Blaming Activists

In the Wake of the Giffords Shooting, FBI Agents Investigate… Spraypaint on Fishing Boats

In the aftermath of the Arizona shooting, FBI agents are investigating what they say may be another act of domestic terrorism: the ELF spraypainting fishing boats.

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Did “Eco-Terrorists” Cause the Gulf Oil Spill?

The oil spill in the Gulf is on track to surpass the Exxon Valdez as the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. That doesn’t bode well financially for BP, and it doesn’t bode well politically for the drill-baby-drill crowd. So how has the far right responded? By trying to blame it on “eco-terrorists.” Rush Limbaugh, […]

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Man Drives Over Bicyclists, Then Calls Them “Eco-terrorists”

A Seattle man who drove his Subaru through a group of Critical Mass bike riders has called the cyclists… wait for it… “eco-terrorists.” It seems that the lunatic driver, Mark, says he felt intimidated and afraid because of the cyclists, so he tried to rev his engine and instead accidentally put a couple people in […]

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Racists Vandalize PETA Building, But of Course That’s Not Terrorism

The danger of all this “terrorism” rhetoric is how politically malleable it is: industry groups can mold it into “eco-terrorism,” KFC can hammer it into “corporate terrorism” to smear Peta, and on and on and on. The word can be melted and reformed into a weapon against the latest enemy of the hour. The flipside […]

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Seattle Times Article Raising Questions About “ELF” Arsons, Potter Quoted

Yesterday’s Seattle Times article by Jonathan Martin and Mike Carter raises some good points about the recent arsons outside of Seattle, arsons that the FBI and industry groups like the National Association of Home Builders have rushed to label as not only an Earth Liberation Front action, but “eco-terrorism.” Some highlights: “This could be insurance […]

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Before the Smoke Even Clears in Seattle, Bringing Out the T-Word

UPDATE: This blog post was also published by Counterpunch, on March 07, 2008. Multi-million dollar mansions in a Seattle suburb–each about 4,200-4,750 square feet, going for about $2 million a pop, touted as “green”– were burned Monday. About $7 million in damage on the “Street of Dreams.” Nobody injured, nobody home. But before the smoke […]

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UK Letter Bomber Uses Animal Rights Messages as “Smokescreen”

A man who sent letter bombs in the UK apparently used hype and fear around “eco-terrorism” as a “smokescreen.” When news of the letter bombs first broke back in January, there was a lot of talk about the fact that one of the envelopes had the words “Dr Barry Horne, RIP” (the name of a […]

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