Will Potter

Seeing the Green Scare as a Cultural or Religious War

There’s an article floating around by Alex Epstein of the Ayn Rand Institute (Ugh, I know, but stay with me here) that reveals a lot about the goals of the New McCarthyists in this Green Scare: Animal rights terrorists are often cast as “extremists” who take “too far” the allegedly benevolent cause of animal rights. […]

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Animal Activists Deported from Singapore

Well, at least U.S. activists haven’t been deported… yet. From the Associated Press: Singapore deported three animal rights advocates who planned to stage a semi-naked protest outside a Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) outlet in the city-state, authorities and the activists said… Singapore has been tightening security measures ahead of the annual meetings of the International […]

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POM Juice Company Joins “Eco-Terrorist” Scare-Mongering

In yet another odd twist in this Green Scare, POM Wonderful, the juice company, is using the scare tactics of the New McCarthyists to go after one of its core consumer bases: the vegan, natural foods set. POM filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court last week, saying that a looming threat posed […]

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Activist Charged With Making “Terroristic Threats”

I was reading this article about the sentencing of New Jersey activists who had protested the state’s weeklong bear hunt in December, 2005. Hunters shot nearly 300 bears. The activists were arrested for disrupting the hunt, appealed, and they lost they appeal. What I had never noticed, though, is that one of the activists had […]

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Leading Senate Democrat Supports “Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act”

If you’ve been following the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act and kept saying to yourself, “There’s just no way this is going to move,” then think again. It now has bipartisan support in the Senate, in addition to the House. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, introduced the bill in the Senate with Sen. James […]

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Industry Groups Plan “Eco-terror” Training Program

Business groups in Ohio are organizing a two-day course on managing “Activist/Terrorist Threats.” It’s a fine line between activism and terrorism in this political climate — apparently only the width of a forward slash. Check out the scare-mongering for yourself: To help farmers and agribusinesses become more aware of the threats from activists and international […]

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A Note to the Mainstream Press Covering “Eco-terrorism”

Many activists I talk with constantly bash “the media,” as if news operations are one gelatinous mass of reporters sharing a brain, hive-style. Contemporary journalism is in a pretty sorry state, I completely agree: more and more news outlets are owned by fewer and fewer corporations, that in turn own other corporations. The emphasis is […]

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Are There “Eco-terrorists” in the Classroom?

Yet more damning evidence came out this week that the federal government is using the War on Terrorism for sweeping surveillance based on mysterious terrorist databases. The FBI has worked with the Education Department for the past five years to sift through millions of student financial aid records as part of “Project Strike Back, the […]

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So How Long Have You Been an “Eco-terrorist”?

“Eco-terrorist” rhetoric has become a fact of life for animal rights and environmental activists. Through my reporting I’ve seen the chilling effect the rhetoric, legislation and other harassment have on dissent: many activists say the Green Scare has shaken them, and made them wonder if (or when) they’ll be the victims of the scare-mongering. But […]

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The SHAC 7, the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, and the Future of the Green Scare

A few people have requested that I post the presentations I made at the national animal rights conference last weekend. Below you’ll find the text I prepared for the plenary session. My actual speech different slightly from that, though, so I also uploaded an audio file. Click on the triangle below to listen. [Audio clip: […]

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