Want to win a signed copy of Operation Bite Back by Dean Kuipers?

Here’s how:

1. Go read this post about a proposal to make secretive political prisons called Communications Management Units permanent.
2. Submit your comment against the unconstitutional and inhumane proposal (instructions are on that post, it’s easy).
3. Leave a comment letting me know you submitted a letter (even better, paste a copy of what you wrote, to inspire others to do the same).

   That’s it! I’ll randomly pick one comment (don’t worry, folks who already submitted one will be included) and send the author a signed copy of Operation Bite Back, which is the story of Rod Coronado.

   TAKE ACTION BY JUNE 2nd!

   And if there are enough comments submitted, I have some other stuff to give away as well!

Operation Bite Back is a great new book by Dean Kuipers on the life of Rod Coronado, one of the most influential figures in the modern animal rights and environmental movements. Coronado is perhaps best known for a string of Animal Liberation Front actions, the namesake of the book, targeting the fur industry. He also had a pivotal role in the growth of the Sea Shepherds (I’m still waiting for the next “Whale Wars” disc on Netflix) and the ideological development of radical environmental groups like Earth First! and the Earth Liberation Front.

That’s a grossly abridged look at this man’s life. Regardless of how you feel about direct action and the animal rights and environmental movements, Rod Coronado’s story is one that demands to be told.

Kuipers has done just that, and well. Of course, some folks are up in arms that he is telling the story, period. Fur industry folks have slammed the book, not because of the content, but because it was written. Kuipers had a great response to an Amazon review:

“Platt [of the Fur Commission] has strong opinions about these issues and I don’t take them lightly. They’re represented in the book. But maybe she could have given me two stars for writing well!? Ah, the writer’s ego, another bourgeois vestige …”

• Please check out the book and leave a review on the Operation Bite Back Amazon page.
• Actually, BUY the book. As a writer I think I need to make this across-the-board pitch for other writers: buy their work. If a writer is dead, yeah, who cares, go to your local used book store, borrow from a friend, go to the library. But if the writer is alive? Well, they’re trying to pay their bills by doing what they love–something this culture undervalues–and if you don’t support them they can’t pursue their craft.

Two big court dates for so-called “eco-terrorism” cases are coming up in February, both on February 11th.

• The trial of Briana Waters is set to begin in Washington state. Waters was arrested as part of the government’s “Operation Backfire” roundup of environmental activists. Others were already hit with “terrorism enhancement” penalties for property crimes, and are currently in prison as convicted “terrorists.” It will be interesting to see how much the government pushes the T-word in this case. (I’ll have much more detailed information on this in a few days. I also hope to head out there in February, if I can swing it… if anyone can help at all with travel costs there’s Paypal in the sidebar).
• Oral arguments are scheduled in the appeal of Rod Coronado and Matt Crozier’s mountain lion case, before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
  Coronado and Crozier entered the Sabino Canyon National Recreation Area in March 2004 to disrupt the government’s killing of mountain lions. He allegedly busted snare traps, pulled up sensors, and spread mountain lion urine to confuse tracking dogs. Interfering with a hunt would typically merit a ticket or a fine, but they were sentenced to eight months in prison and three years supervised probation.

  More to come in the next few weeks…

Rod Coronado heads back to federal court today, in what could become (like many of these “Green Scare” prosecutions) a landmark First Amendment case. Coronado, a longtime environmental and animal advocate– and convicted arsonist– faces 20 years in prison for answering a question at one of his lectures about an incendiary device he created. (Here’s a previous post with more information on Coronado, and the case.)

At a speech in San Diego, someone in the audience asked how Coronado committed an arson years ago in the name of animal rights and the environment. He grabbed a plastic container from a table and said he used a bottle like that one, filled with gasoline and attached to a timer, then went to the next question. He’s charged with “distribution of information relating to explosives, destructive devices and weapons of mass destruction.”

