Green is the New Red

[LeftyMom]

http://www.counterpunch.org/potter05042006.html

How the Bush Administration is Using Terror Laws to Prosecute Nonviolent Environmental Activists

Green is the New Red
How the Bush Administration is Using Terror Laws to Prosecute Nonviolent Environmental Activists

By WILL POTTER

The Red Scare was less about evidence than really great PR. Joseph McCarthy and crew flacked one word so relentlessly, so virulently, that it became a political albatross to hang around anyone's neck. The true meaning of the word fell by the wayside: communism became a fluid brand to slap on the enemy of the hour.

Now, Green is the new Red.

The administration is slowly replacing communists lurking in every shadow with terrorists. And terrorism may become an even better brand than communism for demonizing dissent. In March, six green activists found themselves among the first victims of a new front in the War on Terror, and of an old PR game.

They were convicted on "animal enterprise terrorism" charges--that's right, terrorism-- for campaigning to shut down an animal testing lab. On June 7, they will be sentenced: two defendants face up to a year in federal prison, and others likely face five to 10 years.

Did their terrorist campaign involve anthrax? Pipe bombs? A plot to hijack an airplane? Nope. They ran a website. They posted news about the campaign -- legal actions like protests and illegal actions like stealing animals from labs -- and unabashedly supported all of it. Since the feds haven't been able to catch the saboteurs, they're now cracking down on those in the spotlight. Think red baiting, with a green twist. (continued at link)

[damntexdem]

1. Neither green nor red, just ...

animal-rights nutcases! They are the enemy of huamnity. Yes, campaigning'is their right -- but disrupting, invading, vandalizing are all criminal activities that should be stomped on with a heavy boot. How about sentencing perpetrators to be subjects of medical experimentation?

[LeftyMom]

2. Yeah, damn those animal rights nutcases!

How dare they eat plants and run websites! :eyes:

How dare they oppose animal experimentation that tortures innocent creatures (many of them former household pets) and doesn't even work!

-LM, another "enemy of huamnity" (whatever the hell that is)

[laheina]

3. Did you even *read* the article?

The whole point is that the government is scapegoating "campaigners" and sending them to prison because they can't find the perpetrators of the "criminal activities" that you call wrong.

Guilty by association?! By painting innocents with the broad terrorist brush, they are going to end up making symbols out of people who were previously just campaigners.

[nosmokes]

4. yeah, here in oregon they gave a kid 22yrs for

torching some SUVS (3 i think) in a dealer's parking lot. but by charging him with terrorism and conspiracy and attempted murder as well i believe, (totally bogus as it was 2or 3 am the dude torched the hummers). at worst he's guilty of malicious vandalism, but when the hell did a property crime become terrorism? people don't get anywhere near 22 years for murder 99% of the time. all jeff did was cost some dollars, which i know in our fucked up capitalistic corporateass kissing society is an abomination and, but for pete's sake. we gotta getta grip on what really matters.

prison dispatch

[BillZBubb]

5. What about the jurors who went along with the government?

That is even more frightening. Out of 12 people, there wasn't even one with enough common sense to say the charges were over the top bullshit??????

We live in "interesting" times.

[OwnedByFerrets]

6. Interesting=Scary (nt)

NT

[LeftyMom]

8. I think a lot of that has to do with jury selection and instructions

Non-conformists get sent packing as does anybody who seems skeptical of the government, then instructions are written in such a way as to suggest that jury nullification isn't possible or legal and that the jury can only look at guilt or innocence of the charges and not the reasonableness of the law. As many americans are ignorant of history this usually works.

This is of course bullshit since jury nullification is an american tradition dating back to the crown's charges against newspaper publisher Peter Zenger for libel of New York governor Willian Cosby. Legally he was quite guilty as any printed attacks on a public official were illegal and he'd certainly published such attacks, however the jury refused to convict him because his criticisms were true.

[ixion]

7. And Red is still Red, except now it's the republicans

the supposed defenders of liberty, who are running around acting like a bunch of Stalinist scumbags. :grr: