May 29
![Amanda Robb, Not A Lone Wolf (Ms. Magazine, spring 2010):
Police, prosecutors and the military define a cell as a circle of individuals— usually three to 10 people—who are joined in common unlawful purpose. A Military Guide to Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, a U.S. Army training manual, describes a cell as the“foundation” of most terrorist organizations. Most often, and most effectively, these cells are networked, “depend[ing] and even thriving on loose affiliation with groups or individuals from a variety of locations.”
In international terrorism cases, in organized crime cases, even in drugtrafficking cases, conspiracy charges can be filed when two or more people enter into an agreement to commit an unlawful act. In fact, of the 159 people convicted of international terrorism bythe U.S. since 9/11, more than 70 percent were sentenced for conspiracy (or for “harboring” terrorists). Once a person becomes a member of the conspiracy, she or he is held legally responsible for the acts of other members done in furtherance of the conspiracy, even if she or he is not present or aware that the acts are being committed.
The government does not have to prove that conspirators have entered into any formal agreement. Because they are trying to hide what they are doing, criminal conspirators rarely do such things as draw up contracts. Nor does the government have to showthat the members of the conspiracy state between themselves what their object or purpose or methods are. Because they are clandestine, criminal conspirators rarely discuss their plans in a straightforward way. The government only has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the members of a conspiracy, in some implied way, came to mutually understand they would attempt to accomplish a common and unlawful plan.
Given the broad latitude in proving conspiracy, you’d think the same legal theory could have been used in prosecuting slayings of abortion doctors. Yet to date, only the individual murderers of abortion providers have been charged and prosecuted. No charges have been brought against any individuals for conspiracy to commit those murders.
Even if a single individual is committing all of the acts of violence against clinics in Atlanta, he or she is probably connected with a network of anti-abortion activists in some way or another.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4sv0xQnEK1qzo9ijo1_400.gif)
Amanda Robb, Not A Lone Wolf (Ms. Magazine, spring 2010):
Police, prosecutors and the military define a cell as a circle of individuals— usually three to 10 people—who are joined in common unlawful purpose. A Military Guide to Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, a U.S. Army training manual, describes a cell as the
“foundation” of most terrorist organizations. Most often, and most effectively, these cells are networked, “depend[ing] and even thriving on loose affiliation with groups or individuals from a variety of locations.”In international terrorism cases, in organized crime cases, even in drugtrafficking cases, conspiracy charges can be filed when two or more people enter into an agreement to commit an unlawful act. In fact, of the 159 people convicted of international terrorism by
the U.S. since 9/11, more than 70 percent were sentenced for conspiracy (or for “harboring” terrorists). Once a person becomes a member of the conspiracy, she or he is held legally responsible for the acts of other members done in furtherance of the conspiracy, even if she or he is not present or aware that the acts are being committed.The government does not have to prove that conspirators have entered into any formal agreement. Because they are trying to hide what they are doing, criminal conspirators rarely do such things as draw up contracts. Nor does the government have to show
that the members of the conspiracy state between themselves what their object or purpose or methods are. Because they are clandestine, criminal conspirators rarely discuss their plans in a straightforward way. The government only has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the members of a conspiracy, in some implied way, came to mutually understand they would attempt to accomplish a common and unlawful plan.Given the broad latitude in proving conspiracy, you’d think the same legal theory could have been used in prosecuting slayings of abortion doctors. Yet to date, only the individual murderers of abortion providers have been charged and prosecuted. No charges have been brought against any individuals for conspiracy to commit those murders.
Even if a single individual is committing all of the acts of violence against clinics in Atlanta, he or she is probably connected with a network of anti-abortion activists in some way or another.
Women's clinics on heightened alert | ajc.com
Jack Killorin, a retired ATF agent who helped work on the Rudolph case and a former agency spokesperson, said that the heydey for abortion clinic violence was in the 1980s and 90s. While the abortion debate remains strong, crimes against abortion clinic operators have largely tapered off, he said.
