was surprised when one of those people, a man claiming to be an active ALF
cell leader,
came out of
the shadows to grant what he called “the group’s first
on camera interview in 20 years, “as long as we didn’t see his face or
record his voice.
He told us that his cell
has conducted operations from coast to coast, and every one of them was
what he considered to be non-violent because nobody was injured. He said
under the mask he is a normal, otherwise law-abiding citizen, and that his
friends and family have no idea about his activities. He said he thinks
it’s “abysmal” that the FBI considers them America’s top domestic
terrorist threat, because unlike neo-Nazi groups, the ALF has never hurt
anyone.
“Having the FBI chase you
around is not a good thing, says John Lewis, a Deputy Assistant Director
for Counterterrorism at the FBI. Lewis is the man charged with stamping
out eco-terrorism in the United States. Lewis says the bureau is aware of
over 1,000 attacks and says these groups are considered such a threat is
because they have caused over $100 million worth of damage nationwide. He
says there are more than 150 investigations of eco-terrorist crimes
underway.
Lewis says the arsonists
who started the fires in San Diego and Vail remain on the loose. But he
says investigations have led to “approximately 40 arrests or prosecutions”
for other eco-terror crimes.
Lewis says these groups use
the Internet to pass along information and to take credit for their
crimes. He admits they’re not in the same league as al Qaeda but he says
they’re ratcheting up their actions and turning up the rhetoric. “There
have been multiple statements made regarding assassination and/or killing
of individuals involved in, for instance, biomedical research and that
kind of thing,” says Lewis.
Case in point is Dr. Jerry
Vlasak, a practicing trauma surgeon in Los Angeles, who also acts as a
spokesperson for several extreme animal rights groups. Vlasak has told
audiences that it’s time to consider assassinating people who do research
on animals. Vlasak has been quoted as saying “I think for five lives, ten
lives, 15 human lives, we could save a million, two million, ten million
nonhuman lives.”
“I think people who torture
innocent beings should be stopped. And if they won't stop when you ask
them nicely, they won't stop when you demonstrate to them what they're
doing is wrong, then they should be stopped using whatever means
necessary,” Vlasak replied.
Vlasak says he is not going
to do that, pointing out he is a physician. “My role in the movement is
not to go out and do that, but to explain to the mainstream media and to
the public in general why these people are doing what they're doing.”
Asked if Vlasak wants
someone to go out there and kill, Vlasak says, “I want people who care
about animals to do what's necessary to stop their exploitation, to stop
their suffering.” Vlasak says someone who believes that the life of an
animal is not akin to the life of a human being is “species-ist.” Species-ists,
he says, are akin to racists or sexists. Animals, he says, should be
accorded the same rights as human beings, despite their place on the food
chain.
“Just like at one time
black humans were considered property. Well, dogs, cats and all other
animals in our society are still considered property,” Vlasak says. Asked
who he thinks is fair game, Vlasak says, “Well, I think anybody that
tortures animals for a living or for a profit and who won't stop when
they're asked to and won't stop.”
“Does that include
researchers who are testing and performing tests using animals?”
“Animal researchers,
slaughterhouse workers, the head of the corporation that slaughters
hundreds of millions of chickens every single year for the taste of their
flesh,” says Vlasak.
Well, people like chicken.
“People liked owning slaves
too, okay. That doesn't make it right,” Vlasak said. Vlasak says it’s
very straightforward in his mind.
“We don't live in a country
where it's okay to kill people if we don't necessarily. Like what they're
doing. If we have someone who actively embraces this then what’s next?”
says John Lewis. What’s next, he says, is the emergence of a “lone wolf”
like Eric Rudolph or Ted Kaczynski, something that has already happened.
A mysterious bomber was
caught on surveillance camera in 2003 planting two sophisticated explosive
devices late at night outside a company that makes vaccines in northern
California, a company targeted by animal rights activists. One bomb was
set to go off an hour after the first - after firemen and police arrived –
but it was spotted by a night watchman. A few weeks later a third bomb
went off outside another company, this one strapped with nails. “Anyone
from 50 feet of that particular bomb probably would have been killed or
seriously injured,” says the FBI’s David Strange, who is in charge of the
investigation. Strange thinks the second explosive was designed to hurt or
kill the first responders that show up to the scene. He says it was the
first time he heard of eco-terrorists using bombs.
Strange says the FBI has
identified the suspected bomber as Daniel Andreas San Diego, a 27-year-old
animal rights activist from San Rafael, California, who is now a fugitive
after he slipped an FBI surveillance team. But he left behind a message,
posted on a Web site sympathetic to the Animal Liberation Front. Part of
it reads, “We will now be doubling the size of every device we make.”
“I'll ask you. Why does
someone build an improvised explosive device with shrapnel, nails and
such, if they're not intending to cause someone grievous harm if not
worse?” says Lewis. There is a definite split in the movement when it
comes to violence.
After torching a forest
research station in Irvine, Pennsylvania, one ELF cell threatened to “pick
up the gun.”
“I think it's sort off
disingenuous to say “Well, we can burn down buildings. But we can't use
explosives. Or we can use explosives. But we can't do anything that might
harm a person. I think what we have to do is look at the big picture. We
have to look at what works,” says Dr. Jerry Vlasak.
The FBI and other law
enforcement agencies are also looking at what works. They are winning
longer prison sentences for convicted eco-terrorists. And they are pushing
legislation in congress that would make it a crime to threaten violence
against any person or institution that uses animals to do business.
