Here’s a clip of this morning’s interview on KPFT 90.1 FM Houston & 89.5 Galveston with Janice Blue. We talked a bit about the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act and the Green Scare, and Andrea Lindsay was on to discuss supporting the SHAC 7, who are activists convicted under the original legislation for running a website.
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Here’s a bit more on the show, from the Go Vegan Texas website:
November 26, 2006
“The war on terrorism has come home. Corporations and politicians are labeling activists ‘eco-terrorists’ and national security risks. Think red baiting with a green twist.â€
— Will Potter, journalist, on his blog: www.GreenistheNewRed.com/blog“How can you have a war on terrorism, when war is terrorism? Governments are terrorists.â€
— Howard Zinn, from a recent lecture in Madison, WI,
on “The Uses of History and The War on Terrorismâ€â€œThis (AETA) bill was written to have a chilling effect…I am for protecting the first amendment and not creating a special class of violations for a specific type of protest. Just as we need to protect peoples’ right to conduct their work without fear of assault, so too this Congress has yet to address some fundamental ethical principles with respect to animals. How should animals be treated humanely? This is a debate that hasn’t come here.â€
— US Rep Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
in opposition to AETA, the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act
on the floor of Congress, moments before it was passed
in a yah/nay vote, 4-2 vote, Monday, November 13, 2006Targeting Activists as Terrorists:
AETA – Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act passes the House
November 13, 2006What Went Wrong with AETA?
Why didn’t the Animal Rights Community Rally Sooner?
Where was the ACLU?
& Why are so few in the media covering this story?with our guests
Will Potter
Award-winning reporter based in Washington, D.C.,
focuses on how the War on Terrorism affects civil liberties &and
Andrea Lindsay
animal rights activist and spokesperson, SHAC 7-
6 individuals and an organization convicted under the existing Animal Enterprise Protection ActYou might call Will Potter, the Paul Revere of our movement. The independent investigative journalist was sounding out warnings about the threat to civil liberties, for months, if AETA passed. Last August he was the lone voice to testify against it at the Congressional hearings, whereas the biomedical industry packed the room. Soon after, he gave one of the keynote speeches at the 2006 AR conference in Washington, DC, and told a packed audience of animal rights supporters: “Everyone needs to be damned scared about what’s going on.â€
He ended his speech saying animal rights activists are the “canaries of the mine.â€
He appeared on Go Vegan Texas! a month later, September 18, and the very last thing he said was again to issue a warning to the animal rights community to rally against this bill’s passage because of the dire consequences to our civil liberties.
A month later, October 16, various groups finally met in Washington, DC, to rally under the banner, Equal Justice Ã…lliance. It was a little too late…On Monday, November 13, on the first day back from Election Recess, with only 6 members of the House on the floor, and only one member, Dennis Kucincich, speaking in opposition, AETA passed quickly in a 4-2 yay/nay voice vote. It is on its way to the President’s desk, as it passed unanimously in the Senate in a month earlier.
Will gave this post op on his blog, three days later:
“Industry groups have said again and again that Congress needed to pass the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act this week because the original legislation, the Animal Enterprise Protection Act, didn’t go far enough. There are loopholes in the law, they say, that allow for “tertiary targeting.†They also have said again and again that the expanded law won’t be used to target First Amendment activity.
Meanwhile, as corporations and the politicians that represent them rushed through this legislation, a group of nonviolent activists prepared to spend the next several years in prison. The remaining defendants in the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty case– Josh, Jake, Kevin, Lauren and Darius– began their prison sentences today.
I try to avoid using loaded descriptions like “Orwellian,†because using them too often waters down the true meaning. But as these activists headed off to prison this morning, I kept thinking “War is Peace.†Members of Congress and industry groups have pulled off a PR feat that would make Joseph McCarthy proud…â€
We are proud to have Will Potter with us this morning on Go Vegan Texas! and he will be joined by Andrea Lindsay, an animal rights activist and spokesperson for the SHAC 7, six of whom began serving lengthy prison sentences for running a controversial website promoting the closure of the notorious animal testing lab, Huntington Life Sciences.
Thank you for listening to Go Vegan Texas! today with an open mind and heart,
Janice Blue
Host, Go Vegan Texas!
Every Monday @ 10am (CDT) on Pacifica Radio
KPFT-Houston, 90.1 FM and 89.5 FM-Galveston
Listen live on www.govegantexas.org
Or later on the KPFT Archive: http://archive.kpft.org