Animal Protection > ALF Foes

Operation Backfire Backfires on the FBI
May 10, 2006
[from Infoshop News]

Like the cleansing waters of Hurricane Katrina, the FBI's attack on the environmental movement has done more for creating community and organizing resistance to government oppression than we were seemingly capable of doing ourselves. At first, everyone was hunkering down or running for cover, moving on or going on hasty, long-term vacations. You did not know who to talk to or who to trust. Except for the peaceniks, the once-radical streets of Eugene were strangely quiet. The bars are full though, and there is a lot of whispering and commiserating going on.
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But out of the flooded backwaters of government repression a new power has risen. People are coming out of the woodwork to step up and help their friends in trouble—"retired" old-timers, family members and relatives, old friends and undaunted youngsters, too. Black Panthers, AIMsters, feminists, Vietnam-era activists and even those who lived through the McCarthy era are providing wisdom and camaraderie when, at one time, there was little connection. Some are organizing and taking off work to do grand jury roadshows, high school buddies and families are educating themselves and flying across the country to attend court hearings, food donations and an outpouring of support are being offered to affected families, proactive media collectives are forming, lawyers are volunteering their time, and environmental groups are being recruited for support.
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The once-untouchable Earth Liberation Front (ELF) movement—so covert in what it did (does) that the FBI had no leads on the most notorious acts of politically motivated sabotage the country has seen since Sam Lovejoy and the Plowshares—has, at least in the media, been reduced to he said, she said. Now, after all the post-9/11 hearings, the FBI ain't looking so good, but let me tell you, once upon a time this outfit had some respect in this country, some teeth and some muscle. So it is not the FBI at their best that is claiming to have beaten the ELF, and it is a shame to have them laughing at us instead of the other way around.
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There is a lot of work to do, and we need to keep at it. Decry the huge sentences our comrades are facing, but bring the issue back to the state of the environment. Sooner or later the real ecoterrorists (the Bushes, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the corporations who work for them) must be brought to task for their crimes. It remains up to us, the radical environmental movement, to speak out and take action to stop the madness. With global climate change, rampant deforestation, massive species extinctions and toxics all around us, we know it is not long before all hell breaks loose and things get really messy.

Jim Flynn was a member of the EF! Journal editorial collective last century when all they had to worry about was being associated with the Unabomber, death threats from loggers, and Roselle smoking pot in the office. Ah, the good ol' days!

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full story: http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20060510125753518