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Detectives investigating a recent spate of letter bomb attacks by suspected animal rights activists have arrested three people.
Three bombs were intercepted by police during the operation, a spokeswoman for the Cheshire Constabulary said. The devices, destined for addresses in North Yorkshire, West Mercia and Wiltshire, were made safe by bomb disposal experts, she added. The spokeswoman said the arrests followed an intensive police investigation involving officers from the Cheshire, North Wales, South Yorkshire, Metropolitan and North Yorkshire forces.
A 26-year-old man was arrested in the Crewe area of Cheshire on suspicion of explosive offences. A 31-year-old woman and a 36-year-old man were also arrested at addresses in the Crewe area.
22 February 2001, Ananova Ltd
Police condemn bombers who maimed boy
An explosion which seriously injured a boy at a Territorial Army centre was caused by a torch bomb which had been deliberately planted.
The 14-year-old army cadet lost a hand and suffered serious injuries to his face and chest following the attack in Shepherd's Bush, west London. Police said the bomb could have killed the boy. They have warned the public to be on guard.
No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack and there is nothing to suggest the bomb was planted by Irish terrorists, police said. A spokesman said: "The device was clearly aimed to cause serious injury. It was both criminal and vicious and could have caused death. "We are advising people to be alert to suspicious packages or objects - particularly any object that looks like a torch. "We would appeal especially to parents to be alert when out with their children. An object like a torch could easily excite a child's curiosity."
22 February 2001 Ananova Ltd
Detectives are questioning a man in connection with a terror bomb campaign against the supermarket giant Tesco.
The 50-year-old man was arrested in Bournemouth on Monday and police have applied to the town's magistrates to extend the time they can hold him.
The supermarket chain and its customers were subjected to a campaign which started on 4 September last year when a Tesco store in the Poole and Bournemouth area received an anonymous blackmail threat for an undisclosed sum of cash. Later that month a small incendiary device in a Jiffy bag exploded when it was opened by a 70-year-old man from Ferndown. He was not injured by the explosion but was left temporarily blinded by smoke. Three other devices were then found at the Alder Hills sorting office in Bournemouth which was evacuated as police dealt with the suspect packages.Letters were also sent to a series of residential addresses in the Poole and Bournemouth region.
Detectives said it appeared that the person or persons behind the campaign were targeting Tesco shoppers. The investigation team has put together a psychological profile of the person they believe could be behind the campaign.
Wednesday, 21 February, 2001
Death revives fear of mail bombs
Six years after the Unabomber terrified the nation with the last of his deadly batch of mail bombs, the explosion that killed Patrick Hsu dramatically illustrates how difficult it is to combat this rare crime, particularly when online shopping and home delivery are gaining popularity.Authorities have taken steps to prevent repeat terrorist mail attacks, but some question whether America is any safer since the 1996 arrest of Theodore Kaczynski.
In San Jose, however, police and federal investigators are not ready to confirm suspicions that the bomb was hand-delivered by a U.S. Postal Service worker in a mysterious package containing a robotic toy dog. But the toy -- addressed to Patrick Hsu -- remains a focus of investigators piecing together what some fear may be the nation's first bomb attack using the U.S. mail since 1998.
"Before this, I wouldn't have had any reason to doubt anything handed to me by a UPS worker, or a Fed Ex worker or a postal worker," said Denise Senter-Loyola, an executive vice president at Addwater, a San Francisco-based marketing firm. "I would've trusted anything." Senter-Loyola is a self-proclaimed online fanatic who rarely ventures into stores. She buys everything from groceries to books to Christmas trees via the computer. Packages were always welcomed items at her San Jose home. "But now I'll be much more careful," said Senter-Loyola. "I'll make sure my husband knows what I order from now on."
