rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (06/24/91)
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Resisting Spying & Attacks on Environmental Groups
by Chip Berlet
Recent events indicate the environmental movement is being
subjected to obvious surveillance, intimidation, anonymous
letters, phony leaflets, telephone threats, police over-reaction
and brutality, dubious arrests, and other threatening actions
unfamiliar to most environmental activists. Experienced
organizers warn these techniques often create side effects such
as false divisions, rivalry, paranoia, false accusations,
internal strife, and overall stressful circumstances that divert
energy and time from the real work at hand.
The type of subtle and not-so-subtle harassment being
experienced by the environmental movement may be new to eco-
activists, but to civil rights attorney Brian Spears and other
advocates for civil and constitutional rights, these types of
incidents strike an all-too-familiar chord. Spears observes that,
"activists on Central American issues, Native American
organizers, Black power advocates, and others dissidents have
been subject to unconstitutional covert surveillance and
disruption for many years." In fact when Spears attended the
annual National Lawyers Guild (NLG) convention last summer in
Austin, Texas, he found not only two workshops on the grassroots
toxics movement, but also two workshops on repression and attacks
on political activists.
Brian Glick, an attorney who spoke at the NLG's political
repression workshop in Austin, is the author of a security
guidebook for activists titled "War at Home." Glick concludes
that historically, "dissenting groups come under attack as they
begin to seriously threaten the status quo." Since the
environmental movement "threatens to meddle with people who
control billions of dollars, it should be no surprise when they
fight back," says Glick, "especially as corporate and government
officials come to realize how dramatically environmentalists
expect them to restructure their activities."
Glick says the bombing attack on the Greenpeace Rainbow
Warrior in New Zealand presaged the current situation in the U.S.
"Domestic covert action is a powerful deterrent to democratic
discussion of public policy and effective organizing for social
change," says Glick echoing a number of civil liberties activists
interviewed for this article. "We need to take security seriously
without being distracted from our main goals", says Glick, "and
one way is to educate ourselves about what has happened in the
past." Glick and other authors and academics who have studied
government intelligence abuse and political repression frequently
find people are skeptical that human rights violations can happen
in the United States. "We don't like to face this aspect of our
society," agrees Spears, "but its part of the historical record."
Assorted Sordid Pasts
Most documented information about government harassment of
social change activists came to light in the 1970's following a
series of Congressional hearings which took a critical look at
the FBI, CIA, military intellignce, federal agencies and the
private security industry. The most sensational revelations
revolved around the FBI's Counterintelligence Program or
COINTELPRO in Bureau jargon. In its final report, the Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence Activities, often called the
Church Committee, concluded:
"COINTELPRO [was] a series of covert action programs
directed against domestic groups....Many of the techniques used
would be intolerable in a democratic society even if all of the
targets had been involved in violent activity, but COINTELPRO
went far beyond that...the Bureau conducted a sophisticated
vigilante operation aimed squarely at preventing the exercise of
First Amendment rights of speech and association, on the theory
that preventing the growth of dangerous groups and the
propagation of dangerous ideas would protect the national
security and deter violence."
The COINTELPRO operations targetted political groups calling
for social change, including civil rights and antiwar activists,
civil liberties advocates, radicals, feminists, even food co-ops
and health clinics. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was a major
target in a campaign that included anonymous threatening letters
and attempts to scare away his funders. In one ten year period
starting in 1966, the FBI employed over 5,000 secret informers in
Chicago alone.
According to Glick, a review of the 2,370 officially
approved COINTELPRO operations admitted to the Senate
Intelligence Committee shows four main techniques: infiltration,
psychological warfare from the outside, harassment through the
legal system, and extralegal force and violence. In the latter
category falls the sinister collaboration between the FBI and
right-wing vigilante groups. For instance, in Chicago the FBI and
local police worked with the Legion of Justice, a rightist group
that burglarized offices of antiwar activists. In San Diego the
FBI hid the weapon used by a Secret Army Organization sniper in a
shooting incident directed at a local activist professor which
resulted in a woman being injured by a stray bullet.
