Six animal rights terrorists were on their way to the slammer on Friday after being convicted in federal court of violent activities during their rein of terror against a British research laboratory.
Although all are American citizens, one of the group was a leader in the movement in Britain and controlled Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) while its Brit leaders were doing a stretch in prison.
The six members of the US chapter of SHAC were convicted of inciting violence and terrorism while trying to close down operations at Britain's leading animal testing facility, Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). HLS also operates a branch in New Jersey.
The jury's guilty verdict is viewed as a decisive victory for law enforcement officials, who are becoming more and more concerned about the growing severity of domestic terror attacks. The investigation topped off with a stunning courtroom win for the prosecutors comes only weeks after the Federal Bureau of Investigation released a statement claiming that animal rights extremists posed the greatest domestic terrorism threat in America today.
The guilty verdict for the six American militants is believed to be one of the first achieved under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism legislation. FBI officials say this relatively new piece of federal legislation is similar to “economic sabotage” laws, but AET is designed to assist law enforcement in combating animal rights terrorism and destruction.
According to federal prosecutors, SHAC routinely used its website to incite threats, harassment and vandalism. People received threats after personal information about employees of HLS and related companies was posted on the internet. Not only were employees targeted, but SHAC provided visitors to their website information about the workers' children including what schools they attended.
SHAC organized demonstrations that targeted the private homes HLS personnel. During these demonstrations, protesters held up photographs of mutilated animals and shouted obscenities at the families.
According to law enforcement officials, one female employee was sent an e-mail from SHAC threatening to "cut open her seven-year-old son and fill him with poison." In another incident a man was cut by glass fragments when the windows of his home were smashed by these activists. He told responding police officers that they also overturned his wife's automobile.
SHAC sent out many thousands of e-mails and faxes to companies doing business with the lab in order to disrupt their computer systems and fax machines. Some companies, out of fear of being victims themselves, ended their business relationships with HLS.
While the suspects were accused of inciting others to harass their targets, they continue to maintain that their actions constitute free speech under the First Amendment to the US Constitution.
British Police Interest in Case
British police and antiterrorism officials were quite interested in the trial and its outcome since it was company based in their country.
They were reportedly pleased -- almost celebratory -- when they learned that Joshua Harper, 31, Lauren Gazzola, 26, Jacob Conroy, 30, Andrew Stepanian, 27, Darius Fullmer, 29, and Kevin Kjonaas, 28, were all convicted of animal enterprise terrorism after the three-week trial in Newark, New Jersey's federal courthouse. Kjonaas, Gazzola and Conroy were convicted of several charges that they conspired and committed interstate stalking. They were also convicted of several counts of telephone harassment. Harper was also found guilty of telephone harassment.
Those convicted of all three offenses face a maximum fourteen years in prison and substantial fines when sentenced in June. The organization, SHAC, was also convicted and its American website was terminated.
Kjonaas, the former president of SHAC America, came to Britain in 2001 to work alongside British activists. He was deported back to the United States by police who realized his visa had expired. He had been on Scotland Yards radar for about two years.
In an interview with an internet magazine, the extremist, who used the name Kevin Jones, said, “I spent a year in England working full-time on animal rights campaigns and there really cut my teeth on some ‘true grit’ activism.”
An HLS spokesman old the Times of London, “This is a victory for democracy, biomedical research and patients.”
The US Attorney’s Office said in a press release: “The convictions defeat the argument that these so-called activists were acting within their rights. They're thugs who went far beyond protected speech and lawful protest to engage in and incite intimidation, harassment and violence.”
In England, the Times of London reported that one of SHAC’s founding members was jailed for breaching an antisocial behavior order. Heather Nicholson, who also uses the last names of Avery, Barwick and James, was given a four-month prison sentence by Oxford Crown Court.
She admitted breaching an ASBO -- similar to a US restraining order or an order of protection -- imposed in January, which did not allow her to go near sites at Oxford University, HLS or the pharmaceutical company Phytopharm, or contact employees or their families.
Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and he's a staff writer for the New Media Alliance (thenma.org).
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