The terrorist attacks on America have awakened the nation to a previously unthinkable assault on our freedoms and our way of life. However, as much as the nation has united behind a determination to root out terrorism, terrorism has found a bastion of indifference, support, and even downright accomplice in domestic radical environmentalist groups.
In the wake of the terrorist attacks against America, many of these groups have failed to denounce the terror, and have instead blamed America itself for the death of thousands of its citizens.
The Earth Island Institute, a federal funding recipient(!) that has found favor with the mainstream media as a result of its self-publicized efforts to return Keiko the killer whale (star of the movie Free Willy) to the sea, responded to the terrorist attacks with an editorial titled “U.S. Responds to Terrorist Attacks with Self-Righteous Arrogance.”
Gar Smith, editor of Earth Island Journal and author of the editorial, stated America brought the attacks upon itself by rejecting so-called environmentally friendly energy in favor of oil.
America’s proper response to the attacks, argued Smith, would be to severely ratchet up the price of oil for American consumers and for “the United States to give up its position as the world’s reigning Superpower.”
Added Smith, “If towns, factories, and homes could be powered by solar and geothermal energy, no one country could dominate the world’s energy-based economies. It is time to move to a world beyond oil, beyond repression, and beyond superpowers.” Any military response, asserted Smith, would be “illogical” and “self-righteous arrogance.”
Protect yourself
Intent on ensuring that Gar Smith and the Earth Island Institute’s response to the September 11 terrorist attacks was not dismissed as a mere aberration, Green Party USA added an equally callous analysis of the events. America should respond to the attacks, suggested Green Party USA, by letting “U.S. corporations, so busy using up Earth’s resources and beggaring Earth’s life forms, protect themselves.”
Greenpeace International also rejected America’s right to respond with force. “Violence only begets violence,” the group lectured in a written statement.
The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals exposed its lack of concern for human casualties. The group criticized rescue and cleanup crews–considered by many Americans to be national heroes–for focusing primarily on humans and turning away “animal guardians” seeking out orphaned animals in the World Trade Center complex.
Eco-terrorism at home
Even as Americans came to realize the very real threat international terrorism poses to themselves and future American generations, the domestic Earth Liberation Front (ELF) was crowing about its own recent terrorist acts.
The “environmentalist” group has taken credit for over 30 terrorist attacks in the past six years, with the number of attacks per year growing at an alarming rate. After committing “only” two terrorist attacks in 1996, ELF has upped the ante each year, committing at least nine terrorist attacks in 2000 and another seven between January 1 and September 11, 2001.
On September 8, just three days before the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, ELF terrorists burned to the ground a McDonald’s restaurant in Tucson, Arizona, and then vandalized the wreckage with “ELF” and “ALF” (Animal Liberation Front) graffiti.
Even more appallingly, on September 18, just days after the horrible events of September 11, Tucson police were called to the scene of a Ronald McDonald House for seriously ill children, which had been vandalized and covered with “ELF,” “ALF,” swastikas, and anti-fast food graffiti.
Ronald McDonald House spokesperson Denisa Casement reports she now fears for the safety of families staying at Ronald McDonald Houses nationwide. Such fears are particularly stinging in that the terrorism targets unfortunate families whose children are undergoing treatment for life-threatening diseases.
Not only does ELF take credit for dozens of acts of terrorism over recent years, but even in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks the group openly encourages and instructs other persons and groups contemplating acts of domestic terrorism.
The ELF Web site opens with a full-color photograph of one of its arson attacks and, in large-print text, the words “Every night is Earth night.” The site also offers a how-to terrorist guide titled “Setting Fires With Electrical Timers–An Earth Liberation Front Guide.” The guide provides “the politics and practicalities of arson. Down-to-earth advice and how-tos about devices, fuel requirements, timers, security, and more.”
The ELF Web site also offers “If an Agent Knocks,” a publication directing its terrorists how to frustrate and evade FBI counter-terrorism agents.
Against capitalism and industry
The statements and actions of the radical environmentalists in the wake of the September 11 attacks speak volumes about the ideology and loyalties of the radical green movement.
America, and indeed human life itself, counts for little in the anti-human, anti-freedom agenda of the radical environmentalist movement. ELF justifies its terrorist acts this way:
“The ELF realizes the profit motive caused and reinforced by the capitalist society is destroying all life on this planet. . . . This year, 2001, we hope to see an escalation in tactics against capitalism and industry.”America, and indeed human life itself, counts for little in the anti-human, anti-freedom agenda of the radical environmentalist movement.
