Camilla Mortensen's blog

I did not get a press pass for the Olympic Trials. We at the EW left that to Chuck — who actually knows about running — and Todd, the man with the camera and the mad skillz.

Since I didn't get a press pass for the Trials, I didn't get a ticket to the Media BBQ either (Todd and Chuck admit they skipped it seeing as that it was way out by the new hospital).

Picture Eugene videographer Tim Lewis did manage to get a ticket for the BBQ as did his puppet-reporter Scruffy. Lewis is in the news lately thanks a grand jury subpoena of his May 30 Tasering-tape.

The question getting tossed around is whether Lewis is a member of the media. The latest R-G article cites a 2000 quote by Lane County District Attorney Douglas Harcleroad saying Lewis is a reporter "'Mr. Lewis is a reporter, and he was reporting,' Harcleroad said at the time."

But last night KVAL got this out of Harcleroad: "We don't know the facts around whatever he does," he said. "I don't know whether he's a journalist or not. We haven't actually looked at the law on that in any great detail."

Huh? The District Attorney "hasn't looked at the law"?

For Harcleroad's edification, the Oregon Shield law says:

44.520 Limitation on compellable testimony from media persons; search of media persons' papers, effects or work premises prohibited; exception.

1. No person connected with, employed by or engaged in any medium of communication to the public shall be required by a legislative, executive or judicial officer or body, or any other authority having power to compel testimony or the production of evidence, to disclose, by subpoena or otherwise:
(a) The source of any published or unpublished information obtained by the person in the course of gathering, receiving or processing information for any medium of communication to the public; or
(b) Any unpublished information obtained or prepared by the person in the course of gathering, receiving or processing information for any medium of communication to the public.

Lewis publishes on YouTube which is a medium of communication to the public.

Here, in fact, is the latest sample in which Lewis and Scruff attend the Olympic Trials Media BBQ encountering KLCC's Rachel McDonald, among others.

Three witnesses to the May 30th Tasering of UO student Ian Van Ornum have filed a complaint about the incident.

The complaint is based on the police officers' own reports on their actions during Van Ornum's arrest during a anti-pesticide rally.

Read more in tomorrow's EW (or when it goes online tonight!).

I'm not sure how to describe Tim Lewis and the Picture Eugene crew's latest release.

Let's say a Muppet tries to get a press pass to the Olympic Trials while Lewis gets a grand jury subpoena in the Taser case and meets Deb Frisch right before she gets thrown off campus (it's not clear why she's getting kicked off).

It's like Sesame Street goes Anarchist Media. But not really. It's partly fiction, but well, not really. It's um like conspiracy theory, only well Homeland Security really has been, well yeah, here you go:

Part I

Part II has singing kids just like Sesame Street.

And on a more serious note, here's an interview with Lauren Regan about the whole Homeland Security/Pesticide Rally/Taser issue. She describes not only the role of Homeland Security, but the problems with the criminal investigation being done by the same officer (Sgt. McKee) who is also doing the investigation for the Citizen Review Board. You also get to watch Lewis get his grand jury subpoena, which is always a good time.

You can read about it tomorrow in the R-G, but you read it here first …

My friend Jeff Shaw works for an alternative weekly in Minnesota as a blogger (Yup some weeklies somehow afford full-time bloggers, here at EW we blog because we like it. Or something like that). Jeff has had an interesting career. Seattle Mariners Blogger, Fulbright scholar to Japan and I do seem to remember a time period in which he seemed to be supporting himself playing online poker.

Jeff posted an analysis of McCain versus Obama to his blog today based on their gambling preferences.

It goes something like this: McCain plays craps, a dice game based on chance in which statistically if you keep playing, you will always lose money.

Obama favors poker, a game in which, according to Jeff (who would know) if you use some skill, you can win and actually make money.

Hmmmm. It's all about the strategery.

From the FBI today:

"We're using our growing intelligence abilities to combat the threat posed by eco-terrorists and animal rights extremists."

I was curious of course, since I write about "eco-terrorists" (eco-saboteurs here at the EW, thanks), to find out about the "growing intelligence" of the FBI.

So I followed their exciting link to their web page.

The press release, in its entirety, is below (italics and bold courtesy of the Feds).

I love the headline:

PUTTING INTEL TO WORK
Against ELF and ALF Terrorists

It creates a little confusion about the chip manufacturer but hell, I'm sure all the cool FBI kids say "intel" when they mean "spying."

I'm trying to figure out what spurred this press release: recent developments in the Seattle "Street of Dreams" fire from this spring or our own recent Homeland Security induced Tasering?

In early 2006, eco-terrorist Eric McDavid and two associates met in a secluded cabin in Dutch Flat, California to discuss making improvised explosive devices and to choose targets to bomb. Soon after, they began casing the targeted facilities and buying supplies to make bombs. But before they started mixing the ingredients, we swooped in and arrested them.
How did we know what McDavid was up to? How were we able to prevent attacks that could have caused thousands or millions of dollars in property damage and possibly harmed people?
In a word, intelligence.

Our intelligence—which included the use of an FBI source who was actually with McDavid and his associates inside that California cabin—allowed us to piece together the entire plot ahead of time.
Since 9/11, we have greatly strengthened our ability to identify, collect, analyze, and share intelligence across all of our national security and criminal priorities. And that has carried over into our investigations of violence and terror committed in the name of the environment—as well as of animal rights.
Together, eco-terrorists and animal rights extremists are one of the most serious domestic terrorism threats in the U.S. today…for several good reasons:

• The sheer volume of their crimes (over 2,000 since 1979);
• The huge economic impact (losses of more than $110 million since 1979);
• The wide range of victims (from international corporations to lumber companies to animal testing facilities to genetic research firms); and
• Their increasingly violent rhetoric and tactics (one recent communiqué sent to a California product testing company said: “You might be able to protect your buildings, but can you protect the homes of every employee?”).

ELF and ALF are probably the names you’re most familiar with. The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) are loosely-organized movements whose adherents engage in crimes like arson, fire bombings, vandalism, intimidation, assaults, stalking, etc. No membership dues are necessary—the only way to become a “member” is to engage in “direct action”…criminal activity designed to cause economic loss or destroy the victim company’s operations.
So what are we doing to counter the threat? For one, we’ve mapped our environmental and animal rights extremism cases in order to give our investigators around the country and our executive management a big-picture look at what’s happening and where. We’re also analyzing information from financial records, phone records, and mail…and working to increase our human source reporting. And we’re sharing intelligence with our partners through our Joint Terrorism Task Forces and other investigative endeavors. Sharing info with our partners, particularly at the local level, is crucial because many times they’re the first ones at the crime scene.
We’re also taking advantage of the 2006 revision to the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, which toughened penalties, created additional protections for people (the original law only covered property damage), and included secondary targets (often times companies that do business with primary targets are themselves targeted).
Our efforts have paid off—since 2005, our investigations have resulted in indictments against 30 individuals.
Of course, fully cognizant of the right to free speech, we investigate all animal rights and environmental extremism cases in strict accordance with the law and our guidelines.
So whatever happened to Eric McDavid? In May, he was sentenced to nearly 20 years in federal prison.

Read up on more cases:
- Operation Backfire
- Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty convictions
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