The revelations of the Church Committee, the Watergate
scandal and other [exposes] led to the passage of some valuable
but limited reforms that briefly curtailed the abuses of the
intelligence agencies. But along with the election of Ronald
Reagan to the Presidency came a concerted and successful attempt
by the intelligence agencies to abolish the reforms which had
restrained them during the late 1970's. The early 1980's also saw
tremendous growth in the private security industry coupled with
an Executive Order signed by President Reagan authorizing the
contracting of intelligence investigations to private firms
outside the reach of Congressional oversight and laws protecting
privacy.
The FBI and other agencies also redefined the terms
"terrorism" and "foreign intelligence" to reflect a broad and
self-serving interpretation; and then argued their investigations
into social change groups met the terms of specific legal
language allowing the FBI greater investigative latitude in
probes involving political violence and foreign spying. The
result was that by 1983, FBI agents and private security
specialists had launched broad intrusions into the lives of
ordinary citizens engaged in otherwise legal activities.
Ross Gelbspan is the author of a forthcoming book on the
FBI's campaign from 1981 to 1985 against groups critical of U.S.
policy in Central America. Gelbspan says "While the FBI conducts
legitimate criminal investigations, its carrying out of
unauthorized politically-motivated police activity is more than
just history." For proof, Gelbspan (a veteran reporter for the
Boston Globe who helped pen a Pulitzer Prize winning
investigative series) points to documents obtained under the
federal Freedom of Information Act, lawsuits, and Congressional
hearings which show that in an FBI probe of the Committee in
Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), "the FBI took
at face value allegations by right-wing security specialists that
members of (CISPES) were terrorists or foreign agents."
The FBI probe of CISPES moved beyond surveillance to attacks
on CISPES, its members and allies. Thousands of citiens were
referenced in secret dossiers. The FBI also used the services of
right-wing sleuths including a network of conservative campus
activists who attended meetings and then submitted reports to the
FBI. "The CISPES probe by the FBI was not an aberration by a
handful of field agents," says Gelbspan refuting widely published
reports. "It was clearly approved at the highest levels of the
Bureau and was apprently sanctioned by the NSC and the White
House."
"Looking at the CISPES investigation in light of other
political investigations dating back to the 1950's, one gets the
distinct impression that the FBI sees its mandate as neutralizing
or disabling every political movement that has the potential for
bringing about significant changes in the American political
system," argues Gelbspan.
Kit Gage, the Washington representative of the National
Committee Against Repressive Legislation (NCARL) agrees with
Gelbspan. "We know first hand the kind of havoc the FBI can wreak
on a group exercising its First Amendment rights," says Gage who
has leafed through FBI files recording "38 years of surveillance
on NCARL and its predecessors which produced 130,000 pages of
files but not one criminal conviction." What is well documented
"is an incredible amount of harassment and disruption of our
organization," Gage charges. "Since the FBI seems unable to
regulate itself," says Gage, "NCARL is currently seeking legal
remedies in the form of legislation that would limit FBI
investigations solely to criminal activity." Hundreds of law
school professors have endorsed NCARL's proposed legislation.
Meanwhile, surveillance and disruption continue to hamstring
activists. At the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York,
the Movement Support Network (MSN) maintains a list of suspicious
incidents called in by groups around the country. According to
MSN coordinator Jinsoo Kim, "since 1984 there have been over 300
suspicious incidents including 150 unexplained break-ins" where
usually files are rifled but expensive office equipment not
stolen. Suspicions point to an ad-hoc alliance of FBI agents and
informants, other government investigators, far right vigilantes,
and private security sleuths who trade information and justify
their actions in the name of national security and fighting
terrorism.
The zealousness of these snoops can lead them to break the
law in pursuit of their quarry. Earth First activist Dave Foreman
says his unfortunately intimate knowledge of FBI informant-
provocateurs leads him to not rule out the possibility that the
California bombing incident was the result of a covert
operation....a charge that reflects an accurate historical
awareness of how far some agents are willing to go in an attempt
to trap their target.
