Obama Administration Targets Environmental and Animal Rights Activists as Eco-Terrorists

(GlobalResearch.ca) - What began under George Bush continues under Barack Obama - targeting dedicated activists with “one of today’s most serious domestic terrorism threats,” according former FBI Deputy Assistant Director of Counterterrorism John Lewis before a Senate panel in May 2005. Called “eco-terrorism,” it grew out of the 2001 USA Patriot Act that created the federal crime of “domestic terrorism” and applied it to US citizens as well as aliens.

In his February 2002 testimony before the House Resources Committee, Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health, the FBI’s Domestic Terrorism Section Chief, Counterterrorism Division, James Jarboe defined eco-terrorism as:

“the use or threatened use of violence of a criminal nature against innocent victims or property by an environmentally-oriented, subnational group for environmental-political reasons, or aimed at an audience beyond the target, often of a symbolic nature.”

As a result, innocent people are targeted, accused, convicted and sentenced to hard time for constitutionally protected non-violent environmental activism or supporting animal rights. The so-called AETA 4 are four recent ones and face prosecution under U.S.A. v. Buddenberg for conspiracy to commit animal enterprise terrorism.

On February 19 and 20, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested Joseph Buddenberg, Maryam Khajavi, Nathan Pope, and Adriana Stumpo and charged them with conduct relating to protesting, chalking the sidewalk, chanting, and leafleting - constitutionally protected rights under the First Amendment, but no matter.

In a February 20 press release, the FBI called the four “animal rights extremists suspected of terrorizing University of California researchers (and said they) used force, violence, or threats to interfere with the operation of the (U of C) in violation of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act.” More on that below.

The FBI cited specific “threatening incidents” beginning in October 2007:

– on October 21, 2007, demonstrating outside a U of C professor’s residence in El Cerrito, CA; wearing bandanas to hide their faces; trespassing on his front yard; chanting slogans; and accusing him “of being a murderer because of his use of animals in research;”

– on January 2008, demonstrating outside the private residences of several U of C researchers; dressed in black and wearing bandanas to hide their faces; marched, chanted, and chalked “defamatory” comments on sidewalks outside their residences;

– on February 24, 2008, “attempted to forcibly enter the private home of a Santa Cruz U of C researcher; when her husband opened the door, a struggle ensued and he was hit by an object;” one of the individuals charged then yelled, “We’re gonna get you;” and

– on July 29, 2008, “a stack of flyers titled ‘Murderers and torturers alive & well in Santa Cruz July 2008 edition’ was found at the Cafe Pergolesi in Santa Cruz;” they contained names, addresses, and telephone numbers of several U of C researchers and said “animal abusers everywhere beware we know where you live we know where you work we will never back down until you end your abuse;” the defendants were charged with producing and distributing the fliers after which “two firebomb attacks outside researchers’ Santa Cruz homes (occurred), both of which are still under investigation by the FBI.”

Most often, what the FBI and DOJ charge and what, in fact, is true is highly divergent. In this case, the AETA 4 did nothing more “criminal” than exercise their First Amendments rights, and, in so doing, neither threatened nor terrorized anyone. Like many other instances in a post-9/11 environment, and often earlier, the FBI and criminal justice system targets innocent victims, portrays them as criminals, manipulates evidence against them, prevents defense attorneys from access to any called “classified,” uses dubious paid informants, and scares juries to convict. As a result, numerous victims of injustice languish behind bars as political prisoners, some serving life sentences despite having committed no crime.

That was true under George Bush and a Republican Congress and is no different under Barack Obama and a Democrat one. Enough police state laws were enacted to convict the most saintly if authorities wish to do so. And it’s happening with greater frequency by manufacturing terror threats. The dominant media trumpet them. Both parties use them for political advantage and try to silence dissent. They also make false claims to convince the public that dangerous “terrorists” are being arrested, charged, tried and convicted.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Stephen Lendman, Global Research, June 5, 2009 ]

Access Denied: Govt.’s Harsh Limits on the Reproductive Rights of Immigrant Women

(Alternet.org, Texas Observer) - Countless women are sexually assaulted as they attempt to immigrate into the US, but have extremely limited reproductive rights in custody.

When sexual-assault counselor Elia Alvarado first met Maria in 2007, Maria was wearing a blue prison uniform, sitting in a doctor’s office at the Port Isabel Detention Center. She was in her early 30s, but looked haggard, Alvarado recalls, older than her age. Two months and more than 1,500 miles after leaving Honduras, she had been detained at the border and taken to the immigration holding facility north of Brownsville.

Maria, a single mother, had left her 8-year-old daughter at home, she told Alvarado, and paid a man to take her to the border. Her ultimate destination, she said, was the Northeast, where a friend had promised to find her work as a housekeeper. “I went to send money home for my daughter,” she told Alvarado in a subsequent counseling session. “This was how I planned to support my family.”

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Alternet.org,  Kevin Sieff, Texas Observer. Posted March 4, 2009 ]

Congress Reconsiders Ban on Gays in the Military

(Alternet.org) - The hearing was an important first step in repealing an un-American law that hurts the military by pushing away talented gays and lesbians. READ MORE HERE [ Source: Alternet.org ]

Rights like free speech don’t always extend online

Freedom of speech? Is there such a thing anymore?

NEW YORK (AP) — Rant all you want in a public park. A police officer generally won’t eject you for your remarks alone, however unpopular or provocative. Say it on the Internet, and you’ll find that free speech and other constitutional rights are anything but guaranteed.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Wired Magazine, By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer ]

DoJ Policy Would Sanction Racial Profiling, Let FBI Target Americans Without Cause

(Wired Magazine) - The Justice Department is considering establishing a new policy that would allow the FBI to target Americans for investigation even in the absence of evidence or other compelling indications that the person was breaking a law, according to the Associated Press.

The policy, being considered as part of the attorney general's guidelines to the FBI, would allow the agency to conduct racial profiling -- potentially singling out Muslim- and Arab-Americans -- and to open preliminary terrorism investigations against targets simply on the basis of patterns established through data mining public records and other information.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Wired Magazine Blogs, Kim Zetter, kzetter@gmail.com ]

Video Shows Woman Dying on NY Hospital Floor

Video Shows Woman Dying on NY Hospital Floor. (The Associated Press) At a New York hospital, officials agreed in court Tuesday to implement reforms at a psychiatric ward where surveillance footage captured a woman falling from her chair and dying as workers failed to help.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: The Associated Press ]