- American special agents were so concerned about the activities
of Britain's leading animal rights extremists that they tapped their phones
and intercepted their emails over a six-month period as part of a covert
surveillance operation.
-
- According to documents filed in a US court, between November
2002 and the following April the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI)
made a series of applications to judges that allowed it to monitor conversations
between the UK leaders of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (Shac), the group
that campaigns to close the Cambridgeshire-based animal research firm Huntingdon
Life Sciences, and their US counterparts.
-
- The documents show that the FBI monitored the emails
and phone calls of Shac members Greg and Heather Avery when they visited
the US, in addition to Natasha Taylor, who has worked with Shac in the
past, and Robin Webb, spokesman for the militant Animal Liberation Front.
-
- Details of the monitoring campaign come amid a wave of
attacks against targets with links to the US laboratories of Huntingdon
Life Sciences. Last week alone nine attacks were reported against HLS targets
in the US.
-
- Yesterday Webb admitted he became aware that the FBI
was tracking his movements when he visited the US. 'I was certainly singled
out, every public meeting I addressed there were obviously FBI agents present,'
he said.
-
- News of the FBI's interest in Britain's animal activists
comes as seven US Shac activists prepare to go on trial in New Jersey this
June. The seven, who include the leader of ShacUSA, Kevin Kjonaas, are
charged with conspiring to commit 'animal enterprise terrorism' and face
up to three years in jail if found guilty.
-
- They are accused of publishing the names and addresses
of Huntingdon employees and their children's names on a website and listing
the 'top 20 terror tactics'.
-
- The case is expected to test the extent to which internet
speech is protected by the First Amendment in an age of expanding communication
technology and new laws to thwart terrorism.
-
- Opponents of the animal rights movement said links between
UK and US activists were well known.
-
- 'Animal rights extremists in the US have always worked
closely with their UK counterparts,' said David Martosko, director of research
at the Centre for Consumer Freedom, a Washington-based organisation that
campaigns on behalf of business interests.
-
- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2005
-
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/animalrights/story/0,11917,1451214,00.html
|
