Domestic Terrorism Threatens Medical Progress

[SUBMAN1]

Tree huggers are getting dangerous. They are all becoming terrorists.

My question is, why is the news ignoring it so much?

-S


The site of an ELF arson attack in Seattle

Congress looks away as attacks on medical and biological researchers continue to rise.

Earlier this month, the car of a UCSC researcher was firebombed in Santa Cruz. A few minutes later, an explosive device was used to burn down the home of another researcher. The family inside -- including two small children -- narrowly escaped through an upstairs window. One injury was reported. Later that day, yet another researcher in Santa Cruz received a phone call, threatening a third attack.


Just a few days earlier, an animal rights group left threatening pamphlets in a local cafe, calling the scientists who were attacked "murderers and torturers".


In June, a van belonging to a UCLA lab was burned. Animal Liberation Front (ALF) members claimed credit. They also claimed credit for an April attack on two Staples delivery trucks, in retaliation for the trucks delivering supplies to an animal research lab. Pictures of the attacks appeared on their website, with threats of more violence.


In February, again in Santa Cruz, six masked ALF members tried to break into the home of a cancer researcher who uses lab animals. The scientist was injured after being struck by an "unidentified object". This occurred just days after an LA judge issued restraining orders against three animal rights groups for a string of attacks on local scientists. An ALF spokesman said he "laughed" at the order. "Our [members] are risking 30-year sentences for arson, and they're going to be threatened by a restraining order?"


These are just the attacks this year. In the US. Throughout Europe, Canada, and Mexico, the total is much higher. Medical researchers around the world regularly receive threatening emails and phone calls, are stalked at their homes and offices, and have their family's safety threatened. While other forms of domestic terrorism have been sharply curtailed, animal rights and eco-terrorism are on the rise.


The damages aren't always small. In 2003, a single eco-terrorist arson attack in San Diego destroyed a $50 million apartment complex. In 1998, a similar attack in Vail caused $12 million in damages.



Medical researchers bear an ever-increasing risk. I applaud those scientists who are willing to work under such conditions. But I wonder how long they'll continue to do so. Most are motivated by their love of science, expanding human knowledge, and helping the human race. But how many will risk the lives of their children for that goal?


The stakes are high. Researchers are, quite rightly, barred from experimenting on humans. Without animal experimentation, progress in many fields of medicine and biological science is essentially impossible. While protecting the safety of U.S. citizens is always important, safeguarding scientists from terrorism is doubly so.


A PETA spokesman once said that, "Even if a cure for AIDS came from animal experimentation, we'd be against it". PETA publicly claims to be against violence, but the group has long been accused of channeling funds and information to groups like the ALF.


Last week, a bail bondsman jokingly told colleagues he'd like to shoot Barack Obama and George Bush. Within days, he was arrested, charged, and held without bond. Yet the FBI and local authorities seem powerless to halt the organized terrorism being waged by animal rights fanatics. Why? Are these activists truly so well-organized and secretive as to withstand the full attention of professional law enforcement? These terrorists aren't hiding in the hills of Pakistan, after all; they're walking the streets of U.S. cities. Their attacks are planned in U.S. homes. How do these groups continue to operate?


Is it because their attacks -- popular in states such as California -- aren't given the full attention they deserve? Three years ago, when the FBI testified to Congress about the growing danger of animal rights and eco-terrorist groups, several members expressed outrage. Senator Frank Lautenberg, who describes himself as a "tree hugger", scoffed at attempts to label the ALF and other such groups as terrorists. Senator James Jeffords called the incidents minor as they only threaten "dozens of people", whereas an attack on a chemical or nuclear site might threaten thousands.

I don't agree. Such attacks are nothing less than an attack on science itself. And it's time they were stopped.

http://www.dailytech.com/Domestic+Te...ticle12647.htm

[UnderseaLcpl]

Fox News didn't jump all over this?

If they didn't, that disturbs me. I generally thought that by watching CNN and Fox and the BBC that I could juxtaposition the three and get some semblance of objective reporting out of them.

[Zachstar]

Nice to see you grouping in all environmentalists with eco-terrorists Subman.. Shows your ability to think..

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by Zachstar

Nice to see you grouping in all environmentalists with eco-terrorists Subman.. Shows your ability to think..

Please don't single me out for an insult man. Thanks.

-S

[Zachstar]

Tree huggers are getting dangerous. They are all becoming terrorists.

Do you deny these words?

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by Zachstar

Do you deny these words?

Its the truth lately. Greenpeace included.

[Zachstar]

So you are saying because I do not support tearing up the environment to extract more oil and coal and think that funds going to R&D I am a terrorist? Is that your line of thought?

Is it 2002 again?

Edit: Why don't you keep your crap towards those who actually deserve it like these wackjobs and Sea Shepherd and related groups..

[Frame57]

You know I once saw a group of tree huggers surrounding a tree creating a human chain in order to stop a logger from doing his job. The news was there and it made quite a stink on the television. I thought that the logger should have just cut down the tree anyway. Hell, I would have and maybe those pot smoking brats would have learned a lesson. It is one thing to protest, but when stop someone from doing their job, well, then you just get in the way and suffer the consequences for your own stupidity.

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by Zachstar

So you are saying because I do not support tearing up the envionment to extract more oil and coal and think that funds going to R&D I am a terrorist? Is that your line of thought?

Is it 2002 again?

This has nothing to do with you singling me out and insulting me. I see you are trying to change the subject since you screwed up - enough already.

You either have a conversation on the facts, or not. Insulting me is not the way forward. At this point, I've already discounted everything you said.

As they say, you've already lost a conversation the moment the attacks move to the person from the facts. Find another thread.

-S

[Zachstar]

The subject is about your words.. You choose a news article that mentioned the work of real criminals and decided to use it to try to drag in other environmentalists..

You decided to start this.. You decided to say I and many others are terrorists..

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by Zachstar

The subject is about your words.. You choose a news article that mentioned the work of real criminals and decided to use it to try to drag in other environmentalists..

You decided to start this.. You decided to say I and many others are terrorists..

This may be hard for you to understand, but your attack has already made me not to want to have any conversation on the subject at hand with you. So at this moment, I will respond to other people, but not you. Thanks. cya.

-S

[DeepIron]

So you are saying because I do not support tearing up the environment to extract more oil and coal and think that funds going to R&D I am a terrorist?

ter·ror·ist n.One that engages in acts or an act of terrorism.
adj.Of or relating to terrorism.

The real question is not about ones personal beliefs, convictions or philosophy. It's more about an individual using or engaging in methods or tactics against other people that would be construed as "terrorist acts". Violence, coercion, instigating fear, etc.

[Zachstar]

And this attack is a terrorist attack.. I have zero tolerance for these types of cowardly attacks in the name of environmentalism.. They need to be charged and punished to the full extent of the law..

But I also have no respect for those who wish to use it to attack all tree huggers.. And that is the issue here because the OP choose it to be when the words were placed in the topic..

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by DeepIron

ter·ror·ist n.One that engages in acts or an act of terrorism.
adj.Of or relating to terrorism.

The real question is not about ones personal beliefs, convictions or philosophy. It's more about an individual using or engaging in methods or tactics against other people that would be construed as "terrorist acts". Violence, coercion, instigating fear, etc.

We've got a bunch of ELF and ALF people over here. Just found some woman as well that they have been looking for for 20 years. She is headed to jail last I heard. Its becoming a common thing to see the above. Not good.

People die when this happens, and these people think that is a message to the rest. Its crazy.

-S

[Zachstar]

Even more crazed when their cause is helped by people trying to attach their actions to all environmentalists..