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Attorney General John Ashcroftand FBI Director Robert Mueller areholding a press conference at the J.Edgar Hoover building in Washington,D.C. Mueller stands atAshcroft's rightside, hands behind his back. "Credibleintelligence from multiple sourcesindicates that A1 Qaeda plans toattempt an attack on the United Statesin the next few months," Ashcroft saysslowly, laboriously. "This disturbingintelligence indicates Al Qaeda'sspecific intention to hit the UnitedStates hard."

The announcement is shockingbecause it conflrms unspoken fears.Two months ago, as thousands ofpeople commuted into Madrid justthree days before the general elections,ten bombs full of nails and scraps ofmetal exploded on Spain's train systemand killed one hundred and ninety-onepeople. Nearly eighteen hundred wereinjured. The Spanish Judiciary said theterrorist cell that coordinated the attackwas inspired by Al Qaeda, but distinct

from it. It was the worst attack inSpain since Basque separatists bombeda supermarket in 1987, and the worstattack in Europe since Libyan terroristsbombed Pan American Flight 103 nearLockerbie, Scotland in1988.

After the Madridbombings, Spanish copsgave the FBI digitalimages of flngerprintsfound on plastic bagscontaining detonatorcaps. The FBI announcedthat the prints belongedto Brandon Mayfield, anattorney from Oregon.Agents held him for twoweeks without charse.

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In the press and in the courts, he wassmeared as a terrorist. Two days ago,the government quietly admittedthey got the wrong guy. Ashcroft andMueller don't mention this, for there isalready a new enemy of the hour.

Ashcroft steps away from the podium

excerpt from "Greenls the New Red: Aninsider's account ofa social movementunder siege," by WillPotter. Available, April2011 from City LightsBooks.

to gesture to mug shots on easels. Thephotos and text look like WANTEDposters from a post office. Theseseven are in their late twenties or earlythirties, six men and one woman. They

are armed anddangerous. "Theface of Al Qaedamay be changing,"Ashcroft says.

His soundbite probablyseems benign tothe reporters in theroom who have noidea what else thegovernment hasplanned for the Waron Terrorism today.

Stop Huntingdon Animal Crueltywas born in a riot. On April24th,1997, World Day for LaboratoryAnimals, protest organizers arrivedat Consort Beagle Breeders nearHereford in England. They hadcampaigned for a year to close the

Police clash with demonstrators outside Shamrock Farm in August 1999May 26,2004

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& Gamble and Colgate Palmolive.Huntingdon was signifi cantly larger

than previous targets. Its razor-wirefences would be taller, its mediacampaigns and lawsuits more fi.erce.The campaign might take eighteenmonths, it might take years. That'sfine, organizers thought. Huntingdonwould buckle just the same.

As Ashcroft and Mueller warnthat all law enforcement must bekept "operating around the clock"to keep Americans safe, FBI agentsare working on another terrorismcase. While the government warnsthe country about seven armed anddangerous twentysomething Al Qaedaterrorists, FBI agents storm the homesof seven unarmed twentysomethinganimal rights activists.

It's about six in the morning whentwo dozen FBI agents surround asuburban home in Pinole, California.Pinole is a commuter town, foutsquare miles of cute homes andbig box stores. More politely, it's a"bedroom community" about thirtyminutes up I-80 from San Francisco.Less politely, it's dull.It's the kindof town that makes good fodder for

frustrated teenagers forming punkrock bands; Billie Joe Armstrong andMichael Dirnt of the band Green Daywent to Pinole Valley High School.As the first wave of commuters siptheir travel mugs of coffee, turn onNPR and head into traffic, a helicoptercircles the house. Then FBI agents,many wearing bulletproof vests, withguns drawn, pound on the front doorand threaten to break it down.

