the kind of group Clinton supports:
Animal Liberation Front Kidnaps
and Tortures Journalist
Date: 11/26/1999 10:44:58 AM Pacific Standard Time
Award Winning UK Journalist Kidnapped
and Tortured by Animal Liberation Front
Who OR What is ALF... the UK Animal LIberation Front?
Where do they get their funding?
Who teaches them the terroist techniques they use.
The following short comment is from the UK RMNews Correspondant who sent the following articles:
Comment:
As British intelligence, for all intents and purposes, ran and operated the British Communist Party, one has to ask, who supplies the intelligence for, and, who is behind the "ALF", that makes them immune from prosecution and virtually a law unto themselves. Britain's "Football Hooligans" and the "ALF" have shown strong links to the Far Right, which in turn has links to Britain's intelligence Services
Articles:
Branded by the "ALF"
By Daniel Foggo
The investigative journalist who exposed 'Animal Liberation Front' terror tactics has been subjected to a horrifying revenge ordeal - taken captive and tortured with a branding iron.
Graham Hall, whose documentary film Inside The ALF won top television awards, thought the kidnap gang were going to kill him. Instead they burned the initials ALF across his bare back.
And last night the ALF's official spokesman Robin Webb issued a chilling warning to 43-year-old Mr Hall and any others who seek to undermine the organisation's increasingly widespread network of stop-at-nothing fanatics.
He denied any knowledge of the attack on Mr. Hall but said: 'People who make a living in this way have to expect from time to time to take the consequences of their actions.'
Mr Hall will be permanently scarred by the barbaric mutilation. Channel 4, which showed the film in a Dispatches programme which won this year's BALSA news journalism award and also a Royal Television Society award, has offered to pay for plastic surgery to help minimise the impact of the branded letters.
Mr Hall, who works by secretly filming as he infiltrates iniquitous operations ranging from badger baiting to drug dealing, admits he has also been mentally scarred.
'Recovering from the psychological effect of this will take a long time,' he said last night. 'But I am determined to carry on my work.'
Much of his work is directed against cruelty to animals but he was appalled at ALF tactics. Robin Webb told Mr Hall how to construct a bomb, while fellow member Gaynor Ford took him on a tour of sites she had targeted with terrorism.
But to Mr Hall's surprise, police, who had hoped to use his video evidence to prosecute Webb, Ford and another man, David Hammond, quietly dropped the case.
After his kidnap ordeal - his captors duped him into a meeting pretending they could identify a dog-fighting ring - his torturers warned him not to go to the police.
'I was told they would kill me if I did,' said Mr Hall. 'But I am making a statement because they cannot be allowed to get away with it.'
Last night West Mercia Police confirmed they were investigating.
Robin Webb denied any knowledge of the incident but criticised Mr Hall for his filming methods.
'What was filmed was heavily edited and very selectively,' he said. 'I told my lawyers that there was nothing in the unedited tapes that could be used against me in any way. I can't speak for Ford and Hammond. They are beyond the pale of the movement.'
A Channel 4 spokesman said last night: 'Graham Hall is one of this country's leading investigative journalists, who has taken considerable risks to uncover corruption.
'His undercover work in the Dispatches programme, "Inside The ALF", was absolutely central in exposing the dangerous fanatics at the core of that organisation.
'We are horrified at the barbarous attack and are offering him whatever possible support.'
..................................................
Award-winning TV film maker Kidnapped
and Tortured by Animal Rights Fanatics
By Daniel Foggo and Edward Hynds
WHEN his name was announced as the winner of the BAFFA for best documentary, Graham Hall could afford a smile of quiet satisfaction.
The award, the highest that British TV can bestow, was for his brilliant expose of the fanatics behind the Animal Liberation Front . . . the extremist group which eagerly resorts to violence and terror tactics in its mission to end all animal suffering.
During months of painstaking covert filming, Hall had pieced together a shocking and compelling documentary, which blew the lid off the ALF.
Members of the group were shown boasting of numerous bombings and arson attacks.
And when the programme was broadcast 11 months ago as part of Channel 4's Dispatches series it sparked a storm of anger, fuelling the controversy raging then over jailed hungerstriker and ALF activist Barry Horne.
So the BAFTA - and a second award courtesy of the Royal Television Society - seemed a just reward for Hall's efforts.
What's more, it seemed that justice would take its course elsewhere after police said they were keen to seek the prosecution of the three key ALF activists in the documentary.
But six months after those heady award ceremonies, Hall's life has changed suddenly and dramatically, leaving him horrifically scarred both mentally and physically.
A fortnight ago he was stunned to hear that police had decided to take no action against the documentary's ALF protagonists, Robin Webb, Gaynor Ford and David Hammond.
