Photo by www.animalliberationfront.com   Among the principal effects of the end of the Cold War is the disappearance of that red line which, in the past, demarcated the distance between the National sphere of the security and the International one. In the global scenario of this first tranche of the XXI Century, we are witnessing two principal phenomena: the proliferation of the centers and of the dynamics of instability, characterized by a marked transnational nature, and the statement of the principle of asymmetry. In a text of 2004, the Swiss political expert and analyst, Jacques Baud, defines, with the spirit of deep analysis, the principle of asymmetry (1) , destined to distort the traditional way of approaching international relations and security. The protagonists that cross the world stage are no longer only the national states, and the monopoly of the use of force is no longer only in their hands. The spread of the informatics technologies and the appearance of previously unknown phenomena, such as terrorism of the fundamentalist matrix, pose the dilemma, to the governments, of a security which can no longer be guaranteed with the traditional instruments. The danger of a vast-scale armed confrontation between the great powers being averted, today, it means asserting the principle of deterrence with respect to non-State actors, and to organized groups engaged in various illegal activities, but potentially able to erode, directly or indirectly, the solidity and compactness of the Nation-States. The governments find themselves having to undo the knot of a second structural dilemma: the necessity of reconciling, in a “liquid” world, the protection of rights with the imperative of the security. The coverage is undoubtedly restricted from the time that the States found themselves having to face phenomena of radicalization of the violence, perpetrated through those instruments which are at the base of the prosperity and protection of civil liberties. The new informatics and communication technologies are an example which act as a “sounding board” and as multiplier of strength and information for single individuals or social groups threatened in their essential liberties. The challenge, for those who are called to defend the security, lies, precisely, in reconciling the prevention of violent degenerative phenomena with a increasingly broad and mandatory system of rights. A challenge which becomes particularly intense when to question the social order and the civil coexistence are not structured or clearly antagonistic organizations, but spurious militant groups that disclaim and reject the democratic modalities and prerogatives. .

Animal liberationist extremism
and direct threats to the security


The carnet of asymmetrical threats to the security and to freedom is, today, extremely vast: from the fundamentalist terrorism, the new powers of the mafia, the proliferation of nuclear, bacteriological and chemical agents, to the effects of mass migration due to climatic change or ethic-religious conflicts.
Among the phenomena which certainly belong to the list of non-State threats and which have not yet assumed priority in the protection design of National and International security, there is the animalist extremism. A phenomenon which, up to date, has been relegated more to folklore and to the spectacular nature of certain demonstrative actions than to prevention, but which shows to possess effective instruments to damage the framework of civil coexistence and the free exercise of social and economic activities.
Around this phenomenon, just as for other analogous situations, the focus is precisely on those two dilemmas mentioned in the introduction: that of the effective prevention of the threat and that of the simultaneous protection of freedom and security for all citizens.
In terms of analysis, in fact, it is always necessary to establish a certain perimeter of the threat.
The animalist extremism, originating as a movement of protest in the variegated galaxies of organizations and movements, is experiencing a worrying degeneration towards phenomena of violence, which have as their targets single individuals, scientific operators and researchers, or large National and multi-national economic and research organizations.
The confusion and ambiguity in the propaganda implemented by some extremist movements generate that sort of moral paradox, for which the containment of the threat linked to violence is often confused with an arbitrary restriction of the spaces of freedom of speech, expression and opinion.
The legal, cultural and operative irregularities that characterize the scenario of the prevention of this phenomenon at European and international levels certainly do not help the situation. The image and reality of the phenomenon known as ARE (Animal Rights Extremism) are discordant, especially in the public opinion, but also among the security operators.
The lack of adequate information means that, in certain circumstances, the actions of the violent animalist groups even create empathy with some portions of the civil society, which mistakenly believe that the goodness of a “battle of values” is enormously superior to the entity of the damage caused.
Instead, we find ourselves facing a proliferation of extremist movements which exploit the theme of the rights of animals to legitimize the practices of aggression, intimidation or authentic violence.
The animalist extremism is a multiform galaxy, the violent activities of which are disturbingly emulated, above all, in Europe. It has nothing in common with those numerous and peaceful information and propaganda campaigns on the rights of animals or their utilization in medical or scientific research. The overriding principle of the freedom of expression and opinion renders any campaign of diffusion of ideas and principles an essential piece of the democratic pluralism. But today, more than in the past, the use of violent and often armed forms of struggle must represent the unbridgeable discriminating factor for full protection of the rights and well-being of the entire community.