Could it be a mistake? The threeactivists who live here-Jake Conroy,Kevin Kjonaas and Lauren Gazzola-could pass as college students. Theyseem nice. They always keep tothemselves: no parties, no loud music.Every day they walk the dogs, a beaglenamed Willy and a golden-retriever-looking mix named Buddy, and that isabout all the neighbors have noticed.As a helicopter circles the block, as

cops in riot gear surround thehouse, the dogs bark.

Inside the house, LaurenGazzola, twenty-six, is in herpajamas. Not necessarily becauseof the early hour, but becauseshe's always in her pajamas. Thecampaign to close HuntingdonLife Sciences has consumed herlife, and the lives of Kjonaas,Conroy and many others. Theirhouse has been ground zerofor Stop Huntingdon AnimalCruelty USA, or SHAC. Herethey research investors, designfliers, organize protests, printnewsletters and publish thewebsite that will be used againstthem in court.

There's not much point ingetting dressed every day,Gazzola often says, when you'rejust going to sit in front of yourcomputer for eighteen hours,

go to bed for a few, then do it all overagain. When she's not working dayand night on the campaign, she studiesfor her law school entrance exam.Besides, working on a grassrootsanimal rights campaign for the last fiveyears has drained her bank account andthe accounts of Kjonaas and Conroytoo. There is no money for clothes.There is no money for food. Thehome has been donated, which is good

because there is no money for rent.The incessant, successful

campaigning has earned the groupquite a few enemies.

Just one week ago, the SenateJudiciary Committee held a hearingcalled "Animal Rights: Activism vs.Criminality." John E. Lewis, deputyass i stant director of counterterrorismfor the FBI, testified about the growingthreat of underground groups liketheAnimal Liberation Front (ALF)and Earth Liberation Front (ELF),which have committed more than1,100 crimes and caused $110 millionin damage. Most of the hearing wasnot about the ALF or ELF, though, itwas about SHAC. Witnesses testifiedabout the group's successes and lawenforcement's failures. In an ominousstatement of what would come inthe next few years, Lewis and othersargued that terrorism laws must beradically expanded to include theaboveground campaigns of groups likeSHAC.

"The FBI's investigation of animalrights extremists and eco- terrorismmatters," Lewis said, "is our highestdomestic terrorism investigationpriority."

Being named the government'stop domestic terrorism priority wasunsettling, bttGazzola and the otherskept organizing. The hearing was justmore political posturing, they thought.They were determined not to let itscare them. Gazzola had dealt withthe FBI before. They all had. Theirhomes had been raided. their books,papers and computers taken. They hadfought back criminal charges for years,sometimes representing themselvesin court, and through it all they hadcontinued undeterred.

But this time-with the helicopters,the guns, the multiple federalagencies-this time feels different.

Ashcroft offers the podium toMueller, the head of the FBI. Muellergestures to the mug shots and explainswhy each individual is a potentialterrorist threat.

Adam Gadahn attended trainingcamps in Afghanistan and is atranslator for Al Qaeda leaders.

Amer El-Maati "is believed to havediscussed hijacking a plane in Canadaand flying it into a building in theUnited States."

Fazul Abdullah Mohammed andAhmed Khalfan Ghailani bothparticipated in the bombings of U.S.embassies in East Africa in 1998. Twocar bombs, detonated simultaneouslyinTanzania and Kenya, killed twohundred people and injured more thanfive thousand. The bombings put AlQaeda on the map, and put Osama binLaden on the FBI's ten most wantedlist. They are fugitives, he says, andthey have the skill to kill again.

Abderraouf Jdey was reportedlyselected by Al Qaeda for training to flymore planes into more buildings andkill many more people.

Adnan Shukrijumah could be theringleader. He has been scoutingsites in the United States for asecond attack, and he has been incommunication with seniorAl Qaedaoperatives overseas.

Aafia Siddiqui, the lone woman, whohas a doctorate in neurological scienceand has studied at MIT and BrandeisUniversity, is an Al Qaeda "operativeand facilitator." She is not linked toany specific terrorist plots, but she iswanted for questioning.

