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Animal Rights Activist Jailed at Secretive Prison Gives First Account of Life Inside “CMU”

Jun 25th, 2009 by Will Potter

This morning Andy Stepanian and I were on Democracy Now talking about secretive political prisons called Communications Management Units. Stepanian is believed to be the first inmate ever released from one of the secretive facilities; he is one of the SHAC 7, a group of animal rights activists convicted of “animal enterprise terrorism” for running a controversial, and effective, website targeting an animal testing lab called Huntingdon Life Sciences.

I was invited back on the program to talk about my reporting on CMUs, and about the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. [The previous program focused on Daniel McGowan's case and the Earth Liberation Front arrests of Operation Backfire.]

Thanks to Democracy Now for continuing to focus much-needed attention on these secretive prisons. The Obama administration needs to reverse the unconstitutional policies of the Bush administration, and provide accountability and transparency. Secretive political prisons have no place in a democracy.

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Posted in Activists Arrested, Legal Issues, Prisoner Support

  • HI Will,
    Thanks for posting this. The interview was very interesting. All three of you came across very well.

    You said, Stepanian was "convicted of 'animal enterprise terrorism' for running a controversial, and effective, website." Can you please clarify what you mean by "effective"?
    Thanks :)
  • Thanks Elaine. What I was trying to say is that the SHAC campaign was very controversial, but by the admission of prosecutors, corporations, HLS and the animal testing industry, it was very successful--it brought HLS to its knees financially.
  • Bill
    Hi - just watched your interview on Democracy Now! Great job!.

    I realize that I haven't paid anything like the dues of going to jail, but I have been detained by police and investigated by Homeland Security for merely taking photo's of chemical plants that I post on my blog. Guess you could say I'm just a liberal activist with anarchist leanings!

    The government policy is getting completely out of hand.

    I respect and support your work.
  • JT
    Thank you for focusing on the injustice inherent in the AETA. It's dangerous, and un-American, and deserves as much publicity as possible. Sunshine disinfects.
  • Denis Alexander
    They threatened families and their children to death. That's not campaigning, that's terrorism: the use of violence and threats to achieve a political goal. Yes, it was effective: it scared those targetted. That's what the jury heard, and that's why a jury of his peers found him guilty.
  • Denis Alexander===if threats are terrorism, then what is the united states air force dropping bombs on civilians?
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