PATRIOT games.

[mattd]

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."