Environmental extremists and animal rights activists, including UK-based Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), pose one of the most serious terrorism threats to the US, according to the FBI.
John Lewis, the FBI's deputy assistant director for counter terrorism, told a Senate committee that activists had claimed credit for more than 1,200 criminal incidents in the US since 1990, including arson and bombing attacks against animal research laboratories and the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry.
"There is nothing else going on in this country over the last several years that is racking up the high number of violent crimes and terrorist actions," Lewis said.
He singled out the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and SHAC as being of particular concern.
Lewis said the FBI made its conclusions after looking at all types of cases and comparing the animal rights groups with "right-wing extremists, KKK, anti-abortion groups and the like."
He said most animal rights and eco-extremists had so far refrained from violence targeting human life, but added that this could change.
"We have seen an escalation in violent rhetoric and tactics," he told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
"Attacks are also growing in frequency and size," he said, adding that it was plainly a matter of luck that nobody had been killed.
"Once you set one of these fires they can go way out of control," he said.
Shac was set up to close down the Cambridgeshire-based animal research firm, but seven of its US activists are due to go on trial next month on charges of vandalizing company property and harassing lab employees and customers at the company's facility in East Millstone, New Jersey.
However, a spokesman for SHAC in the UK laughed at the FBI allegations.
"The FBI should remember they are not in the movies," he said. "If they think SHAC is a terrorism organization then they should get out a bit more. It's a funny terrorist organization that has never killed a human, never harmed a human and does not want to bring down the government ... If they think we are terrorists then they probably think Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth are terrorists as well."
Senator Frank Lautenberg, a Democrat who described himself as a "tree hugger," said: "The Department of Homeland Security spends over US$30 billion a year to protect the home front."
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