The news services are all breathlessly a-flutter this morning with the story that the FBI has been surveilling (gasp!) PeTA and Greenpeace, even though the FBI says they weren't suspected in terrorist activity, but are suspected of supporting ALF and ELF.
The ACLU is predictably outraged, and PeTA denies wrongdoing. Here are some snippets from the Boston Globe's article:
The American Civil Liberties Union accused the FBI of misusing terrorism investigators to monitor some domestic political organizations, despite apparently disparate views within the FBI whether some groups supported or committed violent acts.
[ . . . ]
''Using labels like domestic terrorists to describe peaceful protest activity can chill robust political debate in this country," ACLU lawyer Ben Wizner said in New York. The ACLU said it will publish the FBI reports it obtained on its website today.
In one case, government records show the FBI launched a terrorism investigation of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in Norfolk, Va., despite acknowledgment by one FBI official that, ''The FBI does not consider PETA a terrorist organization."
The FBI responded that it conducts its investigations appropriately -- subject to US laws and Justice Department guidelines. It said the ACLU mischaracterized some passing references to political groups in FBI files to suggest those groups were under investigation; in other cases the FBI confirmed it was acting on tips tying groups to alleged illegal activities.
''You end up in FBI files with your name and your group's name because you're doing stuff," said John Miller, FBI assistant director of public affairs. ''By and large, the FBI has done a pretty good job sticking to those rules."
The FBI documents indicate the government launched its terrorism investigation of the animals ethics group because it was ''suspected of providing material support and resources to known domestic terrorism organizations," including the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front.
[ . . . ]
Jeffrey S. Kerr, lawyer for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, denied his organization provided support or resources to the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front, calling such claims ''tired old allegations." Kerr said any terrorism investigation was ''a scurrilous waste of resources."
''This is really an abuse of power," Kerr said. ''PETA and other groups are really being targeted because we are being social activists and engaging in free speech. This is un-American and unconstitutional and contrary to the interests of any definition of a healthy democracy."
[ . . . ]
What can I say, other than "dots," and to repeat stuff I've written before, some of it just yesterday? Here's what I wrote some time ago:
1) PeTA contributed $1,500 to the Earth Liberation Front in the year 2001. If you don't believe me, check here to download a PDF file of PeTA's 2001 Form 990 tax return). The ELF has been designated a terrorist organization by the FBI.
And PeTA is a tax-exempt organization.
2) Rodney Coronado is an Animal Liberation Front operative who served some 4 years for having torched a Michigan State University lab on Feb. 28, 1992 (the ALF has been designated a terrorist organization by the FBI.). If you take the time to peruse the Governments Sentencing Memorandum (available as a PDF here), you will learn much history about extremist Animal Rights groups. More interesting, immediately before and after the MSU fires, Coronado mailed two packages, one to PeTA founder Ingrid Newkirk, the other to PeTA member Maria Blanton, who Newkirk had asked to receive the package. Records found at Blanton's home showed that Coronado planned additional attacks on universities, one of which involved Alex Pacheco, another PeTA founder. A footnote states: "Significantly, Newkirk had arranged to have the package delivered to her days before the MSU arson occurred."
The sentencing memorandum is easily read. I've read it several times, and each time I find it absolutely gripping, not to mention damning of PeTA.
And PeTA is a tax-exempt organization.
3) PeTA contributed at least $45,200 to the Rodney Coronado Support Fund.
And PeTA is a tax-exempt organization.
4) UPDATE 1/11/06: Familiarize yourself with the putative administrative and financial connections of PeTA and PCRM by browsing this, then look at the links here. Finally, read this, taking note of what Newsweek said about the PCRM, and what this link says about Dr. Jerry Vlasak.
5) On its own website, PeTA likens the ALF to the Underground Railway and to the French resistence, defends violent actions (including vandalism and arson) in the name of animal liberation, and conveniently overlooks the injurious and life-threatening hazards to first-responders, pedestrians and motorists created when emergency vehicles dash to the conflagrations created by ALF "freedom fighters," and when firefighters fight the arsonist's blaze.
