Greenpeace decides to use Mt. Rushmore as a stage. They’d better hope they didn’t break it.
From today’s Argus, there’s a story on how the radical eco-group Greenpeace bypassed security climbed up Mt. Rushmore and unfurled a banner:
The environmental group Greenpeace said that its members used the park service’s existing rock anchors to scale the mountain.
The 11 participants were cited for unlawful climbing and trespassing in an area not open to the public. Both citations are misdemeanors punishable by a maximum penalty of six months in prison and/or a $5,000 fine. They appeared before a U.S. magistrate judge in Rapid City Wednesday afternoon.
and…
After security systems went off at the monument, Bracewell said local, state and federal agencies arrived to apprehend the climbers and collect the banner.
An investigation of the events is under way and park officials are looking into improving security, Bracewell said.
Yes, it look like this was just a cute stunt. Maybe. Real cute – a stunt which is now going to cost taxpayers tens if not hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars in prosecuting the case – expenses which should come directly back to the perpetrators. And then there’s a strong possibility that they might have damaged the monument. God help them if that happened. I would hope that their coffers will not only be held responsible by the full force of the Government – but their donations might also take a serious hit.
Speaking of the group, I’ve noted them as a radical eco-group. But some even go so far to intimate that if it walks like a duck, we might as well call it a duck – they flat out call them eco-terrorists:
On September 22, the charitable oversight group Public Interest Watch filed a complaint with the IRS charging Greenpeace with making such illegal transfers. In a report entitled “Green-Peace, Dirty Money: Tax Violations in the World of Non-Profits,” Public Interest Watch found that Greenpeace Fund, a 501(c)(3) transferred over $10 million in exempt funds to non-exempt Greenpeace organizations such as Greenpeace, Inc. between 1998 and 2000.
Greenpeace, Inc. and other non-exempt Greenpeace entities benefiting from these transfers have committed numerous acts of eco-terrorism. They have blockaded a U.S. naval base, broken into the central control building of a nuclear power station in England, overrun the Exxon Mobil corporate headquarters in Texas, and rammed a ship into the French sailboat competing in the 2003 America’s Cup, permanently damaging the vessel.
In April 2002, Greenpeace activists forcibly boarded a cargo ship in Florida carrying Brazilian wood. In connection with this incident, federal prosecutors indicted Greenpeace in July for violating an 1872 law prohibiting the unauthorized boarding of “any vessel about to arrive at the place of her destination.”*
Read that here. Yes, this is the same group that unfurled the banner at Mt. Rushmore. It’s as if they’re taunting us, saying – “Tee Hee! Look at our banner. Now don’t’ mind us while we ram boats and take over nuclear power plants.” Ugh. What a bunch of scumbags.
Unfortunately, such incidents are only likely to continue. South Dakota is no stranger to eco-terrorism, as you can read one accounting of it from the Watertown area – where one group of eco-terrorists put a South Dakota farming family out of business… for farming:
We have an update to the story. On 01 February 2007, Peter Daniel Young has been released from federal prison, but he will not return to South Dakota to face state charges for a 1997 raid near Kranzburg. Following terms of an agreement he made with prosecutors, he will not ever return to South Dakota.
“We are not proceeding with the South Dakota charges,” said Dawn Elshere, Codington County state’s attorney. She said that under the terms of a deferred prosecution agreement with Young, “he won’t be allowed to return to the state – ever.” Authorities decided there was nothing more to be gained by prosecuting him in the state.
Young was sentenced to two years in a federal prison in California after pleading guilty in Wisconsin to animal enterprise terrorism for releasing mink at farms in Iowa, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
To look again at the crimes he committed, on 17 October 1997, a 20-foot section of fence was cut and about 3000 mink were released at the former Turbak Mink Ranch near Kranzburg. The mink – valued at $90,000 – got loose early in the morning. Some were recaptured; many died before they could be corralled.
The former owners said the loss played a part in the eventual closure of their business.
Elshere said restitution was part of the federal case. “Whether or not they’ve seen any of that money, I don’t know,” she said. The sentencing judge ordered $254,840 in restitution. It is doubtful that Young will ever pay the restitution. He was also was given one year of supervised release and 360 hours of community service. This is a small comfort to those he harmed, as some of them will never fully recover from the financial damage.
Young said in federal court that his mink farm raids were acts of conscience. He did not show any remorse except that he was sorry he got caught.
Federal investigators believe Young was connected with the Animal Liberation Front, a terrorist group with Marxist core beliefs whose primary mission is to destroy animal-related industries it considers inhumane. Keep in mind that these people consider Seeing Eye Dogs to be exploitation.
