FBI official denounces threats against employees

[Rubia Warren]

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wi...-apconnecticut

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) _ The FBI may divert resources from other areas to investigate threats against its employees after the killing of a Puerto Rican nationalist leader in a gunbattle with the U.S. agency, the island's FBI director said in comments published Sunday.

Luis Fraticelli said the threats prompted by the Sept. 23 slaying of Filiberto Ojeda Rios could force the FBI to turn its attention away from investigating crimes like carjackings, drugs and violent crime....

Stuff like this used to be called terrorist threats-- especially considering where the threats are coming from. But the FBI has to turn it's attention away from regular crime in order to investigate this stuff? Are Puerto Rican terrorists being watched by the same people checkin out middle eastern terrorists, or do we just have our sights set on dudes wearing turbans?

[Rubia Warren]

Okay evidently not. I just noticed it is not called "terrorism" anymore in the news very often. Here is: Testimony of Louis J. Freeh, Director, FBI
Before the United States Senate, Committees on Appropriations, Armed Services, and Select Committee on Intelligence
May 10, 2001
"Threat of Terrorism to the United States" in which on the list of domestic terror threats, Puerto Rican terrorists are number 2.... just behind extremist right-wing groups.

Left-wing and Puerto Rican extremist groups. The second category of domestic terrorists, left-wing groups, generally profess a revolutionary socialist doctrine and view themselves as protectors of the people against the "dehumanizing effects" of capitalism and imperialism. They aim to bring about change in the United States through revolution rather than through the established political process. From the 1960s to the 1980s, leftist-oriented extremist groups posed the most serious domestic terrorist threat to the United States. In the 1980s, however, the fortunes of the leftist movement changed dramatically as law enforcement dismantled the infrastructure of many of these groups and the fall of communism in Eastern Europe deprived the movement of its ideological foundation and patronage.

Terrorist groups seeking to secure full Puerto Rican independence from the United
States through violent means represent one of the remaining active vestiges of left-wing
terrorism. While these groups believe that bombings alone will not result in change, they view these acts of terrorism as a means by which to draw attention to their desire for independence. During the 1970s and 1980s numerous leftist groups, including extremist Puerto Rican separatist groups such as the Armed Forces for Puerto Rican National Liberation (FALN – Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional Puertorriquena), carried out bombings on the U.S. mainland, primarily in and around New York City. However, just as the leftist threat in general declined dramatically throughout the 1990s, the threat posed by Puerto Rican extremist groups to mainland U.S. communities decreased during the past decade.

Acts of terrorism continue to be perpetrated, however, by violent separatists in Puerto Rico. Three acts of terrorism and one suspected act of terrorism have taken place in various Puerto Rican locales during the past three years. These acts, including the March 1998 bombing of a super-aqueduct project in Arecibo, the bombings of bank offices in Rio Piedras and Santa Isabel in June 1998, and the bombing of a highway in Hato Rey, remain under investigation. The extremist Puerto Rican separatist group Los Macheteros is suspected in each of these attacks.

http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress01/freeh051001.htm

[spiritmech]

Well, there's something you don't hear about everyday. I didn't even know Puerto Rico had freedom fighters.
sm

[Blemonds]

Okay evidently not. I just noticed it is not called "terrorism" anymore in the news very often.

True, in the press it's usually called freedom fighting

[Rubia Warren]

True, in the press it's usually called freedom fighting

Yup. It's being called freedom fighting.

[Ryokan]

Which is goofy, because far more Puerto Ricans want statehood over secession, and even more than that want things to stay the way they are.

[Rubia Warren]

Which is goofy, because far more Puerto Ricans want statehood over secession, and even more than that want things to stay the way they are.

It's just a few small pro-independence groups who do terrorist stuff. However, like I said in the other thread last week, this FBI thingie has got almost the whole island mad, which could add fuel to a movement that has lately been low on gas.