Well, if you aren't convinced by now, try this on for size.
Consider Dr. Jerry Vlasak's wife is Pamelyn Ferdin. Yesterday, I asked "Who is Pamelyn Ferdin?" and provided this answer:
1) Wife of Jerry Vlasak who himself is: i) a former spokesman for the PeTA-linked group, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine; a current Press Officer for the terrorist Animal Liberation Front; a person who believes assassination is morally acceptable for the AR cause; a person who has openly advocated the practice of assassination itself; a past or present board member of the Animal Defense League, LA, which recently succeeded in pressuring the Mayor of Los Angeles into firing his Director of Animal Services.
2) Current president of SHAC-USA.
3) A business-card-carrying member (or at least a past member) of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
4) A director of the extremist ADL-LA. The ADL-LA recently succeeded in intimidating (and this LAT OpEd) LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa into firing Animal Services Director Guerdon Stuckey.
But there's more . . . according to their 2001 Tax Records, PeTA contributed $6,000 to the Josh Harper Support Group (pdf). Josh Harper is an anarchist who desires the end of civilization, a person who has been arrested a dozen or more times, and who took ideologically incoherent advantage of the fruits of the very civilization he is committed to destroying to cure his testicular cancer.
Mr. Harper is a member of SHAC, a group that is committed to bringing down Huntingdon Life Sciences by any means necessary.
Mr. Harper is a member of the SHAC 7, and is about to be tried, with other SHAC defendents, for organizing a campaign of intimidation and harassment against HLS.
That campaign has been so successful that Catherine Kinney, President of the New York Stock Exchange, was recently intimidated into "postponing" HLS's listing on the NYSE, an action that surprised everyone concerned, that drew little media attention but did earn her an invitation to testify before the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee — an invitation that she declined. HLS suffered substantial losses as a result of Kinney's action.
One has to wonder if PeTA will contribute to Mr. Harpers Support Committee this time around.
Speaking of SHAC and it's PeTA connection . . . recall that the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is linked to PeTA. Now that you have, you might wish to check out a letter signed by Neal Barnard, who is "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ medical advisor, and was until 2005 president of the Foundation to Support Animal Protection (also known as “The PETA Foundation”) -- a legal entity that owns most of PETA’s real estate, pays its largest salaries, and has funneled huge sums of money to PCRM."
The letter was also signed by SHAC's Kevin Kjonaas, who in addition to being one of the SHAC 7, was SHAC-USA's president (op cit) before relinquishing that office to Pamelyn Ferdin (she with the PCRM business card and the husband who once was a PCRM spokesman and is now a spokesman for the ALF and who advocates murder.)
And then, there are the quotes from PeTA luminaries themselves. Here are several from the NAIA collection:
"I will be the last person to condemn ALF [the Animal Liberation Front]." Ingrid Newkirk, PeTA's president and founder, The New York Daily News, December 7, 1997
"If an 'animal abuser' were killed in a research lab firebombing, I would unequivocally support that, too." Gary Yourofsky, founder of Animals Deserve Adequate Protection Today and Tomorrow (ADAPTT), now employed as PeTA's national lecturer
"Arson, property destruction, burglary and theft are 'acceptable crimes' when used for the animal cause." Alex Pacheco, Director [former director . . . ed], PETA
"A burning building doesn't help melt people's hearts, but times change and tactics, I'm sure, have to change with them. If you choose to carry out ALF-style actions, I ask you to please not say more than you need to, to think carefully who you trust, to learn all you can about how to behave if arrested, and so to try to live to fight another day." Ingrid Newkirk, PeTA's founder and president, Interview in ALF quarterly Bite Back, February, 2003
"I wish we all would get up and go into the labs and take the animals out or burn them down." Ingrid Newkirk, President, PETA, National Animal Rights Convention June 27, 1997
I think there's ample reason for the feds to investigate PeTA. Indeed, if, after viewing these dots, you don't think that the feds should be investigating PeTA, what dots would convince you?
The bottom line is this: how could the Feds justify not investigating PeTA?
That's a fair question, one that those criticizing the feds — especially the ACLU — should answer.
Brian