An example of this involved Connecticut animal rights
activist Fran Trutt, charged with attempting to plant a bomb she
says was meant to scare an offical of the U.S. Surgical
Corporation which uses animals for medical tests and sales
demonstrations. Her accomplices, not charged with any crime,
turned out to be private security agents hired by U.S. Surgical.
Trutt's attorney, John Williams, says there is "absolutely no
question that Trutt was enticed" into considering the bombing by
agents from Perceptions International." Furthermore, several
months prior to the attempted bombing, according to Williams "the
entire situation was reviewed at a meeting that included
representatives of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms, the Connecticut States Attorney's office, the security
director of U.S. Surgical and at least one representative of
Perceptions International...and the topic of the meeting was Fran
Trutt."
According to Williams, it was the agents of Perceptions
International, working for U.S. Surgical but posing as Trutt's
friends, who suggested the bombing, paid for the purchase of the
pipe bomb, and drove her to the U.S. Surgical parking lot. When
Trutt had second thoughts while on her way to the parking lot,
she called a trusted friend, and was encouraged to proceed--that
"friend", too, was a private undercover agent from Perceptions
International. Although Trutt was clearly set up, under
Connecticut law she needed to show substantial state involvement
to use entrapment as a defense, a problematic tactic given the
available evidence. Trutt reluntantly accepted a plea bargain and
will serve a short prison term rather than risk a lengthy
sentence on more serious charges.
One person troubled by the Trutt case is Gary T. Marx, a
sociology professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and
author of "Undercover: Police Surveillance in America." Marx says
serious ethical problems can arise "When police must depend on
persons whose professional lives routinely involve deceit and
concealment and who have a motive to lie." Informants "often have
strong incentives to see that others break the law," says Marx,
who worries that our democratic values are being threatened by
the increased use of technologically sophisticated forms of
electronic surveillance and computerized dossier-keeping.
What To Do!
Jinsoo Kim of the Movement Support Network urges that
environmental activists pick up some simple security
consciousness and briefly study the history of political
repression against dissent in America. "There has been a whole
generation of activists since the revelations about the FBI
COINTELPRO program and Watergate," says Kim. "Something that
happened fifteen, or even five years ago, its as if it never
happened. We need to teach the lessons learned by previous
movements about how to empower ourselves and fight back without
losing sight of our political goals." Kim urges people to contact
her at MSN if they want printed information on repression and
helpful security tips, have an incident to report, or need
advice.
Sheila O'Donnell, a progressive private eye for twenty years
who specializes in political cases, suggests environmentalists
need to be very suspicious of attempts to define individuals or
groups in a way that isolates them. "Smear campaigns often are a
part of disruption operations, so charges of eco-terrorism and
allegations of violence should be carefully considered on the
basis of documented facts, not lurid headlines," says O'Donnell.
"And if people use different techniques, that's OK," adds Brian
Glick, "there is a place for lobbying, grassroots organizing,
education, and militant action...they reinforce each other."
Susan B. Jordan, lawyer for two Earth First! activists whose car
was bombed, points out that her clients "were easy people to whip
up public opinion against," because of their reputation for
militancy.
Attorney John Williams offers this advice based on the Trutt
Case and 20 years of defending political activists: "Assume the
other side is listening, consider everything you do as if it will
be played back in a courtroom or appear on the front page of the
local newspaper. If you don't act this way, you are very foolish,
and could not only go down the tubes, but take your friends and
your movement with you. Fran Trutt's problem was that this never
occured her. She was literally seduced. It has been a hard lesson
for her to learn"
Sheila O'Donnell advises that talking to the FBI or other
investigators without the advice or presence of an attorney is
not a good idea. "It's hard for some people to understand this,"
conceeds O'Donnell, "But it simply isn't an issue of social
courtesy. Individual FBI agents or other investigators might be
friendly and assure you they don't think you or your friends are
criminals or terrorists, but they pass along the information they
glean from you to faceless bureaucracies with a history of
attacking activists and derailing their movements. You never know
what seemingly-harmless bit of information might get you or a
friend in trouble," insists O'Donnell, "an attorney will protect
your rights, not the FBI."
