We need the tools to stop attacks on laboratories

Six years ago, in Oklahoma City, 168 people were killed in the worst domestic terrorist attack in American history. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and national intelligence agencies have dedicated significant resources to a generally successful effort at protecting citizens from the threat of paramilitary organizations and foreign extremists. But domestic terrorism has not faded from the scene, and this week Seattle became the latest target.

On Monday, a fire gutted the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture, causing up to $3 million in damage. Environmental "activists" are suspected in this incident. These new domestic terrorists are misguided and delusional, weaving a grand conspiracy of environmental exploitation punctuated by bombing and intimidation, while dismissing unintended consequences as "collateral damage."

The Center for Urban Horticulture focuses its academic program on such meritorious concerns as the management and restoration of semi-natural landscapes, and the conservation of biodiversity, yet ran afoul of this criminal (and supposedly environmental) movement.

By their own accounting, since 1997, the Earth Liberation Front has carried out dozens of actions resulting in more than $30 million in damage. National research organizations maintain databases to track the hundreds of publicly reported terrorist incidents against plant and animal researchers. And the actual number of crimes is likely much higher, for researchers are often reluctant to make themselves repeat targets by publicly acknowledging attacks.

The physical damage is secondary to the threat to innovation and scientific discovery. The academic disciplines that seek to improve human health, our food supply and the environment are at greatest risk. Intimidation and violence have a predictable and unwelcome result, a chilling effect on scientific investigation and an impediment to discoveries that will improve our lives.

At a recent biology conference, I met a woman who is regularly threatened with physical harm by "activists." Her crime? She uses mice in the pursuit of a cure for breast cancer. Federal action is needed.

Next week I will introduce legislation to enhance penalties for terrorism directed against the research community. Current law extends protection to animal lab research but not to plant labs like the UW center.

I propose a mandatory minimum penalty of five years for fire bombings and discretion for prosecutors to seek the death penalty when such crimes result in death -- an increasing concern since these assaults are indiscriminate.

The bombing campaign against labs is clearly a coordinated activity, as the simultaneous fire at an Oregon tree farm this week demonstrated. Links between crimes are not always as clear, and the disparate nature of this activity creates serious difficulties for law enforcement officials seeking patterns.

A National Agroterrorism Incidence Clearinghouse, headed by the FBI, would collect and collate information and assist local law enforcement agencies. Federal law provides prosecutors with a special tool to pursue conspiratorial criminal enterprises, and I propose adding agroterrorism to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization law.

These RICO provisions cast a broad net over conspiracies and present the best means available under federal law to target organizations that encourage such terrorism.

Oklahoma City taught the federal government that improved protection of facilities is also an important response to terrorism. Just as federal buildings are now more difficult to access and they integrate architectural features that protect employees, I believe the research community must consider similar facility hardening.

Universities are the most vulnerable, since their very mission is pursuit of academic freedom makes them vulnerable. The National Science Foundation can play a role in granting funding for universities to conduct risk assessments and develop strategies to reduce the threat of terrorism.

I serve as co-chairman of the House Diabetes Caucus and have a daughter with the disease. I hope someday soon that the 16 million Americans who suffer from diabetes will be cured. But I know that if our scientific community is frightened away from promising research by threats of vandalism and bombing, that day will be more distant. My concern is for more than isolated and temporary setbacks in experiments.

Left unchallenged, bombings like that at the horticulture center threaten to derail the improved quality of life that biomedicine and advanced agriculture promise the people of the world.

George W. Nethercutt, R-Spokane, represents the 5th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives and is a member of the House Agriculture appropriations subcommittee and the House Science Committee.

Add P-I Opinion headlines to