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“THE ENVIRONMENTAL TERRORISM REDUCTION ACT” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1650-E1651 on July 25, 2003.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE ENVIRONMENTAL TERRORISM REDUCTION ACT
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HON. DARLENE HOOLEY
of oregon
in the house of representatives
Friday, July 25, 2003
Ms. HOOLEY of Oregon. Mr. Speaker, throughout our history, America has been a country committed to justice. In the wake of an 1837 mob lynching of an abolitionist newspaper editor, our great leader Abraham Lincoln urged his fellow Americans to ``let reverence for the laws . .
. become the political religion of the nation,'' to let legislatures and judges chosen by the people, rather than lynch-mobs motivated by passion and hatred, decide important issues. In the end, Lincoln's philosophy was vindicated. Our nation remains united, and we are committed to the rule of law.
But there is a minority of Americans who refuse to abide by this covenant. They believe the rule of law does not apply to them, and in the forests and communities of Oregon and the Western United States, their actions are a rapidly growing problem.
Oregon has seen a growing number of incidents of environmental terrorism. I have traveled to the site of one of these, a Boise Cascade building that was burned down by the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) on Christmas day a couple of years ago.
While environmental terrorists claim that they don't want to harm people, they need to sit down with the volunteer firefighters who were roused from their beds early on Christmas morning to fight the blaze they started.
You see, the way incendiary devices used in arsons work, the buildings targeted by environmental terrorists often fall in very quickly, and we are extremely lucky that none of the brave women and men who fight fires have been seriously hurt or killed in one of these blazes.
In 2001, poplar trees involved in a research project at Oregon State University were destroyed by a group expressing concern about genetically modified organisms. The ironic thing about this is that the trees were involved in research designed to prevent genetically modified organisms from spreading into the wild--a goal which the saboteurs probably support.
Unfortunately, neither side in the battle over the environment has a monopoly on the use of violence--both environmentalists and those who oppose increased protections of our natural resources have resorted to illegal tactics to advance their causes.
Federal land managers have been harassed, intimidated, and threatened by those who are opposed to environmental protections. For example, in 1997 ranchers in New Mexico threatened to kill Forest Service employees enforcing protections for endangered species.
Let me be clear: using violence or intimidation in the name of a political cause is wrong. In a democracy, we fight for change at the ballot box and in the halls of our legislatures, not with pipe bombs and incendiary devices.
I strongly urge my fellow colleagues to ensure that our local, state, and federal law enforcement officials are effectively upholding the law. That said, environmental terrorism poses additional challenges for the law enforcement community.
It is a well-know fact that very few environmental terrorists have been caught. These groups have no formal organization, and they act in small terrorist cells, which are autonomous from one another.
Because these crimes are investigated with limited resources and manpower, local law enforcement officials have little success in successfully closing these cases.
For the second Congress, I am attempting to reverse the current situation by sponsoring the Environmental Terrorism Reduction Act. This bill would provide federal assistance where it is needed most, at the local level.
This legislation would require the Attorney General to establish a national clearinghouse for information on incidents of ecoterrorism, with the hope that investigators stay ahead of the curve in preventing additional acts of terror.
In addition, it would establish the Environmental Terrorism Reduction Program in the Department of Justice. This program would authorize the Attorney General to designate any area as a high intensity environmental terrorism area. After making such a designation local law enforcement agencies could access federal funding to assist them in solving and preventing these types of crimes in the future.
This program is similar to the Department of Justice's High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program (HIDTA), which has been extraordinarily useful in Oregon and other states in helping make our communities better places to live.
I ask my colleagues to join me in this goal, and to support the Environmental Terrorism Reduction Act.
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