As Chart 1 shows, we have seen in Europe alone, and only in the last five year period, a multiplication of violent attacks conducted and claimed by formations or groups that belong to the animalist extremism. They are episodes very different from each other, acts of vandalism with respect to single individuals or economic and scientific organizations, and authentic organized demonstrative actions.
In its annual Report of 2011, officially presented to the European Parliament on 19th of April last, Europol confirm – for the second consecutive year – ARE as the movement that has the greatest intensity of action among those focused on one single objective (2) .
It is also well to mention the circumstance for which, following the death of the Al Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, the U.S. FBI updated their list of the so-called “most wanted” terrorists and criminals. In second place is the name of Daniel Andreas San Diego, top exponent of animalist movements in the United States and author, according to the investigators, of a bomb attack on the offices of the Chiron Corporation in 2003 (3) .
Laboratories, companies and research centers have reported, in recent years, a disturbing number of sabotage episodes, damage, intimidation and physical violence against who is directly or indirectly connected to research activities in pharmaceutical or chemical departments.
Therefore, if the ARE can be considered a threat in itself, to the extent in which its structures or militants are protagonists of a violent escalation, it presents, however, also a second, and perhaps more disturbing, profile of threat.
The transnational nature of the movement, the use of new technologies (such as blogs or specialized forums on the Internet network) favour a rapid circulation of organizational information and propaganda material. But, above all, such instruments have enhanced the fusion between subversive activities of such groups and more known and violent realities of the international panorama. The grafting of violent actions on the part of exponents of the animalist extremism on the subversive and anarchic- insurrectionist networks of every political colour and derivation is, by now, ascertained by the most authoritative international analysts, making organizational techniques and violent practices a common factor. It is a sort of concession in franchising of brands and propaganda occasions, which serve to cement insurrectional groups around the sole practice of violence.
On the 15th April 2010, three citizens, two Italian and one Swiss, resident in Italy, were arrested in Zurich as suspects in the planning of a bomb attack on the nanotechnology center of IBM, in construction at the European Research Center of the same corporation. The three were found in possession of explosives and a note of vindication (4) .
The episode shows unequivocally how the animalist rhetoric is only an expedient to ideologically legitimize the violent attack on symbols of scientific and technological progress in general: the nanotechnologies constitute, in fact, the necessary presupposition for the development of alternative methods to the experimentation on animals.
The two Italian citizens are members of the anarchic-ecologist group “Il Silvestre” of Pisa. According to the investigators, exponents of “Il Silvestre” are contiguous with the anarchic-insurrectionist group “Revolutionary Offensive Cells” (COR), already known to have committed, in the Province of Pisa and in Rome, arson attacks against interim employment agencies, union offices and cars of municipal and provincial councilors of center-right parties. Such contiguity is suggested also by the repeated expressions of solidarity with the arrested, on the anarchic site Informa Azione (5) , where also protest actions against the Swiss Consulate of Bologna (6) have been claimed.
Specifically, as far as the use of animals in the scientific and technological research is concerned, the objectives of the campaigns of the extremist groups include not only the pharmaceutical companies, but also businesses and organizations connected to them. If, in fact, the pharmaceutical industry represents the primary objective of the strategy, the groups have progressively extended their horizons to interest secondary targets, such as, for example, suppliers of animals to the pharmaceutical companies (breeding establishments of animals intended for experimentation), research organizations under contract, which conduct experiments on animals on behalf of pharmaceutical companies, banks and other institutions that finance such industrial sectors.
In their turn, the secondary targets have been subject to activities of intimidation towards shareholders, consultants, simple employees or to third parties, such as the airline companies that transport the animals intended for experimentation or the airports from which the cargo is moved.


Indirect effects of animalist extremism

Sarebbe, quindi, riduttivo confinare il profilo della minaccia di tali movimenti al pur notevole livello di pericolosità diretta, soprattutto in virtù di sodalizi sempre più frequenti con movimenti di insurrezione e di propaganda politica.
