FreedomWorks Calls on Columbia Riverkeeper to Clarify Relationship with Eco-Terrorists, Extreme Fringe Movements

It is well known that the Columbia Riverkeeper has a long history of opposing energy development, such as hydro-power and Liquid Natural Gas facilities in Oregon. What is not as well publicized is that the Columbia Riverkeeper is supported by extreme ideological groups that support the destruction of the American way of life and believe violence is a legitimate political act.

One such group is the SHAC 7. The Columbia Riverkeeper does not claim any formal connection with the SHAC 7. However, both are linked online through their friend networks on MySpace. MySpace pages have a feature to block or prevent unwanted associations.

When normal protest failed, the SHAC 7 resorted to stalking, threats of physical violence, vandalism, harassment, and engaging in a “course of conduct that placed certain named individuals (the victims) in reasonable fear of death or serious bodily injury to themselves or members of their families,” according to court documents. The SHAC 7 attempted to incite physical attacks on individuals associated with a British company with offices in New Jersey that runs an animal testing laboratory.

Other friends of the Columbia Riverkeeper include Marxist-Leninist groups such as North American Solidarity which claims on its web site, “that enemy is a global economic system,” and The Olin Study Group which is identified as, “an autonomous collective in Sin Fronteras Portland. Sin Fronteras’s aim is to combat capitalism and white supremacy as systems of domination and to link the anti-capitalist struggles of Latin America to our own struggles here at home.”

“Friends” include anarchists and Students for Unity, a self described, “radical student group out of Portland State University working on human rights issues such as ending cultural oppression and opposing the military.”

The Columbia Riverkeeper is also “friends” with the secessionist Cascadian Independence Project, a movement advocating the secession of Northern California, Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia to form a country based on a philosophy of extremist environmentalism.

FreedomWorks Northwest Regional Director Russ Walker commented:

“While the Columbia Riverkeeper is often against any proposed energy development in Oregon, it does not offer any solutions to the rising cost of energy.”

“When I was growing up, I was told that you are judged by the company you keep. In this case Oregon families need to see that the Columbia Riverkeeper considers anarchists, Marxist-Leninists, secessionists, and eco-terrorists as friends. These are folks that are not opposed to just energy development, but to energy use and our way of life. I call on the Riverkeeper to publicly distance itself from these extreme and dangerous groups.”

“Oregon families are being hit hard by rising energy costs and we need a balanced, ‘all of the above’ solution that taps domestic and emerging sources of energy. Our energy crisis demands serious policy, not inaction nor socialist pipedreams.”