When Jeff “Free” Luers was sentenced to more than 22 years in prison for his role in setting fire to 3 SUVs, June 11th became an international day of action to show support for Luers, and raise awareness about his case. Luers is out of prison now, but the disproportionate crackdown on environmentalists– including outrageous prison sentences that do not fit the crimes– continues.

Over the next week, there are dozens of events planned around the world to raise awareness about these issues, and about two prisoners in particular who have received particularly harsh sentences. Marie Mason was sentenced to nearly 22 years in prison for her role in two arsons in the name of the Earth Liberation Front. In another case, Eric McDavid was sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison for “conspiracy.” In McDavid’s case it was revealed that the a paid FBI informant had provided the group with bomb-making recipes; at times financed their transportation, food and housing; and poked and prodded the group into action.

Part of the explanation for why Mason and McDavid received such disproportionately harsh sentences is that throughout their traumatic ordeals, even as their friends agreed to cooperate with the government and turn against them, they stood their ground and refused to “name names.” Outrageous prison sentences like this are intended to send a message to the broader environmental movement, and scare people into becoming informants.

At minimum, June 11th is an opportunity to take part in these support events (I’ll list a few, below) and write these prisoners a letter. It’s critical that they receive continued support. However, this is also an opportunity to talk about these issues in your community.

Here are a couple of the events scheduled:

San Francisco: Film screening of “If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front” and an auction. June 11.

New York City: Vegan BBQ and raffle. June 11.

For a full listing of events, visit June11.org.

For more information:

• Supporteric.org
• Supportmariemason.org

Marie Mason was arrested three years ago and charged with destroying genetic-engineering research and logging equipment. Her crimes did not cause any physical injury. Leading up to her sentencing, the FBI had warned that “terrorists” might attend the hearing. She was sentenced to nearly 22 years in prison. As I wrote at the time, Mason’s sentence was twice that of violent racists who assaulted African Americans on the night Barack Obama was elected president.

From the outset, Mason–a mother of two–was facing the longest prison term of anyone associated with the Earth Liberation Front. Then in August, 2010, she was transferred to FMC Carswell in Fort Worth, TX, which is described by the Bureau of Prisons as providing “specialized medical and mental health services to female offenders.”

Since being transferred to FMC Carswell, she has been denied all visitors except immediate family. Every single request by non-family has been turned down. In addition, for months she has not been receiving mail (prison officials say they have not officially refused any correspondence). Marie Mason is not being held in solitary (as she was previously at FCI Waseca), but she reports that she is being housed away from the general prison population, in a special prison unit.

Special Prison Unit

At least one other political prisoner is also housed there. In 1984, Helen Woodson and others entered a Missouri nuclear missile silo with sledgehammer and jackhammer. They said they were inspired by the Book of Isaiah, which says “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” Woodson is scheduled for release in September, 2011, after 27 years in prison. [Update: To clarify, that 27 years has been cumulative. Woodson was briefly released from prison during that time, but she committed additional non-violent political crimes and was sent back.]

I have written extensively on secretive prisons called Communications Management Units, which radically restrict prisoner communications with the outside world. Daniel McGowan, an Earth Liberation Front prisoner, and Andy Stepanian, of the SHAC 7, were both imprisoned in a CMU. (These prison units were recently covered by both The Nation and NPR).

The Bureau of Prisons has not responded to my inquiries about the CMUs, nor about Mason’s conditions at FMC Carswell. However, Mason’s supporters and attorneys report that federal officials have repeatedly denied that FMC Carswell is a CMU.

Disproportionate Treatment

Whether or not that is true, it’s clear that Mason is being singled out for harsher treatment than other so-called “eco-terrorists,” and harsher treatment than other prisoners at that facility. Her restrictions on visitation are actually more extreme than those for CMU prisoners, who are allowed non-contact visits with family and friends.

Mason’s case truly puts on display the unaccountable, unchecked power that the government has acquired in the name of fighting “terrorism.” Like many other defendants, Mason was labeled a “terrorist” from day one, and that label has followed her into the courtroom, through a draconian sentence, to these disproportionately harsh prison conditions.

As the president backpedals on his pledge to close Guantanamo, and alleged Wikileaks conspirator Bradley Manning is inhumanely being held naked and shackled, it should be clear that this is fundamentally about a lack of checks and balances on government power.

