Yesterday an influential homeland-security panel, chaired by former Virginia governor James Gilmore, called for the creation of a new “National Counter Terrorism Center,” a government agency that would be tasked with collecting and analyzing information about terrorist threats in the U.S.
In addition to its considerable focus on the obvious need for protection against foreign terrorists, the Gilmore Commission’s fourth annual report took special notice of the very real threat posed by violent animal rights extremists, eco-terror criminals, and rage-prone anti-globalist protesters.
Agence France Press reported this morning that the “most dangerous” groups mentioned are “Earth First, the Animal Liberation Front, and the Earth Liberation Front.” That’s quite a statement, considering that Al Qaeda also figured prominently.
The report itself notes (page 36):
“Anti-globalists continue to be a threat in the United States. This hard to define collection of ideologies is a loose network rather than the traditionally defined cell structure. The violence they promote is often difficult to defend against as it may erupt during a legal protest by American citizens. The loose confederacy created is comprised of coalitions between socialists, environmentalists and anarchists. Earth First — the radical environmental group founded by David Broder [sic] — has been particularly active collaborating with anti-globalists. Similar concerns emanate from other environmentalist special interest groups such as the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), who have committed over 600 criminal acts in the United States since 1996, resulting in damages in excess of 43 million dollars.”
Note with due respect to Gov. Gilmore’s commission: David Foreman co-founded Earth First! David Broder is a liberal political correspondent with the Washington Post. Neither is to be confused with David Brower, now deceased, who founded both Friends of the Earth and the Earth Island Institute.
