The threat of ecoterrorism and why it matters

Below, please find links to seven (yes, only seven) examples of ecoterrorism that have occurred in 2010.  I know seven is not many, but these are just the seven I found in about 45 minutes between cooking supper for the little Tide fans and putting them to bed.

• Greenpeace claims shutdown of British-owned oil rig
• Activists await sentencing for California ecoterrorism
• Oregon farm torched by ecoterrorists
• California man pleads guilty to ELF arson attempt
• Sheepskin factory torched in Colorado
• Eco-terrorists 'plot to blow up IBM headquarters' thwarted in routine traffic stop
• Rebuilding after an ecoterrorist attack

As late as June of 2008, the FBI was identifying ecoterrorism as the No. 1 domestic terror threat to the United States.  How many radical islamic terrorist attacks have been so successful in damaging their targets in modern, western societies in 2010?  Have their been three? Four? Five?

Seven? 

I think you could probably count a higher number of examples that have been thwarted.  Please note that the list above does not include “raids” or “freedom runs,” where the parties involved simply raided a farm and turn the animals loose.  This post would be absolutely overcome with links to such incidents reported in the news.  They’re everywhere, from Alabama to Alaska; from California to Acadia.

Only five of the seven I’ve listed above are terrorist actitvities aimed at American facilities.  Two—the attack on the British-owned rig and the plan to blow up IBM’s nanotech facility in Switzerland—were away from American soil.  But please make no mistake about it.  These are terrorist attacks.  You don’t sneak up to a facility compound armed with incendiary devices, penetrate that facility’s defense systems and set off your bombs or fire plugs if you intend to do anything other than send a message.  

These people are terrorists. They hate people.

James Jay Lee was the man who invaded the Discovery Channel offices in downtown Silver Springs, Maryland in broad daylight, on September 01, 2010.  He took hostages. He was said to be armed with an automatic rifle, pipe bombs and cannisters of gas.  After taking control of the facility, Mr. Lee (allegedly) posted his demands in a long, ranting post on a website he began about 2-1/2 years ago. After a several hours-long standoff, he was shot dead by police, the hostages were freed, and Mr. Lee was the only one who was harmed in the incident.

Reading his screed provides the observer with the same experience one might have while reading the rants of groups like Greenpeace, Earth First, Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and Animal Liberation Front (ALF).  These are the same groups sponsoring or responsible for the bombings, arson and vandalism (linked above) that have been going on for decades.

Ecoterrorism has been a serious problem in the United States and the rest of the western world for many years.  It’s not new, and today’s events come as no surprise to me whatsoever.  In a blog post yesterday, I reproduced an article documenting how the FBI was able to capture, charge and convict Eric McDavid for conspiracy to commit a terrorist act in 2008.  The Anti Defamation League has a much, much longer list of terrorist activities either alleged, proven or admitted to by these radicals.  This shit has been going on since I was in college.

After the culmination of the Discovery Channel office incident, some conservatives were unwilling to lay blame at the radical left for producing a James Jay Lee. Particularly, laying responsibility on Al Gore. I’m willing to do just that.

The works of people like Rachel Carson, Lester Brown and Al Gore are directly responsible for the creation of terrorists like Eric McDavid and James Jay Lee.  Disagree?  Then you must agree that people like William Luther Pierce and works such as the Turner Diaries are not responsible for people like Timothy McVeigh; that al-Banna isn’t responsible for the ideas of Osama bin-Laden, and so forth and so on.

Yes, they are all extremists, they are all wrong, and they are all evil because their actions either directly or indirectly cause human suffering and death.  So why not identify the philosophical and ideological origins of the evil? Wouldn’t that help to force both sides of the spectrum to the table, so that they could once and for all disavow all of the extremists?  Yes, but it seems one side has pretty much done that, while the other…  well…

When was the last time a right-wing extremist invaded a facility, took hostages, set off a bomb or killed people, citing right wing propaganda as the basis for his actions?  I’ll wait, whilst you Google.

When was the last time a left-wing extremist invaded a facility, took hostages, set off a bomb or killed people?  DOCTOR Amy Bishop.  Joseph Andrew Stack.  James Jay Lee, and that’s just three we’ve had this year.

But, in the media it’s the little old ladies, retired plumbers and young mothers in the Tea Party rallies who are violent. Racist. Insurgents. Indeed.

When it comes to radicalism, and the violence that it produces, no one does it like the radical left wing.  There are some right wing wackos out there, to be sure.  But to suggest that they come anywhere close to what the left wing has to offer is to simply invite more ecoterrorists like Eric McDavid and James Jay Lee’s into places like…  Nickelodeon or Disney Channel offices. 

After all, it’s the “filthy babies” that are the problem, right?

Gimme some feedback in the comments.