“An evening like this”

Marie Mason’s support committee reports that she has faced these three difficult years with strength and courage, and she continues to do so. She has been particularly interested in her artwork and poetry. Here is an excerpt of one of her poems, dated August, 2008:

An evening like this: summer sunset…

The air no cooler than my blood, and still, so still

The tiny humming of mosquitos hovering in my line of sight

I will remember this when I cannot see the sun for days on end.

Please visit SupportMarieMason.org to write her a letter and donate to her support fund.

While the FBI targets environmentalists, Osama bin Laden remains free.

Christopher Paul, aka “Abdul Malek,” is an Ohio native who joined Al Qaeda in the early 90s. According to the FBI, he:

• received training in “the use of assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, and small unit tactics,”
• fought with the mujahedeen in Afghanistan,
• and returned to Ohio to recruit and establish a terrorist cell.

He pleaded guilty to conspiring with others to use a weapon of mass destruction against Americans at home and abroad. His sentence: 20 years.

By comparison, Marie Mason was sentenced to nearly 22 years in prison, as a “terrorist,” for property destruction in the name of defending the environment.

Her sentence, for arson targeting genetic engineering at Michigan State University, was the most severe yet in what many are calling the “Green Scare.” Unfortunately, it is not an isolated incident. Jeffrey “Free” Luers was sentenced to 22 years and 8 months for setting fire to SUVs. And Eric McDavid was sentenced to 20 years for “conspiracy” to sabotage the Nimbus dam, even though an FBI operative provided the group with bomb-making recipes; at times financed their transportation, food and housing; strung along McDavid, who had the hopes of a romantic relationship; and poked and prodded the group into action.

The FBI has labeled the environmental and animal rights movements as the “number one domestic terrorism threat.” Groups like the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front, and activists like Marie Mason, have clearly broken the law in the name of defending the environment. But they have never used rocket-propelled grenades, never created weapons of mass destruction, and never harmed a single human being.

This should concern everyone, regardless of how you feel about environmental issues or economic sabotage: Such skewed government priorities are wasting valuable law enforcement resources targeting environmentalists while Al-Qaeda continues to place American lives at risk.

What kind of message do you think this sends, when environmentalists who target property are a greater national security threat than the organization responsible for the most deadly act of terrorism in the history of the United States?

Tim DeChristopher. Photo by Washington Post Newsweek Interactive.

Yesterday’s article on the sentencing of Marie Mason to prison, as a terrorist, for 22 years has made quite a buzz. Nearly everywhere the piece has been posted (news sites, environmental sites, Digg, punk forums) there has been a slew of angry comments (by “green” folks, no less) supporting her sentence and condemning illegal activity.

The recurring message goes something like this: Marie Mason broke the law. She used arson and economic sabotage as political tactics. She’s an extremist. If you protest the right way, though, you don’t have anything to worry about. The government is only going after the radicals.

Here’s the deal folks: Marie Mason clearly broke the law, but corporations and politicians are targeting mainstream activists with the same tactics, and the same label.

A perfect example of this: A Utah lawmaker is promising to introduce new “eco-terrorism” legislation. His target? It’s not the Earth Liberation Front, Animal Liberation Front, or some shadowy underground group. He’s openly, proudly targeting mainstream environmentalists.

He points to people like Tim DeChristopher, the University of Utah student who disrupted an oil and gas auction by bidding on parcels of land.

Noel [the legislator] said stopping a legal oil lease is no different than “burning down a man’s cattle operation — eco-terrorism.” DeChristopher “took millions of dollars away from us, and he’s laughing at us. It’s not right. It’s not fair.”

This isn’t an isolated example. When incendiary devices were left at the home of a California researcher, the government recklessly blamed it on animal rights activists. The Humane Society of the United States donated money to an “eco-terrorist” witch hunt in order to distance itself from any illegal activity. And you know what happened? It didn’t protect them from industry groups.

I never discuss tactics on this site or in my speaking events. I never talk about the efficacy or morality of direct action, sabotage, arson, or violence. And that’s for one reason: When it comes to the government and corporate campaign to label activists as terrorists, tactics don’t matter.

These people are hitting ELF activists, Greenpeace and Animal Planet with the same, sweeping label. It’s a coordinate campaign to instill fear and chill dissent, and it’s growing every day.

The only way the environmental and animal rights movements are going to make it through this is if mainstream groups stop blaming activists for their repression, stop repeating the government sound bites, and start fighting back.

