-Caveat Lector- [radtimes] # 141 An informally produced compendium of vital irregularities. "We're living in rad times!" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How to assist RadTimes--> (See ** at end.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: --Divide and conquer (Hells Angels) --GM Criticism Growing Worldwide --[freeradical] MILITANTS & MODERATES --Israeli commandos training with US Marines --Mad Cow Disease Called International Threat --Invisible eco-warrior `elves' of ELF wage stealth campaign --Caught in the Cold (Davos) --When Do Demonstrators Become--Terrorists? =================================================================== Saturday, January 27, 2001 Divide and conquer <http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSBikers0101/27_biker2-sun.html> TORONTO, QUEBEC 'The Hells Angels? What are they fearing? They hide in plain sight.' - Ontario cop By ROB LAMBERTI and JACK BOLAND, Toronto Sun Like an army, the Hells Angels made a pincer move through Ontario to try to surround its rival the Bandidos. In a bloodless manouevre, the Hells swallowed up four biker gangs in late December to contain the former members of the Rock Machine, who had become probationary members of the Bandidos. Police say the military-like moves are all about the Hells Angels securing its underworld market share in the province. At the same time, bike gang leaders really hope the "business move" doesn't become an act of war. Biker warfarelike that in Quebec which to date has killed 156 people since 1994 -- is bad for business. Too much public outcry and police attention interferes with biker interests in drugs, extortion, strippers, prostitutes and other operations. "We don't want to start a war in Ontario like we did in Quebec," said a former Rock Machine member turned Bandido. "We are still working for peace. We don't want the shto happen again. It's not fun for anybody." Sgt. Guy Ouellette, the Surete du Quebec's expert on bike gangs, agrees that gang leaders are trying to avoid largescale bloodshed in Ontario. He noted the Hells spearheading the move into Ontario weren't involved in the Quebec war. "The guys who are making the expansion want the peace. They want to make big bucks," he said. However, Ouelette said it's unreasonable to expect just friendly rivalry with the Bandidos "because it's major league. "They are pissed because they lost the monopoly of the country and having another international organization ... trying to choke them," he said. "If the Bandidos can keep their heads out of the water, they will survive and they will become stronger after that, because those who will not be happy with the way the Hells Angels do business will go on the Bandidos side." The Hells have a history of killing, he said. "If they want to take over your territory, they won't hesitate to kill you. "The Hells Angels don't care. They are self-sufficient. The worst thing in Ontario is that they opened 168 different franchises the same day." --- Ontario's biker brotherhood underwent an abrupt change last month, with former enemies becoming friends, and friends becoming adversaries. The process had started last summer with the rapid expansion of the Quebec-based Rock Machine into Ontario. Then, the Bandidos and Hells Angels roared into the province. For decades, Ontario's bikers had operated in relative peace. The Hells Angels peddled in Franco-Ontario communities, particularly in the north. The Vagabonds, Para-Dice Riders, Outlaws, Red Devils, Last Chance, Lobos, Satan's Choice and Loners were based primarily in southern Ontario. Then, last year, the Rock Machine opened three Ontario chapters within three months, Eastern, Toronto and Western, bolstering its numbers with defecting Outlaws. Younger Outlaws embraced the upstart Quebec-based gang, which was then warring with the Hells Angels. But Outlaws national president Mario Parente was incensed at the Rock Machine for raiding his membership. Last month, the brotherhood of bikers changed again when the Bandidos swallowed the Rock Machine. The new Bandidos were hit Dec. 7 as Quebec City's Integrated Regional Task Force nabbed 15, including chapter boss Fred Faucher, Marcel Demers, and Simon Bedard, a Quebec chapter founder and thought to be its drug supplier. The Hells Angels, in turn, assimilated four Ontario gangs. The changes ushered in new relationships. Everywhere in the world, the Bandidos and Outlaws are allied, but in Ontario that alliance would become strained, while the global animosity between the Hells and Outlaws would be tempered here. The Hells' Ontario network will get even larger, police believe, with more than 40 Red Devils in Hamilton, Canada's first outlaw biker gang, expected to don the Death's Head. Toronto's Vagabonds are also viewed as future members, despite internal strife, which saw the removal of long-time president Peter (Crow) Lordon and four other members. Sources said Lordon and the others held secret talks with the Hells Angels to arrange a patchover, but other members balked. A police source said the Hells' also approached the Loners in Woodbridge and Chatham. Another source said the gang is in disarray, trying to decide which side to take. However, a Loners' member refuted the sources. "Nobody gave us any ultimatums. Nobody gave us anything," he said. "We're not going anywhere. We're just going to be who we are. We're not going to take anybody's side. We don't want to take anybody's side." --- Det. Staff-Sgt. Don Bell, of the Provincial Special Squad, said the PSS is taking a wait-and-see stance with the re-making of the province's bikers. However, Bell said, authorities do have major concerns. The Ontario clubs now have access to worldwide organizations, with Hells' North American chapters linked to South America, Africa, Australia and Europe"with access to larger amount of drugs, more resources and things of that nature." The Bandidos' network ties North America, Europe and Australia. They are allied also to a biker gang in Thailand. The bikers' new alliances have also upset the balance of power of traditional organized crime. "In the past," one cop said, holding his hands in front of him, "the Italians were up here and the bikers there. "The tables have turned in the last 10 years, either the Angels are above or even," he said, realigning his hands. "The other (groups) are secret. The H.A.s? What are they fearing? They hide in plain sight." --- Heavily-fortified walls surround a compound and building at the quiet corner of rues Provost and du Prince in Sorel, Que., about 70 km northeast of Montreal. It houses the Hells Angels' mother