O'Donnell recommends all political activists use the "buddy
system" where group members share phone numbers and a pledge to
call each other if anything suspicious or threatening happens, no
matter how seemingly silly or trivial. "By talking with friends
about strange events, the events lose their sinister aspect, and
you gain courage by sharing your fears," says O'Donnell. "I know
talking about security makes some people nervous," she admits.
"But other political movements have adopted simple common sense
attitudes about security and still reached their political
goals." O'Donnell says when groups are harassed it is important
to "promote caring working relationships within the membership
and keep a healthy sense of skepticism and humor." One thing her
investigations have shown clearly, says O'Donnell, "is that it is
not only true that democracy is worth fighting for...but you also
have to fight for it just to keep it alive."
Resources
Movement Support Network
666 Broadway
New York, NY 10012
212-614-6422
National Committee Against Repressive Legislation
236 Massachusetts Avenue, N.E.
Suite 406
Washington, D.C. 20002
202-543-7659jym@mica.berkeley.edu (Jym Dyer) (06/25/91)
=v= The attached documents have appeared on the net before, but
before this newsgroup came into existence. They are germane to
the topic of harassment of environmental groups.
=v= There are three documents attached:
(1) A Greenpeace press release about a Clorox public relations
"crisis management plan." Part of the plan entails labelling
environmentalists "terrorists."
(2) A Greenpeace press release about a worker in Greenpeace's
toxics campaign whose house was burnt down.
(3) A long speech by Earth First!'s Judi Bari, detailing all
kinds of incidents of harassment of activists.
=v= All of these stories are important and, of course, extremely
under-reported. I encourage folks to take this information and
spread it far and wide -- on-line and off-line. Publicizing these
things is, in my opinion, a critical part of resisting them.
<_Jym_>
========================================================================
[Greenpeace Press Release from Environet]
CLOROX COMPANY'S PUBLIC RELATIONS "CRISIS MANAGEMENT PLAN"
LEAKED TO GREENPEACE
Seattle, May 13, 1991 (GP) -- A public relations "Crisis
Management Plan" prepared for the Clorox Corporation and leaked to
Greenpeace recommends labeling environmental critics as
"terrorists," threatening to sue "unalterably green" journalists,
and dispatching "independent scientists" on media tours as means
to counteract bad news for the chlorine industry.
The plan, prepared by the public relations division of Ketchum
Communications, was apparently prompted by fears that the
environmental group would target household use of chlorine bleach
and call for its elimination.
Greenpeace has an international program aimed at ending the use
of chlorine in the pulp and paper industry. Its slogan
"Chlorine-Free by 1993" is cited in the Clorox plan, which
outlines numerous "worst case scenarios" in which Greenpeace and
"unalterably green" journalists figure prominently.
"They failed to anticipate the worst of worst case scenarios,"
said Shelley Stewart, Greenpeace toxics campaigner. "That some
conscientious person would obtain the plan, and leak it to us."
Greenpeace verified that Ketchum Communications, a Pittsburgh-
based firm which is one of the nation's largest advertising and
public relations entities, is under contract to Clorox. One
portion of the leaked document is comprised of a fax transmission
between two Ketchum offices.
"Lying is a growth industry," Stewart said of such PR firms.
"The truth is that chlorine is a chemical whose days are
numbered. Its use has created some of the most intractable
environmental problems in history."
DDT, PCBs, Agent Orange, CFCs and dioxin all originate from use
of chlorine.
Perhaps the most revealing aspect of the Clorox plan is that
while it's clear that the company knows it has a genuine
environmental problem on its hands, the document suggests that
Clorox feels more threatened by a public interest group like
Greenpeace than they do by the federal authorities.
The Crisis Plan makes reference to studies linking chlorine use
to cancer, and with remarkable candor suggests ways to discredit
the findings if they ever became public. Ketchum recommends that
Clorox should "cast doubts on the methodology and findings," of
potentially damaging scientific reports which haven't yet been
written.
The PR firm also recommends labeling Greenpeace as violent self-
seeking "eco-terrorists;" attempting to sue newspaper columnists
who advocate use of non-toxic bleaches and cleaners for the
home; "immunizing" government officials; dispatching
"independent" scientists on media tours; and recruiting
"scientific ambassadors" to tout the Clorox cause and call for
further study.
