by Judi McLeod, Canadafreepress.com
July 26, 2004
Did patron of leftwing causes, Teresa Heinz-Kerry replace beleaguered Greenpeace with the Ruckus Society in time for august’s GOP convention?
Since the non-profit Public Interest Watch (PIW) group exposed Greenpeace’s secret "action warehouse" in suburban Washington, D.C., last May, the beehive where activists were trained and equipped has remained dormant.
according to PIW, Greenpeace raised money by offering tours of the warehouse to its biggest donors, but had gone to great lengths to keep its exact location top secret.
There’s no confirmation that Heinz-Kerry--whose Tides Foundation supports both Greenpeace and the Ruckus Society--ever got a personal tour.
In training activists for New York’s GOP convention, the Ruckus Society, a notorious group of anarchists, who rioted and looted Seattle during the 1999 World Trade Organization riots, seems to have taken over Greenpeace activist training.
The Ketchup Queen’s Ruckus Society has some disturbing moves planned from its bag of dirty tricks, not the least of which are dog decoys intended to deliberately miscue bomb sniffing dogs used for the safety of the Big apple’s public transportation network.
Other tricks from the Ruckus how-to Book for Dummies include mass sit-ins, blockades and pie throwing at high-level officials enroute to Madison Square Gardens.
all lessons being taught to willing protesters at the Ruckus knee are ones to make it less easy for the NYPD to do its job of maintaining public safety. But the NYPD, which won worldwide respect for its courage during the Sept. 11, 2001 World Trade Center terrorist attacks, are Ruckus-ready.
While no one seems to have found the stopgap for Ruckus Society public exercises in "civil disobedience", Greenpeace, at least temporarily, has been derailed.
Public Interest Watch, the same non-profit group which exposed Greenpeace’s Washington warehouse address at 3133 Pennsy Dr., Hyattsville, MD, filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service against Greenpeace last September. PIW accused the world’s largest environmental lobby of "illegally soliciting and transferring millions of dollars in tax deductible contributions."
In a report titled Greenpeace, Dirty Money Tax Violations in the World of Non-Profits, PIW accused Greenpeace, one of the world’s most recognizable names of "knowingly" and "systematically violating U.S. tax laws". The report details how during a three-year span, one Greenpeace entity diverted over $24 million in tax-exempt contributions.
Last month, Congress’s tax-writing committees launched an effort to crack down on alleged fraudulent activities and to tighten up laws governing tax exemptions to non-profit groups.
Lewis Fein, PIW executive director commented: "The Justice Department’s prosecution of Greenpeace has significantly impaired Greenpeace’s ability to operate. The exposure of this facility (action warehouse) is another nail in the coffin for Greenpeace."
But Greenpeace seems to consider the warehouse issue a laughing matter. In a letter to the Washington Times, Greenpeace operations manager Bill Richardson, ridiculed PIW’s claim that the warehouse location was secret. "What extraordinary detective skills it must have taken to notice the mailbox with the name Greenpeace on it, on the front of the building. Thanks for the giggle."
attorney General John ashcroft, who brought suit against Greenpeace, however may be no laughing matter.
The Justice Department is using an obscure 19th century statute to prosecute Greenpeace for a stunt it pulled in Miami in 2002, where activists stormed a ship on its way into port.
Greenpeace calls the prosecution "unprecedented" and stresses, "if convicted Greenpeace would face massive fines and up to five years of probation, during which our ability to engage in direct action protests would no doubt be prohibited."
according to PIW, "What has made Greenpeace such a high-profile target for the Justice Department is its ability to train and organize its activists and the attention-grabbing, creative props it uses in its stunts, all of which can be traced to the now dormant Washington warehouse.
a news piece about greenpeace's latest run ins with the law: Greenpeace accused of breaking environmental law
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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