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On September 11, 2001, America was shocked at the depths of the hatred shown by the Islamist terror-mongers who slammed hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. We were shocked, we were enraged, and we vowed to act. And act we did; the Taliban who offered aid and shelter to the nefarious Al Qaeda terrorists is now on history’s scrap heap. Iraqi thug and mass-murderer Saddam Hussein has followed suit, and the Middle East may finally be joining the modern world. That’s all to the good, but maybe it’s time we started looking closer to home. We’ve got our own brand of homegrown hate right here among us. Terror groups are circulating among us even now, and they have already used arson, beatings, torture, and a host of other crimes to forward their own brand of radical fundamentalism. These terror groups are composed of US citizens; they are from middle class families, they are largely college-educated, they are motivated, well funded, and they support an absolutely totalitarian goal. They are the terrorists of the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front, and just like the Taliban; they wish to impose their own twisted, extremist views on the world. They want to force you to stop eating meat, to stop wearing fur or leather, to stop building your homes where you choose, to stop driving the cars that you choose, to stop seeking advancement in medical science. Consumed with hate for a society that has utterly rejected their philosophy, they don’t hesitate to use violence to forward their goals. A communiqué from the Earth Liberation Front dated September 4, 2002, stated: “In pursuance of justice, freedom, and equal consideration for all innocent life across the board, segments of this global revolutionary movement are no longer limiting their revolutionary potential by adhering to a flawed, inconsistant (sic) "non-violent" ideology. While innocent life will never be harmed in any action we undertake, where it is necessary, we will no longer hesitate to pick up the gun to implement justice, and provide the needed protection for our planet that decades of legal battles, pleading, protest, and economic sabotage have failed so drastically to achieve.” The Animal Liberation Front’s Web site, www.animalliberationfront.org, presents a laundry list of tactics for the eco-terrorist – tips on defeating security, how-to advice on anything from vandalism to arson. When are our law-enforcement agencies going to give the eco-terror groups the attention they deserve? It took more than military action to defeat the Taliban. Economic pressure was applied to the Taliban militia and Al Qaeda as well. We can do much the same to our own homegrown eco-terrorists. It’s not hard to ascertain where eco-terror groups get their funding, either; their funding comes from “donations” helpfully provided by “mainstream” animal rights groups like the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. PeTA is currently under scrutiny for a $1,500 donation to the Animal Liberation Front, which they freely admit was earmarked for ALF “activities.” A Congressional panel questioned PeTA, but so far, no action has been taken. PeTA directly financed eco-terrorist Josh Harper, paying $5,000 for his legal defense. Harper was convicted of assaulting police officers and firing on a fishing boat. PeTA directly financed eco-terrorist Fran Trutt to the tune of $7,500. Trutt was convicted of the attempted murder of a medical company executive. PeTA directly financed eco-terrorist Rod Coronado, contributing a whopping $20,000 to his legal defense. Coronado was subsequently convicted of arson for burning a research laboratory at Michigan State University. When will our law-enforcement agencies and the IRS act to shut off the cash tap to eco-terror groups? Laughably, the eco-terrorists claim to be “non-violent,” because, they say, no human beings have actually been injured or killed as a result of one of their terror attacks – yet. As with many eco-terrorist claims, that’s not true. In fact, it’s quite simply a lie. A British journalist who had the temerity to produce a video documentary attacking the ALF’s tactics was kidnapped and tortured with a hot iron. In France, a McDonald’s employee was killed by an ALF firebomb. It’s only a matter of time before it happens in the United States. And when a firefighter dies while battling an ALF arson, what deaf ears will the “non-violent” rhetoric fall on then! One of the better arguments for taking Saddam Hussein out of the international picture involved dealing with him immediately, rather than waiting for him to gather the resources to sponsor a nuclear or chemical attack against Western civilians. There’s no good reason not to apply the same reasoning to our own purveyors of homegrown hate.
Ward M. Clark is a Colorado-based freelance writer, and the author of Misplaced Compassion, the Animal Rights Movement Exposed. See his web site at www.frombearcreek.com