The original South Dakota charges were third-degree burglary, intentional damage to property, and animal enterprise trespass. Convictions on the first two carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. The third charge has a maximum penalty of two years in prison. Unfortunately, Young will not stand trial for the original South Dakota charges. It is not a surprise that some of the mink farmers are disappointed Young will not face the South Dakota charges. Dawn Elshere said that part of the decision was based on “whether we could have a successful prosecution.”
During a jailhouse interview, Young told The Associated Press that serving time would be nothing compared to what caged animals suffer.
“As bad as it could get, it will never be as bad as it was for those mink. I would do it all over again.”
– Peter Daniel Young during a jailhouse interview with the Associated Press“I would do it all over again.” We cannot say that we have not been forewarned.
With the actions of greenpeace this week, and the ALF in the past - it shows that just because we’re in South Dakota, we can’t be complacent about terrorism. And unfortunately, those attacks won’t likely originate from outside the country. The enemy will be us, and it will happen when we aren’t paying attention.
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Comments
Bill, last I knew, no tea party people broke the law.
These chuckleheads had nothing to do with bush. It was all about them, and their radical tactics.
Are you trying to tell us you’re favoring their actions?
By the way, I thought the poster comparing Obama to Lincoln was much more American and patriotic than the ones the Tea Bag crowd held up comparing him to Hitler.
Talk about good vs bad form.
Plus, I’d like to see you and Gordon Howie rapell down a mountain like those dudes did.
Pretty awesome.
The Governoer and Attorney General should persecute these deviants and persecute them hard. I would like to see them do time with the population in the Quartzite City in Sioux Falls. Let these east and west coast scum figure out what their priorities as they become bubba’s bf for life. 10 to 1 they are collecting unemployment or have student loans. Federal offense = no eligibility for federal aid ever (including un-employment) and/or federal notes owed come due! If they have time to be criminals they can give me my tax dollars back! Pay up Hippie.
One more thing about gorebal warming,
I remember the 70’s when everybody was scared of the new ice age starting because of the cold winters, my Grandparents would just chuckle as they heard that reported on the national news, they made it throught the depression here in SD 40 years earlier and talked about the swindlers that would come through a community during the dust bowl and tell people that they could make it rain, ask for their money and leave. Beware a politician that promises to change the weather.
Vote for me…. I’ll make it rain!!!!
“I haven’t decided yet, but I admire their ability to organize.”
Kinda makes you yearn for the old days huh maaaan?
Creeps, People are still laughing, they’re just getting punished for it(Cap and Trade, the “Prius”, $5 gas!)
I was told by our B&B guests that they saw Greenpeace members with park officials on top of Washington’s head, before they placed the banner over on Lincoln’s side.
When our guests asked a park ranger as to what was going on, they were told, “oh, it’s just some park employees.”
The Rapid City Journal comment line would not allow any of my posts concerning this. I also did not quiz my guests; they were just interested as to what they had seen.
I think that Greenpeace was given free rein and help by the National Park Service to do their Geurilla Theater.
Actually Bill, rapelling is a trip the few times I’ve done it. And somehow, I managed to do it without it being a federal offense.
The security issue at Mount Rushmore is what concerns me the most. What this tells me is that if they carried backpacks loaded with explosives, they could have either damaged the monument or killed hundreds of people and nobody was there to stop them. They made it look so easy. Absolutely no security until after the fact, and imagine the amount of time it took to set up to rapell down the mountain. They could have launched surface to air missiles from there or a dirty bomb and there was NO security. Unfortunately, now the world knows that all this Homeland Security money is going to bureaucrats, not security as was promised.
Bill, Don’t you know video can be manipulated? It’s like OH OH if it’s on video I know it’s Real!
Damage the monument? It’s rock. Plus, the protestors were experienced climbers who took special care not to damage the monument.
Dang: a dozen skinny hippies make 8 years of Homeland Security look futile, and they get tons of publicity for their cause. Sounds like pretty effective civil disobedience to me.
I don’t care who did it or what the message was. This is not about free speech. This is about security and the safety of the public at a national icon that has been identified as a target. If this bunch can pull this off, what is stopping a terrorist from getting up there and killing people? Gerard Baker should be fired.
Yeah, breaking the law whenever they can, sounds like a great way to function in society. But, society is only for them right!
Makes a good case for “wire tapping!”
Just wondering Fleming et al…what if pro-life types (surely there are some that are in good enough shape to do this) put up a banner of a dead fetus? Free speech is free speech, right?