While "crisis" public relations specialists have been deployed to
effect spin control on virtually every major environmental issue
in recent years, the chlorine industry has been a prolific
consumer of the type of service outlined in the Ketchum memo.
The Clorox PR strategy sounded familiar to Stewart. "We've seen
the same kinds of ploys coming from the American Paper Institute
and the Chlorine Institute surrounding the toxicity of dioxin,"
she said.
NOTE: Copies of the Clorox Crisis Management Plan are available
from Greenpeace's offices in Washington, DC, Seattle, San
Francisco, and Toronto, Canada.
Contact: Shelley Stewart in Seattle, 206/632-4326
Bill Walker in San Francisco, 415/512-9025
Peter Dykstra in Washington, DC, 202/319-2491
Tamara Stark in Toronto, Canada 416/345-8408
####
========================================================================
[Greenpeace Press Release from Environet]
GREENPEACE CALLS ON FBI TO INVESTIGATE ARSON IN OFFICE
WASHINGTON May 3, 1991 (GP) -- Greenpeace today called on the
Federal Bureau of Investigation to launch an inquiry into a
suspicious fire that destroyed the home of a Greenpeace activist
and her library of invaluable documentation of corporate
pollution throughout the country.
Pat Costner, research director for the Greenpeace USA toxics
campaign, left her home in a remote, wooded area near Eureka
Springs, Arkansas on the evening of March 2. Returning three
hours later, she discovered her house in ashes with some small
flames still visible. Local fire officials said they could not
determine the cause of the fire, but Rick Eley, a Tennessee-based
arson investigator retained by Greenpeace, determined that the
fire was set with gasoline, with Costner's office and library
specifically targeted. In another incident three weeks later a
telephone line to Costner's temporary residence was severed.
After meeting with Costner and learning of the investigator's
findings, local and Arkansas State Police officials urged Costner
to contact the FBI. On Wednesday, Costner sent via Federal
Express a letter requesting an FBI investigation to Don K.
Pettus, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau's Little Rock
office. (501-221-9100.)
Costner has led a high profile campaign on behalf the public's
right to know what toxic chemicals companies routinely dump into
the environment. Costner, a chemist, had accumulated an enormous
amount of data on the health effects of industrial pollutants and
the dumping and disposal practices of some of the most powerful
companies in America. Her home and possessions were a total loss
in the fire, and were not insured.
"Given the enormity of the crimes against the environment
committed every day, this crime was a small one," said Costner.
"However, if the persons responsible for this attack hoped to
silence my efforts on behalf of the planet and the public, they
were sadly mistaken."
NOTES: Arson Investigator Rick Eley can be reached at
901-753-9031. Copies of his report are available from Greenpeace
in Washington. Pat Costner is currently travelling and can be
reached through Greenpeace in Washington.
Contact: Peter Dykstra, or Greenpeace USA Executive Director
Peter Bahouth at (202) 462-1177
####
========================================================================
[From the May 8, 1991 issue of _Anderson_Valley_Advertiser_]
Community Under Siege
by Judi Bari [Footnotes added by jym@mica.berkeley.edu]
[Speech given at the Cinco de Mayo/May 5th gathering in
Booneville on Sunday, May 5th, 1991.]
I came of age during the Vietnam era, and I've known for a long
time that the system is enforced by violence. Some of my
earliest political experiences were of 20-year-old national
guardsmen beating my 18-year-old non-violent friends senseless
and bloody. I didn't think I had any delusions about how thin
the veneer of civility is in this country. But I have to admit
that I was totally unprepared for the sheer horror of being
bombed and maimed while organizing for Redwood Summer last year.
The bombing represented the end of innocence for our movement.
Sure, we had seen violence before, but this was different. The
logger who broke Mem Hill's nose, the log truck driver who ran
me off the road -- these people were victims of the timber
industry themselves who, in the heat of the moment, took their
anger out on us. But whoever put that bomb in my car was a cold
and premeditated killer. And the FBI's attempt to frame me and
Darryl [Cherney] for the bombing made us realize what we are up
against. Not only are they willing to use lethal force to
protect their "right" to level whole ecosystems for private
profit, they are also backed by the full power of the
government's secret police.
