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ABC Makes the Connection!
I spoke
too soon. I missed some ABC newscasts that made the
Unabomber-environmental extremist connection. On Friday's World News
Tonight, ABC's Brian Ross reported how Ted Kaczynski may have gotten his
targets from an Earth First list and "was at a meeting attended by
Earth First leaders." I haven't seen any follow up on the other
networks yet and this certainly hasn't become a major theme of coverage as
blaming conservatives did after Oklahoma. But on Sunday's This Week
with David Brinkley, Ross told Sam Donaldson: "He [Kaczynski] seems
to have become some kind of environmental radical. And much as Timothy
McVeigh may have been inspired and inflamed by the militia, it's possible,
perhaps, that Kaczynski was inspired and guided by the environmental
groups."
What follows is a transcript of the April 5 story
taken down today by Jim Forbes, a MRC media analyst. Please note that
since names were not on-screen the spellings are only our best guess.
Peter Jennings: "Good
evening. We begin tonight with the Unabomber suspect. Today everyone is
trying to pull together all of the strands in Theodore Kaczynski's life.
For one thing we learned today that the FBI had Kaczynski's name in its
files at least a couple of years before his arrest this week. He was there
in 1994 as having a connection to a radical environmental group and then
last year he was in the files as a possible suspect in the Unabomber case
itself. The connections tonight from our chief investigative reporter
Brian Ross."
Brian Ross: "Authorities familiar with the case told ABC News today
that Kaczynski's name was on a list of suspects generated by the Chicago
office of the FBI last fall based on an extensive canvas of area high
schools and students specializing in advanced mathematical theory."
Ross: "And beyond that, ABC News also has learned that Kaczynski's
name appeared in FBI files in November of 1994 in connection with an FBI
investigation of a radical environmental group called Earth First which is
active in Montana. Over the years Earth First has been best known as a
violent group spiking trees and blowing up logging equipment, and in many
respects its anti-corporate philosophy parallels that of the
Unabomber."
Ross: "It was in November of 1994 on the campus of the University of
Montana in Missoula that authorities believe Kaczynski was at a meeting
attended by top Earth First members. The stated topic of the meeting
organized by something called the Native Forest Network was 'Focus on the
Multinationals.' It was one month later that the Unabomber sent a bomb
that killed Thomas Moser of New Jersey, an executive of the public
relations firm Burson-Marsteller which does work for large multinational
companies.
Today Thomas Fullam who organized the Missoula meeting told ABC News he
had no recollection of Kaczynski attending but does recall some mention of
Burson-Marsteller."
[Thomas Fullam: "You know there probably was some discussion of it. I
don't think there was a real formal discussion."]
Ross: "Today in Seattle a private investigator who infiltrated Earth
First for the timber industry, Barry Clawson, says that he has been trying
since last August to get the FBI to realize that the Unabomber had to have
some kind of connection to Earth First or some other radical environmental
groups."
[Barry Clawson: "Based on his beliefs and what he's put in print with
his manifesto and his letters, his way of thinking, his ideologies
conforms to that of Earth First."]
Ross: "Clawson says the bomb last year that killed the head of the
California Forestry Association clearly can be tracked back to a hit list
published in one radical environmental journal."
[Clawson: "There's eleven names, or eleven company names on the hit
list. Two of the top three are the last two victims of the Unabomber. The
number on name on the list is the Timber Association of California with
the current address."]
[As Clawson speaks, video of him holding a tabloid newspaper headlined:
"Eco-Fucker Hit List."]
Ross: "Today in Eugene Oregon Leslie Hemstreet of Earth First denied
any ties to the Unabomber."
[Leslie Hemstreet: "Earth First can't take responsibility for what
the Unabomber has done with some information that he might have gotten
from our publication. Because if he had read our publication very
thoroughly he would have seen that we only espouse non-violence."]
Ross: "It is clear now that the FBI is very interested in pursuing a
possible connection to Earth First as a way of explaining what has been a
baffling pattern of violence. What's not so clear is how Kaczynski's name
could twice show up in FBI files. First as a possible environmental
radical and then as a possible Unabomber suspect without the FBI closing
in on him sooner. And today the FBI said it would have no comment on that.
Brian Ross, ABC News, Seattle."
So, how
long before the media demand liberals tone down their rhetoric? --
Brent Baker
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