Days later Hall - whose 20-year career has included numerous exposes of animal abusers such as badger baiters and dog fighters - was kidnapped by unknown ALF thugs and subjected to an ordeal of extraordinary barbarity, during which the 4in-high letters, ALF, were burned on his upper back.
The 43-year-old filmmaker was kept captive blindfolded, bound and told he was going to die before the branding.
His tormentors made it clear the permanent mutilation was 'justice' for his documentary - and if he made any further transgressions against their 'righteous' crusade he would be killed.
In the war between the animal rights and 'pro-countryside' lobbies this latest action has brought the increasingly bitter and dirty struggle to an horrific new low.
As Hall says: 'Even I underestimated them. They are highly organised and totally obsessed - they'll stop at nothing. That conflict is now out of hand and ready to explode.'
Such a statement does not easily pass from the lips of someone like Hall, an old hand who has braved death threats from gangs of drugsmugglers, illegal cartels, dogfighting rings and other criminals.
His talent for infiltrating their operations using his own scruffy appearance and unassuming demeanour has led to more than 70 convictions. And it has also produced some of TV's most watchable and dramatic documentaries.
Hall, a lifelong supporter of animal rights himself, became involved with the ALF at the end of 1997 when he was approached by Gaynor Ford.
'I was in Portsmouth distributing leaflets for my UK Animal Watch campaign, which fights badger-diggers, when this woman came up and started chatting,' he said.
'Soon she was telling me of all sorts of things she had done, from blowing up boats to setting cars on fire, all in the name of animal rights. They would target fox-hunting people, animal experimenters laboratories - that sort of thing.
'I believe there's never an excuse for breaking the law. But I wanted to talk to her further - with a secret camera on me.'
Through Ford, he also came into contact with two other influential ALF members, former soldier David Hammond and the organisation's spokesman, Robin Webb. 'I made sure none of them knew I was in contact with the others,' he said, 'because that way they would tell me what they thought of each other.'
During filming, Hall liaised closely with Hampshire detectives in case his evidence would be useful. The result was that when Webb - who has always tried to distance himself from acts of violence - was caught on tape giving instructions on how to make the best bombs, police considered its value second only to a written confession.
Ford and Hammond- who has ALF tattooed on both, temples were similarly allowed ample rope with which to hang themselves on film.
Ford insisted on taking Hall on a guided tour of the places she had targeted with her terrorism. At Wickham Research Laboratories where animals are subjected to tests, she crowed: 'Seven cars we done. Yeah, paint-strippered. Really brilliant'
Not surprisingly Hall was furious at the police decision not to prosecute the three . . . but what happened next put any pain he felt then into sharp context.
'I had been contacted by a guy called "Mark" whom I'd met while giving out leaflets,' said Hall. 'He said his brother was involved in dog-fighting and he would like to see him punished for it.
'I spoke to him three or four times on the phone over five weeks and we eventually agreed to meet at a pub in Herefordshire where he would point out his brother.
'The plan was that I would start frequenting the pub wearing a British Field Sports badge and wait for him to start talking to me,' said Hall.
'The meeting was arranged for 8pm on October 26. We were to meet on a road with woodland on one side and open ground on the other. Then we'd go to the pub.
'I got there first and sat on my van bonnet. I could hear little rustlings in the undergrowth and, ironically, I thought they were badgers.
'Usually, I go everywhere with my dog Dennis, who would be capable of putting four or five men in hospital if I was threatened.
'But that night I didn't have him with me - he was in kennels. At other times I go to meetings with someone accompanying me. This time I was alone but had no reason to suspect I was being set up.
'Mark pulled up in front of me in an Escort van and I went over to say "Hello". The next thing I knew he had kicked me in the groin and I doubled up in agony.
'At the same time I was aware of a number of men, at least four, jumpmg out of the trees and grabbing my arms. They told me: "If you struggle you're dead, you bastard".
Something, which felt like a gun barrel, was put against my temple and I thought I was a dead man. Then they forced a hood over my head, knocking off my glasses.
'Before I lost my vision I caught a glimpse of the registration of the van they were in - the first three digits were E77.
'They bundled me in the back and sat on my legs. I felt pure fright. I couldn't breathe properly in the hood and my arms felt as if they had been pulled out.
'The van started driving and I tried to keep track of the turns it was making, but it was hopeless.
The journey lasted at least an hour and a quarter but we could have been going around in circles.
'I thought I was being taken to my execution and I'm not ashamed to admit I was so frightened that I wet myself.
'Eventually, the van stopped and I was frog-marched to a house where they put me in a chair with my hands and feet tied up. I could hear them muttering things to me like "scum" and "bastard", but they were making efforts to stay quiet.
'However, I recognised one voice. The last time I had heard it was in a milling crowd of animal rights protesters outside Bristol Crown Court when Barry Horne was sentenced last year. I had gone there to meet Robin Webb for the first time.
