This video is from the plenary session at the 2010 national animal rights conference in Washington, DC. I talk about the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, secretive political prisons called Communications Management Units, and how we must respond.

Thanks to Mark Hand of Press Action for posting the footage.

I love, love, love these doormats. Too bad they already sold out at Target.com after being featured on BoingBoing.

Crossing my fingers the company who made these will come out with a “You Can Talk to My Attorney.”

On a more serious note, if you are an activist who has experienced harassment because of your political beliefs (or your perceived political beliefs) please call the National Lawyers Guild “Green Scare Hotline,” 1-888-NLG-ECOL, and contact us at GreenIsTheNewRed.

Sarah Kramer makes “domestic” terrorism look good.

Check out some of her fantastic vegan cookbooks below, including Vegan a Go-Go and the classic How It All Vegan. If you buy them through these Amazon links, a portion will be donated to GreenIsTheNewRed.com.

And holidays are coming up, folks, so show the domestic terrorists in your life you love them. You can order an apron at GreenIsTheNewRed.com/blog/shop. Every penny goes back into website costs, flier distribution and other projects related to exposing the Green Scare and campaigns to label animal rights and environmental activists as eco-terrorists and domestic terrorists.

Thanks very much to Sarah for having the same twisted sense of humor that we do.

The government filed an emergency motion to keep an activist in jail because he is an “anarchist” and “domestic terrorist” who associates with a “subversive,” but in a response issued Monday, an Iowa district court didn’t buy it. Scott Demuth will be released pending his trial.

Demuth has been indicted on animal enterprise terrorism charges for alleged “conspiracy” as part of the 2005 Animal Liberation Front raid at the University of Iowa that rescued more than 300 animals.

He and another Minneapolis activist, Carrie Feldman, had been targeted by a grand jury focused on the ALF raid. Both Demuth and Feldman refused to testify on the grounds that the grand jury was a political witch hunt pressuring activists to speak, without an attorney present, about their political beliefs and political associations.

When Demuth was indicted, Judge Thomas Shields ruled that he could be released pending trial as long as he wore a GPS monitoring device and adhered to other criteria. Assistant U.S. Attorney Clifford Cronk filed an emergency motion to keep Demuth behind bars, arguing:

Defendant’s writings, literature, and conduct suggest that he is an anarchist and associated with the ALF movement. Therefore, he is a domestic terrorist.

Yes, you read that correctly. The government is arguing that First Amendment activity–writings, literature–and political beliefs are enough to make someone a terrorist.

Among the other reasons given to keep Demuth, a graduate student in the sociology department at the University of Minnesota, behind bars:

• He has political friends. According to the motion, he is an “associate” of Peter Young, “an outspoken and subversive animal rights activist who has been prosecuted for ALF activities and, after being indicted for animal enterprise terrorism, was a fugitive from justice for several years.”
• He protests. Demuth “participated in an anti-government demonstration in front of the courthouse” prior to the grand jury hearing.
• He has a network of support. There were individuals in the courtroom who supported him, Cronk argued, and many people had called into the U.S. attorney’s office opposing the grand jury “based upon their belief that the use of the grand jury was abusive and unconstitutional.”

[Here is the full motion.]

This is not an isolated incident. It is becoming increasingly common to see this kind of inflammatory, unfounded rhetoric coming from prosecutors who hope to smear activists as terrorists before they even stand trial.

For instance, in Hugh Farrell’s motion for bond, the government said he “has been observed advocating literature and materials which advocate anarchy.”

Stephanie Ernst summed up the threat of this pretty well in her comments over at change.org:

Wow. WOW. He’s suspected of being involved in a raid that involved vandalism and rescue, and he’s an anarchist, so “therefore, he is a domestic terrorist.” Forget the trial, folks! Verdict is in! How many people would be “domestic terrorists” if these were the criteria?

From EcoRazzi:

And so it begins: Earthrace, one of the fastest powerboats on the planet, has been given a full Sea Shepherd makeover. From kevlar body armor to undetectable broadband radar, nightvision systems, Iridium openport comms, and a new paint job that actually scatters radar signals and provides additional stealth. If Earthrace was badass before, it’s now firmly somewhere in the ninth circle of hell giving Satan a hard time.

Sea Shepherd’s Operation Waltzing Matilda against the Japanese whaling fleet begins this December.

Um, if the Japanese whalers thought Sea Shepherd was a “terrorist organization” before (and so was Animal Planet, they said), I can’t wait to hear what they have to say after seeing Captain Paul Watson in control of this beast.

No word yet whether the U.S. Attorney’s Office will be investigating Bruce Wayne for violating the “material support” terrorism provisions of the Patriot Act.

Carrie Feldman, a 20-year-old woman from Minneapolis, has been subpoenaed to a federal grand jury in Iowa in what appears to be yet another attempt to harass and intimidate political activists. She faces up to a year in jail if held in contempt for refusing to cooperate with the grand jury.

As you can see in Feldman’s grand jury subpoena, the government provides few details about what is actually being investigated. That’s no accident: grand juries, by design, are secretive and conducted outside of public scrutiny in a legal void where basic Fifth and First Amendment rights do not apply. [Here is a handy booklet on grand juries with much more information.] If activists refuse to participate in the political witch-hunt, they can face serious jail time. Jordan Halliday has done exactly that with a Utah Grand Jury, and he is facing federal criminal contempt charges.

