The Huffingtonpost Lets the Agenda Driven Rhetoric of an Anti-Environmentalist to Twist a Headline and a Story

It’s surprising to me that journalists will allow their thoughts—as well as their headlines and stories—to be shaped by special interests. In this case, the Huffingtonpost has a story about 100 genetically modified papaya trees being hacked down in Hawaii.

            The story identifies the act as possibly being “eco-terrorism.” As I’ve blogged before, “eco-terrorism” was a term coined by Ron Arnold, who has been an executive with the Center For the Defense of Free Enterprise for the last 30 years. He opposes environmental concerns.

            Since he first came up with the smear that puts vandals and saboteurs in the same category as the Boston Marithon bombers and Osama bin Laden, Arnold’s neologism has become part of the lexicon of the FBI, which now has a definition of domestic eco-terrorism that is loosely defined to include vandalism. This obviously pleases Arnold. In an odd sort of cyber-tautology he now cites this FBI definition on the web site of the Center For the Defense of Free Enterprise to back up his lexicographic campaign.

            I don’t really know much about the Huffingtonpost, but it should be above using this sort of agenda driven rhetoric. Some folks in the FBI would be happy to drop eco-terrorism as term that the bureau uses. No one has ever been hurt by vandals who are motivated because of an environmental agenda, and some folks have criticized law enforcement agencies, believing that using the term “domestic terrorism” will get them more funds and more attention from the press.

The San Diego UT Keeps the Stupid Rhetoric of Eco-Terrorism Alive

Ten years ago folks who associated themselves with the Earth Liberation Front set afire a construction site here in San Diego. It was a big, big fire. The building was to be a five-story condominium complex. In the past decade no one has been indicted for this crime.

            In covering the anniversary, our local paper, the UT, continues to call this act of arson eco-terrorism. This was a horribly stupid, and wasteful crime, but it does not compare to exploding pressure cookers on the streets of Boston or radicals flying jet airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

            I get so tired of stupid rhetoric.

Big Crazy: ALF Steals Some Pheasants and the FBI Calls It Terrorism

This just happened a bit north of where I live, up in Riverside. In the last couple of weeks a couple who raises pheasants for commercial sale to hunters had their farm broken into by members of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) who the stole or released more than a dozen of the prized birds. The theft of the birds and vandalism of the property is being investigated by the FBI as an act of terrorism.

            That’s right, terrorism. As far as the FBI is concerned, this break-in performed with some wire cutters is on par with pressure cooker bombs killing people in Boston and airliners being flown into skyscrapers.

            I certainly have no patience for ALF. Though I can respect their beliefs about animals, and sometimes agree with their valuation of the lives of animals, I think that by taking part in blatantly illegal and destructive activities like stealing these pheasants they really don’t help anybody and don’t really help any animals. The people who committed this crime should be prosecuted.

            But is this terrorism? To think so is Big Crazy. As a spokesman for ALF, Dr. Jerry Vlasak, said, “Terrorism is thrown around a lot these days. It’s disrespectful to the victims of Boston or New York. Terrorism is flying planes into buildings, not setting animals free.”

Complain About Your Tap Water? You Could Be a Terrorist

In Maury County, Tennessee yesterday, at a meeting convened to address citizens’ concerns over the quality of their drinking water, an official of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation said to residents, “We take water quality very seriously. Very, very seriously. But you need to make sure that when you make water quality complaints, you have a basis, because federally, if there's no water quality issues, that can be considered under Homeland Security an act of terrorism [Italics mine].”

            Sherwin Smith is the Deputy Director of the TDEC’s division of water resources, and what he said to this group of concerned citizens is, in a large sense, true. If someone were to put poison in the aqueducts that bring Colorado River water to southern California, threatening the lives of millions, that could most certainly be considered terrorism. Correspondingly, if someone were to make the threat of poisoning the aqueducts or to make the false claim that they had done so, spreading fear and panic, under current law that could be considered terrorism as well.

            Smith, however, was not speaking to representatives from al Quaida hell bent on dropping anthrax into the local water tower. He was speaking to the Statewide Organization for Community eMpowerment, a civic group that had been working with Maury County residents to address water quality complaints. Some county residents have complained about cloudy, odd-tasting water for years. In recent months children have become ill; some say it’s because of bad tap water.

