💾 Archived View for library.inu.red › file › judi-bari-community-under-siege.gmi captured on 2023-01-29 at 11:04:28. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
➡️ Next capture (2024-07-09)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Title: Community Under Siege Author: Judi Bari Language: en Topics: Earth First!, police Source: Retrieved on 29 Jannuary 2011 from http://www.eco-action.org/dt/judicom.html
Speech given at the Cinco de Mayo/May 5^(th) gathering in Booneville,
California. Footnotes added by Jym Dyer
I came of age during the Vietnam era, and I’ve known for a long time
that the system is enforced by violence. Some of my earliest political
experiences were of 20-year-old national guardsmen beating my
18-year-old non-violent friends senseless and bloody. I didn’t think I
had any delusions about how thin the veneer of civility is in this
country. But I have to admit that I was totally unprepared for the sheer
horror of being bombed and maimed while organizing for Redwood Summer
last year.
The bombing represented the end of innocence for our movement. Sure, we
had seen violence before, but this was different. The logger who broke
Mem Hill’s nose, the log truck driver who ran me off the road —
themselves victims of the timber industry — in the heat of the moment,
took their anger out on us. But whoever put that bomb in my car was a
cold and premeditated killer. And the FBI’s attempt to frame me and
Darryl [Cherney] for the bombing made us realize what we are up against.
Not only are they willing to use lethal force to protect their “right”
to level whole ecosystems for private profit, they are also backed by
the full power of the government’s secret police.
The man in charge of my and Darryl’s case at the FBI is Richard W. Held,
chief of the San Francisco office. He went on TV last summer to say that
Darryl and I were the only suspects in the bomb attack that nearly took
my life. Richard Held became notorious in the 1970’s for his active role
in COINTELPRO, an outrageous and illegal FBI program to disrupt and
destroy any group that challenged the powers-that-be.
COINTELPRO’s method was to foment internal discord in activist groups,
isolate and discredit them, terrorize them, and assassinate their
leaders. The best known example of this was Black Panther Fred Hampton,
who was murdered by the FBI as he slept in his bed in a Chicago
apartment in 1969. And there were many, many others.
But back to Richard Held, the man in charge of my bombing case. His
personal role in COINTELPRO began in the early 70’s in Los Angeles,
where he ordered insulting cartoons to be drawn and sent, supposedly
from one faction to another, among the L.A. Black Panthers. This heated
up antagonisms between the factions so much that, with a little help
from FBI infiltrators, they erupted into shooting wars that left two
Panthers dead.
Held was also on hand in Pine Ridge, South Dakota in 1975 to help direct
the FBI’s reign of terror against the American Indian Movement (AIM). In
this case the FBI took advantage of existing divisions in the native
community to hook up with a vigilante groups called GOONS, or Guardians
of the Oglala Nation. These local thugs were armed by the FBI and
guaranteed that they would not be prosecuted for crimes against AIM
members. They attacked over 300 AIM people and killed 70 of them. Not
one of these crimes was solved because, said the FBI, they “didn’t have
enough manpower.” The Pine Ridge campaign ended with a military sweep of
the reservation by 200 SWAT trained agents, and with the framing and
jailing of Leonard Peltier.
Another of Richard Held’s accomplishments was in San Diego, where he was
instrumental in organizing an FBI-funded right wing paramilitary group
called the Secret Army Organization (SAO). The SAO bombed the Guild
Theater, a black community project, and tried to assassinate Peter
Bohmer, a radical professor at San Diego State. They missed and severely
wounded his associate, Paula Thorpe. By the way, the assassination
symbol of the SAO was the rifle scope and crosshairs.
In 1978 Richard Held was transferred to Puerto Rico where he oversaw the
FBI execution of two Independentista leaders who were made to kneel,
then were shot in the head. Held stayed on until 1985, when he
stage-managed an island-wide SWAT assault by 300 agents who busted in
doors and rounded up activists.
For all his good work, Richard Held was then promoted to be in charge of
the San Francisco FBI, where he still works today. And I don’t know if
the FBI had anything to do with putting that bomb in my car, but I know
for certain that they tried to frame me for it and made sure the real
bomber wasn’t found. They removed my whole floorboard with a blowtorch
and sent it to their crime lab in Washington DC, thereby destroying the
evidence that would prove they were lying about the location of the
bomb. [1] They lied about finding nails in the car that matched the
nails in the bomb. And when someone calling himself “The Lord’s Avenger”
wrote a letter describing the bomb in exact detail and taking credit for
it, their “investigation” consisted of raiding my house once again to
try to find a typewriter that matched the letter, which of course they
didn’t. This whole time they kept putting out selected press releases so
the highly cooperative press could make me look like a bomber when they
knew perfectly well that I was the victim of an assassination attempt.
