As a follow up to yesterday’s post, I thought I’d dig up a bit more on the heroic individuals out to protect the New York Stock Exchange from “terrorists” like the Teamsters, Greenpeace and the Communication Workers of America.
No such luck. The full-page ad placed in The New York Times last week was anonymous. That’s extremely rare, because if a group is willing to shell out big money for an ad in The Times, they generally want the credit and branding that goes with it. Ad costs vary based on a few factors, like size, placement, and run date. I’ve worked in PR and coordinated national advertising buys, and a full-page ad in The Times, in the A section facing the National Report, on a Friday, can easily top $100,000. I may even be grossly underestimating.
It looks like the drafters went out of their way to hide their names in webhosting databases as well. Running the anonymous website through WhoIs shows it was placed through GoDaddy.com. Then if you run it through GoDaddy, it shows that it was registered by proxy:
Registrant:
Domains by Proxy, Inc.DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United StatesRegistered through: GoDaddy.com (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: NYSEHOSTAGE.COM
Created on: 29-Mar-06
Expires on: 29-Mar-07
Last Updated on: 31-Mar-06Administrative Contact:
Private, Registration NYSEHOSTAGE.COM@domainsbyproxy.com
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
(480) 624-2599Technical Contact:
Private, Registration NYSEHOSTAGE.COM@domainsbyproxy.com
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
(480) 624-2599
NYSEHostage.com says, “This website, and the advertising associated with it, is a project of individuals and businesses who were disturbed by the New York Stock Exchange’s decision to abandon Life Sciences Research International.” The site also puts a call out to companies “targeted by anti-business radicals” for anonymous information.
Corporations would probably say they aren’t revealing their identities because they fear attacks by “eco-terrorists.” That’s a load of crap. The animal rights and environmental movements in the United States have never taken a single life. Not one. (The same can’t be said for the corporations they target, but I digress). If corporations fear anything, it’s a lawsuit for running a smear campaign labeling activists as “terrorists.”
The corporations behind this Green Scare are trying to talk out of both sides of their mouths. If activists don’t reveal their identities, or wear masks at protests because they fear government surveillance and harassment, they’re called “terrorists” and cowards. But if corporations hide their identities so they can green bait without fear of reprisal, it’s something else entirely.
And here’s the rub. The activists that do reveal their identities, like the SHAC 7, are charged with animal enterprise terrorism. Their big crime? Running a website that allegedly hurt corporate profits, harassed individuals and created a climate of fear.
Let’s turn the tables. If activists wanted to place an ad in The Times (assuming they had corporate-sized bank accounts) that called corporations “terrorists” without evidence, do you think it would run? And do you think the Department of Justice will go after NYSEHostage.com for “harassment” and “creating a climate of fear” through terrorist smear campaigns?
Not likely. This War on Terrorism is not based on any objective criteria. It’s based on profits, and the ideology of those in power. On both counts, activists are seen as a national security threat.