Postal investigators this week visited Hsu's parents at their south San Jose home with a sample of a robotic dog -- one of more than a half-dozen types now popular on toy store shelves and e-tailer Web sites. "They came by to show me the dog, but I didn't think it was it," said Chen Hsu, Patrick's father. "The one delivered here had longer ears and was more cheaply made."
At least one robotic dog manufacturer is taking note of San Jose's bombing case. Sony officials do not believe the toy dog possibly involved in Hsu's death is the company's increasingly popular Aibo, a metallic robotic dog that sells for $1,500. But spokesman Jon Piazza said they plan to review the toy in light of the tragedy. "We're checking the security of Aibo to see if you can take it apart or not," Piazza said. "We try to make it as complex as possible so it can't be taken apart very easily." The robotic dogs, the craze of the holiday season, sell from under $10 to Aibo's $1,500 price tag. The popular Poo-chi, by Tiger Electronics, and Tekno, by Manley Toy Quest, sell for $30 to $40. "No matter whose product it was, it's a tragedy," Piazza said.
Leading toy industry officials cautioned against heightened fears about toy safety. Manufacturers, they said, cannot control how a product is used or manipulated after it is purchased. "Is it possible to attach a bomb to a toy? Of course. But you could do that with a radio or anything else," said Terri Bartlett, spokeswoman for Toy Manufacturers of America, an industry trade organization. "If it can be put together, chances are it can be taken apart."
Chen Hsu, Patrick's father, told reporters that the toy he believes killed his son arrived at the home a month ago while his son was away at UC-Santa Barbara. Curious about the unexpected package, Chen Hsu opened the box, took the toy dog out and tried to turn it on. He opened up the battery case, realized there were no batteries and placed the package back in its box, then put all of it in his son's bedroom. "I thought it was a Chinese New Year gift for my son, so I didn't worry too much," the father said. Patrick Hsu came to his parents' house Friday for a medical appointment and stayed for the weekend. The family believes on Saturday afternoon, Patrick Hsu put batteries in the dog, igniting the explosion.
But Rubens Dalaison, spokesman for San Jose police, was cautious about describing the events leading up to the explosion. "We do not know if it was the dog; we have to be very careful and responsible about what we say about that."
Sending bombs through the mail is rare, say police, and almost always are intended for specific victims. Since 1996, and in response to Kaczynski, the U.S. Postal Service no longer accepts packages weighing more than 16 ounces unless they are hand-delivered by a sender to a post office clerk or postal carrier. "The idea is to rob a potential bomber of anonymity," said Paul Lowery, a San Francisco spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service. In addition, the United Parcel Service and FedEx each have safety precautions used to prevent mailings of bombs, drugs or other illegal items.
However, neither the Postal Service nor any of the private companies would discuss safety issues. "But we're talking about billions and billions of packages," said one local investigator who spoke on condition of anonymity. "There's no way dogs or X-rays can be used on all of them." Last year, seven mail bombs were intercepted by U.S. postal inspectors. Three were safely disposed of, and four others caused explosions that resulted in minor injuries, said Lowery.
February 15, 2001, San Jose Mercury News
Germany steps up federal police effort against hate crimes
Facing a sharp rise in hate crimes, Germany is forming special federal police units to counter neo-Nazis and could set up a program to turn skinheads into informers.
Germany's top law enforcement official on Monday visited a federal police station in eastern Brandenburg state with one of the new teams. The government is paying $1.9 million to fund 80 additional officers for the eastern border region, the largest of several such units recently put in place across the country. "We hope to rattle the extreme-right scene in this area," Interior Minister Otto Schily said, adding he's talking with other states to broaden the program. Earlier this month, Schily said the number of hate attacks rose dramatically to 13,753 crimes between January 2000 and November, an increase of 45 percent from the year before.
On Monday, a synagogue in the northern German city of Luebeck was evacuated after receiving a bomb threat and finding a suspicious briefcase. The briefcase had wires and a red light but contained no explosive. In March 1994, Luebeck became the site of the first attack on a Jewish place of worship in postwar Germany when young neo-Nazis firebombed the synagogue. That was followed by a May 1995 arson fire that began in the synagogue's storeroom, prompting police to put constant patrols around the building.