chapter, the centre of the gang's eastern bloc, which stretches from the Ontario-Manitoba border to the Atlantic Ocean. It's from this chapter and another in Quebec City that the Hells waged their bloody drug war against the Rock Machine. Since July 14, 1994, bikers and their associates killed 156 people, including six innocent victims. One was Daniel Desrochers, 11, who was hit in the head by metal fragments when a Jeep was blasted with a Hells' bomb in 1995. The war left another 173 wounded, including Journal de Montreal reporter Michel Auger. He was shot six times on Sept. 13, 2000. Quebec police are still looking for 13 others presumed dead. Only a dozen of 110 Hells took on the defiant Rock Machine in Quebec, using its network of puppet gangs to do the killing. "Being a biker here is for real. Being a biker in Ontario is for fun, for joy, for ride, for party," says the Surete's Ouellette. The Quebec war ended last Oct. 8 at an Italian restaurant in downtown Montreal's trendy bar district. In only 45 minutes at the Bleu Marin, rival bikers agreed to end six years of warfare. Pictures were taken showing a smiling Hells Angel Nomad boss Maurice (Mom) Boucher trying his best to hug Rock Machine founder Paul (Sasquatch) Porter, who got his nickname because of his height and huge girth. The Rock Machine agreed not to deal for a year with the Texas-based Bandidos, the world's second-largest bike club behind the Angels. The Angels wanted the Rock Machine to consider trading their colours for Hells Angels' patches. About a month later, on Nov. 27, the deal was broken. The Rock Machine voted to become probationary Bandidos. The move split the gang, with 12 Rock Machine members defecting later to the Angels, including "Sasquatch," who was twice the target of Hells' hitmen. On Dec. 1, the Rock Machine became probationary Bandidos at a Vaughan party, joining existing chapters in Toronto, Eastern Ontario, Western Ontario, Montreal and Quebec City. On Dec. 29, the Hells Angels moved. They took in 168 Ontario bikers from the Lobos, Last Chance, Para-Dice Riders, Satan's Choice and four Rock Machine members and 11 prospects. The Hells established chapters in West Toronto, East Toronto, Toronto, Woodbridge, Kitchener, Sudbury, Oshawa, Thunder Bay, Windsor, Lanark County, Keswick and Simcoe County. The Hells also have an 11-member prospect chapter in Niagara. Ouellette said the Hells Angels gave Ontario's biker gangs a choice to join them, "without having a choice." He believes none were allowed to remain neutral, and any new bike group in Ontario, whether motorcycle afficionados or one-percenters, will need Hells Angels' approval to exist. "Six days after the Bandidos patched over their five chapters, (the Hells) met with these guys in Toronto and made them an offer: 'You're going to take one side or the other. You're with us or against us'," said Ouellette. For bikers in the smaller gangs, who weren't good enough in the past for the larger Ontario gangs, they got instant respect and equality. "It's a huge change for these guys," he said. Ouellette says the Hells want complete control of a market. "If you're not pleased in the past with the way the Hells Angels do business, you have to shut your mouth or die," he said, but the Bandidos give drug dealers a choice. "It's exactly why the Hells Angels were in a rush," he said. "What they did in Ontario, is the first time ... where they patch four groups at the same time, making them brothers all at the same time," he said. "You're not choosing your family. If they (Bandidos) can survive that, they will be okay. "Maybe in six months it will be different." Ouellette said, then added: "Not maybe. It will be different." Authorities fear the changes came sooner than expected. A prominent member of the Rock Machine, Real (Tin Tin) Dupont, on parole for a conviction after a 1996 RCMP counterfeit money sting in Candiac, Que., was murdered outside an arena north of Dorval airport Jan. 18. Ouellette suspects the killing is "probably Hells Angels-related and we will see the war started again." On Jan. 11, former Rock Machine members Roger Berthiaume, 26, was killed, and Robert Beland, 30, was wounded in Montreal. Both had flipped to the Rockers chapter tied with Angels Quebec Nomads, which was behind the Ontario expansion. --- For now, the Hells Angels are treading carefully in Ontario. Niagara Staff-Sgt. Reg Smith believes the Hells want to slide quietly into Ontario "and they may be telling other gangs there's enough to go around for everybody. "That may be true for some (time), but I think eventually it'll go back to 'I want it all'," said Smith. "Right now, what I see, is the Hells Angels have done is a band-aid solution to answer to what the Bandidos have done." The Hells' prospect chapter of 11 members in Niagara is expected to become the gang's most efficient. "They will lift themselves up and be better trained" than the others who patched, added a police source. Some of the prospects were running their own cocaine network in small-town Ontario and have "deep local political connections." "It's a lucrative area," he said. "If they can control it, they will have the string that controls the province." The prospect chapter's sponsor is Walter Stadnick, a veteran biker based in Hamilton and a former president of the Quebec Nomads. Police know little about Stadnick, except that he wields influence within the biker world. "They're prospects because they're not one-percenter bikers," Smith said. "The other chapters are all full chapters and they already have that biker mentality. "But these guys, they have to train basically from ground zero right up, so when they do reach full status then maybe they will be the true Hells Angel in the province," he said. "They may change their tactics and it may be harder (to convict them), and that's what we have to realize." Niagara has long been Outlaws territory, with its mother chapter in St. Catharines. The Outlaws, historically the enemy of the Hells, had a monopoly between Niagara and Hamilton. But, in the last three years, Smith said there's been an influx of other Ontario gang members into the area. In September 1999, police nabbed seven area Para-Dice Riders associates and a member in 'Project Winner,' named after former club president John (Winner) Neil. Police seized guns and $65,000 in drugs, and bought 454 kilos of explosives. Two years ago, relationships changed in the region when Quebec Angels arrived in Niagara Falls on a summer tour. "Two people known in the area who were always thought of as Outlaws supporters, they showed up, hugs and