Is this a political ploy? Watch this video clip:
source
This is an undated file photo provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of Daniel Andreas San Diego
Former Sonoma County Resident on FBI Terrorist List
KSRO Newstalk
Curtiss Kim
4/22/2009
source
A former Sonoma County man who attended high school in Marin County is now on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist List. Animal rights extremist Daniel Andreas San Diego is suspected of planting bombs at two Bay Area companies in 2003. San Diego graduated from Terra Linda High School and lived for a time in the Sonoma Valley before going underground following those bombings. The FBI says he should be considered armed and dangerous. They believe San Diego may have fled the country but they're hoping publicizing the case will produce new leads for investigators.
--- end ---
Apr 21, 2009 4:06 pm US/Pacific
Bay Area Terror Suspect On FBIs 'Most Wanted' List
BERKELEY (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ―
source
A fugitive animal rights activist charged with bombing the offices of two East Bay companies has become the first domestic terrorist named to the FBI's list of "Most Wanted" terror suspects.
Daniel Andreas San Diego, a 31-year-old computer specialist from Berkeley, disappeared following the bombings on Aug. 28, 2003, of the Emeryville biotechnology firm Chiron Inc., and on Sept. 26, 2003, of the Pleasanton cosmetics firm Shaklee Corp.
Federal authorities said San Diego wears eyeglasses and has unusual tattoos, including one that shows a burning field and proclaims, "It only takes a spark."
The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced San Diego's addition to its "Most Wanted" terrorists list at a press conference Tuesday in Washington, D.C.
FBI officials said San Diego travels internationally and should be considered armed and dangerous.
In its global search for him, the FBI has spoken to officials in Germany, the United Kingdom, Costa Rica, France, Spain Denmark, Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic, Mexico, Argentina, the Philippines, and Chile.
He has ties to Germany, and may be living in Costa Rica, officials said.
"We don't have any reason to believe he's still in the Bay Area," said FBI spokesman Joe Schadler.
Officials indicated that the decision to name San Diego a most wanted terrorist was intended to heighten the visibility of the case in order to locate him.
"The leads have gone stale on us, so now we're seeking the public's awareness," said FBI Assistant Director Michael Heimbach.
San Diego is the 24th person on the bureau's wanted terrorist list, and the only domestic terror suspect.
"Mr. San Diego and those like him are every bit as great a threat to the peace and security of the United States as any foreign terrorist," said Charlene Thornton, special agent in charge of the FBI's San Francisco office.
The move to add a domestic, left-wing terrorist to the list comes only days after the Obama administration was criticized for internal reports suggesting some military veterans could be susceptible to right-wing extremist recruiters or commit lone acts of violence. That prompted angry reactions from some lawmakers and veterans groups.
An arrest warrant was issued for San Diego after the 2003 bombings in the East Bay that caused minor damages.
No one was injured in the early-morning explosion at Chiron. A second bomb set to detonate an hour later was found and the area was cleared before it went off, according to the FBI. At Shaklee, a bomb wrapped in nails exploded but there were also no injuries.
A group calling itself "Revolutionary Cells" took responsibility for the blasts, telling followers in a series of e-mails that Chiron and Shaklee had been targeted for their ties to a research company that conducted drug and chemical experiments on animals.
FBI officials were not willing to comment on any potential groups affiliations that San Diego may have had.
According to the FBI, San Diego professed to be active in the animal rights movement and had expressed extreme views about the use of violence in achieving the goals of the movement.
"As a society we cannot sit idly by and allow violence to become an acceptable solution for social and political problems," Thornton said.
He added that San Diego's alleged actions had set an example to others in the animal rights movement, noting two August 2008 fire bombings in Santa Cruz by "individuals espousing similar beliefs."
A federal grand jury in 2004 indicted San Diego—who grew up in San Rafael and is the son of retired Belvedere City Manager Edmund San Diego -- on two counts of destroying or attempting to destroy property with explosives and two counts of use of a destructive device in a crime of violence.
Officials have offered a $250,000 reward for information leading to his capture, five times the reward amounts offered for other so-called eco-terrorists wanted in the U.S.
The FBI said animal rights and environmental extremists have been responsible for over 1,800 criminal acts and more than $110 million in damages. Currently, the bureau is investigating 170 animal rights or environmental extremism incidents.
Law enforcement officials described San Diego as a strict vegan who possesses a 9mm handgun. On his abdomen, he has tattoo images of burning and collapsing buildings.
The FBI's "Most Wanted" terrorist list is distinct from the much longer-running "Ten Most Wanted" list. Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden is on both.
There is another American already on the terrorist list, but he is wanted for his work overseas for al-Qaida. Adam Yahiye Gadahn grew up in California but moved to Pakistan and works as a translator and consultant to al-Qaida.
