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Know your enemy & understand their weakness. #2083453
07/31/10 07:54 AM
07/31/10 07:54 AM
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 2,777
Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia
Mira Trapper Offline OP
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Mira Trapper  Offline OP
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Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 2,777
Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia
One of the ARA?ELF weaknesses is they like to brag about how they have become involved in ruining the lives of animal use people. The more risks they take,the more they need to brag about their self-righteous behavior. That is one of their major weaknesses as they are narcissistic people craving a sense of superiority over base human beings who eat meat or use animals for personal gain.



Escalating Violence from the ALF (STRATFOR)‏


Sent: July 30, 2010 3:40:19 PM


STRATFOR: Global Intelligence
Escalating Violence From the Animal Liberation Front
Scott Stewart
Thursday, 29 July 2010
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20100728_escalating_violence_animal_liberation_front

On July 22, special agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms
and Explosives (ATF) and the FBI arrested Walter Bond in Denver and
charged him with conducting the April 30 arson that destroyed a
Glendale, Colo., business, the Sheepskin Factory, which sold a variety
of sheepskin products. According to an affidavit completed by a
special agent assigned to the Denver ATF field office, Bond used the
nom de guerre, "ALF Lone Wolf" and boasted to a confidential informant
that he not only torched the Sheepskin Factory but also was
responsible for a June 5 fire at a leather factory in Salt Lake City
and a July 3 fire at a restaurant in Sandy, Utah.

The Bond case serves as a reminder that activists with organizations
such as the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) are still very active -
indeed, there have been several firebombing attacks by such activists
in the United States this year, not only at businesses but also at the
homes of animal researchers. And there have been scores of animal
rights-related attacks in other countries, with Mexico being among the
most active. The Bond case also provides an opportunity to examine the
manner in which the animal liberation movement conducts its leaderless
resistance campaign, to draw lessons from the case and to assess the
trajectory of the animal rights movement.

The Structure of ALF

Like its kindred organization the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), the
ALF was created to follow the organizational principles of leaderless
resistance. The leaderless resistance model, as envisioned by
proponents such as white supremacist Louis Beam, employs a two-tiered
approach to revolutionary struggle. One tier adheres to the laws of
the land and serves as the aboveground propaganda service for the
cause. In the United States, such activists take full advantage of
their First Amendment freedoms and are careful to ensure that their
propaganda efforts do not cross the line of legality. This caution is
necessary because many of these first-tier activists, such as former
ELF spokesman Craig Rosebraugh, are the public faces of the movement
and receive a great deal of law enforcement attention.

The second tier in leaderless resistance is composed of anonymous
individuals ("lone wolves") and small groups of activists ("phantom
cells") who are responsible for conducting attacks - often referred to
by the ELF/ALF and other activists as "direct actions." The
aboveground propaganda activists are responsible for providing
motivation and general guidance to the operational tier as well as
publicizing the cause and exploiting the illegal actions of the
underground activists in the media. This second tier is supposed to
remain low-key and anonymous and maintain no traceable connections to
the aboveground activists.

This operational model is quite evident in the Bond case. Aboveground
ALF propaganda outlets such as the Animal Liberation Press Office
initially posted news articles on their websites pertaining to the
three arsons in which Bond was allegedly involved. Later, they posted
anonymous communiques that purported to be from the perpetrator, like
the following:

"The arson at the Sheepskin Factory in Denver was done in defense
and retaliation for all the innocent animals that have died cruelly at
the hands of human oppressors. Be warned that making a living from the
use and abuse of animals will not be tolerated. Also be warned that
leather is every bit as evil as fur. As demonstrated in my recent
arson against the Leather Factory in Salt Lake City. Go vegan! - ALF
Lone Wolf"

Following Bond's arrest, these ALF propaganda websites posted articles
glorifying Bond and his activities for the movement. They also have
been very busy using Bond and the press to promote their cause and the
case for activists to conduct more direct action attacks. The
spokesman for the Animal Liberation Press Office is Dr. Jerry Vlasak,
a California physician who, along with his wife, former child actress
Pamelyn Ferdin (the voice of Lucy from Peanuts), are perhaps the
highest profile animal rights activists in the country. They are also
prime examples of aboveground activists in the leaderless resistance.