kisses with the Angels, visited with them, partied with them," said Smith. "That was the biggest shocker for us. It wasn't long after that they and their associates flipped their allegiances to the Hells Angels and, in particular, Stadnick," he said. "I think the other side of that story is that they were showing the Outlaws that they ... can come in when they want." While there's a tenuous truce between the Outlaws and the Hells, with the Hells patronizing known Outlaw businesses, sources note they've taken out some insurance by making two brothers Hells prospects. A third brother remains tied to the Outlaws. Smith said there's been "so many bizarre changes in the last while, who's to say now that maybe the Outlaws and Angels (won't) live in harmony and become a force?" =================================================================== GM criticism growing worldwide <http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/environment/2001/01/item20010127134854_1.htm> 1/27/01 There are signs that opposition to genetically-modified (GM) foods is growing in different parts of the world. Three large British food retailers have announced moves to ensure that food supplies come from animals fed GM-free diets. The BBC's Barnaby Mason reports that retailer Tesco says it is not against GM products but was responding to consumer demand. A similar stand has been announced by Marks and Spencer and the US owned Aster chain. In southern Brazil 1,000 poor farmers took direct action against genetically modified crops, joined by activists attending the world social forum held to protest against the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. They invaded a Monsanto research centre and pulled up GM maize and soy beans. =================================================================== ======================================== FREE RADICAL: chronicle of the new unrest by L.A. KAUFFMAN www.free-radical.org ======================================== MILITANTS & MODERATES . . . . . . . . . . . . Issue #15 Two images from the Washington, D.C. counter- inauguration protests capture, for me, the promise of this moment in time. The first is the TV footage of George W. Bush's motorcade accelerating, with Secret Service agents jogging to keep up, as it approached the largest concentration of protesters along Pennsylvania Avenue. No matter how much the corporate media underestimated our numbers or marginalized our message, the inaugural demonstrations achieved a major goal: They marred Bush's coronation and unnerved those who made it happen. The commander-in-thief sped past the angry crowd at Freedom Plaza out of fear, no small thing for a protest to accomplish. The second image was nowhere to be found on television or in corporate news accounts; you had to be there or read about it on Indymedia. Right about the time when Bush was taking the oath of office, the police had boxed in hundreds of protesters on 14th Street between K and L Streets - most, though not all, members of the anarchist Black Bloc. Some people managed to push their way out, but mass arrests were looking likely. Then, as if in a dream, thousands of demonstrators from the reform-oriented Voter March and the National Organization for Women came down 14th Street, smack into the police line. Initially, the police surrounded some of them as well, but they were feistier than the cops anticipated. Ultimately the police bowed to the force of numbers and backed off, letting the trapped protesters go free. There's a street-action technique used by some radicals called "unarrest," where folks acting in concert literally snatch their comrades from the arms of the police. In this powerful and unlikely inauguration drama, the most moderate participants in the day's demonstrations ended up mass-unarresting the most militant. These incidents point to larger truths about the upsurge of pro-democracy and anti-capitalist protest taking place in the United States and around the globe. Those in power are truly alarmed by these movements' rising strength - but the key challenge now is for radicals and reformers to find ways to work together. What better sign of the jittery state of the global ruling class than the recent decision to hold this year's World Trade Organization meeting in the Persian Gulf emirate of Qatar, an absolute monarchy where protests are illegal? (Even the U.S. State Department notes, with bland understatement, that "restrictions on the freedoms of speech, press, assembly, association, religion" are "problems.") No other country was willing to host the WTO, because protesters have successfully made it a global pariah: The security risks for the sponsoring nation are too great, the publicity too bad, the expense too high. Time and again over the fourteen months since the WTO was shut down in Seattle, the authorities have taken extreme measures to prevent or limit protest, only to see demonstrators prevail through a mix of stubbornness, fearlessness, and anger. It happened in Prague last September, during the meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. There, despite heavy fortifications, demonstrators not only besieged the conference center but actually managed to break into it, leading officials to suspend the talks a day early. It happened this past weekend at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where demonstrators defied a total ban on protests and faced off against police armed with tear gas, rubber bullets, and water cannons. And it happened at the Bush inauguration, where - in another almost totally unreported episode - the Black Bloc, using a cart pilfered from a construction site, flattened one of the government's vaunted security checkpoints, allowing hundreds of protesters to breeze through. Meanwhile, a few blocks away in Freedom Plaza, other demonstrators matter-of-factly took over bleachers that had been reserved for GOP-friendly ticket holders. The angriest people at the inauguration protests, though, were the moderates, not the militants. The experience of seeing the Bush family and its cronies disenfranchise black voters and steal the presidency most infuriated people who have some degree of faith in electoral politics, not the jaded cynics who are quick to say that "voting doesn't change anything," or, more anarchistically, "no matter who you vote for, government wins." A substantial number of these Democrats and independents were demonstrating for the first time - but odds are quite good it won't be their last. The checkpoint system and aggressive policing opened many eyes and clearly radicalized some participants. One