            Industry, some GOP politicians, and right wing rhetors have been quick to label folks that get in the way of industry as terrorist or eco-terrorists. Examples are here and here. And the FBI as made it easy to blur the line and label minor offenses as terrorism. This is the first time that I’ve run across a state government official doing the same. It’s seems to me that it was just his way of telling this group to shut up, to intimidate the citizens who showed up for this meeting. In this way, he is using this rhetoric of terrorism just as industry and right wingers do, as a verbal cudgel.

            It’s difficult enough to make a complaint to government officials. People should not have to fear that they will somehow be considered in league with Ted Kaczynski or Osama bin Laden if they call up someone at the water department to say that their tap water is cloudy and tastes funny. And considering that extractive industries are quick to attack those who question or criticize practices, it could be a facile tactic on the part of the oil and gas industry to pick op the ball from Sherwin Smith and label the folks who say that their wells have been fouled by fracking as nothing but a bunch of terrorists.

Protesters Slash Tires in Wisconsin and They Call It Eco-Terrorism

In Wisconsin protesters entered a site that a mining company hopes to turn into the largest open pit mine in the world. Compared to the destruction of mountaintop removal, the mine would cover 22,000 acres, the same area as Manhattan Island, and could potentially dump millions of tons of rock removed from the mine into the headwaters of the Bad River, which flows through a state park and an Indian reservation before emptying into Lake Superior.

            The protesters slashed tires and allegedly assaulted a female mine employee before fleeing. A spokesman for the mining company, Bob Seitz, had this to say about the incident:

"This is eco-terrorism," Seitz said. "There is no doubt it is eco-terrorism when your head is wrapped like Al Qaida and people are yelling things at people and threatening them."

Once again you have someone mislabeling vandalism and, in this case, assault as a type of terrorism. Already going overboard with his rhetoric, Seitz brings in Al Qaida, as though this crime compares to the deadly intent of Osama bin Laden’s network. The news report says nothing about the protester’s dress. Were they masquerading as some sort of T.E. Lawrence lead band of raiders? We don’t know.

            What is baffling about these attempts to tar these protesters is that Seitz could have easily condemned the actions of this group of vandals. What they did was criminal. That’s all he has to say. But there is probably more to this. Seitz is not going to say anything that is not approved by those higher up in the mining company’s power structure. Mining companies and other organizations have probably calculated that pushing this meme is in their long-term interest.

UPDATE: 6/17/13

Right-wing blogs and news have picked up this story and are pushing the "eco-terrorism" meme. In a post by Brian Fraley, a Wisconsinite who has worked for ALEC, an organization that supports big business, has a post Video: Masked Eco Terrorists Target Wisconsin Mine Site. The video shows a couple young gals confronting a member of the mine crew. Watch the video for yourself. You can judge if the gals behind the masks are threatening or not. To me, it seems to be the farthest stretch of the imagination to think of these two protesters as terrorists. Fraley expounds further over at the website RedStates. Patti Breigam-Wenzel also chimes in on the eco-terrorism theme at the Right Wisconsin website.

The East, A Movie That Keeps the Term "Eco-Terrorism" Alive

Today the movie “The East” makes its premier. If I hear that it’s good, I’ll probably go see it.

            As the trailer to the film suggests, the movie is about an “eco-activist” group. From the rest of the preview I got the impression that this group, whose members refer to as “The East,” participate in anti-corporate sabotage and are possibly involved in activities that pose dangers to others. C’mon, it’s a thriller. There has to be some real danger in there somewhere.

            My problem with this movie is that it helps to keep alive the term “eco-terrorism.” Although a number of reviewers are not using the term when they discuss the film, other television shows and newspapers are quick to label the movie as an “eco-terrorism thriller” or thriller about eco-terrorists.