Il tema principale legato a questa minaccia - così come alla maggior parte delle cosiddette "minacce asimmetriche" - risiede negli effetti indotti della violenza sul tessuto socio-economico in cui ciascuno di noi si trova ad operare.
In uno dei numerosi messaggi registrati il leader di Al-Qaeda Osama Bin Laden, nel novembre del 2004, citò i dati proposti da una interessante ricerca di Chatham House, secondo cui l'attacco alle Torri Gemelle e al Pentagono era costato alla rete del terrorismo appena 500.000 dollari ma aveva provocato danni all'economia americana per 500 miliardi di dollari.
Il terrorismo ha l'obiettivo principale di logorare le fondamenta della crescita e della prosperità delle economie occidentali, diffondendo panico e sfiducia e colpendo alcuni degli asset economici principali.
Gli effetti indotti di qualsiasi tipo di estremismo violento possono essere misurabili, quindi, su questa scala.
I primi a fare riferimento a tale prospettiva sono stati gli operatori della sicurezza del Regno Unito, Paese storicamente più colpito dal fenomeno dell'ARE, il quale trae le proprie origini proprio dall'esperienza della Band of Mercy, fondata nel 1972 dagli attivisti Ronnie Lee e Cliff Goodman.
Uno studio elaborato dalla società di consulenza Aegis Defense Services e trasmesso a Scotland Yard nel 2004 rivelava come, assieme alla pirateria marittima in aree sensibili del pianeta quali il Golfo di Aden o lo Stretto delle Molucche, l'estremismo animalista fosse da reputare come la principale minaccia al Regno Unito in termini di potenziali effetti indotti sull'economia. I danni provocati dall'attacco terroristico alla metropolitana di Londra che si sarebbe verificato l'anno successivo furono stimati in 16 miliardi di sterline; nel rapporto si descrivevano effetti negativi della violenza perpetrata dalla galassia dell'ARE per lo stesso valore (16 miliardi di sterline) ogni anno.
Il rischio reale, cioè, è che le azioni violente dell'ARE e dei movimenti estremisti che a vario titolo lo supportano, spingano ad una progressiva fuga di talenti e capitali nello spazio europeo, con particolare riguardo ai presìdi industriali delle multinazionali.
La farmaceutica, le biotecnologie, le nanotecnologie sono tra i comparti a maggior gradiente di innovazione e, quindi, un volàno strategico per l'Europa del futuro la quale, se non intende soccombere alla competizione della "fabbrica del mondo" cinese e della vecchia manifattura non ha altra scelta se non quella della qualificazione dei talenti e della ricerca.


Prevention strategies

The phenomenon of animalist extremism, despite its diffusion at International level, is still little known. The instruments of measurement, to date, have not held in due consideration its special characteristics and, as a consequence, results have been ineffectual in offering a full evaluation of its scope.
This for two reasons:1. The crimes perpetrated by the animalist groups occur with a rather low frequency at a local level. This circumstance can impede the investigators in having an adequate perception of the danger of this phenomenon.
2.The foreign origin of the animalist extremism, which only in recent years has spread to Italy, makes it difficult to distinguish from other native forms of anarchic-insurrectionist extremism, with whom, in fact, the animalist groups entertain complex relations. In turn, the difficulty of identifying the specific nature of this movement could affect the elaboration of an effective strategy of prevention and contrast.
The criminal activities of the animalist groups often escape the statistic survey of the Police Force. The insufficient collection of data, in turn, is reflected in a reduced capacity of coordination in the investigative activities at community and multilateral levels.
The different systems of law enforcement, to date, have adopted criteria and distinct definitions to classify and analyze the animalist extremism phenomenon. In Countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany or Denmark, the ARE is part of a more generic investigative category, connected to extremism and radicalism. Germany, however, has introduced the further concept of “crimes of political-ideological matrix”, under which falls also the case of the animalist extremist violence. Holland – particularly hit by phenomena of sabotage and violence perpetrated by groups connected to the ARE galaxy – recently introduced this independent case as a primary criminal offence, with a set of measures of prevention and penalties.
The United States, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium and Holland opted for a National competence concerning the prevention of the phenomenon of the animalist extremism, while the Governments of Sweden and Denmark entrust this operation to the local Police Forces.
