TEXT FILE NUMBER F 1.0: PRESS RELEASE FROM THE OFFICE OF INTERNAL SECURITY, NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY
LOCATION: WASHINGTON, D.C.
DATE: JULY 4, 2001
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It's the summer of 2000, and a group eco-terrorists belonging to a group known as Liberation Gaia are meeting on a secluded plot of land in the wilderness of the Chewelah National Forest in Northeastern Washington State. Their purpose: to plan a series of attacks on private and public organizations including logging camps belonging to Dark River Timber, as well as the main campus of the TARN Special Projects, a laboratory conducting research on behalf of the United States Navy's Maritime Warfare Division. The planned tools of destruction included hand-held tools like sledge hammers and axes, steel chains, guns, and even homemade explosive devices. Immediately after the meeting, these individuals dispersed to their various cells across the state to begin placing orders for fertilizer and diesel fuel through twelve different wholesale suppliers throughout Washington and Idaho. Others, meanwhile, attended gun shows in the Spokane, Seattle, Coeur D'Alene, and Boise areas where they purchased thousands of 7.62 caliber rounds, the ammunition fired by the AK-47 semi-automatic rifle.
You may be asking, with all of these explosives and weapons in their possession, why was there never any news of an attack taking place? Surely, these people didn't get cold feet and decide to abandon their nefarious plans, did they?
We at the NSA's Office of Internal Security wish we could tell you, the American people, that the terrorists in question saw the error of their ways. Sadly, we cannot. Liberation Gaia was fully intent on unleashing destruction across inland Washington State, and had their plan been left to run its course, we may very well be writing about an attack you have heard of, rather than once you haven't. Divine Providence had a different plan in store, namely one devised by the steadfast team of Internal Security personnel who were working the case.
During the course of Liberation Gaia's planning stages, five members of their organization were arrested after attempting to buy military-grade automatic rifles from an undercover agent posing as an illicit weapons dealer at one of the aforementioned gun shows. After being taken into custody, these suspects were transported to a classified NSA field site to undergo a series of augmented debriefing techniques that were recently developed by the CIA's Center for Human Intelligence. After nearly two days of continuous augmented debriefing, the suspects provided names and locations of their co-conspirators. Thus, what may have proved to be one of the most deadly and damaging attacks in the history of our great nation was averted.
Since the bombing in Oklahoma City of the Murrah Federal Building in April 1995, the Office of Internal Security has fortified its ability to identify, analyze, and neutralize racially and politically motivated threats to the security of the United States. But this work does not stop at threats from terrorists like Timothy McVeigh. Thankfully, our agents are able to use those same skills to prevent the sort of deadly attacks that eco-terrorist groups hope to unleash upon the American people. We believe that groups like Liberation Gaia represent a palpable threat to America, and here's why:
The number of active members (close to 1,000 by current estimates);
The loss of revenue by business due to their activities (losses of more than $50 million to date);
The "regular joe" is affected as much as the "big company" (an estimated loss of 300,000 work hours); and
Increasingly para-militant behavior (remains of training camps discovered in the Olympic National Forest on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State).
Liberation Gaia might not be a name you are familiar with, but believe us when we say that they are familiar with both you and your children. Don't believe us? Well, you might after you read the following.
In 1998, a communique from Liberation Gaia leadership was intercepted by intelligence officers from the Office of Internal Security. This message, codenamed BABY SNATCHER, was intended for what we believe to be members of a sleeper cell located in Spokane, Washington, and directed said members to initiate recruitment efforts of high school students from Archangel, Washington. The message made specific mention of Archangel as it as "fertile ground" for students who may be willing to "take up the cause against organizations like TARN (Defense Industries) who are decimating the environment". It is our belief that this communique may be only one of many sent to multiple cells across the states, and it is entirely possible that some of their recruitment efforts may have been successful.
A lot of you are probably thinking that there's no way your teen could be a part of such a dangerous organization. To that we say, think again. Members of organizations like Liberation Gaia don't carry membership cards. They may not even dress, talk, or behave differently than any other young person. In fact, the only way you can become a member of Liberation Gaia is to execute an attack on their behalf, usually in the form of arson, fire bombing, vandalism, or by intimidating, assaulting, or stalking a member of a targeted organization. There are no dues or fees for membership outside of performing the kind of criminal activity that's designed to bring harm to an intended target.
After learning all that you have, some of you might be feeling a bit scared, threatened, or even panicked. Rest assured that we here at the The Office of Internal Security completely understand your feelings. In fact, we understand so well that we are going the extra mile to make sure that you and your families are safe from these terrorists by instituting a number of programs that we're sure will keep everyone safe. First, we've mapped the entirety of eco-terror related criminal cases in order to give our staff a "bird's eye" look at what's happening and where. As if that's not enough, we've used the very considerable communication monitoring resources of the National Security Agency to cast a dragnet over the entirety of cities like Spokane and Seattle in order to harvest phone, financial, and mail records that might give us a leg up in catching these criminals. What's more, we've partnered up with our colleagues in the CIA and the Navy Special Warfare Center to bring their human collection and irregular combat skills into the fight. We've even teamed with organizations as small as the Archangel County Sheriff's Department because we believe that defeating eco-terrorism can't be successful unless everyone is chipping in.
Still feeling jittery? Well, let us assure you that our efforts to keep you safe have paid dividends since we began. In addition to the successful operation to thwart Liberation Gaia's plot to bomb Dark River Timber and TARN Defense Industries, our other investigations have resulted in the indictments of 22 additional individuals. This we have done all while taking the utmost care to allow for the free exercise of the individual's First Amendment right to speak freely, even when it is in defense of terrorist organizations like Liberation Gaia.
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