The events of September 11 have forced us all to look at our lives, and our work, with new perspective. The reaction to the assault on the United States that day was a warning. Will it cause those who would use terror, violence, destruction, or distortion in order to achieve their political ends to reconsider their tactics?
It is not our intention to minimize the national tragedy, nor to link in any way opponents of business to those who committed terrorism that day. But highlighting the risks that violent extremists pose to our industries, and to personal choice is central to the Center For Consumer Freedom.
We believe that open debate is one of the most valued American freedoms, and that by engaging in debate we are supporting and honoring our heritage. We call on those with whom we disagree to do so free of violence, fear, and distortion.
None Dare Call it Terror?
We don't want to diminish the significance of the word "terrorism" by applying it to every destructive act of anti-choice activists. But in some unfortunate cases, their campaigns of fear and intimidation approach that level.
Arson and bombings: On the very day of the attacks on New York and Washington, the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) took credit for the firebombing of a Tucson McDonald’s. Working closely with the Earth Liberation Front, they have also set off firebombs at meat companies and feed mills, leading the FBI to suggest, “By any sense or any definition this is a true domestic terrorism group that uses criminal activity to further their political agenda.”
Property destruction: According to 60 Minutes, ELF “torched the office of Dr. Catherine Ives…to protest her research of genetic engineering…Dr. Ives said she’d been working for years to develop disease-resistant crops to help feed people in Africa.”
Threats of violence: In July, PETA’s Bruce Friedrich said, “It would be great if all the fast-food outlets, slaughterhouses, these laboratories, and the banks who fund them exploded tomorrow.”
“This was not an ‘attack on all American people.’... The majority of the victims were, unfortunately, working for the Pentagon and various elements of multinational financial empires.”
— Gar Smith of the Earth Island Institute, which works with SeaWeb on anti-food choice campaigns
Kidnapping and murder: America’s homegrown radical anti-choice activists like to say they’re not really violent, because they haven’t killed anyone. But it’s only a matter of time. In 1999 in Britain, animal rights terrorists kidnapped a journalist at gunpoint, tortured him with a branding iron, and threatened to harm his family — all because he reported on their extreme activities. And in 2000, their counterparts in France killed a McDonald’s employee when they bombed a franchise there.
Dollars for Destruction
“It’s not just a matter of going after the perpetrators, but it’s going after and dealing with the sources of support that they have.”
That’s Secretary of State Colin Powell, talking about how international criminals are funded through the channels of “charitable organizations.” At home in the United States as well, extremist violence is funded — sometimes unwittingly — by dollars from “peaceful” foundations and other nonprofits.
- The John Merck Fund and the Turner Foundation fund the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), which promotes the scare that “mad cow” disease is present in the U.S. food supply.
- The Pond Foundation and the Helen Brach Foundation fund PETA, which in turn sent $45,200 to the legal defense fund of terrorist Rodney Coronado. Coronado pleaded guilty to arson charges relating to a fire he started at a university animal research facility. The FBI believes Coronado is responsible for at least eight other arsons in the 1990s.
- The Packard and Rockefeller Foundations fund Essential Information, a Ralph Nader organization. One sector of the group, Essential Action, funds the Ruckus Society, which runs “action camps” before major protests to train activists in “urban climbing and rappelling,” “police confrontation strategies,” and other forms of disruption. These protests have resulted in destruction of Starbucks, McDonald’s, and other food franchises.
The Earth Liberation Front poses a threat “no less heinous than what we saw occur yesterday here in Washington and in New York.”
— U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-OR, September 12, 2001
Do any of these foundations know what they’re funding? In 1999, the Turner Foundation directly gave Ruckus $50,000 specifically “for support of Direct Action Training Camps.”
Sticks and Stones and Scare Campaigns
Propaganda: Words deployed with the intention of causing panic are a form of violence, too. The “mad cow” scare campaign in the United States is intended to frighten consumers to avoid conventional meat supply and “go organic.” Organic Consumers Association president Ronnie Cummins hopes that a U.S. mad-cow epidemic -- and the resulting "crisis of confidence" in American food -- will lead to a “new era of sustainable living and organic agriculture.” To bring about this revolution, anti-meat zealots — including the Organic Consumers Association — link Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a devastating disease known to American doctors for over a century, to the medically similar “mad cow” disease, which has never appeared in the United States. They have even claimed that “mad cow” is already present in the U.S. food supply. And if you repeat something often enough...
