Today is the 20-year anniversary of the sinking of the Rainbow warrior in Auckland Harbour by French secret service agents. It was an act of terrorism against Greenpeace.
Greenpeace has various events organised to commemorate the occasion.
“It was an unbelievable act and it was of course one of the dumbest things the French government has ever done,” according to New Zealand’s former deputy prime minister Geoffrey Palmer.
Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira died in the blast.
The Rainbow Warrior was to participate in protests against French nuclear testing on Muraroa atoll.
Since the bombing, Greenpeace has gone on to commit some pretty terrible acts of terrorism itself including the campaign to pressure Zambia’s President Mwanawasa to refuse the 26,000 tonnes of corn aid in 2002 because the corn was GM modified – while his people starved.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
“One of the FBI’s most-wanted fugitives, a suspected eco-terrorist
known as Tre Arrow, was ordered extradited back to the United States
on Thursday to face charges of firebombings. Arrow, born Michael
Scarpitti, is accused of participating in the 2001 firebombing of
logging and cement trucks in Oregon. The FBI claims he is associated
with the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), a group that has claimed
responsibility for dozens of acts of destruction over the past few
years.” http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/headline/world/3256684
I don’t think either the bombing of the rainbow warrior, or any of greenpeace’s actions, could accurately be described as terrorism.
My dictionary definition of terrorist is “person using esp. organised violence to secure political ends.” Terrorism is listed here.
I would add ‘coercion’ and ‘bullying’ as a form of terrorism, when undertaken in an organised way to secure a political end, even though it may be non-violent in the physical sense.
Violence as a means to an end is to invoke terror in one’s target to behave in prescribed ways, is terrorism.
Either one argues of one’s point to turn someone, or one uses violence: hence
Violence is used when persuasion fails.
This is terrorism. It is an admission of failure.