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05.05.2011 0

Osama bin Laden Also Used Environmentalism to Attack the United States

By Kevin Mooney — As a way to attack America from within, Osama bin Laden very shrewdly seized upon the cause of climate change to advance his agenda. In a videotape message that was broadcast back in January 2010, the terrorist leader criticized the U.S. for resisting the Kyoto Protocol of 1997. He also had words of praise for Noam Chomsky, an American linguist, who favors far-left causes.

“Talk about climate change is not an ideological luxury but a reality,” Mr. bin Laden was quoted as saying on an Al Jazeera site. “All of the industrialized countries, especially the big ones, bear responsibility for the global warming crisis.”

Even as the U.S. military went on the offensive and destroyed terrorist networks, bin Laden clearly recognized that America was more likely to be brought by its own public policy decisions than it was by a direct assault. The nexus that exists between the environmental movement and radical ideologies hostile to America’s free enterprise system is undeniable. Net Right Daily’s own Adam Bitely unpackaged this connection in recent report about the history behind Earth Day.

“Not only is April 22 Earth Day, it is also the Birthday of Vladimir Lenin and the National Day of Communism in the U.S.S.R.. Obviously, the latter holidays are less celebrated, but consider that through Earth Day, the spirit of those days lives on,” Bitely wrote. “The parallels between these holidays are undeniable. And remember, these holidays were created by people with the same worldview as the communists of Soviet Russia. The green zealots of today are nothing more than thieves of property and promoters of irresponsible government and the regulations that come along with that.”

It is not be accident that the environmental movement has always positioned itself at odds with America’s best interests. From time of its inception in the early 1970s, it has always been about constraining and restricting America’s economic and military activity. It has also provided the United Nations, and more recently the European Union, with political leverage that has been applied against U.S. independence and sovereignty.

Policymakers in Washington D.C. should also take notice of how various green pressure groups worked against vital national security interests at a particularly awkward moment.

Just two weeks before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon seeking to halt production of ground-based missile defenses in Alaska that protect the U.S. against attacks by rogue nations and terrorists who might gain control of nuclear weapons.

The lawsuit argued that an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) has to be submitted under the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) before any missile testing could take place. Greenpeace, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and other green groups asked a federal judge to issue an injunction blocking construction of the test range.

Fortunately, the lawsuit has not progressed. But it may demonstrate that bin Laden seized upon environmental causes for very specific reasons.

Kevin Mooney is a contributing editor to Americans for Limited Government. You can follow Kevin on Twitter at @KevinMooneyDC.

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