Marie Mason

I’ve written a lot of articles like this, when prison sentences are handed down to activists who have been labeled “terrorists” for property crimes, and instead of getting easier it just keeps getting harder. It’s getting harder to write about this rationally, calmly. These cases are getting worse, folks. The government is growing increasingly aggressive in its prosecutions, and increasingly transparent in its tactics.

Marie Mason, a longtime environmental activist and mother of two, was sentenced this afternoon to 21 years in prison, as a “terrorist,” for non-violent property crimes in the name of defending the environment. It’s a historic sentence, the longest yet for any of these Green Scare cases.

In the lead up to her sentencing, the FBI took their “eco-terrorist” scare-mongering to a new level. Mason’s friends and family were prepared to attend the sentencing hearing and support her at such a terrible moment in her life. So what did the FBI do? Agents had the audacity to warn the press that “terrorists” might be attending Mason’s sentencing. They said they “expect members of the eco-terrorist groups, the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front to gather and protest.” This, of course, is a bold-faced lie. Any FBI agents worth their salt knows that clandestine organizations like the ALF and ELF do not protest: they are illegal, underground groups. This was a calculated scare-mongering move meant to make normal, everyday people afraid of showing up to a public court proceeding, lest they be labeled as members of the “number one domestic terrorism threat.”

Let me reiterate this: The government made a concerted effort to demonize not just the defendant, but anyone who supports the defendant by attending a public court proceeding. Regardless of how you feel about Marie Mason, or the Green Scare more broadly, moves like this are antithetical to any semblance of a democracy. Intimidating citizens to keep them from attending a politicized court date is a defining characteristic of an out-and-out police state.

If that isn’t enough, let’s look at Mason’s sentence. Twenty-one years for arson that caused about $1 million in damage to genetic-engineering research at Michigan State University and didn’t harm anyone.

By comparison, on Monday the FBI put out a press release patting themselves on the back for the guilty pleas of four men who assaulted three African-Americans on the night of President Barack Obama’s election victory. [I've written previously about how the FBI is more concerned about environmental activists than presidential assassination attempts].

From the FBI’s news release:

Nicoletti drove the group to the Park Hill section of Staten Island, a predominantly African-American neighborhood, where they came upon an African-American teenager and assaulted him. Nicoletti struck the teenager with a metal pipe and Garaventa hit him with a collapsible police baton.

The expected sentences for racist, violent attacks meant to punish people for voting for a black man? Between 10 and 12 years. That’s about half of Marie Mason’s.

The government’s press release said that “this successful prosecution sends a clear message.”

What is the message that you think it sends?

Marie Mason

At a press conference announcing her arrest, an FBI agent said “domestic terrorism is a top priority of the FBI.” A police chief called the 1999 Earth Liberation Front arson at the Michigan State University campus, targeting genetic-engineering research, a “significant act of domestic terrorism,” though no one had been injured. And taking things even further, MSU President Simon argued that these “terrorists” were attacking freedom itself.

As a mother of two and a longtime community organizer, Mason had a lot to lose. Still, she stood her ground.

Soon, news broke that her former husband, Frank Ambrose, had worn a wire to entrap his friends and spy on lawful environmental gatherings.

Ambrose had made the mistake of throwing away personal records in a dumpster. According to a search warrant, a dumpster-diver found boxes that contained Earth First! magazines, maps of Michigan with the location of an ELF attack highlighted, an M-80 explosive device, a block of candle wax, and even a gas mask labeled “Frank’s Gas Mask.”

The dumpster-diver called the cops. In the words of a retired FBI agent who was involved in the case, “There’s no question that the discovery in the dumpster was the catalyst that caused this thing to move forward.”

The FBI easily traced the materials to Ambrose, and promised to soften his punishment if he cooperated. According to the government, Ambrose went above and beyond what was expected by the FBI. His cooperation “has been nothing short of remarkable, both in terms of the time and effort he put into it and in terms of its value to federal law enforcement,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagen Frank.

He recorded 178 conversations with a variety of “targets,” traveling out of state seven times. The government credits him with bringing “long-stymied eco-terror investigations back to life.” After turning on his former wife, and violating the trust and confidence of untold numbers of activists, Ambrose would have his sentence reduced to nine years in prison.

Still, Mason stood her ground. The government offered her 15-20 years in prison if she agreed to name names; otherwise, prosecutors said they would push for life in prison. Mason said she would accept a non-cooperating plea agreement similar to those in the Operation Backfire cases, but she refused to become a government informant.