            The persons who made the movie involved themselves with some pretty fringy folks as research. For two months, writer and director Zal Batmangij and writer and actress Brit Marling went dumpster diving with freeganists, people who,as a matter of principle, find and eat some of the 40 percent of the food that is discarded in this country. Freeganists are like folks who live off the grid, or the people who publish Adbusters, or the followers of the anti-consumerist preacher Reverend Billy. They are people who see themselves as living in opposition to and as a correction to the materialist and prodigal culture that 98 percent of us buy into.

            Now it’s fine that Batmangij and Marling did some dumpster diving for cantaloupes and rutabagas for a couple of months. And I understand that if you want to make a movie that makes a whole bunch of money, you get a star like Ellen Page, throw in some guns and a car chase or two, and make a blockbuster thriller. To do some real research on a group that wants to or actually does go out and commit acts of terrorism would have been extremely unethical, but it’s a long way from urban foraging to blowing up things and threatening people’s lives.

            There are a number of groups who are pretty radical in their efforts to preserve the environment. And there are similar groups allied in anti-consumerism who participate in culture jamming, civil disobedience, and yes, even sometimes vandalism and sabotage. But there is not a group like The East out there, environmentalists who are also terrorists. My fear is that this movie could very well serve to confirm some wrongly held prejudices and further justify the surveillance that these groups receive and was the topic of may last blog.

The term eco-terrorism, a manufactured neologism that was created to smear the environmental movement, is loosely applied to almost any act of civil disobedience in the name of the environment and has even been used to describe people trampling a field of grain. The term had almost completely died out, as it should. But with this Hollywood blockbuster coming out today, this word receives new life that it doesn’t deserve.

TransCanada and Eleanor Fairchild: Is a Texas Great-Grandmother an Eco-Terrorist?

This story out of Texas is kind of a double whammy for me: one, because of how corporations now have ever greater power over our lives and property, and two, because of how we now allow corporations and their promoters the power over the way we think.

The story concerns Eleanor Fairchild, a Texas great-grandmother who was arrested for putting up a fuss over TransCanada’s Keystone XL Pipeline coming through her property. She owns a 425-acre hay farm and recently stood her ground in front of a large mechanized shovel as it was being deployed to make way for the pipeline through her farm.

She, along with other protesters, including actress and activist Daryl Hannah, were arrested on misdemeanor trespass charges. She was fingerprinted, photographed, and held in isolation at the county jail.

Now here is the part that troubles me. Fairchild is upset because of the way her land wound up under the blades of a huge mechanized shovel. The state of Texas took a portion of Fairchild’s land though eminent domain and transferred ownership to TransCanada. Eminent domain has been around forever. It’s the ability of a government to seize private property for the public use, traditionally things like highways and bridges. Of course landowners must be fairly compensated when their property is taken.

But it is through a newer and corporate friendly understanding of eminent domain that Fairchild’s land was taken. The Supreme Court took up a case in 2004, Kelo vs. City of New London, in which they ruled that private property could be taken and transferred to another individual or company for business reasons, as long as there was a “public benefit,” such as jobs provided or the gentrification of a part of a city. This opens up a big can of worms for property owners. Like Fairchild, their land is now vulnerable to any corporation that can say that they are providing jobs or enhancing economic activity.

TransCanada says that their XL Pipeline provides jobs and oil, so they get Fairchild’s land, as well as other folks’ land, too. Fairchild also claims that the oil company did not compensate her to the degree of their original offer.

The other part of the story is scary, too. About a week after Fairchild was charged with misdemeanor trespassing, she was served with legal papers from TransCanada and their lawyers labeling Fairchild and other protesters as “eco-terrorists.”

I’ve blogged about the term eco-terrorism before, and it’s awfully upsetting to see that word rear it’s ugly hyphenated head again. It is believed that Ron Arnold, who is vehemently opposed to environmental concerns, coined the term in the late eighties or early nineties as a smear against people like Fairchild. Even if it was not Arnold’s neologism, the term has been used to make the suggestion that Fairchild and others like her are somehow equivalent to car bombers and Osama bin Laden.

The term has gone from being a smear to taking on the life of a real word with legal consequences. The FBI now has a definition for it and says it’s a crime. Which goes to show you how successful the corporations and right wing folks like Arnold have influenced people’s thinking.

I’m glad Eleanor Fairchild doesn’t think the way corporations want her to.