According to the FBI, San Diego graduated from San Rafael's Terra Linda High School, briefly attended Los Medanos College in Brentwood, lost a job at a high-tech company in February 2003, and later tried to launch a vegan bakery in Schellville in Sonoma County, but the business failed.
--- end ---
Marin County animal rights extremist added to the FBI's 'Most Wanted Terrorists' list
By Dana Hull
Mercury News
Posted: 04/21/2009 08:00:00 AM PDT
Updated: 04/22/2009 07:30:41 AM PDT
source
The FBI hoped to elicit new tips when it added Daniel Andreas San Diego to its "Most Wanted Terrorists" list on Tuesday, but the move was also partly political: By adding its first domestic terrorist to the notorious list — which includes Osama bin Laden — authorities are equating animal rights extremists such as San Diego with the type of people who terrorize nations.
San Diego, 31, has been a fugitive for nearly six years and is wanted for the 2003 bombings of Chiron and Shaklee, two Bay Area biotechnology companies. While no one was killed in those incidents, animal rights protests have grown increasingly violent in recent years — one of the bombs linked to San Diego was wrapped in nails, and authorities are still searching for those who firebombed a Santa Cruz biologist's home last year.
Photos from the 2003 bombings
"Mr. San Diego and those like him are every bit as great a threat to the peace and security of the United States as any foreign terrorist," said Charlene Thornton, special agent in charge of the FBI's San Francisco office.
It's still to be seen whether the move — with its reminder of the $250,000 reward — would inspire new tips, but reaction was swift and mixed about whether it would intimidate activists, who've been increasingly targeting scientists who experiment on animals.
"It's absurd," said Christine Garcia, a San Francisco attorney who regularly represents animal rights activists. "By putting San Diego on this list, the FBI is basically supporting animal cruelty."
Animal rights activists in the Bay Area and beyond are outraged that San Diego is on the same list as Muslim terrorists from around the globe. San Diego is only the second U.S. citizen to appear on the list. While thousands of people died in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the bombings of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, activists note no one was injured in the blasts authorities say were set by San Diego.
"This is an activist who has compassion for animals who made a statement with nothing more than a large firecracker," said Jerry Vlasak of the North American Animal Liberation Press Office. "To equate him with the likes of terrorists who destroy buildings full of people is ridiculous at best."
However, those supporting the FBI's action argue that scientists live in constant fear that they or their families will be attacked, and that acute fear is a form of terrorism itself.
"Terrorism is defined by the use of violence to force change — certainly that was the intent in the Chiron and Shaklee bombings," said Jacquie Calnan, president of Americans for Medical Progress. "The inclusion of San Diego on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist list underscores the terroristic nature of the violence and threats that a small number of animal rights activists use against scientists who use laboratory animals in their quest for new treatments and cures."
Federal agents say they have evidence that ties San Diego to the two bombs that exploded outside Chiron in Emeryville on Aug. 28, 2003, as well as one bomb that blew up outside of Shaklee in Pleasanton on Sept. 26, 2003. The FBI says that the construction, placement and timing of the incendiary devices makes it clear that San Diego intended to cause serious injury or death.
In recent years, extremists have increasingly targeted university researchers. In August 2008, a University of California-Santa Cruz molecular biologist, his wife and two young children fled their home from a second-story window after a firebomb detonated at their house. On Wednesday, a Pro-Test rally is planned at University of California-Los Angeles to show solidarity with scientists subjected to increasing harassment by anti—animal-research extremists.
San Diego's parents, retired Belvedere City Manager Edmund San Diego and his wife Heike, declined to comment Tuesday. "They love their son," said Jim Collins, a defense attorney hired by the family.
San Diego worked at the Mill Valley office of In Defense of Animals, an animal-rights organization, and was a networks operations specialist at Critical Path, a wireless software company in San Francisco. After being laid off, San Diego tried to launch a line of vegan baked goods but it never got off the ground.
At the time of the bombings, San Diego was living in Sonoma County, and federal agents soon had him under 24-hour surveillance. But he eluded them. The FBI now assumes that he has slipped into an underground network of fellow activists, and thought at one point that he was in Costa Rica.
San Diego is described as having brown hair and brown eyes, 6 feet tall, and about 160 pounds. He has several distinctive tattoos depicting burning buildings and a valley on fire.
ON THE WEB The FBI's complete Most Wanted Terrorist list is at www.fbi.gov/wanted/terrorists/fugitives.htm.
Contact Dana Hull at dhull@mercurynews.com or 408-920-2706.
--- end ---
Wikipedia
No comments:
Post a Comment