It looked like the case would head to trial. And then, just two hours before the deadline for the agreement expired, the government relented and offered a new deal. Mason would have to name Frank Ambrose (who had already named himself and become an informant) but she would not have to provide any additional testimony or debriefings.

“Because of the cooperation of her former husband Ambrose, there is no expectation that Mason would win a jury trial,” Marie Mason’s support committee said. “Part of this decision is also the long sentences handed to the very few Green Scare arrestees who have gone to trail, such as Eric McDavid, as is the intense financial and emotional strain that this process is taking on Mason’s immediate family.”

The government labeled Mason’s arrest and plea a victory in the “War on Terrorism,” but they still wanted more.

Mason had a history of resisting government intimidation. In 2002, she and Ambrose fought a grand jury subpoena investigating sabotage at an Ice Mountain water bottling plant. In an ominous message at that time, Ambrose told No Compromise: “The FBI’s unwelcome visits are meant to serve as a distraction and a deterrent to citizens’ ability to express their discontent with government policies. They want people to be afraid to get involved, for fear of being harassed by the FBI.”

Ambrose would later turn his back on such convictions. But Mason refused, and that didn’t sit well with the government.

In court filings, prosecutors argued that Mason’s refusal to cooperate has elevated her “to the status of movement heroine” among environmentalists.

That’s a striking insight into one of the reasons environmentalists and animal rights activists are labeled the “number one domestic terrorism threat.” Why is it such a government concern that, as one prosecutor said, “She has become a figure of admiration to that community”?

Because when people refuse to buy into the scare-mongering, when they refuse to name names even at great personal cost, when they take principled stands even as the full weight of the government is bearing down upon them, it shakes the very foundations of the “Green Scare.” It challenges the power of fear, and sends a message that others can do the same.

What do you think? What is the government’s motivation behind proposing such disproportionate sentences?

This looks like an interesting event. Marie Mason was arrested recently and charged with a 1999 arson at Michigan State University, and subsequently had her co-defendant become a government informant. Derrick Jensen is a wonderful author, and his writing blends a wide variety of issues, including environmental and civil liberties concerns.

They’re holding a live webcast together, and folks around the country are setting up community events to coincide with the viewing. For instance, here in DC:

Saturday – June 7, 2008 at 7:00 p.m.

Solidarity is a Weapon!
A benefit for Marie Mason in Washington, D.C.

DERRICK JENSEN – Live! via webcast speaking on impending Ecological
Collapse, the Green Scare and the Radical Environmental Movement.

At St. Stephen’s Church
1525 Newton Street NW (On the corner of 16th and Newton)
Washington DC 20010

$10 – 20 sliding scale donation to benefit Marie Mason
No one turned away for lack of funds.

**June 7: A Day of Resistance against the Green Scare!**

On Saturday, June 7th people from all over North America will gather
together on a single day to discuss the threat against the radical
environmental movement, the Green Scare, and how we can prevent impending
ecological collapse.

The live web-cast with Derrick Jensen will be an interactive
experience where people from all over will be able to email questions to
Derrick and participate in a webcast discussion among events in multiple
cities.

This event will also be broadcast in multiple cities, including
Portland, OR; Sacramento, CA; Chicago, IL; Minneapolis, MN; Bloomington,
IN; Evansville, IN; Cincinnati, OH; Detroit, MI; Ann Arbor, MI; Lexington,
KY; Washington, DC and New York, NY

Derrick Jensen is a ground-breaking and critically-acclaimed author
speaking on civilization, violence, and resistance to ecological collapse.
He is the author of A Language Older Than Words; Listening to the Land;
The Culture of Make Believe; Endgame; and many other titles. Check out
www.derrickjensen.org for more information.

Marie Mason of Cincinatti, Ohio is a long time environmental and social
justice activist and loving mother of two. On March 10th, she was arrested
by FBI, Homeland Security and local police on charges related to two Earth
Liberation Front actions that occured in Michigan, in 1999 and 2000.

Marie’s case is one of the latest developments in what many have dubbed
the “Green Scare”, a recent wave of government repression aimed at
disrupting and discrediting grassroots environmental activism and
criminalizing dissent. For more information, go to www.ecoprisoners.org or
www.midwestgreenscare.com

If you would like to contribute a question to the Q & A, please send it to:
emergencysolidarity@gmail.com

For further information on this event, go to: www.dcinfoshop.org