The new federal police units won't take over regular patrols handled by state police but will help combat neo-Nazis in their normal area of responsibility - in train stations and at borders. The officers will also be available to help in special cases if local police need it. In the first month the unit has been operating in Forst, on Germany's border with Poland about 95 miles southeast of Berlin, officers identified more than 100 members of the extreme right and helped patrol during a demonstration of the far-right National Democratic Party.
Along with the new officers, Schily also said he was in discussions about a "dropout program" for neo-Nazis allowing them to leave skinhead gangs and possibly get leniency in exchange for helping authorities. State authorities reported 553 far-right attacks on foreigners between and January of last year and November, including killings, bodily injury and firebombings - 156 more than during the same period in 1999. The issue has become more visible since last summer's still-unsolved bomb attack in Duesseldorf injured a group of recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Despite media speculation at the time that the extreme right was involved, police have since said they think it "unlikely" the bombing was a hate crime.
The Nando Times, 20th February 2001
Police say N.Y. student had 14 pipe bombs
An 18-year-old student was taken into police custody on Wednesday after he walked into his Western New York high school carrying 14 pipe bombs, a shotgun and a handgun, law enforcement officials said.
A fellow student told a security officer at Southside High School about 8 a.m. that the suspect had a gun, Elmira police Capt. Steven Milford told CNN in a phone interview. The officer approached the student in the school's cafeteria, and the suspect turned over a gun without incident. The officer then found among the suspect's belongings a shotgun and 14 pipe bombs, Milford said. Milford declined to elaborate on where the pipe bombs were found.
Some of the bombs were made with propane; others were less sophisticated, Assistant District Attorney Charles Metcalfe told CNN. He declined to elaborate. The school was evacuated for several hours as police searched for more bombs, Metcalfe said. No more were found, he said.
The suspect was questioned by police and the district attorney's office but had not been formally arrested or charged as of Wednesday evening, Metcalfe said. No motive was immediately available.
Schools in the area had received bomb threats after an incident at Columbine High School in Colorado, where two students with guns and bombs killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 23 other people before killing themselves. killing several. Southside High School has never received threats in the past, Metcalfe said. The suspect probably will be charged with adult crimes, he said.
February 14, 2001 CNN.com
Those working with animals have been warned Police have issued a warning after a letter bomb was sent to a farm in the Scottish Borders.
The package, which did not explode, was sent to a farm at the weekend. Lothian and Borders Police believe it could be linked to a spate of similar incidents in England and Wales. These included a package sent to an agricultural company in North Yorkshire, which was defused on Monday by army bomb disposal experts. This was a serious criminal act and we are very anxious to appeal for information from anyone who may know something of its origins. Police said anyone working in the farming industry or with animals should be extra vigilant when dealing with letters and packages.
A Lothian and Borders Police spokesman would not give the address or details of the premises which were targeted in Scotland. However, it was understood that the farm involved was in Lauderdale in the eastern Borders. No-one was hurt in the incident and the device was dealt with by explosives experts. Police said there was no obvious reason why the recipient should have been targeted.
A spokesman said: "Officers are investigating links with incidents in England in recent weeks. "This was a serious criminal act and we are very anxious to appeal for information from anyone who may know something of its origins." The English incidents were believed to be the work of animal rights extremists, although no group has claimed responsibility. A package was delivered to a company in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, and was being linked to 10 other attacks on businesses in recent months. These included a nail bomb which exploded in a busy chip shop in Holywell, North Wales, last month. No-one was injured in that attack but two people were hurt in separate letter bomb attacks in Yorkshire in December.