The man in charge of my and Darryl's case at the FBI is Richard
W. Held, chief of the San Francisco office. He went on TV last
summer to say that Darryl and I were the _only_ suspects in the
bomb attack that nearly took my life. Richard Held became
notorious in the 1970's for his active role in COINTELPRO, an
outrageous and illegal FBI program to disrupt and destroy any
group that challenged the powers-that-be.
COINTELPRO's method was to foment internal discord in activist
groups, isolate and discredit them, terrorize them, and
assassinate their leaders. The best known example of this was
Black Panther Fred Hampton, who was murdered by the FBI as he
slept in his bed in a Chicago apartment in 1969. And there
were many, many others.
But back to Richard Held, the man in charge of my bombing case.
His personal role in COINTELPRO began in the early 70's in Los
Angeles, where he ordered insulting cartoons to be drawn and
sent, supposedly from one faction to another, in the L.A. Black
Panthers. This heated up antagonisms between the factions so
much that, with a little help from FBI infiltrators, they
erupted into shooting wars that left two Panthers dead.
Held was also on hand in Pine Ridge South Dakota in 1975, to
help direct the FBI's reign of terror against the American
Indian Movement. In this case the FBI took advantage of
existing divisions in the native community to hook up with
a vigilante groups called GOONS, or Guardians of the Oglala
Nation. These local thugs were armed by the FBI and guaranteed
that they would not be prosecuted for crimes against AIM
members. They attacked over 300 AIM people and killed 70 of
them. Not one of these crimes was solved because, said the FBI,
they "didn't have enough manpower." The Pine Ridge campaign
ended with a military sweep of the reservation by 200 SWAT
trained agents, and with the framing and jailing of Leonard
Peltier.
Another of Richard Held's accomplishments was in San Diego,
where he was assigned to the Minutemen, a right-wing
paramilitary group that had gotten so blatant that the FBI
decided to make them disband. Richard Held disbanded them,
all right, but he re-organized them into the Secret Army
Organization (SAO). The SAO bombed the Guild Theater, a
black community project, and tried to assassinate Peter
Bohmer, a radical professor at San Diego State. They
missed and severely wounded his associate, Paula Thorpe.
By the way, the assassination symbol of the Minutemen was
the rifle scope and cross-hairs.
In 1978 Richard Held was transferred to Puerto Rico where he
oversaw the FBI's execution of two Independentista leaders
who were made to kneel, then shot in the head. Held stayed on
until 1985, when he stage-managed an island-wide SWAT assault
by 300 agents who busted in doors and rounded up activists.
For all his good work, Richard Held was then promoted to be
in charge of the San Francisco FBI, where he still works
today. And I don't know if the FBI had anything to do with
putting that bomb in my car, but I know for certain that they
tried to frame me for it and made sure the real bomber wasn't
found. They blowtorched out my whole floorboard and front seat
and sent it to their "crime lab in D.C.," thereby destroying
the evidence that would prove they were lying about the location
of the bomb. [1]
So with this knowledge of how the FBI operates, when I look at
what's going on in our movement I can only conclude that we are
under attack by a COINTELPRO-type operation. Earth First! is
definitely a target. We know that the FBI has spent at least
$3 million to infiltrate and disrupt Earth First! in Arizona
and Montana, not even including what they've done in Northern
California. In Arizona, admitted FBI agent provocateur Michael
Fain infiltrated their group for two years, winning the
activists' trust and friendship. Then he led them to try and
drop a power line, and got them busted for it by the FBI.
This is the supposed "Earth First! plot to destroy nuclear
power plants" that you hear about. There was no plot. Just
some naive people who were misled by the FBI. And Dave
Foreman wasn't even there. They arrested him in his bed
at 5 a.m. and led him out in his underwear. [2]
In Montana the FBI targeted an environmental studies professor
named Ron Erikson, saying he and his Earth First! students were
responsible for a tree-spiking incident. They raided people's
houses and forced them to give fingerprints, handwriting and
hair samples. Yet even after a Grand Jury investigation, they
found no evidence at all to link Erickson or his students with
any tree-spiking. But they discredited him professionally and
terrorized the Earth First!ers.