Vlasak has told various media outlets that he is unsure if Bond is
responsible for the arson, but that if he is, Bond is a hero and the
ALF supports him. Vlasak was quoted by Denver's Channel 9 News as
saying, "There are a lot of examples of cases where these actions have
been taken and we've gotten concrete results as opposed to lobbying
our congressmen and writing letters to the editors. When you measure
these types of actions against other options, this has actually shown
to be one of the most effective ways to get things to change."

Vlasak's statement highlights an ideological rift that exists in the
animal rights movement between those who favor violence to further
their cause and those who disdain violence and prefer to use legal
methods. Clearly, Vlasak is on the side of those who advocate
violence, which he states is more effective than nonviolent
approaches. Vlasak is known for making such attention-getting quotes
in the press. Discussing a pair of August 2008 fire-bomb attacks
against the homes of biologists at the University of California-Santa
Cruz, Vlasak remarked: "It's regrettable that certain scientists are
willing to put their families at risk by choosing to do wasteful
animal experiments."

According to the ATF affidavit, a search of Bond's backpack after his
arrest revealed that he had a copy of an ALF publication titled "The
Declaration of War: Killing People to Save the Animals and the
Environment." The book, which was first published by the ALF in 1991,
contends that nonviolent methods such as those laid out by Gandhi and
Jesus are not productive (especially when applied to animals) and
explains that violence is justified to protect animals, who cannot
protect themselves. The book's author contends that people who seek to
liberate animals (which the author refers to as "brothers" and
"sisters") from human oppression and abuse will "use any and every
tactic necessary to win the freedom of our brothers and sisters. This
means they cheat, steal, lie, plunder, disable, threaten, and
physically harm others to achieve their objective."

The Challenges of Leaderless Resistance

This ideological split within the movement appears to be what
ultimately led to Bond's arrest. According to the ATF affidavit, on
July 1, 2010, a confidential informant (CI) called the ATF to report
that Bond was the person responsible for the Sheepskin Factory fire as
well as the fire at the leather factory in Salt Lake City. The CI said
that he or she had recently been called by Bond after a period of 12
years, and that when the CI asked Bond what he had been up to, Bond
told the CI to go to an ALF-related website and scroll down to the
Sheepskin Factory fire story and the leather factory fire story and
that those arsons were what he had been up to. Upon hearing of Bond's
activities, the CI became concerned that firefighters could be harmed
while responding to an arson fire lit by Bond and called the ATF in
order to prevent Bond from lighting more fires.

At the ATF's request, the CI then met with Bond on July 22 at a Denver
hotel room that the ATF had wired for audio and video. During the
meeting, Bond reportedly was captured on tape admitting that he had
committed the Sheepskin Factory and leather factory fires as well as
the July 3 fire at a restaurant in Sandy, Utah, that served foie gras.
He admitted that he used the nom de guerre Lone Wolf and stated that
he was planning future arson attacks. This meeting provided the
government with the probable cause required to arrest Bond and charge
him with the fires, though the ATF and FBI will certainly be working
hard to find other evidence linking him to the crimes.

In general, lone wolf and small cell attacks conducted by ELF/ALF
operatives are very difficult to investigate. First of all, as
discussed, the ELF and ALF are intentionally nebulous and promote
leaderless resistance, which means there is no centralized command
structure for law enforcement to target. Second, many people
associated with the ELF/ALF are transient and nomadic. Because of this
lifestyle, they are often very hard to track using public records and
credit card transactions, making it a challenge for law enforcement to
know they are in an area or where they went to when they left. They
are also frequently known by nicknames within their activist/fringe
communities and frequently don't carry identification documents. This
makes it difficult for law enforcement to figure out who a potential
suspect is even if they know his or her nickname.

This ambiguity is compounded by the fact that organizations like the
ELF and ALF have produced some very good instruction manuals
pertaining to the construction of timed incendiary devices. These
manuals not only provide sound instruction on constructing and placing
incendiary devices but also describe in great detail steps that can be
taken to minimize the physical evidence left at a crime scene. ALF
operatives have long favored isolated targets without much security -
what we refer to as soft targets. While they occasionally have
targeted the offices and laboratories of companies involved in animal
testing, such targets have increased their security in the wake of
past attacks and many ALF operatives have diverted their efforts
toward the homes of executives and researchers (like the UC-Santa Cruz
researchers) and other soft targets.

