In Case You Missed It

Compiled by Brian Kaller

Conservationists called biggest terrorism threat

An FBI official called environmental and animal-rights activists the nation’s top domestic terrorism threat, according to the Associated Press. FBI deputy assistant director for counter-terrorism John Lewis told a Senate committee that groups like Animal Liberation Front, Earth Liberation Front and Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty are “way out in front” on the list of threats to America.

ALF says on its website that its small, autonomous groups of people take “direct action” against animal abuse by rescuing animals. ELF is an underground movement with no public leadership, membership or spokesperson. The British-based SHAC describes itself as a campaign to rescue animals tortured in research labs, and says it “does not encourage or incite illegal activity.”

While such groups remain miniscule and have never killed anyone, Lewis said such groups were a bigger threat than “right-wing extremists, KKK, anti-abortion groups and the like.”

Senator James Inhofe, R-Okla., the committee’s chair, said he hoped to put more pressure on “mainstream activists” that might be sympathetic to such groups.
“Just like al-Qaeda or any other terrorist organization, ELF and ALF cannot accomplish their goals without money, membership and the media,” Inhofe said.

“Animal-rights groups biggest U.S. threat, FBI says,” Associated Press, May 18, 2005.

Celebrity says he will kill Michael Moore

Celebrity radio host Glenn Beck said he was “thinking about killing [author and filmmaker] Michael Moore” May 17, and pondered whether “I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it,” according to the media watchdog group MediaMatters.org.

Beck also said that “I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out.”

The national program is syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks, which is owned by giant corporation Clear Channel Communications. Beck can be heard on more than 160 radio stations across the country and has an estimated audience of six million Americans. He has falsely accused Moore of “taking help and money from [Palestinian group] Hezbollah,” and called Michael Berg, who criticized the Bush administration after his son Nick was beheaded in Iraq, a “scumbag.”

"Radio host Glenn Beck 'thinking about killing Michael Moore,'" MediaMatters.org, May 18, 2005.

Nun released from 33-month prison term

After 33 months in federal prison, a Baltimore nun who protested by a nuclear missile silo has gained her freedom.

Sister Carol Gilbert was one of three Dominican nuns convicted of painting crosses in blood on a Colorado nuclear missile silo on Oct. 6, 2002, and were imprisoned for "damage." One of her fellow sisters has also been freed, but another remains imprisoned for a 41-month term.

Gilbert returned home to the Jonah House, a communal society for Christian activists founded by Catholic priest Phillip Berrigan, who also served years in federal prison for his opposition to the federal government's invasion of Vietnam. Gilbert said she is ready to do it all over again.

"We did this action before the present war in Iraq and we wanted to try to prevent that war by exposing our own complicity and our own weapons of mass destruction," Gilbert said. "It's my faith that motivates me and leads me, and out of that faith is my love for children."

"Baltimore Nun Released From Prison After Silo Protest," WBAL-11, May 24, 2005.

U.S., Britain tried to provoke war with Iraq

The British and U.S. governments doubled the rate at which they were dropping bombs on Iraq in 2002 in an attempt to provoke Saddam Hussein into giving the allies an excuse for war, the Sunday Times reported May 29.

The new information shows that the two governments dropped twice as many bombs on Iraq in the second half of 2002 as they did during the whole of 2001. The bombing surge began six months before the November 8 United Nations resolution that was offered as an excuse for the invasion.

A few weeks ago, the Sunday Times leaked the details of a July 2002 meeting of British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his advisors, discussing how to make "regime change" in Iraq legal. The meeting minutes proved that George W. Bush's administration had already made plans to invade Iraq, long before the decision had been made public.

"RAF bombing raids tried to goad Saddam into war," Sunday Times, May 29, 2005.

Randall Terry may run for U.S. Senate

Forty-time convict Randall Terry, who resurfaced on the national stage recently as a spokesperson for Terri Schiavo's parents, said Thursday he may launch a Republican primary challenge to former Tennessee state senate president Jim King.
Terry, who until recently did not live in Tennessee, lost a 1998 bid for U.S. House in New York. He has been arrested more than 40 times as the leader of Operation Rescue. He has repeatedly urged followers to "let a wave of hate wash over you."

One of his followers shot a doctor in the head in 2001 and is currently in prison.

However, recent years have not been kind to Terry. He was ousted from his own church in 2000 for "repeated and sinful relationships … with both single and married women." The conservative Christian magazine World revealed in 2003 that a Terry fundraising drive was merely to pay for his new house. His son Jamiel came out as gay last year.

The longtime anti-abortion activist said King had "consistently betrayed the core values of the Republican Party," accusing him of blocking a bill that would have kept Terry Schiavo's body alive. But King had drafted "Terri's Law" two years ago to keep Schiavo alive, although the law was found unconstitutional by the courts.
"Randall Terry, to me, is like Ronald Reagan in many ways," said local Republican Kay Durden. "He is witty, kindhearted, articulate and very courageous."

"Anti-abortion activist could run for Senate," Associated Press, May 27, 2005. MediaMatters.org

Muslim-killing advocate to get cable show

A longtime Republican operative who had publicly advocated the killing of Muslims in the United States will receive a permanent position on MSNBC’s political talk show “The Situation with Tucker Carlson.” Jay Severin, a former corporate consultant whose clients included Ronald Reagan’s White House, also worked for the presidential campaign of George H.W. Bush.

On his April 22, 2004 radio show, in response to a caller who suggested people show tolerance to Muslims living in the United States, Severin said “I think we should kill them.”

On one occasion, Severin was asked whether a woman in a sexual harassment situation had said “no.” He responded that “that’s not the big ‘no.’ And our job as guys is to convert a succession of ‘nos’ into one ‘yes’ … my right, my duty as a guy is to persuade girls to say yes.”

Severin has also said that “[former Massachusetts governor] Michael Dukakis should be arrested, tried, convicted, and executed as an accessory to murder” because paroled convict Willie Horton attacked a woman while Dukakis was governor.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200506100003
The Boston Globe, March 21, 2001
Dateline, October 24, 1997