10:42. Right. But why go to all that trouble just to put up an already photoshopped, poorly manipulated graphic image? Just do like Guy says. Get out your After Effects program and your green screen, fake the video, make the composite digital dubs, phone them in to the networks, and call it a day.
The state should prosecute these people to the fullest extent of the law. Mt. Rushmore is a national monument that must be protected. They clearly violated the law and should be punished for their actions.
On the flip side, Mt. Rushmore is a monument that could be subject to a terrorist attack. We need to improve the quality of security at this venue. If some people trying to help the envrionment can get past security we have some serous problems.
But Bill, like you’ve always told me, it’s all about emotion isn’t it! So, what’s more emotional than you imagining Mr. Powers rapelling down Teddy’s face. Just read Stephen King novel and then see the movie you’ll know the importance of imagination(and the sanity you once had.)
I wonder how much oil it took to make the rope, the banner and the fuel for this to happen.
GREENPEACE – Brought to you by OPEC! LOL
I’m not a fan of these kinds of demonstrations. It lets jerky conservatives paint everyone who wants to protect the environment as radicals and deviants.
It’s not THAT hard, John. Just take away reason and accountability and you have Al Gore.
Yeah, John, so now you know what it’s like when elitist libs paint everyday, hard-working people who go to Tea Parties as ignorant wingnuts.
I see the SD Blogosphere’s liberal democratic blowhard weighed in on it as well, in awe of the eco-radicals…
http://northernbeacon.blogspot.com/2009/07/o-say-can-you-seethe.html
As the Christian Science Monitor put it, ” What’d they get out of it? A dozen arrests. But also massive media exposure for one of their top issues: global warming (they’re against it).”
And they tweaked the knots that seem to be permanently sewn into the regressive skivvies It moved those perennial defacers of the blogosphere Sibby the Simple and South Dakota Wart Collage to trot out their favorite cliches about anti-Americanism and put their stained knots on display. And Greenpeace is supposed to be against pollution.
To which I replied at 1:13…
huh huh huh huh….
You changed my website name to South Dakota Wart Collage.
huh huh huh huh….
The wit and wry sense of humor for the author in changing the name is just breathtaking.
It would be like me changing the name of Northern Valley Beacon to Northern Valley BACON!
No wonder you were placed in charge of molding the minds of youth. If only I could aspire to such a high quality of social commentary.
South Dakota Wart Collage. HA!
huh huh huh huh….
I give it 15 minutes before the James Lipton of the SD Blogosphere yanks it…..
I sincerly hope the criminals from Greenpeace are charged and sentenced to the maximum for this stunt. This happened on Federal property, so whatever charges they face will be Federal charges.
I don’t like the idea of these jerks climbing Mt. Rushmore and I think a lot of the other stuff they pull is way out of line, too. I’m loathe to call it “terrorism” but boy howdy they push the envelope.
Left-wing radicalism is no better than right-wing.
The ends do not justify the means in either case.
They didn’t hurt anybody – this time – but they didn’t need to hang their banner from Mt. Rushmore either. Again; I hesitate to call it “desecration” of the monument… but it’s right up next to it. They could have gotten a permit and demonstrated in front of the monument and gotten their TV coverage.
Bottom line: they knew they were breaking the law – I listened to them on NPR today – and they said they were willing to take the consequences. They should face the consequences.
I hope they get prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced.
Anon 10:40: Yes, we should be terrified, because there are so many people for a terrorist to kill… up at the top of Mount Rushmore.
And Art Oakes, please, don’t make stuff up. Substantiate or keep your wishful rumors to yourself.
It’s trespassing, good grief. It happens all the time – in the Rotunda of the Capitol, federal buildings, courthouses, etc.
There would be about nothing dumber (and more repub) than wasting millions of dollars to guard a rock. The US was a great nation before there was a MT Rushmore and continue being.
It’s hard to describe principles to those who eat with their hands. – Guy Smylie
Careful with the fightin’ words, Cory. There’s a possibility the guests may have been mistaken, but they DID say that (yes, I’m living at home for the summer).
It’s pretty comical – you, of all people, accusing someone of making stuff up.
3:31, quit being snotty and be intellectually honest for once. From the top of Mount Rushmore, anybody in the observation area is a sitting duck for a gunman. I thought you were smarter than that. Maybe just snotty.
John Boland would have dealt with these individuals diffrently back when he and my daddy ran around that neck of the woods.
To caheildeberger:
This was told to me by the father a family of four who stayed at our Bed&Breakfast and who were visiting Mount Rushmore. This was before Greenpeace put out their banner on the other side of where they had assembled on Washington’s head.
The father brought up the subject late in the afternoon when our Rapid City Journal newspaper came and he noticed the headline. The family was sort of excited that they had seen a bit of history being made.