A 58-year-old sheep farmer near Ripon received cuts to his face when a nail bomb exploded as he opened a packet. In a second incident, a woman was taken to hospital after a device exploded as she opened mail at the estate agency where she works in west Yorkshire. The device was in a padded envelope delivered to a company which deals with livestock auctions. The previous month, the six-year-old daughter of a pest control business owner in Congleton, Cheshire, suffered leg injuries after opening a package. Packages have also been sent to a pet suppliers on the outskirts of Newcastle upon Tyne, a Coventry pet store and a company connected with the agricultural business in Masham, North Yorkshire.
Monday, 12 February, 2001 BBC Online
Five men arrested in pipe bomb raids
Pipe bomb attacks may have been thwarted when armed police officers arrested five men yesterday after raiding a house in a London suburb.
Scotland Yard said last night that the five were being held for questioning by officers from the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist branch. Attention was said to be focusing on potential criminal use of the bombs, rather than terrorism. Tests were being carried out to establish whether the components found in the house in Ealing were parts of pipe bombs but Scotland Yard said: "We believe these arrests may have thwarted pipe bomb attacks."
The Yard refused to confirm initial reports that those arrested were Irish and said it had no evidence that the arrests were linked to Irish terrorism. Nor are the arrests being linked to three attacks last year - including a rocket attack on the MI6 headquarters - that were attributed to dissident Irish republican groups. The anti-terrorist branch is likely to investigate whether the devices are linked to animal rights extremists, who have committed a number of bomb attacks around the country in the past month.
The bomb parts were seized in a dawn raid in Sutherland Road, Ealing, in which the men were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to cause explosions. Later, about 20 armed police searched an address in nearby Fosse Way, while 50 officers, some armed, raided a house in York Road, Southend, Essex.
The Telegraph 2 February 2001
Post bomb attack at charity shop
A bomb exploded at a British Heart Foundation charity shop yesterday in what was believed to have been the latest in a series of attacks by animal rights extremists.
The device went off shortly after 9am as a woman at the shop in Penrith, Cumbria, opened the post. Police said that although she was not hurt the woman was "very shocked". A bomb disposal expert said that she was "very lucky indeed" to have escaped uninjured. The Penrith incident was the 10th since December in which devices had been sent to premises in northern England and Wales.
On Tuesday the Army defused nail bombs sent to an agricultural supply company in Sheffield and a Cancer Research Campaign shop in Lytham St Anne's, Lancashire. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks but North Yorkshire Police, which is leading the investigation, believes that an animal rights group is to blame.
The Penrith attack came as a woman belonging to Stop Animal Rights Cruelty was jailed for threatening employees at Britain's largest animal testing company, Huntingdon Life Sciences. Charlotte Lewis, 28, of Thornton Heath, Surrey, wrote in one letter she sent to workers at the Cambridgeshire laboratory: "Your life is in grave danger if you don't stop working at HLS. You will find yourself having a gun aimed at your stupid, ugly head." Peterborough Crown Court also heard that Lewis contacted a couple who had a brick thrown through their window. Christopher Morgan, prosecuting, said Lewis wrote: "Dear Animal Abusing Scum, I was there when a brick was put through your window. If you don't quit HLS you can expect more of the same." Lewis admitted four charges of harassment and was jailed for six months.
The Telegraph 1 February 2001
Bomb wrecks Zimbabwe newspaper's printing press.
A large bomb exploded at the print works of a leading independent newspaper in Zimbabwe yesterday, continuing what many believe to be a government-backed campaign of intimidation against its critics.
Suspicious circumstances: police forensic experts search for evidence after a bomb blast at The Daily News press The main printing presses of The Daily News in Harare were badly damaged in the blast, although no-one was hurt. Staff said they would produce an emergency 16-page edition today on borrowed equipment. A source at Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe, the company that produces the paper, said: "It was a carefully planned operation. A man came to the front gates making a disturbance in the middle of the night, and as all six security guards were dealing with that, the intruders climbed in the back and planted the charges. They knew what they were doing as the explosives were positioned in such a way to cause the most damage."