In my mind there are two major civil liberties issues here:

• Weakening First Amendment protections for controversial speech. One standard courts use to evaluate controversial, inflammatory speech is if it would lead to “imminent lawless action” (like if activists start yelling “burn it down!” outside a government building and they really do mean, well, burn it down, right then and there). In other words, activists have a right to talk about how they believe property destruction is okay, but not if it could lead to such imminent lawless action.

  In this case, Coronado was answering a question at a community forum. Yep, he’s committed arsons, years ago. Now, he’s actually renounced the tactics (and upset some segments of the environmental and animal rights movement in the process). In light of this, it’s doubtful that answering that question was meant to incite someone to run out of the lecture and burn something down.

• Selective prosecution. Make no mistake, Coronado is an extremely visible, and notorious, icon of the animal rights and environmental movements. It’s not too surprising that the government has singled him out as some kind of poster boy for “eco-terrorism.” Feds have gone after him relentlessly, for less “radical” infractions like non-violent civil disobedience and possessing eagle feathers. Yet feds are not going after folks like “eco-terrorism” pioneer Rod Arnold, who gave a similar explanation about incendiary devices on Fox News (thanks to Jessica for sending me that link). And feds aren’t going after Ed Bradley, who actually made contact with Animal Liberation Front activists (I guess if you’re high profile enough, prosecutors won’t use grand juries won’t harass you to “name names”).

Ron Grossman at The Chicago Tribune has a very fair look at the case in today’s edition. He reports:

Yet Geoffrey Stone, a law professor at the University of Chicago, notes that — without presuming to prejudge Coronado’s guilt or innocence — the fact is that the 1st Amendment tends to get overlooked in tumultuous times.

“But I like to think we learn from our mistakes and try to correct them,” he said. “When civil liberties are at stake, there’s a regular cycle: fear, repression and repentance.”

Grossman goes on to note similar cycles in U.S. history, including the framing of the Haymarket anarchists, the Red Scare, and yep he even notes the “Green Scare.”

The cyclical nature that Geoffrey Stone mentioned— fear, repression, repentance—is certainly historically accurate. But I think we all need to be careful about falling into the trap of thinking that this has always happened, and therefore it always will happen. That cycle isn’t inevitable or preordained: it’s created. It depends on fear. In this case, fear of terrorism, fear that has increased since the 9/11 attacks and the war in Iraq. The fear is being manufactured, it’s being carefully crafted by people who have a vested interest in maintaining that cycle of repression. And if we buy into the idea that “in wartime freedoms will always be curtailed,” history will continue to repeat itself.

Rod Coronado, the government’s poster-child for “eco-terrorist” scare-mongering, is involved in multiple court cases right now, including charges under an obscure section of a law dealing with “Distribution of Information Relating to Explosives.” At a speech in San Diego, someone in the audience asked how Coronado committed an arson years ago in the name of animal rights and the environment. He grabbed a plastic juice bottle from a table and said he used a bottle like that one, filled with gasoline and attached to a timer, then went to the next question.

For that he’s facing 20 years in prison under a rarely-used federal statute. The law makes it a federal crime to:

(A) to teach or demonstrate the making or use of an explosive, a destructive device, or a weapon of mass destruction, or to distribute by any means information pertaining to, in whole or in part, the manufacture or use of an explosive, destructive device, or weapon of mass destruction, with the intent that the teaching, demonstration, or information be used for, or in furtherance of, an activity that constitutes a Federal crime of violence;

From attorneys I’ve interviewed, it seems the law has only been used a few times. The only other time it has been used against an activist was in the case of Sherman Austin, who ran an anarchist website called RaisetheFist.com. Austin, 18 years old at the time, was charged under the law for simply linking to another website, which provided crude information on bomb-making (much like the information in The Anarchist Cookbook, a book widely available on corporate websites like Amazon.com. Austin pleaded guilty to avoid a possible 20 year sentence.