According to Killorin, these types of acts historically don’t involve large conspiracies, but one or a small number of disaffected people. The individuals usually don’t have criminal records, since they aren’t motivated by profit, but by ideology. The culprits are typically not affiliated with organized anti-abortion groups. Instead, they often believe those organizations are all talk and no action, Killorin said.
“This could very well be a lone wolf actor glorying in their powerful secrecy,” Killorin said. “And if so, they are very hard to find.”
The Army of God is described as a terrorist organization by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, which is associated with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. They list Eric Rudolph as one of the Key Leaders.
Over the past six months, I have interviewed Scott Roeder more than a dozen times, met several times with his supporters at the Sedgwick County Courthouse in Wichita where he was tried and convicted, and permissibly recorded numerous three-way telephone conversations Roeder had me place to his friends. Using information gleaned from these sources, along with public records, it is possible to piece together the close, long-term and ongoing relationship between Roeder and other anti-abortion extremists who advocate murder and violent attacks on abortion providers.
Hey Killorin, you’re wrong. Good thing you’re also retired. Bad thing that journalists are still getting quotes from you, for some reason.
May 26
Clinic Escort Bingo
- “Lesbian! Lesbo! You must be a lesbian!”
- “Scum, I hope someone shoots all of you, I’ll shoot all of you”
- plastic fetus shoved in face
- one passerby smiles and says, “Thank you for doing this”
and now it’s time for me to go back to sleep.
That protester is standing at the corner holding a JESUS LOVES YOUR BABY poster and some dude in an SUV just gave him the finger as he drove by. So the protester pulled out a pad of paper and took down his license plate number. Wonder how that conversation with the police will go.
Another dude just offered me a plastic fetus and asked me if I liked murdering children so I’m typing this on my phone and ignoring him until he goes away lalalalalalala
One of the protesters just wished me a happy mothers day as I was walking into the clinic to sign in and grab a vest.
April 15
Susan Heath: "Having an Abortion When No One Called Me a Slut"
(Source: free-cat-fancy)
April 11
The Arizona ban doesn’t actually redefine pregnancy, like some people are saying, but it is still a Bad Thing:
The real result of going through these pieces of legislation is that it abortion bans based on a period of time in a pregnancy simply don’t make sense. Picking arbitrary dates and deciding that the day before it should be legal and the day following it shouldn’t rejects the entire concept of medicine. Two women at the same exact day post-fertilization could have two very different fetuses developmentally, one with lungs that are mature enough to inflate and one who simply will not be able to breathe, even with assistance.
The decision to terminate a pregnancy should always be between a woman and her doctor, not a politician, and should be based on the medical needs of each individual case, not a cutoff point on the “My Baby This Week” ticker.
April 5
win Best Coast stuff, help ensure abortion access for low-income women in Southeastern Pennsylvania
Raffle tickets are 1 for $5 and 5 for $20. You don’t have to attend the event to win, but if you’re going to be in Philadelphia on May 17th, you should totally go!
April 3
Income Inequality and Teenage Pregnancy (NYTimes Economix blog)
Inequality, the authors suggest, makes the poorest citizens believe that they have little chance of economic mobility. They are becoming pregnant “at a young age instead of investing in their own economic progress because they feel they have little chance of advancement,” the authors write.
In fact, the authors point out that other research has shown that poor girls who have babies when they are teenagers do not suffer much worse economic outcomes in the long term than their peers who wait to have children. Teenage childbearing is “a symptom, not a cause” of poverty and economic immobility, Mr. Levine said in an interview.
Policy prescriptions, he said, should focus more on improving economic opportunities than merely persuading more teenagers to use birth control. “People like to focus on the thing that happens right before you have the baby, like sex education, birth control, abstinence,” Mr. Levine said. “An important point from our research is that that’s not going to solve the problem. Really what you need to do is improve their life chances in a much broader sense, which will then lead to lower rates of teen childbearing and better economic outcomes subsequently.”
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