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America's First Terror War
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Today's Stories May 26, 2007 Michael Donnelly May 25, 2007 Robert Jensen David Vest John Stauber Evelyn Pringle Corporate Crime Reporter Susan Rosenthal,
MD Roberto Rodriguez Steve Fournier Patrick McElwee Robert Weissman Website of the Day
Franklin Lamb Corporate Crime
Reporter Robert Fantina Norman Solomon Dave Lindorff Sen. Russell
Feingold Fred Gardner Mike Whitney Kevin Parsneau, Arjun Chowdhury
and Mark Hoffman Caroline Paul Eva Liddell Website of
the Day
Patrick Cockburn Rev. William
Alberts Joe DeRaymond Sudhanva Deshpande
Paul Craig Roberts Glen Ford Rannie Amiri China Hand Zoe Blunt Nivien Saleh Website of the Day
Robert Fisk Joshua Frank Harvey Wasserman David Mos Masumoto Sonja Karkar Conn Hallinan Dave Lindorff Jeffrey Kolakowski Evelyn Pringle Jim Baumer Website of the Day
Patrick Cockburn Nicole Colson John Ross Stephen Fleischman M. Shahid Alam Ron Jacobs Peter Rost, MD Alan Farago Paul Buchheit Website of
the Day
May 19 / 20, 2007 Andrew Cockburn Uri Avnery Peter Gelderloos Saul Landau Robert Fantina Fred Gardner Ralph Nader Jean Daniels Reza Fiyouzat Missy Beattie Robert Alvarez Sonja Karkar Dave Lindorff Jeff Sher Julian C. Holmes Clancy Sigal Prairie Miller James Murren Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
May 18, 2007 Adam Jones Sharon Smith Christopher Brauchli Peter Rost,
MD Denise Maloney Pictou David Swanson Ali Khan Susan Rosenthal,
M.D. Samer Assad CP News Service Website of the Day
May 17, 2007 Tariq Ali Yifat Susskind Dave Zirin Brian J. Foley W. John Green Eric Johnson-DeBaufre Badruddin Khan Martha Rosenberg China Hand Dan Vojir Website of the Day
Patrick Cockburn Ashley Dawson Joshua Frank Corporate Crime
Reporter Ray McGovern Glen Ford Joe Bageant Sonja Karkar Mickey S. Huff John Chuckman Kaz Dziamka Website of
the Day
May 15, 2007 Michael Neumann Patrick Cockburn Ashley Smith Marc Gardner Dave Lindorff Ben Terrall Ron Jacobs Harvey Wasserman Marcus Mabry Dr. Susan Block Website of the Day
May 14, 2007 Jennifer Roesch Jeffrey St.
Clair George Bisharat Diane Wachtell Ramzy Baroud Rosemary and
Walter Brasch Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed Roberto Rodriguez Jonathan Culp Website of
the Day
May 12 / 13, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Patrick Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Diane Farsetta Ralph Nader Jean Bricmont Marcus Breen Joe Bageant Conn Hallinan Fred Gardner Juan Santos
Eve Bachrach Missy Comley
Beattie Ron Jacobs Niranjan Ramakrishnan Susie Day Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend May 11, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Kathleen Christison Mike Ferner John Holt Laurie Hasbrook Christopher
Brauchli Margaret Kimberley Dave Lindorff Nicole Colson John V. Walsh Website of the Day
May 10, 2007 Tariq Ali Patrick Cockburn Neve Gordon Marjorie Cohn David Rosen Alan Farago John Hellman Kathy Rentenbach BANCO Richard Rhames Website of the Day
Jeff Leys Patrick Cockburn Glen Ford Paula Rothenberg Kathryn Weber John Chuckman Jordan Flaherty Dave Lindorff Stephen Lendman Website of
the Day
May 8, 2007 Dave Lindorff Patrick Cockburn Corporate Crime Reporter Ralph Nader Malini Johar Schueller Juan Santos Dave Zirin Joshua Frank Evelyn Pringle Eamonn McCann Website of the Day
May 7, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Monica Benderman Greg Moses Rannie Amiri Fitrakis / Wasserman Fred Wilhelms Ramzy Baroud Bruce K. Gagnon T. W. Croft Sonja Karkar Website of the Day
Alexander Cockburn William Blum Uri Avnery Franklin Lamb Fred Gardner Lawrence R.
