A man intentionally flew his airplane into an IRS office in Austin as a part of suicide attack yesterday, and left behind a manifesto outlining his anti-government grievances, but politicians and the press are somehow unsure about whether it should be labeled terrorism. Meanwhile, a bill was introduced in Washington State this session labeling civil [...]

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Fifty years ago this month, four black students sat at a Woolworth’s whites-only lunch counter and refused to move. The following day 25 students did the same. A few days later, more than 300 showed up. The sit-ins quickly spread across the South and were a critical component of the civil rights movement. Decades later, [...]

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The conviction of the SHAC 7–animal rights activists hit with “terrorism” charges for publishing a website and vocally, unapologetically supporting direct action–has been upheld by a U.S. appellate court. It is a landmark free speech ruling that lowers the threshold of what types of conduct are protected by the First Amendment, and upholds a law [...]

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A right-wing Christian group and an anti-gay Michigan church are suing gay activists who “terrorized” the congregation by protesting, distributing leaflets and kissing.
The far-right Alliance Defense Fund is taking on the lawsuit on behalf of Delta Township’s Mount Hope Church, which was “invaded” by queers in November.
Accounts of the day differ, of course, but [...]

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A Utah animal rights activist, Jordan Halliday, has been jailed for refusing to testify before a grand jury about his political beliefs and political associations. But you know what, he’s in good company. Check out this clip of Jim Rockford in the Rockford Files as he is hauled before a grand jury and jailed for [...]

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When four animal rights activists were arrested under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, it was unclear how prosecutors would proceed, and what specific accusations the activists would face. Now, the government indictment, available here for the first time, makes it strikingly clear that prosecutors intend to use terrorism laws to target First Amendment activity.

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An animal rights activist in Utah, Jordan Halliday, has been jailed for refusing to testify about his political beliefs and associations before a grand jury. In response, the FBI is going into Orwellian overdrive. Here are two ways the public statements by the FBI and prosecutors about this “animal rights terrorism” case just don’t add up:

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State Department PowerPoint on Animal Rights ActivismA PowerPoint presentation, leaked from a division of the State Department, reveals that the government is briefing corporations about animal rights activists and offering “countermeasures” to protect corporate profits.
For years, the government has relentlessly pushed to label animal rights and environmental activists as “eco-terrorists” and domestic terrorists. The FBI [...]

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Wow. Well, at first I was shocked to here that Hustler (yes, that Hustler, the porn magazine) ran a feature on the SHAC 7 and the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (and a very sympathetic one at that). But, then again, some of the leading First Amendment attorneys involved in these “Green Scare” cases made their [...]

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This is a solid wrapup of some of the major legislative attacks on civil liberties in 2007, by Stephen Lendman at The Centre for Research on Globalization. Glad to see the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act made the list, along with the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Act, but I think the “terrorism enhancement” penalties applied [...]

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