THAT'LL KEEP US SAFE FROM BIN LADEN

"Eleven people were indicted in a series of arsons, claimed by the radical groups Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front, in five Western states, the Justice Department said Friday." With the incredible level of hooplah and grandstanding, you wouldn't know that the body count from these 'ecoterrorists' is exactly zero.

The disproportionate targeting of animal-rights and environmental activists (vs., say, right-wing militias and dangerous hate groups) is already obvious and has been commented on here. Let me stress that I don't approve of arson as a protest strategy - anything that can easily get someone killed as a direct result should be avoided by anyone working for a non-violent culture. BUT it has to be said: Terrorism is not about destroying property, it's about using the threat of personal, physical violence as a substitute for arguing a point. To my knowledge (I have not read the full indictment) none of these actions, nor any others here of ELF and ALF, crossed that line.

However, SHAC and its ilk routinely does cross that line, which is why it's easy for the mainstream to lump us all into the dangerous and hateful bin: "We know where you sleep at night" is what protesters down the street were shouting last week outside a drug company, helping both the employees and passersby grasp the concept that vegans only care about the lives of animals, not people. Previously SHAC has pioneered the concept of "home demos," breaking individual Huntingdon employees' windows and traumatizing their neighbors - and mnost egregiously, stocked its web site with the names, ages, and school addresses of Huntingdon employees’ children. Brilliant PR, guys. It wouldn't surprise me if Rick Berman himself turned out to be behind these actions - no one could do a better job of turning the public off to our message, and helping the government fool them into thinking that animal rights = terrorism.