"Now, in reissuing these 'be on thelookouts for,'also known as BOLOsin trade, we want to emphasize theneed for vigilance against our terroristenemies," Mueller says. "PafticularlyAl Qaeda."

If Ashcroft and Mueller were holdinga press conference about the animalrights "terrorists," sharing similardossiers with reporters, it might looksomething like this:

Josh Harper is an independentfilmmaker. His videos have includedfootage of activists releasing animalsfrom laboratories and fur farms.

Darius Fullmer has volunteered for avariety of animal rights organizations.He now works as a paramedic.

Andy Stepanian started the firstrecycle-a-bicycle program in LongIsland and helps distribute donated and"dumpster-dived" food to homelesspeople with Food Not Bombs.

JohnMcGee.. .wel l , thegovernment doesn't know much aboutJohn McGee. The other six arresteesdon't know much about him, either.They've never heard of him, and theythink they know everyone who hasworked on the campaign. His chargeswill later be dropped.

Jake Conroy, from the Pinole house,is a graphic designer and an expeft onwebsite design and (admittedly) badzombie movies.

Kevin Kjonaas could be theringleader. He has been scoutingcorporations tied to animal testingand has been in communication withanimal rights advocates overseas.

Lauren Gazzola,the lone woman,who graduated magna cum laude fromNew York University, is an aspiringlaw student. She wants to studyConstitutional law.

Ashcroft and Mueller offer fewdetails about the seven Al Qaedaoperatives and their plans. Ashcroftsays terrorists might find summerevents -like the DemocraticNational Convention in Boston, theRepublican National Convention inNew York City, and the G- 8 Summitin Georgia - "especially attractiv e."Mueller says he has no reason tobelieve the Al Qaeda suspects areworking together.In shorl: they mayor may not be in the country, they mayor may not be working together, theymay or may not have any plans for aterorist attack and if they do, it may ormay not be in the United States.

The conventions and G-8 Summitwill come and go without a terroristattack, but in a few years thosethree events will take on a specialsignificance for the activists arrestedtoday, and for the broader animalrights and environmental movements.Activists will learn that the FBI hadpaid a student, known only as "Anna,"to wear dirty clothes, dye her hair andinfiltrate the protest scene. Her journeywill start at the G-8 summit.It willinclude befriending and manipulatingyoung environmental activists,supplying them with bomb-makingrecipes and bomb-making supplies,funding their travel, and prodding

them into action.It will end with EricMcDavid, who grew close to "Anna"and developed romantic feelings forher, sentenced to twenty years inprison as a terrorist. Activists willalso learn that a lead organizer of thelawful protests against the RepublicanNational Convention was DanielMcGowan. One of the key figuresfrom the underground had steppedfrom the shadows into the spotlight.He had taken another name, anotherlife, and while FBI agents were tryingto piece together McGowan's pastwith the clandestine ELF, he was beingquoted about the protests in RollingStone and the New York Times.

The reporters are frustrated at thevagueness of Ashcroft's information."There are inevitably skeptics who sayyou're overdoing it or you're scaringpeople or you're just protect ingyour behind, or what have you," onereporter says to him. "Do you worryabout those?"

"No." Ashcroft says."You can't overdo it. in other

words."

warning,leading up to the Novemberpresidential elections, seems fishy. Ifthese seven Al Qaeda terrorists warranta press conference, one reporter asks,why not also raise the threat level?Ashcroft will not answer, deferringthe question to Secretary of HomelandSecurity Tom Ridge.

Ridge, meanwhile, makes the roundson news programs and says there is noreason to raise the threat level. "Weneed Americans to just go about livingtheir lives," he says on CBS's EarlyShow.

"America's job is to enjoy living inthis great country," he says on CNN,"and go out and have some fun."

"Well, no. I just don't think my job isto worry about what skeptics say."

The timing of this terrorism

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