Gravitating toward softer targets makes it less likely operatives will
be caught in the act. Additionally, the surveillance tradecraft
utilized by the ALF and its operatives and the operational security
they practice is usually better than that demonstrated by jihadist
lone wolves. Organizations such as the Ruckus Society conduct detailed
courses on preoperational surveillance, which is called "scouting" in
their parlance. Also, since ELF/ALF activists tend to be young
Caucasians, they are generally not viewed as a potential threat, even
if they are spotted conducting surveillance. Moreover, since these
activists have focused mainly on attacks that cause property damage,
law enforcement has understandably not placed the same priority on
catching ELF/ALF activists as it has other actors such as jihadists,
who intentionally target people.

In Bond's case, he might have had some difficulty not drawing
attention to himself as he cased leather stores and foie gras
restaurants because he had tattoos covering half his face with the
word "vegan" tattooed across his throat in large block letters flanked
on either side by crossed wrenches. "Monkey wrenching" is a term
widely used by activists associated with ELF/ALF and anarchist groups
to refer to direct-action attacks that involve property destruction
such as arson. Anyone involved in animal research or selling animal
products who is observant enough would surely look suspiciously upon a
person with such distinctive markings.

When all of these factors combine, it is usually very difficult to
solve an ELF/ALF arson or bombing case unless a mistake is made, or a
confidential informant comes forward. Most successful prosecutions in
such cases have come as a result of informants, and because of this we
have witnessed a cat-and-mouse game between activists and the
government regarding informants, with activist groups pressing
informants to commit illegal activities before being accepted and the
government giving them permission to do so. Although the CI in the
Bond case was just an acquaintance of Bond who was concerned about his
arson activities and not a person specifically dispatched to penetrate
the movement, without the help of the CI, the government probably had
very little chance of identifying Bond.

Animal rights blogs and websites have already begun dissecting the
Bond case and providing lessons learned to current (and aspiring)
animal rights activists. Many of these sites have focused on Bond's
mistake in confiding in the CI and have indicated that they believe
the informant is a woman, which is a fair guess, based on the way Bond
appeared to be trying to impress the CI with his exploits. In all
likelihood, such sites will soon learn the identity of the CI through
court documents and appearances and will publish the CI's name and
photo in order to prevent the CI from informing on other activists.
The ALF has threatened informants, and has even created websites
devoted to identifying "informants, infiltrators, snitches and
agents." As previously imprisoned ALF activist Peter Young once said:
"For the sake of clarity, let us be uncomfortably honest: To snitch is
to take a life. By words and by weapons, each day lives are taken in
the most egregious of crimes. When this happens in the courtroom, we
call it 'cooperation.' I call it violence, and I call anything done to
keep an informant out of the courtroom 'self-defense.'" Despite this
rhetoric, however, to date, none of the people identified by the ALF
as an informant have been harmed.

And despite the uproar the Bond case has caused on websites affiliated
with animal liberation, when it comes to the national media, the case
appears to have received more coverage because of Bond's dramatic
facial tattoos than for his string of successful arsons. Yet even with
a dearth of media reporting, a review of the communiques carried on
the websites of groups such as ALF and Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty
shows that animal rights activists remain surprisingly active, not
just in the United States but also in Mexico and elsewhere.
Operationally, many of their lone wolves have been more successful in
conducting attacks than jihadist lone wolves.

Polarization in the animal rights community continues to grow, as do
calls for lone wolves to remain isolated from more moderate elements
of the community, who are seen as potential security threats. As those
activists favoring violence draw further from the more moderate
members of the movement - either due to ideological differences or the
need for operational security - any moderating influence on the
radicals will also be removed, and the lack of this influence will
result in the more radical elements becoming even more violent. This
dynamic will certainly produce more attacks against property and can
be expected to lead to more attacks of the kind advocated by the book
found in Bond's backpack - attacks against people.

Last edited by Mira Trapper; 07/31/10 07:55 AM.

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Mac Leod Motto
Re: Know your enemy & understand their weakness. [Re: Mira Trapper] #2083549
07/31/10 10:12 AM
07/31/10 10:12 AM
Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 3,649
Portsmouth Va.
A
aprophet Offline
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aprophet  Offline
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Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 3,649
Portsmouth Va.
maybe prosecute the more moderate part of the group under the R.I.C.O. Statutes smile then toss the key smile


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