{"id":12888,"date":"2014-02-16T20:01:55","date_gmt":"2014-02-17T03:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?p=12888"},"modified":"2014-02-16T20:53:30","modified_gmt":"2014-02-17T03:53:30","slug":"why-treating-environmentalists-like-terrorists-is-problematic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/why-treating-environmentalists-like-terrorists-is-problematic\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Treating Environmentalists Like Terrorists Is Problematic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Green<\/span> is the new Red<\/span>:<\/h1>\n

Will Potter on the problem of treating environmentalists like\u00a0terrorists<\/h1>\n

\"WillPotter_TEDFellow_Blog\"<\/p>\n

When\u00a0Chicago Tribune<\/em>\u00a0reporter Will Potter went to pass out animal rights leaflets, he had no idea the FBI would single him out and pressure him to become an anti-activism informant, threatening his future if he refused. Here, we talk to the TED Fellow and author of\u00a0Green<\/span> is the New Red<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0about this experience, which sent him into a whole new area of research. The crux of what he found: environmental and animal-rights activists are now considered the United States\u2019 number-one domestic terrorism threat, and they are being prosecuted as criminals.<\/p>\n

Do you think of yourself as an activist?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t consider myself an activist, but there\u2019s certainly an advocacy component when I\u2019m talking about civil rights issues. My background\u2019s in newspaper and magazine reporting. For a long time I tried to pursue the traditional newsroom path, and I was on it for quite a while. Then, when I was working at the\u00a0Chicago Tribune<\/a><\/em>, I had some experiences with the FBI that put me in a different direction in terms of the issues I was focused on. Then some good friends of mine were wrapped up in different terrorism prosecutions. These experiences immersed me in the issues unexpectedly, and that definitely changed the path that I was on.<\/p>\n

What happened with the FBI?<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the\u00a0Tribune<\/em>, I was covering breaking news, shootings, murders and local government, and it was all horribly depressing. It was not the type of thing I went into journalism to do. I had a background in college in environmental activism, and protesting the World Trade Organization and the economic sanctions on Iraq, and I wanted to be involved in something positive like that again.\u00a0So I went out leafletting with a group of people. We just passed out pieces of paper in a residential neighborhood about animal testing. I thought that was the most I could do as a working journalist \u2014 something so benign. And of course, since I have the worst luck ever, we were all arrested and charged. It was the only time I\u2019ve been arrested. Those charges were later thrown out, of course. It was a frivolous arrest. And it\u2019s still lawful to pass out handbills.<\/p>\n

A couple weeks later, I was visited by two FBI agents at my home, who told me that unless I helped them by becoming an informant and investigating protest groups, they would put me on a domestic terrorist list. They also made some threats about making sure I wouldn\u2019t receive a Fulbright I had applied for, and making sure my girlfriend at the time wouldn\u2019t receive her PhD funding. I really want to think that I wouldn\u2019t be affected by something like that, especially given my activist background, but it just scared the daylights out of me. It really did. That fear eventually turned into an obsession with finding out how this happened, how nonviolent protestors are being labeled as terrorists.<\/p>\n

Did they not realize that you were a journalist?<\/strong><\/p>\n

They did, and they obviously didn\u2019t think of the potential of me writing or talking about it. They specifically said, \u201cYou are the one of this group that has everything going for you.\u201d They knew everywhere I worked, they knew my editors at the\u00a0Tribune<\/em>, they knew different journalism awards I received \u2014 and their message was, \u201cHelp us or we\u2019re going to put you on a different path.\u201d And they kept saying, \u201cDon\u2019t throw all this away.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so at one point, I just said, \u201cWhat are you going to make go away? This is a class C misdemeanor for leafletting, there\u2019s no way it\u2019s going to hold up in court, and you\u2019re talking about ruining my life.\u201d I of course never became an informant, and never thought about doing anything like that, but \u2014 it changed the focus of my work, without a doubt.<\/p>\n

Did they bother you after that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, you know, it\u2019s one of those things. It made me realize the power of fear. Because in a situation like that, you don\u2019t know what actually is happening or will happen. There\u2019s no way to find out. Certainly just a few months after 9\/11 when this happened, but even today, with the extent of the government\u2019s counterterrorism powers and how they\u2019re being used. So when they talk about making sure I don\u2019t receive a Fulbright, I didn\u2019t receive it, but is that just because I\u2019m not smart enough? Was it because my application wasn\u2019t good enough? I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s impossible to know these things.<\/p>\n

Years later, after my book came out, we did a Freedom of Information Act request. I found out that the counterterrorism unit has been monitoring my speeches and book and website. But in terms of day-to-day problems, I really haven\u2019t had any.<\/p>\n