So I would be crazy not to assume that the FBI has had its hand
in the events up here, both before and after the bombing. But
whether it's the FBI or just the timber industry, I know for
sure that the _techniques_ of COINTELPRO have been used here
in an attempt to disrupt us, discredit us, create a climate of
fear, and derail our attempts to save the redwoods. Here are
some examples of standard COINTELPRO practices that have shown
up in our community:
Black Propaganda -- This term refers to information that appears
to come from one source (EF!) but actually comes from another
source (FBI or timber). The fake press releases that were
distributed before the bombing fit this category. They claimed
to be from Earth First! and called for violence against timber
workers, but one had no contact name or number at all, and the
other spelled Darryl's name wrong. [3] An even scarier example
of black propaganda came from the right wing anti-environmental
group the Sahara Club. In April 1990 they printed a diagram of
how to make a bomb, claiming it was from an Earth First!
terrorism manual. Of course there is no such manual printed,
distributed by, or legitimately associated with us.
Gray Propaganda -- This term refers to damaging information
whose source is not clear. Under this category I would place
the recent front-page article in the _San_Francisco_Examiner_
in which an "ex-CIA agent" claims, with no evidence or details
whatsoever, that Earth First! has "clandestine cells of highly
educated scientists" working to develop a virus to wipe out
the human race.
Intimidation -- This certainly describes the many death threats
we activists have gotten, including the Minuteman-style rifle
scope and cross-hairs threat that I received a month before I
was bombed. Death threats have continued as recently as last
night at 3 a.m., when an anonymous caller told Anna Marie "this
bomb's for you." Even a 15-year old Willits high school anti-
war organizer got a call saying "We know you had Judi Bari speak
at your rally. We're not afraid to kill someone, you know."
Harassment -- This includes harassment of community people who
support us, and is designed to drive those people away. Not
only was my house red-tagged by the building dept. following an
anonymous complaint after the bombing, but so was my landlord's.
A non-activist friend who let me stay at her house had the FBI
visit her work and talk to her boss. And my entire neighborhood
was threatened with having their houses burned down when I moved
back here last August.
Surveillance -- The purpose of surveillance is as much to create
paranoia as to gain information. And in case I had any doubts
that I was still being watched, a few weeks ago an Oakland cop
(the FBI's front men) told a reporter that he knew I had just
returned from U.C. Santa Barbara, and that he presumed a series
of pipe bombs that mysteriously appeared on campus a few days
before I got there were connected to me.
Vigilantes -- Although certainly on a smaller and less lethal
scale, the FBI and local law enforcement have used similar
tactics to those used against AIM in Pine Ridge South Dakota.
They have encouraged vigilantes by sending a clear message that
crimes against Earth First!ers will not be prosecuted, including
the bombing of me. At least a dozen Redwood Summer people were
assaulted (and I'm not counting incidents at the demonstra-
tions), and two were beaten into unconsciousness and left in
remote areas. Only one person was arrested for doing anything
against us, and that was the man who planted a fake bomb in the
Arcata Action Center, who was arrested only because the EF!ers
pursued him into a bar to catch him.
Local Police Complicity -- This includes Mendocino County D.A.
Susan Massini, who wouldn't prosecute for Mem Hill's broken nose
or for me being rammed by the log truck. And Sheriff Shea, who
tried to whip up fear and hatred of Earth First! by calling for
an emergency ordinance to restrict the size of our picket signs,
using a video of a Palestinian student demonstration in Beverly
Hills 10 years ago to "prove" how we would use our signs as
weapons. And Sgt. Satterswhite who, like the FBI in Pine Ridge,
told me he "didn't have the manpower to investigate" the death
threats against me. And the Ukiah police who, just one month
ago, refused to apprehend a man who came to the Mendocino
Environmental Center and threatened Gary Ball with physical
violence, said he was going to burn down the MEC, and raged
in biblical terms saying I deserved to be bombed and should
be bombed again.