woman from the Voter March posted a powerful account of coming up against the police line at 14th and L and briefly being trapped inside. "I was so scared I didn't know what to do. I was looking at the various police, trying to find a face that might be approachable - there were none!" she wrote. But then a man next to her convinced a cop to let a few people out, and she quickly slipped through the hole in the line. "This has shaken me like nothing else," she confessed. "I'm a middle class, getting to be middle-aged female American - first time ever demonstrating - there to participate with my legal, constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech (so I thought until that day). In the face of a threat to this right, what did I do - I walked away. I'm so sorry and so ashamed. I'll NEVER walk a way again." There is extraordinary political promise in the broad- based outrage at the theft of this election, anger that is not going away despite the corporate media's rush to make nicey-nice and treat the Bush regime as a legitimate presidency. The utter spinelessness of the Democratic Party - from its decision not to mobilize large-scale protests in Florida to demand a full vote count to its acquiescence in Bush's far-right cabinet choices - further ensures that at least some of this anger will fuel sweeping critiques of the sorry state of American democracy. The great irony of the 14th Street showdown is that just the night before, some members of the Black Bloc had been dismissing as wimpy reformists the very folks who ended up saving them from mass arrest on J20. In a dark basement well away from other activist gathering spots, about a hundred anarchists held a surreptitious meeting to coordinate their inaugural activities. The discussion turned to a common critique of previous blocs, the sense that the fuck-shit-up crowd tends to use other protesters for cover, including protesters that passionately disagree with their tactics - meaning, for example, that folks committed to nonviolent action get exposed to greater police violence as a result of Black Bloc opportunism. Some folks agreed that was a mistake and a problem; others brushed off the criticism, saying it was perfectly legitimate to "hide among a bunch of reformists." When the Black Bloc got surrounded on 14th Street, probably the last place they thought they'd get help from was such a bunch. (Exclaimed one anarchist, "I never thought I'd be happy to see people with Gore-Lieberman signs!") It would be going too far to say the Black Bloc was humbled by the experience, but in the wake of J20, you could clearly discern a new respect for these unexpected allies. "This is a big thank you to whoever came to support the Revolutionary Anti-Authoritarian Bloc," wrote one anarchist on Indymedia. "After being trapped at one point by cops and having to push our way out, only to have people trapped again, I'm glad there was some soli-fucking-darity. That's what it's all about. We will stand by you when you need us, and I'm glad to see it's vice versa." **** Some folks from Reclaim the Streets in New York came to the inaugural protests dressed in tinpot- dictator attire. Sporting gold epaulettes and mirrored aviator glasses, they dubbed themselves Students for an Undemocratic Society (www.freespeech.org/suds_unite). "We are the children of the political, military, and business elites of America," read their manifesto. "We have worked for years to undermine democracy worldwide, and seek to celebrate the fact that - with the installation of Cheney and Bush - even the pretense of American democracy has at last been cast aside. We march in support of the property-owning, white heterosexual male who rules by violence." SUDS started the day early at the U.S. Supreme Court, where GOP boosters had been promising to stage a fierce "Patriots' March." Only about fifty patriots bothered to show up, however. SUDS, wearing their silly costumes and carrying signs that said "OBEY," outnumbered them by a factor of two-to-one. The right-wingers launched into a chant: "Get a job! Get a job!" SUDS joined in: "Get a job! Get a job!" The right-wingers tried something new: "Welcome President Bush! Welcome President Bush!" SUDS echoed them: "Welcome President Bush! Welcome President Bush!" The right-wingers tried again, this time with a mouthful of a chant: "Meanspirited, condescending, arrogant liberals!" SUDS, of course, was quick to mimic. This went on for a while, through chants of "USA!" and that "Hey hey, goodbye" song. But SUDS must have spoiled the conservatives' fun, because before long, they slunk away. Throughout inauguration day, there were many occasions like this, where demonstrators outnumbered Republicans and made them noticeably uncomfortable. It was all quite satisfying, until you remembered that, while we made Bush & Co. nervous, they got state power. It's going to be a long four years. ======================================== FREE RADICAL: CHRONICLE OF THE NEW UNREST is a column on the current upsurge in activism, written by L.A. Kauffman ([EMAIL PROTECTED]). It appears on average every few weeks. Back issues can be found at www.free-radical.org This issue is archived at www.free-radical.org/issue15.shtml **** ABOUT THE AUTHOR L.A. Kauffman ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) is perhaps the first person in U.S. history to be arrested for allegedly committing a crime by fax machine. (The Manhattan D.A. declined to prosecute.) She is currently writing DIRECT ACTION: RADICALISM IN OUR TIME, a history of U.S. activism since 1970. A longtime radical journalist and organizer, she is active in a number of New York City direct action campaigns. Her work has appeared in the Village Voice, The Nation, The Progressive, Spin, Mother Jones, Salon.com, and numerous other publications. =================================================================== Israeli commandos training with US Marines <http://www.timesofindia.com/280101/28mide7.htm> 1/28/01 JERUSALEM Israeli special forces commandos have been training with US Marines in urban warfare techniques in an exercise on capturing Palestinian areas, the Hebrew weekly Kol Ha'Ir reported in its latest edition. The "anti-terrorist" exercise was carried out in conjunction with US Marine snipers serving with the Mediterranean-based Sixth Fleet, the weekly said. Kol Ha'Ir quoted an Israeli military source as saying that the Israeli army trains regularly with US military units, to learn new combat techniques and test new weapons and equipment. Israeli troops have been battling a Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip