The PATRIOT shredding and flushing of the constitution was drawn up and ready to go.Some background I want to store online,justin Case. The Juvenile Justice Bill After the Columbine High School shootings, the US Senate passed the May 1999 Juvenile Justice Bill. Though unrelated in any way to "juvenile justice," several provisions were included that directly target animal rights and environmental activists. Reflecting industry pressure and influence, the Juvenile Justice Bill condemns people who commit politically motivated nonviolent offenses with exceedingly disproportionate prison terms. Unfortunately, this law is only one example of a systematic attempt by industry and government to discourage direct action by punishing activists with jail time that far exceeds time given to truly violent and dangerous people. Such sentencing preferences illustrate the priority the state (and our crypto-fascist , creep of creeps,Tim May btw.)gives to property over human life. The Juvenile Justice Bill also: 1. Makes it a federal crime to distribute information on how to make bombs (over the Internet or otherwise) or other weapons of mass destruction if the "teacher intends" for the information to be used to commit a federal violent crime, or knows that the recipient will use the information to commit such a crime. 2. Enhances penalties under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act by changing a minimum sentence to a mandatory five years instead of one. 3. Creates a "National Animal Terrorism and Ecoterrorism Incident Clearinghouse" to "accept, collect and maintain" information on crimes against animal enterprises or commercial activities because of their perceived impact on the environment. Records of such incidents are available for all law enforcement agencies. 4. Enhances sentences for "gangs," defined as the assembly of three or more people. These sentencing guidelines promote selective and politically biased prosecution by applying more serious penalties against those who commit crimes in defense of animals or the environment. The courts are being asked to evaluate the actions of an individual and the thoughts behind an action instead of simply evaluating the actual crime. The bill also undermines the First Amendment protection of websites and publications. The RICO Act In May 1999, Senators Orin G. Hatch (R-UT) and Diane Feinstein (D-CA) introduced an amendment to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act, aimed at "Animal Enterprise Terrorism and Ecoterrorism." RICO was originally designed to combat traditional organized crime and its infiltration of legitimate enterprises; however, its most innovative, and controversial, aspects are provisions which allow the state to seize property owned by anyone charged with being part of a "criminal enterprise." RICO targets illegal activity organized across state lines. Thus, if you "organize" using email and telephone, you can potentially be prosecuted under federal laws. In the past, RICO has been employed primarily against white-collar criminals, anti-abortion protesters and mobsters. Now, target groups can include just about anyone. Oregon Declares War on Activists On March 12, two bills intended to stiffen penalties for "eco-terrorists" were unanimously approved by the Oregon House of Representatives. Under HR 2344 and 2385, Oregons organized crime laws would be expanded to include activities such as tree spiking and sabotage of animal research, livestock or agricultural operations. Convictions under the laws would be punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $300,000 fine. Reflecting the hysterical attitude and culture of propaganda currently prevailing in the Oregon legislature, Representative Bob Jenson claimed he received threatening letters and phone calls a year ago when lawmakers were first considering HR 2344 and 2385. He stated, "I will do everything to ensure that if you break the law as part of those protests, that you will get free room and board for 20 years." The process of attacking social movements in Oregon fits into a larger pattern of criminalizing dissent with respect to the anti-globalization movement, which is made up of anarchists, environmentalists, animal rights activists, students, Unions, teachers and others concerned about the fate of the planet and each other. David Helvarg, author of The War Against the Greens, stresses how difficult it is for ecologically destructive industries to look good and publicly justify their actions; therefore, their strategy has been "to make us look bad, demonize us and make themselves look respectable as a result." If one were to compare a cancer-causing industrial polluter to a teenage monkeywrencher, it would become glaringly apparent to the public as to who is the real "eco-terrorist." Groups to Watch Out For "A growing network of pro-technology activists is making sure that the message of my book, EcoTerror: The Violent Agenda to Save Nature, will produce results. By results, I mean congressional hearings and legislation to protect the public from environmentally motivated violence," says Ron Arnold in a Christian Science Monitor interview. Arnold is a spokesperson for the right-wing Wise Use movement and the executive director of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise. In a 1992 interview, he said, "Were out to kill the fuckers. Our goal is to eliminate environmentalism once and for all." He is a former spokesperson for Dow and Union Carbide and has financial support from corporations such as Exxon, DuPont, Georgia Pacific and Boise Cascade. Public relations firms, lobbying groups and think tanks work with and fund the Wise Use movement. Included amongst these institutions is the Heritage Foundation, which published a report entitled, Ecoterrorism: The Dangerous Fringe of the Environmental Movement. The report is a typical Wise Use mixture of truth, fiction and innuendo which targets Earth First! as a violent terrorist group. The report concludes with a strong denunciation of the use of violence as a tactic and claims that radical environmentalists are locked into an ever-increasing rampage of terrorist activity which is maiming, and which will inevitably result in the killing of innocent people. The report goes on to identify EF! as the enemy and pleads with the environmental community to isolate EF! and other so-called violent radicals from the environmental movement. It is interesting to note that this report was released in April 1990 and spread quickly through the Wise Use network. A think tank linked to the CIA, the National Strategy Information Center, operates a Counterterrorism Study Group (CSG). The CSG has identified all the possible sources of terrorism in the world today. Along with Iraq, Syria, and Lybia, it has concluded that a new source of terrorism exists within the "ecological movement," especially the elements of the movement which espouse biocentric views. The mission of the CSG is to identify the nature of various terrorist threats, devise new methodologies to analyze them and to implement responses through legal, military, political and intelligence means. The CSG has an international composition with academics, corporate officials and former government specialists in terrorism. Disinformation campaigns and psychological warfare against environmentalists are only some of the techniques that are practicednot only by the FBI, but by a whole alphabet soup of federal organizations, along with the participation of local police forces, private security firms, local government and Wise Use sympathizers. "The environmental movement is being subjected to obvious surveillance, intimidation, anonymous letters, phony leaflets, telephone threats, police over-reaction and brutality, dubious arrests and other threatening actions unfamiliar to most activists," says Chip Berlet in his article "Hunting the Green Menace." Berlet continues that the "labeling of a group as violent, terrorist or pro-communist is often a first step toward the delegitimizing of that group. Such labeling undermines public support and thus sanctions the use of aggressive surveillance and harassment by government agencies or private security firms. There is also a self-fulfilling prophecy with labeling, as police are likely to respond with unjustified force when they have been trained to think of peaceful protesters as violent terrorists."