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FBI probing ALF |
2005-04-29 |
The FBI is investigating claims by the radical Animal Liberation Front that some of its members had committed crimes against a pharmaceutical company - all aimed at pressuring the company to sever ties with a British firm it says mistreats animals during drug testing. The probe, involving a series of possible federal crimes by the underground organization, was confirmed Thursday by FBI spokesman James Margolin. Margolin said the investigation would examine a number of incidents over the past year that ALF claims its members committed against Forest Laboratories and some of its executives. The investigation was first reported in Thursday's editions of Newsday. Forest Laboratories is a Manhattan-based company with facilities in several Long Island communities. Forest, which has 3,000 employees, specializes in medicines for depression, anxiety, Alzheimer's and hypertension. ALF wants Forest to end ties with the British firm, Huntingdon Life Sciences, which it says kills animals in testing. A Huntingdon spokesman did not respond to a request for comment, but the company has said in the past it does not violate any laws in its experiments. Jerry Vlasak, who operates a Web site in California that posts "communiques" from ALF, confirmed Thursday that the group has made claims in recent weeks that some of its members followed a Forest executive's wife to her job, entered her car, stole a credit card and bought $20,000 in traveler's checks that it then donated to four charities. The woman, an employee at Stony Brook University, filed a report with campus police earlier this week saying that personal financial items were stolen from her car there. Vlasak, who stated that he is not an ALF member - although he supports many animal welfare initiatives - said the group has also claimed responsibility for vandalizing a Forest plant in Inwood, on Long Island, last June. It also claims it used a bullhorn at night for a week last October to harass a Forest Laboratories executive; glued the locks on the homes of other company executives in Nassau and Suffolk counties, and spray-painted their homes and cars with graffiti such as "puppy killer" and "murderer." A recent internal Homeland Security document lists the Animal Liberation Front among groups that could potentially support al-Qaida as domestic terrorism threats. |
Posted by:Dan Darling |
#5 Probing me? HA! |
Posted by: ALF 2005-04-29 9:50:38 PM |
#4 I think that ALF members are starting to liberate their inner animal. |
Posted by: twobyfour 2005-04-29 8:50:43 PM |
#3 Vlasak needs some time away to learn to pick better friends. A cell with Bubba might loosen his tongue (or any other orifice). How long before these pukes kill someone with their idiocy? ELF already has come verrrry close with their arson attacks |
Posted by: Frank G 2005-04-29 6:01:35 PM |
#2 We don't dink with Pink. |
Posted by: G Schumway 2005-04-29 5:55:22 PM |
#1 The ALF work with al-Qaida? Well, maybe if Code Pink Coordinates.... |
Posted by: Secret Master 2005-04-29 5:27:09 PM |