for the past four months. (AFP) =================================================================== Mad Cow Disease Called International Threat <http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jan2001/2001L-01-29-08.html> ROME, Italy, January 29, 2001 (ENS) - The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization is warning countries around the world - not just those in Western Europe - about the risk of mad cow disease. The Organization recommends adoption of surveillance and monitoring systems to detect the disease in cattle herds, meat industries and animal feed operations. Mad cow disease is officially known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). This disease has been linked to a fatal brain disease in humans called new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (nvCJD). British cattle at feeding time (Photo by Ian Britton, courtesy Freefoto.com) An epidemic of BSE in cattle herds in the United Kingdom has been followed by between 10 to 15 cases of nvCJD occurring each year. Little is known about the actual mechanism for transmission of the disease, but the currently held belief is that the disease agent jumps to humans who eat infected meat products. Alarm about the disease's potential has been largely confined to Western Europe up to now, but the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has issued its warning to all nations. All countries which have imported cattle or meat and bone meal from any Western European countries, particularly the United Kingdom, during and since the 1980s, can be considered at risk, the FAO wrote in a release on Friday. "There is an increasingly grave situation developing in the European Union, with BSE being identified in cattle in several member states of the EU which have, until recently, been regarded as free from the disease," the FAO said. "Confirmed and suspected cases of nvCJD are occurring in people outside the UK, in various member states. More research needs to be conducted into the nature of the agent and its modes of transmission. Much remains unknown about the disease and the infective agent. There is currently no method of diagnosis at early stages of infection and no cure for the disease, neither in animals nor in humans." The FAO said it supports the European Union's actions to control the disease, including the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of animals. Feeding meat and bone meal to cattle, sheep and goats has been banned in the European Union since July 1994, and last November, the EU proposed extending the ban to chicken and hogs. Other animals may also be able spread forms of BSE, the FAO warned, and should not be fed meat and bone meal (Photo courtesy U.S. Agricultural Research Service) "There is an urgent need to refine the risk assessment and to extend it to other countries and regions," the FAO wrote. "Countries at risk should implement effective surveillance for BSE in cattle and controls on the animal feed and meat industries. At present, this means: laboratory testing of samples from slaughtered cattle, and correct disposal of fallen stock and improved processing of offals and byproducts." Within countries, FAO recommended applying the so called Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point system (HACCP) which aims at identifying potential problems and taking corrective measures throughout the food chain. Some of the issues include the production of animal feed, the raw materials used, cross contamination in the feed mill, labeling of manufactured feeds, the feed transport system, as well as monitoring imported live animals, slaughtering methods, the rendering industry and the disposal of waste materials. "Strict controls have been implemented in the United Kingdom and are now being implemented in the rest of the EU," FAO said. "Countries outside the EU should adopt appropriate measures to protect their herds and to ensure the safety of meat and meat products. Legislation to control the industry and its effective implementation is required, including capacity building and the training of operatives and government officials." FAO advised countries to adopt a precautionary approach. As an immediate measure, countries which have imported animals and meat and bone meal from BSE infected trading partners should consider a precautionary ban on the feeding of meat and bone meal to cattle, sheep and goats, or, to reduce the risk of infection even further, to all animals. Attention should be paid to slaughtering procedures and to the processing and use of offal and byproduct parts, FAO said. The rendering industry should be scrutinized and appropriate procedures adopted everywhere, the organization wrote. Since 1994, the European Union has banned the feeding of meat and bone meal to cattle, sheep and goats (Photo by Larry Rana, courtesy U.S. Department of Agriculture) The FAO, together with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Organisation Internationale des Epizooties (OIE), will hold an expert consultation in the near future to draw up advice for countries, particularly developing countries, to protect their people from nvCJD, their livestock from BSE, and their industries from trade restrictions and their repercussions. The FAO and WHO are now finalizing work on a 'Code of Practice for Good Animal Feeding' to ensure that animal products do not create risks to consumers. --- More details about BSE and nvSJD are available at: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/cjd/cjd.htm and http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/bse/bse20_en.html More information about feed safety practices is available at: http://www.fao.org/livestock/AGAP/FRG/Feedsafety/bse.htm =================================================================== Invisible eco-warrior `elves' of ELF wage stealth campaign FRED KAPLAN, BOSTON GLOBE They work by night, with stealth, burning construction sites, dumping sand in bulldozers' gasoline tanks, freeing mink from cages and wild horses from corrals, all -- as one of their manifestoes puts it -- ``to inflict economic sabotage on Earth-rapers.'' They wreak their damage, and release their boastful communiques, in the name of the Earth Liberation Front, and -- playing on the abbreviation ELF -- liken themselves to ``the mischievous elves of lore.'' But what is this Front and who are these elves? Remarkably, after eight years of activity -- including a rash of fires last month in Mount Sinai on Long Island, N.Y. -- nobody knows. The FBI, federal prosecutors, state and local police departments, even more-peaceful