The Daily News has published allegations of corruption and mismanagement against President Robert Mugabe's government. Trevor Ncube, editor-in-chief of the weekly Zimbabwe Independent, said the blast was the logical consequence of incitement by Mr Mugabe and his ministers. He said: "You don't need to be a rocket scientist to see who did this. This has cowardice and desperation written all over it." Police arrested and questioned three senior journalists from The Daily News last week.
29 January 2001, The Telegraph
Vivisection activists turn to Glaxo
Animal welfare activists who have campaigned against Huntingdon Life Sciences are now turning their attack on GlaxoSmithKline, the world's largest drug company. Glaxo has strong links to HLS, a research company that has been brought to the brink of closure by activists protesting at its animal testing. Now the activists plan to campaign against HLS's leading customers, making a nationwide appeal to consumers of Glaxo's bestselling soft drinks, Ribena and Lucozade.
Although not directly involved in the last-minute refinancing deal of HLS, Glaxo has been one of the strongest voices in the battle to ensure the company's survival. In recent years, it is said to have placed an increasing amount of work with HLS. Heather James, of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (Shac), said yesterday that activists would approach children and young people outside shops and supermarkets in a leafleting campaign intended to hit Glaxo's profits. They also hoped to influence parents' buying habits. Ms James said: "We want to get this message over to children and families and to tell them about the cruelty this company is funding. We're going to hit them hard."
In conjunction with the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), Sir Richard Sykes, Glaxo's chairman, has told the Government of his fears over HLS's future and its implications for the pharmaceutical industry. Glaxo and SmithKline Beecham merged in December to create a company with a turnover of £16 billion a year. It has a portfolio of major drugs, including Zantac, for ulcers, and Augmentin, a commonly used antibiotic, but continues to make Ribena and Lucozade.
Shac, set up 15 months ago to force the closure of HLS, is also organising a national demonstration against HLS customers on February 11. The timing and location of the protest is not being disclosed. Last night Glaxo seemed to be unaware of any specific campaign but a spokesman said: "We have been aware of the threat from animal rights activists and have taken all necessary precautions to protect our staff and premises. We will continue to be vigilant." He added: "I would like to state that no animals have been tested for the safety of Ribena or Lucozade and this operation has nothing to do with the drugs business."
22 January 2001. The Times Newspaper
Explosives find is linked to activists
Animal rights extremists waging a campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences may have been making bombs in a village on the Norfolk Broads, detectives believe.
A small quantity of explosives was found when armed officers raided a Victorian house, owned by Norfolk county council, in Wroxham on Wednesday. Police were searching yesterday for three men and a woman who had been living there for more than two years but who have not been seen since Christmas. The council had been taking action to repossess the house because of "significant" rent arrears. It is thought that the most likely target was the workforce at HLS's Cambridgeshire laboratory, the only one in Britain still commercially testing drugs and pharmaceuticals on live animals.
Bomb disposal experts from Chelmsford, Essex, carried out three controlled explosions in the garden of the house after the explosives were found in a cardboard box. Norfolk police had called in Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist squad after builders working on the detached house became suspicious about the contents of the box.
The police emphasised that the explosives find had been only a small one. A spokesman said: "We are certainly not describing this as a bomb factory. The items we found were in one small box and when put together they could have made three small explosive devices. Certainly they had the potential to cause serious injury if they had gone off next to someone. "But there were only small pops when they were exploded in the garden." The spokesman added: "It is only an assumption to suggest that the devices are the work of animal rights campaigners. We are not linking this find to any particular group, although we have been liaising with other police forces. We are now looking for the people who have been living there."
Last month police warned shareholders in Huntingdon Life Sciences that they could be possible targets for a terrorist campaign. Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, an animal rights group, has published the names of shareholders in the company on the internet and has urged its supporters to "adopt a director" to harass and intimidate. Letter bombs have also been received in the past month by people connected with the meat trade.
