Troy Newman, the president of Operation Rescue, has a problem. Seven years ago he moved his family and his entire hate-filled movement to Wichita for the express purpose of harassing Dr. George Tiller. Newman did such a good job inciting people to violence that one of his terrorists took a gun into a church to kill Dr. Tiller. Now the group is all full of hate, with no place to go.
For the first time in years, only a Wichita police car has been waiting outside the abortion clinic of Dr. George R. Tiller, who was shot to death a week ago. Gone are the trucks bearing enormous images of bloody fetuses, the signs offering the home addresses of clinic workers, the crowd of protesters yelling to women as they enter.
Over almost 20 years, a vocal, diverse constellation of anti-abortion forces has grown up in this conservative city with an intensity rarely seen elsewhere, converging around Dr. Tiller’s practice. With his death, its future suddenly seems uncertain, too.
This city of 358,000 people, once the focal point of protests because of four abortion clinics — most significantly Dr. Tiller’s, which provided rare late-term abortions — last week had no abortion facility open for business, no target in chief, no immediate reason for this network of anti-abortion forces to be based here.
“I don’t know what the future holds,” said Troy Newman, the president of Operation Rescue, one of the most well-known anti-abortion organizations. Seven years ago, Mr. Newman moved his organization’s national headquarters, its leaders and his family from Southern California to Wichita to focus a national spotlight on Dr. Tiller, whom he described as “the flagship” of the country’s abortion business.
“I think it’s too early to say what comes next,” he said.
If your community has a physician who provides abortion services be on the lookout. Operation Rescue extremists might be heading your way.
The only question left to ask is how long Justice and the Department of Homeland Security is going to allow this domestic terrorist ring to exist?
13 responses so far ↓
rageomatic // September 29, 2009 at 12:29 pm |
When I was a kid, our local Operation Rescue rep got nabbed for hiding in women’s restrooms and jerking off while he watched the women in the adjacent stall pee…
But um… calling this domestic terrorism is sort of slap in the face to people who experience real domestic terrorism. If I was an Oklahoma Federal building survivor and someone put this braying jackass up as the moral equivalent of what killed my family, I think I’d be pretty upset.
BAC // September 29, 2009 at 10:44 pm |
And you have a right to be wrong. OR and their ilk are responsible for the deaths of doctors and clinic workers, and have terrorized many others. Their intent is to make people so afraid that they won’t: 1) provide abortion services, or 2) seek abortion services. If that’s not terrorism, I don’t know what is.
BAC
rageomatic // September 30, 2009 at 9:32 am |
I would put slight difference (one of degrees) between people who make people afraid with pictures and screaming and people who make people afraid by mass murder.
BAC // September 30, 2009 at 9:44 am |
Clearly you have not been paying attention. OR and their ilk are killing people. That is terrorism. They use violence to intimidate doctors and their patients. That is terrorism. When the anthrax scare hit right after 9/11 the feds consulted with clinic owners about how to deal with the situation, as clinics that provide abortion services have been receiving anthrax-laced mail for decades. THAT is terrorism. You really don’t know what you are talking about.
BAC
rageomatic // September 30, 2009 at 2:52 pm |
9 people, dude. There have been 9 successful murders in 25 years. Look it up.
And they haven’t been receiving anthrax, they’ve been receiving anthrax threats. Never any real anthrax. Ever.
None of that makes it OK, but on a moral scale you can’t rationally put 9 people over 25 years on any kind of comparison with say, what the Tamil Tigers have been doing in the same period. Or the CIA. This is not terrorism, just barbarism.
BAC // September 30, 2009 at 10:25 pm |
On any moral scale but yours what OR does IS terrorism. Why do you think there are so few doctors willing to provide abortion services? In some parts of the country ONE doctor provides abortion services for THREE STATES. It’s a classic example of domestic terrorism. Clearly you are hopeless.
BAC
rageomatic // October 1, 2009 at 7:06 am |
Ok, seriously. OR is not a terrorist organization because the vast portion of the members are not terrorists, but well meaning idiots. The fact senior leadership has been convicted of murder and terror does not make the whole organization a terrorist group. It could point to it being a front organization, certainly, but OR is not a terrorist group.
A lot of what is happening to clinics is wrong. They shouldn’t get bogus anthrax, or hate mail ect. Workers should sure as hell not be assaulted or threatened which has happened over 1000 times in the last 25 years.
But marches and signs are protected free speech and should be, which is 95% of what groups like OR do.
You can’t say any scary politically motivated act is terrorism, because then, good god, everything is terrorism.
OR is reprehensible, yes. Murderers and kidnappers have been associated with it. But it’s not a terrorist organization.