I did not broach the subject of getting the media to record the account because that’s not what we do to our guests. They had no ax to grind. Just a comment on what they had seen.
Yeah – this is scary. How do 12 people carrying a big banner NOT get noticed until the banner was unfurled?
Interesting, but some of PP’s and some posters’ hyperventilation (”the enemy will be us”, please PP, take your meds) regarding this is even farther out there than some of the Greenpeace members’.
This is a silly and illegal stunt, but hardly rises to “eco-terrorist” levels. And bringing Peter Young into the discussion is a touch that Joe McCarthy would appreciate. Umm, Peter Young is not an environmentalist.
Art’s got a great imagination, and I’d read any of his fiction, but delusion isn’t particular helpful in understanding this incident. Ever notice that everything with Art is second or third hand, or can’t be verified. There’s a tip off for you.
When Greenpeace does civil disobedience on issues, it’s going to generate publicity as a side effect, but this was civil disobedience for the purpose of public relations. That is illegal, but worse, it’s stupid.
I wish Greenpeace would stick to testing the lax security around the Republican Party’s/Homer Simpson’s favorite energy source (nuclear power plants). That sort of civil disobedience has a point.
Greenpeace aren’t ‘ecoterrorists’ – they have no record of violence whatsoever nor property damaged. THEIR ships have been attacked by governments (the French bombing of the rainbow warrior) but they do not ram ships nor “take over” nuclear plants, as you allege. If you’re going to make accusations, be able to back ‘em up.
Peaceful, non-violent protest that calls upon your homeland to be a better country isn’t ‘terrorism’. It’s ‘patriotism’.
Greenpeace, Inc. and other non-exempt Greenpeace entities benefiting from these transfers have committed numerous acts of eco-terrorism. They have blockaded a U.S. naval base, broken into the central control building of a nuclear power station in England, overrun the Exxon Mobil corporate headquarters in Texas, and rammed a ship into the French sailboat competing in the 2003 America’s Cup, permanently damaging the vessel.
In April 2002, Greenpeace activists forcibly boarded a cargo ship in Florida carrying Brazilian wood.
Taking over nuclear power plants, and blockading a naval base? Sorry, but some people would say that sure sounds like eco-terrorism.
And in the latest incident, a park ranger was injured and property was damaged. – that kind of shoots your “no record of violence whatsoever nor property damaged” argument all to heck, doesn’t it?
Here’s a more objective account of the Greenpeace action on the Brazilian ship.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3475218/
It would be interesting to know how many of the companies illegally importing that illegal cut wood contributed to Bush.
Here’s a tip off for you, Donnie. Quoting a direct source is hardly “second or third hand.” Otherwise, every newspaper, blog or other media outlet is “second or third hand” and cannot be trusted according to your logic, even NPR (gasp!). It’s not like Jeremy Fugleberg from the RC Journal was watching them climb while he typed out his article. Your voracity for hatred is astounding.
Again, the B&B guests may have been mistaken, but it was certainly worth passing along, with or without speculation.
PP and the wussies he quotes quiver uncontrollably at the Greenpeace “terrorists” who broke into the “central control building” at a nuclear power plant in England. The way PP was spinning the story I imagined battled hardened bandits with bandoleers. The reality is there were about 150 people wearing Homer Simpson and Tony Blair disguises who got through the great security there at the nuclear power plant.
I mean it’s absolutely hilarious that you Republicans put out such spin.
Does someone want to explain to me how rock-climbing hippies with a giant poster is “terrorism”?
Trespassing? Sure. But terrorism? Seriously?? Who died?? Who was supposed to be terrifed by this act??
While the protesters should obviously be charged to the fullest extent of the law (After all, it wouldn’t be civil disobediance unless they suffered for it), calling them terrorists is absurd.
And pretending there’s a link between this & some vigilante who released a bunch of mink 10+ years ago? Razor thin logic.
Pat, your posts get more Sibby-like with each passing day. Blah, blah blah… cut and paste 5 inches…blah blah, cut and paste 7 inches… blah, blah, blah.
The Greenpeace people pulled off a spectacular demonstration of how lax our security is, despite eight years of Bush chest thumping, torture, wiretapping and cancellation of American’s constitutional rights.
And they’re pointing to the biggest problem out planet has ever faced, asking our new president if has the intestinal fortitude to do anything about it, or if its just politics as usual.
In your case it looks like the answer is the latter.
Too bad. I thought you were into these tea party kinda things.
But nope. Just blah, blah blah.. Cut. Paste. Blah Blah. Blah.