19 January 2001, The Telegraph
British Leaders Vow to Enforce Laws
Faced with concerns that scientific research could be driven out of Britain by violent protests against animal testing, the prime minister's office entered the debate by vowing to enforce laws against intimidation and other illegal activities.
"There is a very big difference between lawful protest, which we support, and intimidation, thuggery and violence, which we don't," said a spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair. "There are very strong laws in relation to intimidation and they should be enforced. The prime minister is very pro-science in relation to this."
The remarks from No. 10 Downing Street come just three days before a decision expected from Royal Bank of Scotland PLC on whether to extend a 22.5 million pound loan to Huntingdon Life Sciences PLC, the target of a yearlong campaign by animal-testing protesters. The campaign has included the firebombing of Huntingdon employees' cars and noisy protests outside offices of Royal Bank, urging that the crucial loan not be extended.
The prime minister's office said it had no opinion on whether the loan should be extended, calling that a commercial matter between the bank and Huntingdon. Downing Street's first extended remarks on the controversy likely will be seen, nevertheless, as pressure on Royal Bank not to bow to protesters' demands that the loan be called in, a move that could force Huntingdon to shut down.
Comments by the prime minister's office came as protesters braved frigid cold to demonstrate outside several Royal Bank branches Tuesday. "We will be relentless," protest leader Dawn Clifford hollered into a bullhorn. "We will not stop. We will target your customers. We will target your branches for the length and breadth of this country."
January 17, 2001 Wall Street Journal
Animal testing lab faces ruin as bank cancels overdraft .
BRITAIN'S biggest animal testing laboratory faces closure after the Royal Bank of Scotland cancelled a £22.5 million loan because animal rights extremists threatened to target staff and customers. The decision to call in the overdraft facility of Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) will trigger a legal battle as the company fights closure and the loss of 1,200 jobs.
Last night, Andrew Baker, the HLS chairman, said that the bank's executives were "cowards" who had given in to "a small group of insignificant bullies who have nothing better to do than make a nuisance of themselves". Mr Baker said: "The bank is subjecting my company and the 1,200 people who work for me to death by a thousand cuts." The bank's decision was confirmed at talks in London last week when senior executives rejected Mr Baker's plea for time to find new financial backers.
Mr Baker said: "I appealed for them to give me the three or four months I need to refinance the company. It's crazy because if they force us to shut down they will never get their money back." Mr Baker said that he was putting £4 million into the company and had already found another £11 million from investors. He said: "I can understand the bank's concern about the threats from these animal extremists, but it's ludicrous that the Royal Bank of Scotland should allow itself to be bullied like this." Mr Baker said: "What kind of message does that send out to its business customers? If these people are allowed to win it will be a disaster not only for us but for Britain. It will be the beginning of the end for the pharmaceutical and medical research industries."
The company conducts tests for international pharmaceutical companies and is licensed by the Home Office. For more than a year the laboratory has been the target of an increasingly violent campaign by a group called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (Shac) which wants to force the laboratory, and a sister firm at Occold, Suffolk, to close. The activists have subjected scientists to death threats, hate mail and abusive phone calls. Eleven cars owned by HLS staff have been set on fire. Two days before Christmas a senior manager had ammonia sprayed in his eyes in front of his wife and children.
Last month individual HLS shareholders were also the targets of a campaign of harassment and intimidation. The extremists have threatened to harass and intimidate bank staff and stage sit-ins at branches of the Royal and its sister bank, NatWest. Greg Avery, a leading Shac activist, said: "The only thing standing between HLS and going bust is that loan, so that is why we are now going after the bank." The Shac campaign has had results, with clients withdrawing their business after threats against their families. Large shareholders, including the Labour Party's superannuation fund and Phillips and Drew, a pension fund manager, have sold up. The Bank of New York off-loaded more than seven million Huntingdon shares and HSBC, formerly Midland Bank, has withdrawn as a trustee for the company's shareholders.
