**************************************************************************** >C O M P U T E R U N D E R G R O U N D< >D I G E S T< *** Volume 1, Issue #1.03 (April 8, 1990) ** **************************************************************************** MODERATORS: Jim Thomas / Gordon Meyer REPLY TO: TK0JUT2@NIU.bitnet COMPUTER UNDERGROUND DIGEST is an open forum dedicated to sharing information among computerists and to the presentation and debate of diverse views. -------------------------------------------------------------------- DISCLAIMER: The views represented herein do not necessarily represent the views of the moderators. Contributors assume all responsibility for assuring that articles submitted do not violate copyright protections. -------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************** *** Computer Underground Digest Issue #1.03 / File 4 of 6 *** *************************************************************** Your reference to the FBI tactics in the arrest of Earth First participants as questionable, illegal, immoral, unethical, and generally wrong, led me to look up the original article. It appeared in THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE (and presumably other sources) on March 2, 1990, pp. 1, 12, titled "FBI tactics questioned in probe of activeists," by Terry Atlas, date-lined Phoenix. The article describes what appears to be entrapment, and suggests that the FBI set up the leaders intentionally: "PHOENIX--Mike Tait was a quiet, troubled cowboy, a Vietnam War veteran in his early 40s who wore an Arizona Feeds cap that covered his bald spot. As it turned out, he was hiding a lot more than that. To his best friend, Margaret "Peg" Millett, a part-time counselor at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Prescott, Ariz., tait was a good-hearted redneck who liked to dance and was trying to get in touch with his feelings. Along with Millett and some of her friends, he took an interest in "monkey-wrenching"--disruptive, often illegal, acts in the name of Mother Nature--popularized by the radical environmental group Earth First!. One night last May, Tait drove Millett and two of her trusted friends into the Arizona desert outside Prescott on such a clandestine mission. Suddenly, flares exploded that lit up the desert sky and exposed Tait's secret. More than 40 FBI agencies--on foot, on horseback and in a helicopter--moved in on tait's unarmed friends as they allegedly used a blowtorch in an attempt to cut down a power-line tower. The ambush, and the arrest the next morning of Earth First! founder David Foreman 200 miles away in Tucson, climaxed an 18-month federal undercover investigation into what the government charges was a dangerous group of eco-terrorists whose nighttime raid was a practice run for more serious attacks on power lines at nuclear plants in Arizona, California and Colorado. The investigation was begun with high-level approval from Washington during the Reagan administration. It included putting FBI agent Michael Fain undercover as Mike Tait, backed up by wiretaps, hidden microphones and body wires used to secretly record more than 1,400 %page break, con't on page 12% hours of conversations among environmental activeists." The article goes on to question whether such resources were simply retaliation for Foreman's outspoken advocacy of an anti-nuclear position. The issue raised in the article is that the FBI was out to get Fain. The article continues (p. 12): "And new evidence--an apparently careless remark by agent Fain that was inadvertently recorded--lends some support to Foreman's charge that he was the big catch the government wanted. On one tape that the government recently provided to defense attorneys, what is apparently Fain's voice is heard telling two other FBI agents that Foreman wasn't an actual perpetrator. This is the guy we need to pop to send a message." "That's all we're really doing," he goes on, "and if we don't nail this guy and we get only Davis, we're not sending any message." They laughed that the supposedly fearsome band of environmental radicals was holding a yard sale in Tucson to raise enough money to keep going, and Fain remarks, "They're low budget, and I don't really look for them to be doing a lot of hurting of people." Then suddenly realizing that the tape recorder is on, Fain says, "We don't need that on the tape. Hoo boy," and he shuts it of. Gerry Spence is defending Earth First!, and, according to the article, the trial has been postponed from the original April date. I find the implications of this scary. I don't support bombings and destruction of property, but I like a police state even less. I don't know what counts as a set in law, but common sense tells me that something's not right here. It seems like the FBI is manipulating people and events to assure a particular kind of outcome. What did this entire operation cost? How much will tax payers have to pay for the prosecution of what could result in a fiasco? Who else are the feds manipulating and for what purpose? Who does the approving? Where does legitimate law enforcement strategy end and gestapo tactics begin? I don't have any answers. Does anybody else? =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ + END THIS FILE + +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+===+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=  Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253 12yrs+