Crackdown on Radical Environmentalists Moving Forward

With "anti-terrorist task forces" being built up by surge of funds from Washington, as recently reported by U.S. News and World Report, the targets of these intelligence units vary but all are being labeled security or terrorists threats. The publication says it "has identified nearly a dozen cases in which city and county police, in the name of homeland security, have surveilled or harassed animal-rights and antiwar protesters, union activists, and even library patrons surfing the Web." Radical direct-action oriented environmental groups, like the Earth Liberation Front, are recieving the brunt end of the FBI stick. In an article published in yesterday's Seattle Times the paper told of over 190 FBI investigations in the last three years which focused on what the agency has labeled "ecoterrorism." Others have taken notice, as well. The Southern Poverty Law Center recently published a report which illuminated the extent to which the FBI is going after groups like the ELF and ALF, using informants, plants, high-tech surveilance, and formerly obscure laws.