environmentalists have been looking, but their search has not resulted in a single indictment, arrest, or even a suspect from two dozen acts of sabotage over the years, causing nearly $40 million in damage. ``We are practically invisible,'' a 1997 ELF communique read. ``We have no command structure, no spokesperson, no office, just many small groups working separately, seeking vulnerable targets and practicing our craft.'' It tells all readers, ``Find your family! And let's dance as we make ruin of the corporate money system.'' Craig Rosebraugh, 27, an animal-rights activist in Portland, Ore., who has served as the group's publicist for the past four years, has said he receives word from ELF members when they take credit for some deed. But even he says, ``I never disclose from where or how they come in, because I don't know.'' Last year, the U.S. attorney's office in Oregon confiscated Rosebraugh's computers and documents, and called him to testify before a grand jury, but still came up empty-handed. ``There is no hierarchy, no physical group that they can see,'' Rosebraugh said last year in an interview with Bear Deluxe magazine in Portland. ``You might have a cell operating, or 57 cells operating, where no one knows each other.'' Until recently, these cells confined their activities to a few states in the West and Midwest. Two years ago, someone claiming affiliation with the ELF committed an action in Boston, but it was so out of character -- a purely symbolic smearing of red paint on the Mexican Consulate, to protest Mexico's treatment of peasants -- that the pranksters probably got the names of their liberation fronts mixed up. Still, in the past couple of months, the elves have come east. On the night of Dec. 30, they broke into four houses that were being built as part of a huge development on a former pumpkin farm on eastern Long Island, and set them on fire -- in protest of suburban sprawl. They left behind a note: ``If you build it, we will burn it.'' The fire followed similar but lesser acts of destruction in Long Island housing projects on Dec. 1, 9 and 19. Lennard Axinn, a partner in Island Estates of Mt. Sinai, the development company building the houses set ablaze most recently, said the tools were fairly primitive -- bottles filled with gasoline, a sponge placed on top of the bottles, candles placed on top of the sponge, causing an explosion when the candles burned down. The cost to repair will be about $60,000, Axinn estimates. This is small stuff in the ELF canon. Their biggest coup took place in October 1998 when they set fire to a ski facility in Colorado, causing $12 million in damage. The motive was to protect what a communique called ``the last, best lynx habitat in the state'' from a ``greedy corporation'' that insisted on ``putting profits ahead of Colorado's wildlife.'' As with all the acts so far, nobody was physically injured. Other big acts have included burning down a U.S. Forest Service station in Oregon (damage: $5.3 million), a U.S. Agriculture Department animal damage control building in Washington state ($2 million), a meatpacking plant in Oregon ($1 million), and an office at Michigan State University involved in genetic-food research ($400,000). Just this month, the group took credit for a Jan. 2 fire in a lumber company's offices in Oregon, causing $400,000 in damage. The ELF was formed in 1992 in Brighton, England, as a splinter group from Earth First!, after the leaders of that militant environmental organization decided to abandon criminal tactics. The following year, ELF issued a joint communique of solidarity with the Animal Liberation Front, a group that takes equally militant actions to oppose business and scientific research that involves capturing or killing animals. The main difference between ELF and ALF, Rosebraugh once said, ``is their names. . . . The main goal is the same -- trying to strike through economic sabotage.'' ELF manifestoes have cited as inspiration the Luddites, who sabotaged factory machinery in 19th-century England. The primary source of ELF's tactics, however, is a 1975 novel by Edward Abbey, called ``The Monkey Wrench Gang.'' Abbey, who died in 1989 at age 62, was a self-described ``desert anarchist'' who often quoted Walt Whitman's dictum, ``Resist much, obey little,'' and deeply resented what he called the ``Californicating'' of the Southwest border states. ``The Monkey Wrench Gang'' was a raucous tale about a motley crew of eco-warriors who burn down billboards, snip barbed-wire fences, pour syrup into gasoline tanks, and ultimately plot to blow up a giant bridge and power dam. Many environmentalists deplore the ELF. A consortium of groups in Wisconsin posted an open letter on the Internet, calling ELF actions ``cowardly'' and warning them, ``Stay out of Wisconsin.'' Richard Amper, head of the Long Island Pine Barren Society, called ELF's recent arson in his territory ``wrongheaded'' and ``meaningless.'' The houses ELF set on fire are part of a development of 49 single-family houses, each selling for $350,000 to $450,000, spread out on a half-abandoned pumpkin farm. In one sense, Amper said, the ELF critique of such developments has a point. However, he noted, ``Everybody knows it. You don't have to make Long Islanders aware of the problem.'' In fact, Long Island over the past decade has spent $300 million -- more than all but five of the states -- to preserve open space from the developers' bulldozers, he said. Robert Wieboldt, head of the Long Island Builders Institute, said the police think the culprits are local. ``That's the way this group works -- local people acting locally,'' he said. However, even Amper has said he has ``not a clue'' of who they might be, and so the myth of the ``invisible elves'' rages on. =================================================================== Caught in the Cold By Stefan Theil The Daily Davos Sunday, January 28, 2001; 12:57 PM The demos were thwarted in Davos - but not in Zurich. There was no joking with the Swiss authorities today. A week of the most intense security crackdown Switzerland has seen in decades, if ever, culminated Saturday afternoon. That was when various anti-capitalist, anti-globalizing organizations had announced via the Internet that they'd arrive in Davos to "wipe out" the WEF. Inspired by the violent demonstrations that temporarily shut down the World Trade Organization summit in Seattle in late 1999, they and their comrades around the globe have regularly tried to disrupt global gatherings such as the Forum or the meetings of the IMF/World Bank. To these critics, these elite get-togethers are