In 2009, Daniel Andreas San Diego was added to the FBI’s “Most Wanted Terrorists” watch list. He is only the second US citizen to make this particular FBI list. He is now thought to be on the Big Island of Hawai’i, and the FBI issued a press release alerting the state to be on the lookout for him.
What is he alleged to have done? What is the sum damage of this feared and infamous terrorist? Well, there were these two companies that paid to have extremely horrible things done to animals. If you are under 18 skip over the next sentence. Google: Chiron, Shaklee, and Huntingdon Life Sciences and add the phrase “animal testing” then hit “images” or click here. Specifically and allegedly, he trashed an empty office in the middle of the night with a primitive explosive, and he caused a little stucco to come off the front of another empty office. So calling him the 3rd most wanted terrorist and putting a $250,000 reward on his head seems a bit melodramatic at best, and an insult to the victims of real “terrorism” at worst. This is clearly no Bin Laden or Timothy McVeigh, and the bombing is no exploding Pan Am jet over Lockerbee Scotland – to put it mildly.
And by the way, what damage was inflicted by Diego truly is all “allegedly” because all that has happened so far is a grand jury has indicted him. If a prosecutor can’t secure an indictment from a grand jury, he or she needs to rethink their career choice. A grand jury could indict a sandwich.
Oh yeah, the hippie lefty animal lover who literally wouldn’t hurt a fly should be considered armed and dangerous. Just so you know… kay? He might blow excessive amounts of pakalolo in your direction and you’ll get dizzy, fall, and bump your head. “But didn’t he blast his way through FBI agents to make his daring escape, maybe?” Well, no. He just drove into San Fran and parked his car and got out and the FBI’s 24 hour surveillance team just lost him. Hey, if it’s any consolation, maybe Diego just lost his own car. C’mon you readers know you do that sometimes. The parking lots are just so big you know.
Anyone on the Big Island hear anything blow up in the last decade? What about threats to the Big Island Humane Society where they kill all those animals? Anyone hear anything like that? Hmmm…well, there were terrible aerial bombs exploding up and down the length of H1 Freeway on Oahu on January 1, 2010 at about 12:01. Started some dangerous brush fires I think, scared a lot of animals and people with asthma, PTSD, and autism too. National Guard was not called out; FBI did not investigate; and no tickets were issued by HPD. Although emergency rooms did report extra burn cases. I wonder if that was this Diego fellow up to no good.
“He didn’t kill anyone either?” Hmmm, let me think. He was too young to have assassinated Black Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. That was the Chicago Police and the FBI. Too young to have killed Malcolm X. That was the Nation of Islam being played by the FBI. Oh! He must have bombed that block in Philly with that vegan Move group living on it, where all those families died and houses were destroyed! Um, no. I think that was the Philly Police with explosives help from the FBI. Earth First!er Judi Bari being bombed in her car??? Nope again. That was the Oakland Police with the help of the FBI. Incidentally, there’s a $50,000 reward for information leading to the exact person who bombed Judi Bari. So, if any of you FBI agents reading along are straight laced and being forced out by the FBI’s”Play ball or there’s the door” team, here’s your chance for a golden parachute. Just sayin… ask FBI whistleblower Mike German.
I wonder why the FBI isn’t on the FBI’s list of “Most Wanted Terrorists”? Maybe the same reason that the people flying US military drones into Pakistan and Yemen that kill all those grandmas and kids aren’t on there, or the Joint Special Operations Command folks that kill all those cleaning guys and family members aren’t on there. Collateral damage is all good at home and abroad, as long as you’re on the team with the money and power. That’s how we roll in the US of A.
Maybe, it’s the same reason that corporate officials from Kerr McGee who knowingly and intentionally exposed their workers to nuclear poisoning aren’t on there – or the executives at the fracking companies who are dumping all that radioactive waste all over North Dakota – or Duke Energy higher-ups whose coal waste is getting into everyone’s water in North Carolina, etc., etc., etc….
All those guys who dumped all that tea into Boston Harbor and tried unsuccessfully to pin it on the indigenous peoples… yeah, if we didn’t let them become revered historical figures, they would most certainly have made the list, right? That tea must have cost a pretty penny, and they must have scared the begeezus out of the people who saw them do it.
You’re going to love this too. The guy who was prosecuting the people who ran the Website that supposedly incited Diego was a guy named Christopher Christie – US Assistant Attorney General Christopher Christie that is. If Diego was involved with those activists, he must have surely been a bad man, right? Those pesky protestors were up to no good. Christie is quoted by reporter John P. Martin in a Star Ledger article entitled, Animal Rights and Wrongs (11/28/04) as saying, “Their business, quite frankly, is thuggery and intimidation.” Everyone in his office went with him to the NJ Governor’s Office years later, where they then proceeded to conspire to close down the busiest bridge in the country for four days to let the Mayor of Hoboken and the rest of the Democrats know they better not cross them politically. It was a politically motivated crime of amazing proportions!
Imagine if lefty animal protestors did that! They would have scrambled F-16 fighter jets and Blackhawk helicopters, with Seals and Ranger snipers, and gosh darn it that bridge would have been back open within the hour, and those political zealots would have been renditioned as enemy combatants to Guantanamo, and surely, the FBI would have had to add another 2 or 3 pages to their list of “MostWanted Terrorists” for just the ones that got away.
All so messy. Rich and powerful people decide who’s on the list, but can’t be on it themselves. They get a free pass. Recently deceased, legendary member of the British Parliament Tony Benn said, “A few years ago, London was bombed by terrorists. And how did it end – from northern Ireland. How did it end? It ended when we talked to Gerry Adams, who was the IRA leader in prison. Nelson Mandela was denounced as a terrorist by Mrs. Thatcher, and peace came in South Africa when the South African government talked to Mandela, and he came out and became president. I mean, history tells you, and Churchill put it very clearly: Jaw-jaw, talking, is better than war-war.”
Another Brit, Barry Horne, who was a street sweeper and garbage collector, and rather good amateur footballer, went on a series of hunger strikes while in prison. He went on a 68 day hunger strike to hold Labour to a pledge it had made to hold a public inquiry into animal testing. Reasonable people, when confronted with the facts, could surely agree to eliminate, or at least curtail, the use of animals in such horrid and useless experiments, he thought. Prime Minister Blair and the Labour Party reneged, and Horne died on his 4th and final hunger strike. Big Pharma better be careful what animal enterprise terrorism legislation they pay to get passed, because one of these days they are going to get the American Barry Horne. They will long for the good old days of home demos and bad publicity.
Despite the simple solutions to the troubles, the US is taking the oppression route instead. Just to protect one wealthy and well connected company from a rag tag group of animal activists hosting a Web site connected to Diego, they undertook a three-year federal investigation involving more than 100 FBI and Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents, and members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, and get ready for this… generated the highest number of authorizations for telephone wiretaps and electronic surveillance of any case in 2003 – more than 141,000 -just in case you were wondering what Chris Christie was doing during his stint as a US Assistant Attorney General -you know because he’s all against thuggery and intimidation – except when he does it of course – allegedly.
The ironies involved with this whole affair are thick indeed. But the larger takeaway is the case study on how the 1% control and oppress with money and raw power using a system set up originally for the people, with liberty and justice for all – not just some of the rich and powerful.
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