There’s a very good chance the grand jury is investigating a 2004 Animal Liberation Front raid at the University of Iowa (video of the raid is embedded here), for a few reasons. It was a very high profile crime at the time, and both the university and the FBI have indicated it is a top priority. Also, at the preliminary hearing by the grand jury, a witness asked a question that Feldman says related to that investigation.

After that raid, the University of Iowa announced that its new, $11.2 million animal experimentation facility would be underground. As an anonymous activist wrote on the TwinCities Indymedia page:

“Like the torture of animals, grand juries, too, are only at their most effective when done as intended, in secret.”

If the new underground lab at the University of Iowa is intended to deter both legal and illegal animal rights activity, that’s not going to happen. When I sent around a news article about that on Twitter a while back, an aboveground activist responded in a way that I think reflects the mentality of many people in the animal rights and environmental movements: “They’re building their labs underground now? I guess we’ll just have to get shovels.”

And if this new grand jury is intended to harass and intimidate political activists… well, I think they picked the wrong activist and the wrong community to target. Carrie Feldman is active with EWOK (Earth Warriors are OK), which has been active on local Green Scare issues. She also works with the Coldsnap Legal Collective and the RNC 8 support committee, experience that is clearly reflected in her statement to the grand jury:

First of all, I would like to state, unequivocally and most certainly for the record, that I have no intention of testifying before this grand jury. Based on information from the prosecutor indicating that I may be a target of this investigation, I am invoking my Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. But beyond that, I am refusing to cooperate based on a sincere belief that to do so would run counter to my deeply held convictions and values.

Grand juries were originally created to prevent arbitrary indictments, but are now used as a tool of the prosecution to gather information. Grand juries undercut basic rights supposedly granted in the Constitution by denying access to counsel and coercing testimony. They are now, and have been for some time, used to investigate and intimidate those who would express dissent.

This is only effective when we are complicit, when we are frightened, when we are divided. Today my voice may waver, as I stand alone in this room. But I know I speak with the voice of every one of my friends, loved ones, and comrades when I say this: We will not be intimidated. We will not cooperate. I have nothing more to say to you.

• Carrie Feldman’s support website:
  http://supportcarrie.wordpress.com/

The Center for Constitutional Rights has a great new legal guide for activists called “If An Agent Knocks.”

From CCR:

Federal law enforcement agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have a dark history of targeting radical and progressive movements. Some of the dirty tricks they use against these movements include: the infiltration of organizations to discredit and disrupt their operations; campaigns of misinformation and false stories in the media; forgery of correspondence; fabrication of evidence; and the use of grand jury subpoenas to intimidate activists. Today’s activist must know and understand the threat posed by federal law enforcement agents and their tactics as well as several key security practices that offer the best protection.

Federal agents have many tools at their disposal to target activists. While it is important to know and understand these tools and tactics, it is of critical importance that you resist any paranoia of government surveillance or fear of infiltration, which will only serve to paralyze you or your organization in your quest for social change. If fear of government repression prevents you from organizing, the agents of repression will have won without even trying.

I think it is worth noting that in the recent appellate ruling in the SHAC 7 case, the court argued that educational materials on the SHAC website were relevant to the “terrorism” charges against them. Specifically, the court noted that the SHAC website had “a series of links dedicated to educating activists on how to evade investigators. These links were entitled, ‘Ears and Eyes Everywhere,’ ‘Dealing with Interrogation,’ ‘When an Agent Knocks,’ and ‘Illegal Activity.’”

Clearly, knowing your rights is perceived as a dangerous, dangerous thing. So get to it.

Thanks to Matthew for the link, and the excellent work on this publication.

Last year, Canadian police arrested Sea Shepherd’s First Officer, Peter Hammarstedt, and Captain, Alex Cornelissen. In Canada, it is illegal to witness or document the slaughter of the seals. They were charged with approaching, witnessing and documenting the killing.

They were interrogated for 4 1/2 hours, during which time they said absolutely nothing, refusing to even acknowledge the police in the room. They went into the room following the legal advice that “Nobody talks, everybody walks.”

In this clip from the interrogation of Peter Hammarstedt, the RCMP compare Sea Shepherd to “Palestinians” with bags full of bombs, and at one point the cop says, “…unless I got ya all wrong and you’re planning a 9/11 or something here.”

It’s not surprising that the Canadian government deported the two for life rather than allow the PR nightmare of them standing trial. Given the caliber of questions we see in this video, a trial would have been quite entertaining.

Of course, this kind of terrorism rhetoric isn’t an isolated instance, it is government policy. Find out more about how environmental activists became the “number one domestic terrorism threat” at the Green Scare background page.

The Let Live conference in Portland was fantastic, even better than last year. I was invited to open the conference (which was quite a daunting task, because my talk was followed by vegan soft serve ice cream and karaoke) and talk about building strong communities within the environmental and animal rights movements.

I fully expected folks to show up late just for karaoke, but man, what a great turnout. I was really nervous about this talk, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. For those couldn’t make it, there’s vegan ice cream at the end of this video, too. I promise. Really. Just watch it.

Peregrine and Auryn have put out a Green Scare benefit CD, and were kind enough to offer a box of them for sale on GreenIsTheNewRed.com.

“Shackles, interrogation, their prisons, their profits, their jails detain, but they can’t kill this rage.”

Only $8, postage paid, and every dollar goes to raising awareness of the Green Scare (specifically, every penny will be used to make another large print run of the Green Scare fliers, because they’ve been so popular). Order online!

Here’s a song from Peregrine, “Reduced to Ashes”:

Thanks to Kevin Tucker for the CDs!