Velvel Missy Beattie Robert Fantina Carla Blank Linn Washington,
Jr. Stephen F. Jackson P. Sainath Anthony Papa James T. Phillips John Ross Stephen Lendman Ben Terrall CounterPunch
Newswire Poets' Basement Website of
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May 4, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Col. Dan Smith Norman Solomon Azmi Bishara Ron Jacobs Dave Lindorff Kevin Zeese Bob Fitrakis Janet Kauffman Website of
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May 3, 2007 Jeff Halper Christopher
Brauchli Dave Zirin Corporate Crime
Reporter Robert Fisk Mike Ferner Mike Whitney Pham Binh Dave Lindorff Michael A.
Johnson Website of the Day
May 2, 2007 Saul Landau Dr. Susan Block Carla Blank Margaret Kimberly Kevin Zeese Carlos Villareal Michael Dickinson Tim Shorrock Alevtina Rea William S.
Lind Website of the Day
Andrew Cockburn Fred Gardner Chase Madar Ralph Nader John V. Walsh Joshua Frank Leslie Radford Shaun Harkin Dave Lindorff Peter Rost,
MD Peter Linebaugh Website of
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Weekend
Edition Government Agents, Keystone Saboteurs and the Soccer Mom JudgeGreen Sabotage as "Terrorism"By MICHAEL DONNELLY
With the hectoring tone of a petty hall monitor, Clinton Judge Ann Aiken let out what the Operation Backfire/Green Scare prosecutions are really about. In an era of state-sponsored terrorism as "liberation," where the United States has over 700 military bases in over 140 countries, a US judge actually deems the minor league violence of a handful of young, misguided idealists "terrorism" and scolds the larger, non-indicted community those activists came from this truly belongs to Orwell, Kafka, Cheney or Gonzales. Just what "Community" is the judge chastising/profiling? The Eugene, Oregon community of radical environmentalists in particular, eco-activists in general and/or anyone who ever justified destroying the property of those who they viewed as oppressors. We're not even talking about those like Golda Meir or Osama bin Laden who justified not just property destruction, but attacks on the persons of their enemies. All that ever happened in the Operation Backfire cases is property damage. Not a single person was hurt in any of the arsons. The SUV-driving, suburban soccer mom-with-six kids judge has made a number of strange comments from the bench. She's gone so far as to tout Al Gore as an alternative model of activism! She told folks who burned a feral horse slaughtering plant that they "should have started a fund and bought and fed the horses." She told defendants that once they serve their time, they cannot join animal protection or other activist groupsbut, the Sierra Club or Audubon Society would get an exception! But, none is more telling than her pronouncement putting "the community" on trial. She's even warned that "Civil Disobedience has no place in a Democracy." Tell it to the Founders.
Speaking of the Founders, don't we all come grade school get fed the righteous story of the 1773 Boston Tea Party, the most famous case of property damage in an attempt to "affect public debate?" (At least the Green Scare defendants didn't disguise themselves as an oppressed/occupied minority like Sam Adams and gang.) Yet, a couple centuries later, we now have judges mirroring the Tea Party's target, King George III, whose response presaged another mad leader named George, "I desire what is good. Therefore, everyone who does not agree with me is a traitor." But lecturing "the community" on just what the power structure will "tolerate" is but one, and not the most important one, of Judge Aiken's prejudicial notions. The most important is her determination that ecosabotage constitutes "Terrorism." The determination allows for "upward enhancement" sentences to be handed down. While a simple arson with no personal injuries usually merits a median sentence of 43 months in Federal cases, the "terrorism" determination allows for "enhancement" additions of up to 20+ years! It also means harsher prison conditions for those sentenced.
