Gibson Guitar Factory Raid - Update

Remember the raid on the Gibson guitar factory? What was used as the justification for this action in the first place – not this raid, the one way back in 2009? The amendment to the 1981 amendments to the Lacey Act included in the Farm Bill of 2008, remember? Officially the “Legal Timber Protection Act H.R. 1497” which could not be passed as a standalone bill so it was tacked onto the Farm Bill of 2008, which was virtually assured of passage.

So who exactly was pushing this “Legal Timber Protection Act” anyway? It appears to have been a cooperative effort between Unions and Environmental groups, with the latter supplying much of the verbiage, many with strong ties to various UN-sponsored agencies and programs that support the theme of “sustainable development”, part of the insidious UN’s Agenda 21. And their very powerful lobbyists!

This demonstrates the position that places the United States’ interests subservient to foreign laws, in that the penalties assessed against American Companies are the result of violations (even perceived or suspected, not even provable actual occurrences) of criminal activities according to the law of the place of commission. What? American companies can be charged and be held liable for offenses committed in a foreign country by a person (or persons) unknown at some point in the past, by failing to have proper documentation that the product in question has not violated some foreign rule, law or regulation, a fact of which the current American company (or individual, for that matter) may have been in the past, and remains still today, completely ignorant of such violation? The absolute absurdity of such a proposition defies explanation to any logical, thinking person. If the guitars in my home, purchased over a period of more than twenty years from a variety of sources, contain wood products that fall under the provisions of this ridiculous law, and I should decide to move out of the US, I would have them seized by the government all because of this ridiculous law requiring proper documentation of some miniscule percentage of the component materials used to manufacture the guitar?

Could there be any more egregious an example of governmental abuse of power?

Let’s look at the history and background of this legal bugaboo!

Legal Timber Protection Act - Amends the Lacey Act Amendments of 1981 to make it unlawful for any person to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, purchase in interstate or foreign commerce, or possess any plant taken (i.e., captured, killed, harvested, or collected) in a foreign country that is:

(1) taken, transported, or sold in violation of any law that applies in the place (including a park, forest reserve, or other officially protected area) where the harvest, taking, transport, or sale occurs;

(2) taken without paying required royalties, taxes, or stumpage fees;

(3) exported or transhipped in violation of any legal limitation;

(4) taken, exported, or transhipped in violation of any international law, treaty, or international agreement, or

(5) without any official documentation of compliance with applicable legal requirements. Redefines "plant" to mean any wild member of the plant kingdom, including roots, seed, parts, and products thereof (but excluding common food crops and cultivars).

These organizations supported the LTPA included as the Farm Bill of 2008. Sponsored by Earl Blumenauer, Democrat from Oregon, staunch Environmentalist supporter, serves on committees dealing with environmental and climate change (global warming) causes. When considering everything these environmental groups oppose, it is easy to understand why they wanted this legislation.

Legal Timber Protection Act H.R. 1497 (included in the 2008 Farm Bill as an amendment)

Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA),

Sierra Club,

World Wildlife Fund,

Defenders of Wildlife,

Friends of the Earth,

Natural Resources Defense Council,

Rainforest Alliance,

United Steelworkers, and

Wood Flooring International.

Check out the funding organizations for many of these groups:

Sierra Club - In 2002, the Sierra Club reported $23,619,830 in revenues, and disclosed $107,733,974 worth of assets to the IRS. Among its financial supporters are the Bauman Family Foundation; the Beldon Fund; the Compton Foundation; the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation; the Ford Foundation; the Scherman Foundation; the Bullitt Foundation, the Energy Foundation, the Foundation for Deep Ecology, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the Blue Moon Fund; the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; the J.M. Kaplan Fund, Pew Charitable Trusts, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Turner Foundation, and many others.

The Sierra Club has endorsed a document called the Earth Charter, which blames capitalism for many of the world's environmental, social, and economic problems.

The World Wildlife Fund - WWF supports the Kyoto accord and the global warming hypothesis on which it is based. The organization also emphasizes "sustainable growth," a theory whose goals invariably come with a demand for population control, a euphemism for abortion-on-demand.

WWF received over $30 million in foundation grants between 1994 and 2004. Leading contributors include the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Blue Moon Fund, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the Energy Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the J.M. Kaplan Fund, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Minneapolis Foundation, the Summit Foundation, the Turner Foundation, and many others. WWF also realizes substantial income from private donations and its sale of periodicals. As of 2004, the organization's net assets totaled $169,065,633." Its revenues that year were $112,001,561.