closed-door, capitalist conspiracies. They were right about the closed-door part. The Swiss authorities set up every imaginable obstacle to keep the activists out of Davos. Immigration officials weeded suspected troublemakers out at the borders, kept them from boarding trains and buses to Davos, set up roadblocks, and on Saturday shut down public transport altogether. The two hundred or so who were ingenious enough to make it through -- some of them had been hanging out in Davos since before the crackdown -- found themselves in an armed camp posing as a ski resort. There were police cordons every 200 meters or so along the Promenade, more police in riot gear stood ready while Swiss Army helicopters patrolled the sky. Some of the protesters sang "We shall overcome," others screamed, "I hate capitalism." Interestingly, the protesters were joined by a few of the locals this year -- some said they were fed up with all the inconvenience, others were perturbed by what they felt to be police-state methods. About two minutes after the anti-capitalists made it to the first cordon near the Parsenn funicular, the police water cannon opened fire. Drenched, the crowd didn't linger long. (As far as we could smell, the cops did not deploy the special water cannon they were said to have loaded with dilute cow manure.) But while a forced peace may have reigned inside Davos's ring of steel, it wasn't possible to close down all the possible outlets for anger elsewhere. Hundreds of protesters who got stopped at Landquart started attacking police with sticks; for a while they blocked all traffic on the Autobahn to Zurich before being dispersed with tear gas and rubber pellets. In Zurich itself, famous for the sort of violent anarchist groups that would never have made it past the checkpoints to Davos, a militant mob burned cars and broke windows. In Geneva, another group was intent on trashing the WEF's business headquarters; when they couldn't get in, they sprayed anti-WTO slogans onto the building instead. As of this writing, the protests were still going on. Back in Davos, behind all the barbed wire and water cannon, the IMF's deputy chief Stanley Fischer was expounding on the global downturn, while the finance ministers of Germany and France were discussing the future of the world's financial markets. Safely hidden in the Congress Center, whose subterranean caverns aptly double as the town's shelter for times of war, they went on their business unperturbed. If the Forum was safe again this year, though, it's not for a shortage of critics. As the Daily Davos has reported, some of them are now working inside the Forum, as representatives for non-governmental organizations trying to find solutions to problems that free-wheeling markets alone can't handle - like disease, poverty and climate change. But there are many more organizing around the globe. "Our resistance is as global as your oppression," one of the banners carried by the demonstrators said. At a counter-summit to Davos taking place in Porto Alegre in Brazil, first-world socialists yesterday joined with local farmers in heading off to uproot a Monsanto-owned field of genetically modified crops. (See following story.) In the end, more opposition made it into the armed camp than its defenders realized. A couple of Internet whiz kids have installed a laser unit in Davos Platz that beams 15-meter tall messages onto the hillside to the east of Davos. They've invited anyone to send their message to the Forum via cellphone SMS messaging (the number is +41 78 640 6000) or the Internet (http://www.hellomrpresident.com ). The message rolls across the mountain in bright green letters a few minutes later. "Workers of the world, unite" was one of the more harmless ones that made it into Davos on Friday. Their laser is under some highly placed protection - it's set up in the bedroom of the flat belonging to the minister of St. Johann, the church in Davos Platz. Sometimes the opposition seems to be everywhere except the streets. =================================================================== When Do Demonstrators Become--Terrorists? by Ross Regnart The Anti--Terrorist Act of 1996 appears aimed at public dissent: The ACT contains language which can charge law--abiding citizens of being agents or affording support to terrorist organizations: Broadly written--intent to commit terrorist acts is defined: (Appeared To Be Intended Toward Violence or Activities Which Could Intimidate or Coerce a Civilian Population; or To Influence the Policy of a Government). (18USC Sec. 2331): Any picket line or demonstration, alleged by police to have blocked or obstructed public access, could qualify as "Terrorist Activities" to intimidate or coerce a civilian population: Terrorist charges make it possible for police to forfeit attending demonstrators' homes used for meetings and the vehicles they used for transportation to the event. Concern: Police agencies may selectively charge a person or organization with either a low level offense, or terrorist offense, for the same illegal act: Example: A fist fight between union demonstrators and persons crossing a picket line, can be upgraded by police to charge union members with (Terrorist Activity). The 1996 Anti-Terrorist Act, broadly redefined "Terrorist Acts as involving any violent act or acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or any state." The violent or physical act need not cause bodily harm: The Act can be used by police to target any group of persons that would dare demonstrate for or against any issue. U.S. ANTI--TERRORIST ACT— OR ANTI--FREE SPEECH and ASSEMBLY ACT? The 1996 Anti-Terrorist Act has wide reaching forfeiture provisions. The Act utilizes the broad term (supporting organizations that transcend boundaries). Any organization or group that advocates support for a cause or organization within a U.S. jurisdiction, or across a state line, or in another country, is considered by U.S. Government to be (transcending boundaries). Consequently, any environmental group or organization is vulnerable to being charged with supporting (terrorist activity) should any member of an organization they supported--be charged by the U.S. or other government, with having (intimidated or coerced a civilian population; or influenced the policy of a government). Please see USC18 2991, including additional provisions. U.S. Government can now seize the assets of innocent organizations and/or members alleged to have supported an organization, group, or person(s) committing a terrorist activity. Excessive government property forfeiture provisions are tied to