Another analogy to the US Revolution is that one of the reasons for the revolt was the use of ex post facto laws by the British. An ex post facto ("from something done afterward") law is one that retroactively changes the legal consequences of acts committed before enactment of the law. Article 1, Sections 9 and 10 of the US Constitution bans retroactive consequences in criminal cases, as does the Fourteenth Amendment. Yet, the upward enhancement penalties the defendants are sentenced with under the sentencing code found in U.S.S.G. 3A1.4 did not exist when the crimes were committed. Originally, only crimes related to "international terrorism" qualified for the enhancements under the Clinton-signed law. In 2001, the guidelines were adjusted to allow for enhancements if convicted of the "federal crime of terrorism." None of the offenses the defendants have been found guilty of under 18 U.S.C.§§ 844(f)(1), 844(i), and 1366(a) are explicitly "federal crimes of terrorism," nor did they occur after the 2001 amendments. By the common standard dating back to the landmark case Calder v. Bull, Judge Aiken and the Federal Prosecutors have violated ex post facto as at the time of the arson, these penalties did not yet exist nor was property damage defined as a "federal crime of terrorism." Thus, it qualifies with Justice Chase's four points defining prohibited ex post facto:
"The individual cannot bargain with the State. The State recognizes no coinage but power, and it issues the coins itself." --- Ursula K. Le Guin "The Dispossessed" The first two defendants to be sentenced by Aiken both got "terrorism enhancements" even though both had cooperated with authorities and named their comrades. Stan Meyerhoff, who participated in many of the arsons, including the burning of SUVs at a dealership, a minor fire at a police substation and a fire at a genetic-engineered tree farm was handed down a 13 year sentence --- 30 months less than the "reward" the Feds offered for his snitching, but with the added "enhancement," about 10 years more than the typical arson case. As a defined "terrorist," Meyerhoff will spend his time in a special high-security prison, where he is likely to face attacks as a first offender and "snitch," --- a prospect acknowledged, yet dismissed by the judge who told those in the courtroom to write their legislators and "we all have to become prison reform activists." Some activists, on the other hand, angrily noted, "Stan deserves it," referring to his cooperation. The second to be sentenced, Kevin Tubbs, received 12 years and seven months --- again reduced because he informed on others. Tubbs pleaded guilty to 53 counts of arson and two attempted arsons. Judge Aiken completely dismissed Tubbs' claim that he acted in urgent desperation given the fate of animals and the environment. In contrast, Michael Fortier, who participated in the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people, served ten years and is now in the Federal Witness Protection Program. Fortier was ironically released in January 2006 on the same day that many of the eco-sabotage defendants were indicted. Sentencing will come one by one for the rest of the Eugene informant defendants and the non-cooperating four next week. Out of the 22 charged; one is dead, four on the run and one, top informant Jacob "Jake" Ferguson is free and without any charges, though he participated in more arsons than any of the others. One major informant, Lacey Phillabaum has begun serving her sentence, the length of which has been left undetermined pending the outcome of her pro-prosecution testimony at the trial of Briana Waters, the sole defendant to fiercely claim innocence and demand a trial. Waters' trial is the single remaining chance of exposing the government's shady provocateuring in the case. One of the main reasons for the huge sentences faced is to prevent just such an exposure.
As one who knows some of the defendants, including some of the informants, I cannot write about this case without expressing my personal feelings or speaking to my experience during those days. Though I find the arsons wrong-headed and extremely counter-productive, I truly believe that the fingerprints of government agents are all over this. I was there when one person who is not amongst the defendants and who has disappeared completely was agitating for ever more violent actions. He, a friend of Ferguson, even claimed many such actions himself--though, all such claims have failed to stand up to any scrutiny. I warned some of the very folks charged to "not get talked into anything stupid." I obviously failed. That the first ELF action in the US was the arson at the Detroit Ranger Station, in my backyard, where we had already won has always concerned me. At Detroit's Opal Creek and Breitenbush, the decades-long sustained effort to protect the Ancient Forests there had paid off. Same with the 48-hour-later arson at the Oakridge Ranger Station where activists had just won the battle over logging at Warner Creek. My questions for Ferguson would be "Why were these targets chosen? And, who pointed you towards them?" (Sadly, I believe I already know the answers.) The bottom line on all this is:
The Feds say that all these folks are "terrorists," yet can you imagine the Feds cutting the same deal with Muhammad Atta that they did with Jake Ferguson? No charges and an estimated $150,000 in payments to implicate his fellow jihadis? Can you imagine real terrorists (or even a Tony Soprano) allowing a paid informant to walk free in their hometown like Ferguson is in Eugene? Unlike Fortier, Ferguson doesn't even have to hide out in a protection program. He's calmly walking the streets. These facts alone should lay to rest the terrorist claims and the on-going insult to all who have suffered at the hands of real terrorists--state-sponsored or otherwise. Some "terrorists!" Unlike, say the Weather Underground, who hid out (underground, of course) for decades and never snitched on their comrades or silently took their sentences; these folks come off looking, as one of Leonard Peltier's former attorneys noted to me recently, like "a college club" with no internal discipline, much less incontrovertible basic values. I understand the frustrations of these folks. I understand their fear for the planet we all love. I'm sure most everyone reading this can understand the underlying sense of desperation. Even so, their actions really made little sense to me--then or now in the case of the informants, given the enhanced sentencing even for those who snitch. But, I can certainly make sense of the Government's heavy-handed response and their agent provocateuring in the first place. MICHAEL DONNELLY has long been involved in Forest protection
efforts. He has always opposed property damage or personal assaults
as means to further the cause. He can be reached at pahtoo@aol.com
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