This is from Gerald Singleton, Rod’s lawyer in San Diego, posted at SupportRod.org:

On November 2, San Diego Federal District Court Judge Jeffrey T. Miller heard arguments from Rod’s attorney and the government on Rod’s motion to dismiss the Indictment against him on the grounds that the statute under which he was charged, Title 18 USC sec. 842(p)(2)(A), violates the First and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution. Rod’s principle argument is that the statute is an unconstitutional infringement upon the freedom of speech because it criminalizes speech without requiring that the speech be likely to incite or produce “imminent” criminal action (as required by the Supreme Court case of Brandenburg v. Ohio). Judge Miller took the motion under submission and is expected to issue a ruling within 30 days.

Rod’s next court date is February 8, 2007. If his motion to strike down the statute is denied, the judge will set a date for a future motion hearing where Rod will bring additional challenges to the Indictment against him and the facts alleged by the government. If the case proceeds to trial, it is anticipated that the trial will occur in the summer of 2007.

Mention the name Rod Coronado in the presence of fur farmers, animal research supporters, or law enforcement agents and blood will boil. He’s a “terrorist.” A “violent criminal.” A “national security threat.”

Coronado was just convicted yet again for illegal actions defending the environment. So what was this “eco-terrorist” up to this time? Conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer, a felony, and two misdemeanor charges of destroying government property and of interfering with a U.S. Forest Service officer.

Those charges sound like heavy stuff, maybe even worthy of the T-word. But take a look at what he did: Coronado and another individual entered the Sabino Canyon National Recreation Area in March 2004 to disrupt the government’s killing of mountain lions. He allegedly busted snare traps, pulled up sensors, and spread mountain lion urine to confuse tracking dogs.

That’s it. Really. They’re not charged with anything else: no attempted suicide bombings, no firearms, no weapons of mass destruction, nothing. Interfering with a hunt would typically merit a ticket or a fine, but Coronado was sentenced to eight months in prison and three years supervised probation.

But wait! Rod really is a national security threat. He’s facing other charges as well… for possessing eagle feathers. (In case you were wondering if this environmental activist hunts endangered species in his other life, he’s of Pasqua Yaqui heritage). When that news broke, the Tucson Citizen proclaimed “Convicted ecoterrorist faces new charges.” He’s facing a year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

Coronado has a hell of a rap sheet, to be clear. He served five years in prison for an arson attack on research facilities at Michigan State University as part of the Animal Liberation Front’s “Operation Bite Back.” He also freed mink from nearby fur farms. No human or non-human animal was injured in any of his crimes.

On top of the charges I mentioned earlier, he’s facing 20 years under a little-used law prohibiting the distribution of information about assembling explosives. In February, Coronado gave a speech to activists in San Diego: afterwards, someone in the audience asked how he destroyed the laboratories. He grabbed a plastic juice bottle from a table and said he used a bottle like that one, filled with gasoline and attached to a timer, then went to the next question. It wasn’t exactly an “eco-terrorism” how-to session, but that’s what the feds are calling it.

Do you think Coronado would be feeling all this heat for civil disobedience and possessing eagle feathers if he didn’t have this “eco-terrorist” label? Doubtful. But corporations, right-wing politicians and groups like the Anti-Defamation League have ratcheted up the Green Scare tactics. The Anti-Defamation League calls Coronado an “eco-terrorist” and sends out press releases about his case: it may win them cheap political points with the Bush administration, but I don’t think even Coronado’s opponents would put him in the same camp as the Nazis the group claims to focus on.

For every hour and every dollar spent harassing activists like Coronado, and pursuing trumped-up charges, that’s an hour and a dollar that could be spent prosecuting real terrorists and violent criminals. This Green Scare is wasting valuable anti-terrorism resources to blatantly push a political agenda: and one that does nothing to protect national security or keep Americans safe.

And activists will undoubtedly have to think twice about engaging in any non-violent civil disobedience to protest government violence, because they too might get labeled “eco-terrorists.” Even if it’s just for pulling up sensors and spreading some lion pee. On the message board of The Arizona Daily Star, a few readers questioned the hefty sentence for non-violent crimes. “Don’t forget,” one reader responded, “these animal rights people are terrorists! He got off light.”