the 1996 Anti-Terrorist act: U.S. Government can forfeit SOURCE ASSETS that supported terrorist activity. So if a person for example uses income from their business or bank account to support an organization or persons the U.S. Government later alleges committed or supported terrorist acts, the U.S. Government may seize the contributor's business or bank account as a SOURCE ASSET. Keep in mind, intimidation may qualify as a terrorist act. So if the press or government has criminalized an organization, the presence of the organization's members at a demonstration or other event may be enough for a police agency to allege the member's or their organization (intimidated a civilian population; or influenced the policy of a government) under 18USC 2991 International Terrorist Activities. Government may now use the 1996 Anti-Terrorist Act to selectively eradicate any group or person which is believed to be objectionable. CONCERN: Police can charge lawful citizens who attend demonstrations and other public events with affording support to demonstrators whose activities may constitute Terrorist Activities under USC18 2991. Innocent attending demonstrators run the risk of being charged as terrorists, then having to prove that their presence at a demonstration did not involve supporting the illegal activities of the alleged terrorist demonstrators. CATCH 22: Lawful demonstrators may be convicted simply because they did not think to leave an event where some demonstrators were committing illegal acts. Broad provisions of the 1996 Anti-Terrorist Act may eventually scare-off citizens from attending lawful demonstrations and/or contributing money to progressive causes. CONCERN: A corrupt government and/or its paid operatives, may too easily cause the arrest of innocent demonstrators and/or cause government forfeiture of their assets. Note: Conviction of an activist or organization is NOT necessary for government to forfeit an owner's property. U.S. Government may civil forfeit a citizen's assets using only a (Preponderance of Evidence) by showing an owner's property was involved in a felony that would make it subject to forfeiture. 200 felonies can now cause government forfeiture of property: Republican Congressman Henry Hyde got passed in Congress (The Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000) HR 1658. The statue of limitations, the time period police have to civilly forfeit property, begins five years from the time police claim to have learned an asset was made subject to forfeiture. Concern: Police can claim that anytime in the future. CONCERN: Corporate security and private intelligence companies now work so closely with U.S. police agencies, they appear to merge. Private security corporations by working closely with U.S. police agencies are in a position to influence local and federal police as to which political/environmental opponents should be arrested, or have their assets forfeited. Note: Neither charged defendants, nor anyone else, can use the Freedom of Information Act to penetrate corporate information banks to learn if a corporation illegally obtained or provided information to a police agency. Increasingly, corporate informants work both sides of the street when they get paid for providing police the same information about, e.g., a political or environmental group. It is a dangerous trend in the United States when police agencies merge with corporate security forces, become perhaps an illegal enterprise, to violate a person's Constitutional and civil rights. Secret Witnesses, Secret Jurors, Secret Testimony, Hidden Evidence: Once U.S. Government or police charge a person or organization under 18USC 2991, (International Terrorist Activity) the U.S. Government may use secret witnesses, secret jurors, secret testimony, and other hidden evidence to convict a defendant and/or forfeit their assets. All this secrecy can be invoked by U.S. Government to protect alleged national security, an ongoing investigation, undisclosed witnesses and jurors. The same police agencies involved in the investigation may get to share in the citizen's assets after they are forfeited by the government. This is especially dangerous since police routinely purchase testimony. Persons charged under the 1996 Anti-Terrorist Act may have difficulty defending themselves even against the death penalty when they may not be allowed to know the secret evidence against them, or cross examine government's secret witnesses. Such Star Chamber Courts do not serve the interests of a free society. Had the 1996 Anti-Terrorist Act been in effect during the days of COINTELPRO, 1960 through the 1980's, many foundations and citizens to avoid risks such as being charged as terrorists or losing their assets to forfeiture, would have given contributions only to organizations that the U.S. Government approved of, not to progressive organizations or persons who would dare question or confront government policies or attempt to legally stop corporate polluters. GOVERNMENT COINTELPRO RED SQUADS appear to be back. This time the squads have in their arsenal the 1996 Ant--Terrorist Act and new property forfeiture laws which they may use to eradicate their political, environmental and human rights opponents. Note: The history of COINTELPRO may be quickly obtained on the Internet. =================================================================== "Anarchy doesn't mean out of control. It means out of 'their' control." -Jim Dodge ====================================================== "Communications without intelligence is noise; intelligence without communications is irrelevant." -Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC ====================================================== "It is not a sign of good health to be well adjusted to a sick society." -J. Krishnamurti ______________________________________________________________ To subscribe/unsubscribe or for a sample copy or a list of back issues, send appropriate email to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. ______________________________________________________________ **How to assist RadTimes: An account is available at <www.paypal.com> which enables direct donations. If you are a current PayPal user, use this email address: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, to contribute. If you are not a current user, use this link: <https://secure.paypal.com/refer/pal=resist%40best.com> to sign up and contribute. The only information passed on to me via this process is your email address and the amount you transfer. Thanks! <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