The United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland and Holland have also instituted centralized task forces to evaluate and analyze the results and the indications of the local Police Forces on all the phenomena of extremism, including that of the animalists. Germany and Holland have included the subversive phenomena in specific training activities for the Police Forces and Intelligence operators.
Showing to be particularly useful, in certain Countries like Germany, the United Kingdom and Holland is the institution of a forum of public/private coordination for the gathering of information and the joint evaluation of the phenomena related to extremism.
The heterogeneity of the evaluation and, therefore, of the answer to the phenomena tied to extremism, also that inspired by animal rights, represents, therefore, a limitation to the implementation of a transnational strategy of prevention and contrast to the threat, whereas the subversive organizations, today, assume a markedly cross-border character and utilize international means and resources (from the Internet network to the propaganda through the new media).
The animalist extremism threat can be effectively contrasted only through a complex strategy which is articulated not only on the operative/investigative level, but also on that of judicial cooperation in
criminal matters and on the more ample ground of political and cultural debate.
Italy presents numerous points of excellence from the viewpoint of prevention and contrast to the subversive galaxy, of any nature and political or para-political inspiration.
Nevertheless, given the fresh outbreaks relative to the animal extremism phenomenon – which are well-indicated by organizations such as Europol – it appears necessary to suggest certain recommendations that could adequately circumscribe this phenomenon, mapping out an effective strategy of contrast and prevention.
First of all, at the investigative level, it would be necessary to achieve a detection system of crimes connected to the animalist extremism that is unique and uniform throughout the National territory. Often, in fact, the crimes are included in the databanks solely as damage to property and persons, undermining the statistic detection of their extremist matrix. In this respect, it appears essential to guarantee to the security and Intelligence operators, on the part of the Bodies in charge, an adequate and homogenous formation, according to an agenda of priorities which matches the scale of the challenges.
Analogous forms of coordination should be realized at the supranational level to stimulate more fluid and coherent forms of informative and operative transmission. Europol is taking a central role in the Community joint strategies of prevention and contrast against numerous forms of subversion and radicalism, with programmes which go far beyond the traditional categories and are extended to include the new forms in the spectrum of threats. Without prejudice to the prerogatives of the national bodies of Police, with respect to a phenomenon such as ARE, a fruitful exchange with the private sector, to analyze the needs and highlight the wealth of information, could allow an increase of the national and community critical mass for an effective strategy of prevention.
Given the transnational nature of the ARE phenomenon, judicial cooperation in the Community ambit, also through the Italian contribution to Eurojust, would be a further fundamental element to guarantee a rapid and effective response. The Decision Framework 2002/465, the JHA (Justice and Home Affairs), of the EU Council is fundamental, which provides for the creation of common investigative squads to carry out criminal investigations in one or more Member States.
The Italian Parliament has begun the consideration of two implementation Bills. The Unified Code, which, however, still does not find much space in the work calendar of the MPs, appears restrictive in its present formulation, compared to the increasingly composite and articulated range of threats made by transnational protagonists and which extends rapidly to groups of various inspirations, including those belonging to the animalist extremism galaxy.
More generally, it might be well to stimulate a debate at the political level on the opportuneness of elaborating a strategy of contrast specifically dedicated to the animalist extremism, on the model of what has already been experimented in the United Kingdom. The revision of the operative procedures would implement a sensitization strategy extended to the Police Forces and the Intelligence, finalized to make the animalist extremism a constant objective of observation, investigation and measurement at the national level.
It is interesting to note how there is a substantial inhomogeneity in the International perception of the ARE phenomenon, even in public opinion and the decision makers.
In 2008, the American Department of Homeland Security commissioned the University Consortium, START, which deals with mapping and evaluating the terrorist risk in the United States and in the world, a study on the perception of the American population of the different forms of extremist violence and, therefore, of the perceived and most impelling risk.
Following the fundamentalist and radical Islamic threat, the phenomena of environmentalist and animalist extremism are found.
It is important that such circulation of this culture of security involves all the public and private protagonists, starting from the Institutions, but without neglecting the role of the means of information, of public opinion and, obviously, of the private operators.
The European Union is the ideal space in which to imagine, without prejudice to the prerogatives of the Member States, an overall and supranational strategy.
For the future, a growing attention is desirable, also on the part of the Community structures in formulating policy guidelines and suggestions to the governments for strategies of implementation for a common space of security and protection of freedom and civil rights.