Daniel McGowan is finding out first-hand the limits of free speech in the United States. The environmental activist was imprisoned in 2006 for seven years for his alleged involvement in arson at an Oregon lumber company, then thrown back in jail for writing about how his beliefs got him branded a terrorist.
McGowan has been released, but only after being told he can’t publish his opinions or talk to the press.
In December 2005, McGowan was arrested by Federal agents in a nationwide sweep of radical environmentalists involved with the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), a group the FBI has called America’s “number one domestic terrorism threat.” McGowan was featured in the 2012 Oscar-nominated documentary, “If a Free Falls.” The film covers his lead-up to the jail sentence for arson credited to the ELF. He was released in December to a halfway house in New York City.
McGowan fell foul of the system when he wrote a piece for the Huffington Post entitled,
Court Documents Prove I was Sent to Communication Management Units (CMU) for my Political Speech.
As he pointed out in the piece, he was moved to a CMU because of the following issues that the authorities listed were a problem:
My attempts to “unite” environmental and animal liberation movements, and to “educate” new members of the movement about errors of the past; my writings about “whether militancy is truly effective in all situations”; a letter I wrote discussing bringing unity to the environmental movement by focusing on global issues; the fact that I was “publishing [my] points of view on the internet in an attempt to act as a spokesperson for the movement”; and the BOP’s belief that, through my writing, I have “continued to demonstrate [my] support for anarchist and radical environmental terrorist groups.”
As McGowan said:
“It is becoming increasingly clear that the BOP(Bureau of Prisons) is using these units to silence people, and to crack down on unpopular political speech. They have become units where the BOP can dump prisoners they have issues with or whose political beliefs they find anathema. In the months that come, with CCR’s help, I hope to prove that in court and show what is happening at the CMUs. This needs to be dragged into the sunlight.”
Author Will Potter has been closely following McGowan’s case. (Check out his recent post.)
The author of “Green is the New Red: An Insider’s Account of a Social Movement Under Siege,” has been highlighting the attempts by governments, particularly the U.S. government, to crack down on the environmental and animal liberation movements and to label activists “terrorists” and limit freedom to campaign and protest.
Potter says: “Examples like this highlight why it should come as no surprise that the Bureau of Prisons would retaliate against McGowan for speaking up about these secretive units. The BOP and the Counter Terrorism Unit have only been able to surveil journalists and make indirect threats: with McGowan, they are able to directly punish him.”
Trailer for the book, Green is the New Red
Green Is the New Red — Book Trailer from Will Potter on Vimeo.