Local Government Complicity -- This includes Mendo Co. Super-
visor Marilyn Butcher, who promoted the lynch-mob mentality last
year when she publicly responded to the death threats against me
by saying "You brought it on yourself, Judi." And it includes
Humboldt Co. Supervisor Harry Pritchard who, just a few weeks
ago, called us terrorists and said one of us would get killed if
we didn't stop "taking food out of people's mouths." And it
includes the city governments of both Ukiah and Willits, who
recently bypassed all public channels to allow the apparently
permanent installation of yellow ribbons on our public streets,
a not-so-subtle message of intimidation to anyone who would
oppose the timber industry or the New World Order.
There are many more examples, but the pattern is clear. John
Muir once said, "Tug on anything in nature and you will find it
connected to everything else." I would say that the same is
true of the corporate state. Because wall we ever tried to do
here is save a few trees and protect our communities from the
ravages of a few out-of-town corporations. And we have found
this incredible array of forces lined up against us with the
timber industry. So as the new logging season gets underway,
with tensions rising again, we had better figure out how to deal
with this COINTELPRO-style assault we are under. Of course one
of the first things we should do is to educate ourselves, and
that's why I'm saying all this. But we also have to counter
their attempts to marginalize, isolate and intimidate us.
It's important to remember why Earth First! is targeted, and
that is because we are effective. In spite of our shock and
horror at the bombing last May, we didn't back down. 3000
people from all over the country came to Redwood Summer and
chained themselves to logging equipment, hugged trees, blocked
logging roads and marched through timber towns. Sure we made
mistakes. But in spite of incredible provocation we maintained
our presence and non-violence throughout the summer. Forests
Forever made a state-wide issue of redwood slaughter, but
Redwood Summer made it national and international. Together we
are the cause of the current political push to save Headwaters
Forest and reform logging practices.
People in the environmental movement who are not Earth First!ers
should remember that we are all affected. If you allow us to be
isolated, if it's not okay to be an Earth First!er this year,
then next year it won't be okay to be in the Sierra Club. Don't
believe the incendiary stuff you read and here about us in the
corporate press. You know us. We are your neighbors, and we
are ready to work with you and talk to you any time. You can
reach us at the MEC at 486-1660.
The entire community is under siege, and that includes the
forest itself, not just the people who defend it. If we back
down to timber and police terror, they will continue to destroy
the redwood forest and its life support system. We are already
seeing the climate changes that go with deforestation, including
the 5-year drought and killing forests. How much longer can
they cut like this before the ecosystem collapses?
If we stand together, I think we can make the difference. In
Humboldt County, Maxxam is on the verge of financial collapse
from its own junk bonds. And L-P and G-P are almost done in
Mendo County. They've cut the good stuff, and now they're
fighting to take 20-year old baby third-growth trees in a last
mop-up operation before they leave. How much is this chip-cut
worth to them? Economically those trees barely pay their way
out of the woods. But biologically they mean the difference
between whether the forest can ever recover, or whether it will
end up converted to vineyards, subdivisions, or desert.
That's why we're not backing down. We're tired and we're
scared, but the timber industry is tired too. And the darkest
hour is just before the dawn.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Shortly after the bombing, the FBI was telling reporters
that the bomb was located on the back seat of Bari's car. This
would support the claim that Bari and Cherney were knowingly
transporting a bomb. However, Bari's injuries leave no doubt
that the bomb was in fact located under the driver's seat.
[2] Foreman's actual complicity is probably best expressed by
Fain himself, who was musing into his tape recorder: "I don't
really look for them to be doing a lot of hurting people.
[Foreman] isn't really the guy we need to pop -- I mean in
terms of an actual perpetrator. This is the guy we need to
pop to send a message. And that's all we're really doing.
. . . Uh-oh. We don't need that on tape. Hoo boy."
[3] One timber firm, PALCO, distributed copies of this phony
press release to its employees, even though it is indicated in
one of their memos that they themselves were unsure that it was
produced by EF!, given the misspelling of Cherney's name.