With this knowledge of how the FBI operates, when I look at what’s going
on in our movement I can only conclude that we are under attack by a
COINTELPRO-type operation. Earth First! is definitely a target. We know
that the FBI has spent at least $3 million to infiltrate and disrupt
Earth First! in Arizona and Montana, not even including what they’ve
done in Northern California. In Arizona, admitted FBI agent provocateur
Michael Fain infiltrated their group for two years, winning the
activists’ trust and friendship. Then he led them to try to sabotage a
power line, and got them busted for it by the FBI. This is the supposed
“Earth First! plot to destroy nuclear power plants” that the mainstream
press keeps talking about. There was no plot. Just some naive people who
were misled by the FBI. And Dave Foreman wasn’t even there. They
arrested him in his bed at 5 a.m. and led him out in his underwear. [2]
In Montana the FBI targeted an environmental studies professor named Ron
Erikson, saying he and his Earth First! students were responsible for a
tree spiking incident. They raided people’s houses and forced them to
give fingerprints, handwriting and hair samples. Yet even after a Grand
Jury investigation, they found no evidence at all to link Erickson or
his students with any tree-spiking. But they discredited him
professionally and terrorized the Earth First!ers.
So I would be crazy not to assume that the FBI has had its hand in the
events up here, both before and after the bombing. But whether it’s the
FBI or just the timber industry, I know for sure that the techniques of
COINTELPRO have been used here in an attempt to disrupt us, discredit
us, create a climate of fear, and derail our attempts to save the
redwoods. Here are some examples of standard COINTELPRO practices that
have shown up in our community:
Black Propaganda — This term refers to information that appears to come
from one source (EF!) but actually comes from another source (FBI or
timber). The fake press releases that were distributed before the
bombing fit this category. They claimed to be from Earth First! and
called for violence against timber workers, but one had no contact name
or number at all, and the other spelled Darryl’s name wrong. [3] An even
more frightening example of black propaganda came from the right wing
anti- environmental group the Sahara Club. In April 1990 they printed a
diagram of how to make a bomb, claiming it was from an Earth First!
terrorism manual. Of course there is no such manual printed, distributed
by, or legitimately associated with us. But by distributing it as an EF!
manual the Sahara Club could simultaneously get out info on how to make
bombs while inciting hatred against EF!
Grey Propaganda — This term refers to damaging information whose source
is not clear. Under this category I would place the recent front-page
article in the San Francisco Examiner in which an “ex-CIA agent” claims,
with no evidence or details whatsoever, that Earth First! has
“clandestine cells of highly educated scientists” working to develop a
virus to wipe out the human race.
Intimidation — This certainly describes the many death threats we
activists have gotten, including the SAO style rifle scope and cross
hairs threat that I received a month before I was bombed. Or the man who
walked up to Darryl Cherney in Arcata and said “get a good look at my
face, because I’m the one who’s gonna kill you.” Death threats have
continued as recently as last night at 3 a.m., when an anonymous caller
told Anna Marie [Stenberg] “this bomb’s for you.” Even a 15-year old
Willits high school anti-war organizer got a call saying “We know you
had Judi Bari speak at your rally. We’re not afraid to kill someone, you
know.”
Harassment — This includes harassment of community people who support
us, and is designed to drive those people away. Not only was my house
red-tagged by the building deptartment, following an anonymous complaint
after the bombing, but so was my landlord’s. A non-activist friend who
let me stay at her house had the FBI visit her place of employment and
talk to her boss. My entire neighborhood was threatened with having
their houses burned down when I moved back here last August.
Surveillance — The purpose of surveillance is as much to create paranoia
as to gain information. And in case I had any doubts that I was still
being watched, a few weeks ago an Oakland cop (the FBI’s front men) told
a reporter that he knew I had just returned from U.C. Santa Barbara, and
that he presumed a series of pipe bombs that mysteriously appeared on
campus a few days before I got there were connected to me.
Vigilantes — Although certainly on a smaller and less lethal scale, the
FBI and local law enforcement have used similar tactics to those used
against AIM in Pine Ridge South Dakota. They have encouraged vigilantes
by sending a clear message that crimes against Earth First!ers will not
be prosecuted, including the bombing of me. At least a dozen Redwood
Summer people were assaulted (not counting incidents at the
demonstrations), and two were beaten into unconsciousness and left in
remote areas. Only one person was arrested for doing anything against
us, and that was the man who planted a fake bomb in the Arcata Action
Center, who was arrested only because the EF!ers pursued him into a bar
to catch him. Several gyppo logging companies paid hourly wages for
armed men to lie in wait in the woods for EF!ers last summer hoping to
catch us sabbing equipment. They had instructions to shoot, with a bonus
to be paid if they got one of us. Retired logger Ed Knight described it
on KQED as “vigilantism at its worst.”
