animals or the environment. The courts are
being asked to evaluate the actions of an individual and the thoughts
behind an action instead of simply evaluating the actual crime. The bill
also undermines the First Amendment protection of websites and publications.
The RICO Act
In May 1999, Senators Orin G. Hatch (R-UT) and Diane Feinstein (D-CA)
introduced an amendment to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt
Organization (RICO) Act, aimed at "Animal Enterprise Terrorism and
Ecoterrorism." RICO was originally designed to combat traditional organized
crime and its infiltration of legitimate enterprises; however, its most
innovative, and controversial, aspects are provisions which allow the state
to seize property owned by anyone charged with being part of a "criminal
enterprise." RICO targets illegal activity organized across state lines.
Thus, if you "organize" using email and telephone, you can potentially be
prosecuted under federal laws. In the past, RICO has been employed
primarily against white-collar criminals, anti-abortion protesters and
mobsters. Now, target groups can include just about anyone.
Oregon Declares War on Activists
On March 12, two bills intended to stiffen penalties for "eco-terrorists"
were unanimously approved by the Oregon House of Representatives. Under HR
2344 and 2385, Oregons organized crime laws would be expanded to include
activities such as tree spiking and sabotage of animal research, livestock
or agricultural operations. Convictions under the laws would be punishable
by up to 20 years in prison and a $300,000 fine. Reflecting the hysterical
attitude and culture of propaganda currently prevailing in the Oregon
legislature, Representative Bob Jenson claimed he received threatening
letters and phone calls a year ago when lawmakers were first considering HR
2344 and 2385. He stated, "I will do everything to ensure that if you break
the law as part of those protests, that you will get free room and board
for 20 years." The process of attacking social movements in Oregon fits
into a larger pattern of criminalizing dissent with respect to the
anti-globalization movement, which is made up of anarchists,
environmentalists, animal rights activists, students, Unions, teachers and
others concerned about the fate of the planet and each other. David
Helvarg, author of The War Against the Greens, stresses how difficult it is
for ecologically destructive industries to look good and publicly justify
their actions; therefore, their strategy has been "to make us look bad,
demonize us and make themselves look respectable as a result." If one were
to compare a cancer-causing industrial polluter to a teenage
monkeywrencher, it would become glaringly apparent to the public as to who
is the real "eco-terrorist."
Groups to Watch Out For
"A growing network of pro-technology activists is making sure that the
message of my book, EcoTerror: The Violent Agenda to Save Nature, will
produce results. By results, I mean congressional hearings and legislation
to protect the public from environmentally motivated violence," says Ron
Arnold in a Christian Science Monitor interview. Arnold is a spokesperson
for the right-wing Wise Use movement and the executive director of the
Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise. In a 1992 interview, he said,
"Were out to kill the fuckers. Our goal is to eliminate environmentalism
once and for all." He is a former spokesperson for Dow and Union Carbide
and has financial support from corporations such as Exxon, DuPont, Georgia
Pacific and Boise Cascade. Public relations firms, lobbying groups and
think tanks work with and fund the Wise Use movement. Included amongst
these institutions is the Heritage Foundation, which published a report
entitled, Ecoterrorism: The Dangerous Fringe of the Environmental Movement.
The report is a typical Wise Use mixture of truth, fiction and innuendo
which targets Earth First! as a violent terrorist group. The report
concludes with a strong denunciation of the use of violence as a tactic and
claims that radical environmentalists are locked into an ever-increasing
rampage of terrorist activity which is maiming, and which will inevitably
result in the killing of innocent people. The report goes on to identify
EF! as the enemy and pleads with the environmental community to isolate EF!
and other so-called violent radicals from the environmental movement. It is
interesting to note that this report was released in April 1990 and spread
quickly through the Wise Use network. A think tank linked to the CIA, the
National Strategy Information Center, operates a Counterterrorism Study
Group (CSG). The CSG has identified all the possible sources of terrorism
in the world today. Along with Iraq, Syria, and Lybia, it has concluded
that a new source of terrorism exists within the "ecological movement,"
especially the elements of the movement which espouse biocentric views. The
mission of the CSG is to identify the nature of various terrorist threats,
devise new methodologies to analyze them and to implement responses through
legal, military, political and intelligence means. The CSG has an
international composition with academics, corporate officials and former
government specialists in terrorism.
Disinformation campaigns and psychological warfare against
environmentalists are only some of the techniques that are practicednot
only by the FBI, but by a whole alphabet soup of federal organizations,
along with the participation of local police forces, private security
firms, local government and Wise Use sympathizers. "The environmental
movement is being subjected to obvious surveillance, intimidation,
anonymous letters, phony leaflets, telephone threats, police over-reaction
and brutality, dubious arrests and other threatening actions unfamiliar to
most activists," says Chip Berlet in his article "Hunting the Green
Menace." Berlet continues that the "labeling of a group as violent,
terrorist or pro-communist is often a first step toward the delegitimizing
of that group. Such labeling undermines public support and thus sanctions
the use of aggressive surveillance and harassment by government agencies or
private security firms. There is also a self-fulfilling prophecy with
labeling, as police are likely to respond with unjustified force when they
have been trained to think of peaceful protesters as violent terrorists."
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