FBI

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
Headline Archives home

In breaking news, today's press release from the FBI reveals that they are not emailing you and asking for information, nor are they telling you of an inheritance, or lottery winnings. It's an email phishing scam.

To quote: "The FBI does not send out e-mails soliciting personal information from citizens."

Of course not, what would they email you when they can just wiretap your phone?

The FBI may be tapping your phone, monitoring the Internet, hanging out at environmental law conferences and a host of other things, but they deny they are investigating your falafel.

In a Nov. 2 issues of Congressional Quarterly it was alleged that there was plan for an FBI program to monitor the sales of Middle Eastern food products in the San Francisco Bay area in support of counterterrorism intelligence gathering.

Given that the Los Angeles Police Department recently called off a plan to create a map of LA's Muslim communities, the falafel plan doesn't sound all that far-fetched.

But a recent press-release from the FBI calls counterterrrorism managers Willie T. Hulon and Phil Mudd’s Involvement in the so-called “Falafel Investigation,” "too ridiculous to be true."

Falafel is no laughing matter to the feds. FBI assistant director of the Office of Public Affairs John Miller, says in his statement that he's setting the record straight on "something that touches on something so important as national security and civil liberties."

So rest assured Eugeneans, you can eat your falafel without fear of persecution. For now.