'I don't know his name and I can't place his face but his voice had stuck with me.
'They left me for a few hours like that. I could hear shufflings outside the room. I could smell cannabis too. Then I heard footsteps and someone said: "Let's have a look at these tattoos of yours so everyone will know who you are".
'By that, he meant they wanted other members of the ALF to be able to identify me in future in case I infiltrated them again.
'The next thing I knew someone had pushed my head down and between his legs and I felt an excruciating pain across my back.
'I could smell burned skin and I realised I was being branded. One of them said: "Justice has been done" and another chuckled "The justice department" - the name that part of the ALF gives itself.'
Hall had been seared across an expanse of his back measuring 4in by 9in with the letters 'ALF' - and the branding iron had obviously been fashioned specifically for the task.
Hall believes it was either heated on an open fire or gas ring. 'The pain wasn't too bad at first,' he said. 'I suppose my nerve ends were cauterized . . . but after a few minutes it became so unbearable I wet myself again.
'They made a big joke of that. And they threatened me and my family and said they'd torch my home.'
After nearly 12 hours, Hall was grabbed and marched back to the car where he was again sat on and driven off.
On reaching a deserted stretch of road, his hands and feet were freed and he was thrown out of the van while being told: 'If you go to the police or the Press, you'll die.'
Hall said: 'I sat by the road and cried for quite a while. I didn't know what they had branded on my back and I needed to know what they had done to me.
'They had left me feeling raped and violated. I'd have much preferred a pasting because bruises heal and bones m-end . . . but they've left their mark forever.'
Hall hailed a passing motorist and hitched a lift back to his car.
When he arrived at the Midlands house he shares with his wife and their two children, she was too horrified even to look at his back. She took her husband to hospital where equally shocked medical staff treated him with antiseptic and a gauze dressing.
Knowing the ALF's penchant for the terror tactic of poisoning merchandise, Hall feared his wound may have been deliberately infected with something, but doctors assured him that the heat applied to his skin would have rendered any foreign bodies harmless. For the next 24 hours Hall thought hard about whether he should heed the ALF warning and keep his ordeal to himself.
Then that indignation he has always exhibited when faced with blatant injustices began to resurface. He told David Monaghan, his friend and producer at Channel 4, who reported the attack to the police.
Hall is now giving a formal statement to CID officers and, with similar defiance, he has told his story to The Mail on Sunday.
Police are also studying a tape from his CCTV home surveillance system which last week picked up an intruder attempting to climb into his garden carrying what looked like a pickaxe handle. Hall's wife also saw the man, who quickly retreated. Otherwise, detectives have precious few clues to work on.
Intriguingly, Hammond had written to Hall last June, six months after the documentary had exposed him as a thug.
In the vaguely ominous letter, he said: 'Dear Graham, I thought I would drop you a line to see how you are. Long time no hear or see? I expect you are busy undercover? Still, it's what you're good at. I was in - - - recently and actually went by your house. I could not stop on this occasion but next time I'll pop ir and say hello to your Mum. Maybe hear from you soon. David Hammond.'
Hampshire police have refused to discuss why they chose not to prosecute anyone as a result of Hall's TV documentary.
In a statement they said: 'It has been decided that factors revealed in the course of the investigation and not connected with the published television programme or the programme makers or the supporting material provided by Channel 4 - have led to the conclusion that a prosecution should not be commenced.'
Meanwhile, Channel 4 has offered to pay for plastic surgery to help to conceal the letters on Hall's body, and he is awaiting an appointment with surgeons to discuss skin grafts.
Healing his mind may take a lot longer, though.
'I have been badly shaken by this but it will not deter me from carrying on,' he said. 'I will not rest until I bring these men to justice . . . and it won't be the sort of justice they deal in. They are terrorists, not animal rights campaigners. They can't function without violence.
'They have done this to me because I hurt them with my film. They wanted to get back at me, pure and simple.'
But there was more than a trace of a gleam in his eye as he added: 'I don't do this job for a buzz. Nor do I get kicks out of it. It is the challenge, which motivates me -, and now I have a real challange.
'One day I will infiltrate the ALF again. And next time they won't get away with it.'
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Mail on Sunday comment:
The'Animal Lovers' Who Hate People
Anyone who still has doubts about the fanatical depths that members of the Animal Liberation Front are willing to plumb, will have them dispelled by our report of the barbarous treatment suffered at their hands by investigative journalist Graham Hall.
His kidnapping and branding was savagery of which the IRA would be proud.
In fact, it has long been clear that what drives many in the ALF is not so much their professed concern for the well-being of animals as a radical ideological agenda driven by hatred for democratic society.
The tragedy is that their activities increasingly risk discrediting and undermining the entirely legitimate efforts of law-abiding animal rights campaigners.
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