Center for Consumer Freedom

Last week the group detonated military smoke bombs in downtown Seattle office buildings. In response, our director of research wrote a guest column in the Seattle Times, suggesting a connection between such terrorist acts and a recent animal rights convention held in Northern Virginia. SHAC's membership uses the Internet's built-in anonymity to foment violence; a few days before the Seattle attack, one budding thug posted a threatening message on an Internet bulletin board using the screen alias "If eating meat doesn't kill you, I will!"

The SHAC web site claims "credit" for violent crimes and grand theft, and even provides identifying information -- height, weight, license plate number, dog's name, spouse's work habits, etc. -- on targeted executives, in the hope that activists will take matters into their own hands.

The Philadelphia Inquirer has had enough. In a lead editorial, the Inquirer rails against "criminals" who "say they stand for less violence" but "end up using it." And discussing SHAC's smoke-bomb attack on Seattle, editors at the Everett (WA) Herald opined on Monday that "these domestic terrorists preyed on the vulnerability of innocent people, leaving us to wonder -- what were they thinking?"

The Herald need look no further than the "Animal Rights 2002" conference, where SHAC leader Kevin Jonas (himself a former ALF "spokesperson") advised hundreds of activists that "you don't need a 4-year degree to call in a bomb hoax." In Jonas' opinion, "the animal rights movement is strong," and "it's time to start flexing our muscles."