Local Police Complicity — This includes Mendocino County D.A. Susan
Massini, who wouldn’t prosecute for Mem Hill’s broken nose or for me
being rammed by the log truck. And Sheriff Shea, who tried to whip up
fear and hatred of Earth First! by calling for an emergency ordinance to
restrict the size of our picket signs, using a video of a Palestinian
student demonstration in Beverly Hills 10 years ago to “prove” how we
would use our signs as weapons. And Sgt. Satterswhite who, like the FBI
in Pine Ridge, told me he “didn’t have the manpower to investigate” the
death threats against me. And the Ukiah police who, just one month ago,
refused to apprehend a man who came to the Mendocino Environmental
Center and threatened Gary Ball with physical violence, said he was
going to burn down the MEC, and raged in biblical terms saying I
deserved to be bombed and should be bombed again.
Local Government Complicity — This includes Mendocino County Supervisor
Marilyn Butcher, who promoted the lynch-mob mentality last year when she
publicly responded to the death threats against me by saying “You
brought it on yourself, Judi.” And it includes Humboldt Co. Supervisor
Harry Pritchard who, just a few weeks ago, called us terrorists and said
one of us would get killed if we didn’t stop “taking food out of
people’s mouths.” And it includes the city governments of both Ukiah and
Willits, which recently bypassed all public channels to allow the
apparently permanent installation of yellow ribbons on our public
streets, a not-so-subtle message of intimidation to anyone who would
oppose the timber industry or the New World Order.
There are many more examples, but the pattern is clear. John Muir once
said, “Tug on anything in nature and you will find it connected to
everything else.” I would say that the same is true of the corporate
state. Because all we ever tried to do here is save a few trees and
protect our communities from the ravages of a few out-of-town
corporations. And we have found this incredible array of forces lined up
against us with the timber industry. So as the new logging season gets
underway, with tensions rising again, we had better figure out how to
deal with this COINTELPRO style assault we face. Of course one of the
first things we should do is to educate ourselves, and that’s why I’m
saying all this. But we also have to counter their attempts to
marginalize, isolate and intimidate us.
It’s important to remember why Earth First! is targeted, and that is
because we are effective. In spite of our shock and horror at the
bombing last May, we didn’t back down. 3000 people from all over the
country came to Redwood Summer and chained themselves to logging
equipment, hugged trees, blocked logging roads and marched through
timber towns. Sure we made mistakes. But in spite of incredible
provocation we maintained our presence and non-violence throughout the
summer. The Forest Forever voter initiative made a state-wide issue of
redwood slaughter, but Redwood Summer made it national and
international. Together we are the cause of the current political push
to save Headwaters Forest and reform logging practices.
People in the environmental movement who are not Earth First!ers should
remember that we are all affected. If you allow us to be isolated, if
it’s not okay to be an Earth First!er this year, then next year it won’t
be okay to be in the Sierra Club. Don’t believe the incendiary stuff you
read and here about us in the corporate press. You know us. We are your
neighbors, and we are ready to work with you and talk to you any time.
You can reach us at the MEC at 707/486-1660.
Our entire community is under siege, and that includes the forest
itself, not just the people who defend it. If we back down to timber and
police terror, they will continue to destroy the redwood forest and its
life support system. We are already seeing the climate changes that go
with deforestation, including the 5-year drought and killing frosts. How
much longer can they cut like this before the ecosystem collapses?
If we stand together, I think we can make the difference. In Humboldt
County, MAXXAM is on the verge of financial collapse from its own junk
bonds. And LP and GP are almost done in Mendocino County. They’ve cut
the good stuff, and now they’re fighting to take 20-year-old baby
third-growth trees in a last mop-up operation before they leave. How
much is this chip-cut worth to them? Economically those trees barely pay
their way out of the woods. But biologically they mean the difference
between whether the forest can ever recover, or whether it will end up
converted to vineyards, subdivisions, or desert.
That’s why we’re not backing down. We’re tired and we’re scared, but the
timber industry is tired too. And the darkest hour is just before the
dawn.
Â
[1] Shortly after the bombing, the FBI was telling reporters that the
bomb was located on the back seat of Bari’s car. This would support the
claim that Bari and Cherney were knowingly transporting a bomb. However,
Bari’s injuries leave no doubt that the bomb was in fact located under
the driver’s seat.
[2] Foreman’s actual complicity is probably best expressed by Fain
himself, who was musing into his tape recorder: “I don’t really look for
them to be doing a lot of hurting people. [Foreman] isn’t really the guy
we need to pop — I mean in terms of an actual perpetrator. This is the
guy we need to pop to send a message. And that’s all we’re really
doing... Uh-oh. We don’t need that on tape. Hoo boy.” Of the other
defendants, two had never been involved with Earth First!, one had
attended one EF! meeting, and one actually did attend EF! events — as a
folksinger.
[3] One timber firm, PALCO, distributed copies of this phony press
release to its employees, even though it is indicated in one of their
memos that they themselves were unsure that it was produced by EF!,
given the misspelling of Cherney’s name.