Extracted from the Daily Telegraph
14 January 2001
Chip shops are targets, say animal extremists
FISH and chip shops have been declared a legitimate target for attack by animal rights extremists.
The Animal Liberation Front said yesterday that a letter bomb attack in North Wales could herald the start of a wider campaign against the 8,600 fish and chip shops in the country.
A spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front, said chip shops could be regarded as targets. He said: "The fishing industry is perceived as being very, very cruel. With mammals and birds there is a pretence of humane stunning and slaughter, whereas fish are dragged out of the water into an alien environment in which they slowly die."
No one has claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack on a fish and chip shop in North Wales, which followed letter bomb attacks in Yorkshire and Cheshire. Jonathan Davies was opening the morning's post at his family-run shop in Holywell when a nail bomb in a padded envelope exploded. Luckily, neither Mr Davies nor the 40 or so customers in the shop at the time, were injured. Yesterday, he described the attack as cowardly. He said: "It went off like a rocket exploding. Thankfully, I'd been peeling onions on a plastic cutting board, and that took most of the blast. There were nails scattered everywhere but, amazingly, no one was hurt. It fell totally silent. I think everyone was in shock."
Mr Davies said he was puzzled as to why he might be considered a target by animal rights extremists. However, police are understood to be considering the possibility that the shop was attacked because Mr Davies also runs a neighbouring fishmonger's. He is also a committee member of a local angling club.
Extracted from the Telegraph Saturday 13 January 2001
MI5 called in as animal rights gang sends victim a nail-bomb
MI5 has been called in by the Government to help track down animal rights extremists behind an escalation of urban terrorism.
In the latest attack, a nail-filled letter bomb exploded in a North Wales fish and chip shop yesterday. The owner was uninjured when a shower of nails hit the floor of the busy shop in Holywell. Two cars were bombed in Surrey and employees and shareholders of a laboratory which conducts animal experiments have been attacked or intimidated.
Concern has been growing in Whitehall for some time about militants' increasingly violent behaviour. Last year extremists carried out more than 1,000 attacks, causing millions of pounds of damage.
Investigation of the extremists will now draw on the resources of the security service and Special Branch, while a small unit of senior police officers has been set up to co-ordinate strategy. Updated laws introduced last year allowed animal rights extremists to be targeted under anti-terror measures, which can cut off funds and allow surveillance to take place.
A new definition of terrorism - previously "the use of violence for political ends" - extended the scope of the legislation to cover "the use of serious violence against persons or property or the threat to use such violence to intimidate".
Anti-harassment laws are also available to curb "low level" intimidation short of violence. An internal Home Office review being studied by Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, has concluded that existing laws are probably sufficient. But some minor changes may be needed, possibly including reforms of company laws to prevent extremists obtaining names and addresses of people linked to vulnerable companies.
The principal target for the extremists has been Huntingdon Life Sciences, an animal testing laboratory in Cambridgeshire. Last year there were fire bomb attacks on cars outside employees' homes and recently shareholders have been harassed. Activists have published shareholders' names and urged supporters to "adopt a director" to intimidate.
Extracted from the Daily Telegraph
Friday 12 January 2001
Woman dies after porch package explodes
An explosion killed a woman after she apparently brought in a package left on her porch; the blast and resulting fire left two relatives in critical condition.
Sheriff's deputies refused to say whether it was a bomb, but the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which investigates bombings, joined the investigation Sunday. Detective Mike Goodbread said investigators were told the woman found the package Saturday and took it into the bathroom, where it exploded, killing her.
The injured victims--a man who appeared to be in his 30s and a woman in her 60s--were found by the front door. Both were in critical condition with second- and third-degree burns. At least three other people in the house were not hurt. Deputies would not reveal the victims' names. A neighbor, Patricia Lowe, said a couple lived there with their daughter, granddaughter and grandson.