BAC // October 1, 2009 at 5:07 pm |
What you don’t seem to understand is that it’s NOT the leadership that engages in killing doctors and staff, they incite others to do their dirty work for them. Randal Terry, Flip Benham, and all the other “leaders” of these terrorist groups incite their followers to commit violence, with the intent being to frighten doctors AND patients from providing or seeking abortion services. THAT IS TERRORISM in its most classic form.
If OR members simply walked around carrying signs you might have a point, but these guys incite their followers to engage in violence. They post “hit lists” on the internet, along with home addresses. They stalk providers where they live, and follow their children into school buildings. If you don’t believe me just ask Dr. Susan Wicklund, who had to hired security guards for herself and her daughter.
What these people engage in is NOT peaceful protest, but acts of terrorism. Sadly, too many people — like you — simply DON’T GET IT.
BAC
rageomatic // October 2, 2009 at 9:00 am |
“What these people engage in is NOT peaceful protest, but acts of terrorism.” Yeah, 9 deaths in 25 years and a lot of stalking sure looks like terrorism.
If all terrorist did that half assed of job there would peace in the middle east. Y
What you don’t seem to get is that I deplore and oppose what OR and their ilk are doing. I just don’t see how to regulate it without damaging the freedom of speech and freedom of assembly of of other organizations.
With an effective legal recourse that would make what they are doing terrorism without effecting other organizations I can support the title of “terrorist”. Other then that, it’s just using a volatile word to gain support for your point of view.
BAC // October 2, 2009 at 9:16 am |
It’s not about the number of people killed, it’s about the act itself.
What you don’t get is that OR and their ilk have engaged in acts of terrorism for decades, with the expressed purpose of driving doctors away from providing abortion services. And guess what? IT WORKED!! There is only one doctor now willing to do late term abortions. And some states have NO ABORTION PROVIDERS AT ALL.
Terrorism isn’t definded by the number of people killed, it’s defined by the ACTS OF THE GROUP ENGAGING IN IT!
Here is Webster’s definition of terrorism:
ter⋅ror⋅ism /
–noun 1. the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes.
2. the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.
3. a terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government.
OR, Lambs of God, and all the other terrorist groups have, for decades, killed doctors and clinic workers, burned clinics to the ground, stalked doctors and their families, and engaged in other acts DESIGNED TO INTIMIDATED DOCTORS TO STOP PROVIDING SERVICES. They are motivated to engage in these acts based on their political agenda, which is to end legal abortion in this country.
THAT is the classic definition of terrorism.
BAC
rageomatic // October 2, 2009 at 11:21 am |
Damnable internet! I feel like we would agree with each others’ points if we could just talk face to face.
The first things I said was it’s not terrorism. You said it was and I should get educated about it, so I looked up the wikipeida articles on it and read the sources that it quoted.
They said that groups like that have committed thousands of assaults, stalkings, property damage, and occasionally murder. They do this, and/or encourage it to be done to inspire terror to achieve a political goal. This is as you say, textbook terrorism. So, I was wrong on that.
But it’s hard for me to call this plain ol’ domestic terrorism because the regardless of the proper use of the word terrorist, the word in normal, public usage, means something more intense.
Also, I believe truth demands a response. If you are right, if this is just run of the mill domestic terrorism, then by my own code of ethics I need to have a response, at least intellectually.
Groups like OR walk back and forth over a line between legal and illegal. What do you propose to do to attack only the illegal part without attacking the legal part?
BAC // October 2, 2009 at 2:22 pm |
I’m good friends with Dr. Susan Wicklund, who has to wear a bullet proof vest when she goes out in public. This is why I feel so strongly that the work of OR and their ilk is “terrorism.”
Law enforcment is finally beginning to catch on to the seriousness of these crimes, and now when a doctor is murdered federal marshalls are dispatched to protect the other providers.
Using your understanding of “terrorism” I think we can agree that while Osama bin Laden didn’t fly the planes into the twin towers, or any of the other locations that day, he is responsible for the actions of the people he inspired to do so. Just as Randall Terry has never picked up a gun and shot someone, he is responsible for inspiring his followers to do so. We want Osama in jail, why should Randall Terry be treated any differently?
I fully support the right of individuals to PEACFULLY protest. I have taken part in a number of protests myself. What I object to is a history of violence, that can be traced to the ringleaders of these groups, yet nothing is being done to stop them.
NOW filed a lawsuit against Joe Scheidler and won. Joe and Randall had to pay some fines, but it didn’t stop them. They continue to whip people up into a frenzy and then sit back and watch as someone takes a gun and carries out their deed.
The leaders of these groups need to be held responsible for their actions.
BAC
rageomatic // October 19, 2009 at 12:11 pm |
Ok, you’re right.