Cherry Point Air Station in North Carolina held a terrorism training where environmentalists stormed the military base, took hostages, demanded money, and killed two Marines.

The “eco-terrorist” attack drill was used to “practice the response of emergency workers and special response teams.”

Cherry Point is considered one of the best jet bases in the world. It trains Marines and also launches strike missions headed for Afghanistan. Its runway is huge, large enough that Cherry Point is an alternate landing site for space shuttles. There’s no doubt that military units should be prepared for terrorist attacks and hostage situations.

But who to use in a drill? Hmm. There’s, I dunno, Al-Qaeda, which has attacked U.S. military and civilian targets. There’s anti-abortion extremists who have recently murdered people. Or there’s environmentalists who have never taken hostages, never harmed anyone, and primarily direct their campaigns at corporations or government agencies, not the military. Bingo!

Do you feel safer yet?

This isn’t an isolated instance: the nation’s largest homeland security training drill was a hostage scenario involving animal rights activists.

Drills like this contribute to the fear-mongering campaigns of corporations labeling activists as “terrorists.” They add to the existing climate of fear that has enabled legislation like the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, and has led to the placement of environmental activists like Daniel McGowan in secretive political prisons called Communication Management Units.

Outside the gates of the Cherry Hill base where the drill took place, there’s a sign, featured in this photo, with the words: “Pardon our noise. It’s the sound of freedom.”

Thanks to Stewart for the tip!

Animal rights terrorism drill at UC Berkeley.

A terrorism scenario in the nation’s largest homeland security drill involved animal rights activists holding hostages, at gun point.

Seriously.

From The Daily Californian, “Urban Shield Tests Police Ability”:

The atmosphere is surprisingly relaxed, despite the fact that terrorists protesting animal research have taken a hostage in a UC Berkeley building and are threatening to shoot anyone who approaches the scene.

Suddenly, four gunshots are heard inside the building and the officers quickly ascend a four-story fire escape to confront the terrorists.

All this is standard procedure for the San Leandro Police Department tactical team, which was participating in Urban Shield, the nation’s largest homeland security drill.

It’s an interesting choice for a terrorism drill, considering animal rights activists have never taken hostages, and never harmed anyone in this country (not quite the “real world scenario” described on the project’s website, Urban Shield). You might think the government would choose right wing groups for such drills, because they’ve actually murdered people and admittedly created weapons of mass destruction (but they’re not even on DHS lists of national security threats).

Instead, organizers chose to set up this elaborate, illogical scenario of animal rights activists holding hostages. It ain’t an accident, folks. This was a choice, a carefully crafted and vetted decision by this multi-government-agency program.

Terrorism scenarios like this send a clear message that animal rights activists are to be feared. It instills that fear in law enforcement. And it instills that fear in the general public. It helps legitimize the sweeping government attacks on the animal rights and environmental movements, known as the Green Scare, by mainstreaming unreasonable fears.

Most people who see this news clip, or saw this scenario taking place, don’t know enough to differentiate between fact and scare-mongering government fiction. And that’s the point. This way, if folks hear about more grand juries or FBI raids or infiltrating vegan potlucks, they may brush aside their logical concerns and not worry about the civil liberties of those evil, hostage-taking activists.

Why do all that? Well, there’s a lot at stake. The University of California system has been the target of heated animal rights campaigning, including the FBI recklessly attributing the recent bombings in Santa Cruz to animal activists. And the UC system was the chief lobbyist behind the recent “eco-terrorism” legislation. Also, cops in Berkeley recently raided a radical bookstore and community space called the Long Haul Infoshop.

In this political climate, here’s what I think would be a better “training” drill: Militarized police forces, pressured by vested political and corporate interests, attempting to silence political activists, and activists preparing to stand by each other, call attorneys, organize press conferences, know their rights and, most importantly, keep fighting.

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 terrorists, a Midwest anti-terrorism course will be held in Columbus on Oct. 17 and 18. The Ohio Livestock Coalition (OLC), of which Ohio Farm Bureau is a member, and partnered with the Animal Agriculture Alliance and Law Enforcement Academic Research Network, Inc. to host the two-day course, “Managing Activist/Terrorist Threats to the Food, Agricultural and Animal Industries: A Common Sense Approach.”

OLC Director David White said the course is hands-on and will teach participants how to determine credible threats to staff facilities and the public; collect intelligence on those threats, and develop practical threat management plants to prevent violence.

If anyone is in the area and has $450, it would be great to check this out. I’m particularly interested in their methods to “collect intelligence” on activists. For their sake I hope their “threat management plants” [sic] are better than their proofreading skills.