From Tribune News Services January 8, 2001
Street urges fresh approach after latest bomb hoax
Concern is being expressed that racecourses are a "soft target" for terrorist-type activity after the abandonment of the last race at Uttoxeter on Saturday following the evacuation of the course due to a hoax bomb call.
Sandown, Aintree, Ascot and Kempton have all been subject to such scares in recent seasons and it seems odd that other major sporting events have been relatively unaffected, something which could be linked to live terrestrial television coverage.
Rod Street, general manager of Uttoxeter, believes courses should be more aware of a possible threat and have contingency plans at hand. "Obviously you can't prevent people trying to hoax you but what you can do is have measures in place to assess the threat," he said. "Courses should make sure they have a contingency in place in that they are up to date with the police." Uttoxeter had five calls altogether and at first no action was taken. "We did not take the first two threats particularly seriously but while we were assessing them the threats continued and when the fourth one had a code attached we had to be decisive," explained Street. Risk-analysis is something which has been discussed by Jockey Club security staff and senior police officers but, as you cannot legislate for madmen, this is a problem to which there is is no satisfactory solution.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001
Jan 08, 2001
Letter bombs linked to animal rights terror
Police forces across the north were put on the alert for a new wave of animal rights terrorism yesterday after two letter bombs exploded at a farm and an agricultural auctioneers.
The blasts in Yorkshire, which injured a farmer and may have damaged the eyesight of a secretary, followed a similar mail bomb sent to a pest control firm last week in Cheshire, which injured the owner's six-year-old daughter. A fourth device was also made safe on December 15 at an agricultural business in Masham, north Yorkshire. The county's deputy chief constable, Peter Walker, last night warned anyone connected to the animal trade to be on their guard and said they should not open unexpected packages.
Meanwhile in Kent, 46 hounds worth almost £100,000 were stolen by the Animal Liberation Front from a Beagle kennel near Wye College, in the early hours of yesterday. The group claimed responsibility for the theft in an email to a local radio station in which activist James George claimed the dogs had been kept in inhumane conditions. However, hunt secretary Will Denne dismissed the accusation insisting the beagles, which are bred to hunt hares, were well cared for.
As the search for the hounds continued last night, detectives in Yorkshire continued to piece together evidence from the three attacks. Padded envelopes containing batteries, small nails and ball bearings were used in all three attacks, for which no-one has claimed responsibility.
Detectives are not yet ruling out other motives but animal issues are common to each of the targets. "We are liaising with other forces including the Metropolitan police anti-terrorist branch to see if the cases are definitely linked," said Mr Walker. "It is only by good fortune that no one has been seriously injured or killed.
The first of yesterday's incidents saw the centre of the east Yorkshire village of Patrington sealed off after an explosion, triggered when 43-year-old Janet Blythe opened a Jiffybag at local estate agents Frank Hill and Sons. The explosion rocked the two-storey building, and Mrs Blythe, who had only recently recovered from heart problems, was taken to Hull Royal Infirmary, suffering from facial injuries. Frank Hill's is well known on the Holderness peninsular of east Yorkshire for livestock and farm auctions and a friend of its 80-year-old founder, Charles Hill, who keeps sheep on an estate near Patrington, said that animal rights extremists were inevitably in the frame.
The second blast saw a 58-year-old farmer near Ripon, North Yorkshire, have what police called a miraculous escape, when he opened a nail bomb which splintered furniture. The farmer, who is not being identified for his own protection, escaped with minor facial injuries and severe shock. Police appealed to anyone in the agricultural industry to clearly identify packages when sending routine mail.
Army bomb disposal experts from Catterick military base in north Yorkshire are examining debris from both of yesterday's devices. Mrs Blythe was in a comfortable condition last night, with injuries to her face and eyes. The child victim of the Cheshire bomb is recovering from superficial injuries to her legs.
Saturday January 6, 2001
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001