Defenders of Wildlife - DOW is a member of the Save Our Environment Action Center (SOEAC), a leftist coalition describing itself as "a collaborative effort of the nation's most influential environmental advocacy organizations harnessing the power of the [I]nternet to increase public awareness and activism on today's most important environmental issues." Fellow SOEAC members include, among others, Earthjustice, Environmental Defense, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, the League of Conservation Voters, the National Wildlife Federation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Physicians for Social Responsibility, the Sierra Club, the Wilderness Society, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and the World Wildlife Fund.

DOW receives its principal funding from the Turner Foundation, which granted the organization $965,000 from 2001 to 2003. Other notable benefactors are the Bauman Family Foundation, the Bullitt Foundation, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Streisand Foundation, and the Surdna Foundation.

Friends of the Earth - A member organization of the United for Peace and Justice anti-war coalition, FOE endorsed a May 1, 2003 document titled "10 Reasons Environmentalists Oppose an Attack on Iraq," which was published by Environmentalists Against War.

FOE has received millions of dollars in foundation grants in recent years. Among its leading donors have been the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the W. Alton Jones Foundation now called the Blue Moon Fund), Pew Charitable Trusts, the MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Turner Foundation, the Bullitt Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, the Columbia Foundation, the Beldon Fund, the Compton Foundation, the Educational Foundation of America, the Energy Foundation, the Public Welfare Foundation, the Scherman Foundation, the Foundation for Deep Ecology, the Public Welfare Foundation, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

National Resources Defense Council - As a tax-free corporation under section 501(c)(3) of the tax code, NRDC is subject to limits on the amount of money it can disburse for the purposes of lobbying Congress. But it has found a way around such restrictions by establishing a separate lobbying arm, the NRDC Action Fund. Operating under a different section of the tax code, section 501(c)(4), the Action Fund is exempt from similar restrictions. Under the banner of "environmental action", NRDC lodges lawsuits to impede the construction of everything from highways and hydroelectric dams to nuclear power plants. The NRDC Action Fund complements this work, launching advertising campaigns to arouse grassroots support.

Philanthropic support for NRDC has risen dramatically in recent years, from just over $36 million in 1999 to more than $89 million in 2010.. As of 2010, the organization had assets of $181,427,464. NRDC receives financial backing from Pew Charitable Trusts, the Tides Foundation, the Bauman Family Foundation, the Beldon Fund, the Blue Moon Fund, the Bullitt Foundation, the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, the Columbia Foundation, the Compton Foundation, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the Educational Foundation of America, the Energy Foundation, the Vira I. Heinz Endowment, the Heinz Family Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the J.M. Kaplan Fund, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the New York Times Company Foundation, George Soros’s Open Society Institute, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Prospect Hill Foundation, the Public Welfare Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Scherman Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, the Turner Foundation, and many others.

Moreover, it is estimated that NRDC received $2.6 million from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) during the first three years of the Bush administration. NRDC, which accused President Bush of attempting the "rollback of almost every major environmental law on the books," subsequently used the EPA money to finance anti-Bush radio spots in battleground states prior to the 2004 presidential election.

Rainforest Alliance - RA focuses its efforts chiefly on the following program areas:

(a) Sustainable Agriculture: "The unbridled and unsustainable growth of the agriculture industry in recent years has encouraged rampant deforestation and careless agrochemical use. Today agriculture is the number one cause of ecosystem destruction and species loss worldwide. Agriculture … uses more land and freshwater than any other human activity in the world."

(b) Sustainable Forestry: "Because more than six billion people rely on trees and plants to build houses, produce paper, make furniture and stay warm, the pressures on the world's forests are staggering. … [T]he need to responsibly manage our forests is critical to the survival of all living species."

(c) Sustainable Tourism: "With 700 million people traveling each year, tourism is a growing source of revenue for people living in areas that are especially rich in plant and animals -- and threatened with destruction. … [RA] works with tourism entrepreneurs and community-based businesses in Latin America, providing them training and information on environmentally and socially sound management."

RA also administers an "Adopt-A-Rainforest" campaign, which collects donations from individuals, school groups, and community organizations to "support the purchase and sustainable management of tropical forest lands." Revenues for this program exceed $20,000 annually.

The Rainforest Alliance publishes a number of newsletters, including Canopy and Eco-Exhange, both bi-monthlies, and Rainforest Matters and Eco-Education Matters, two e-mail publications.

The Executive Director of the Rainforest Alliance, Tensie Whelan, believes that global inequities cause both environmental destruction and terrorism. She stated in an interview, "Many of the people providing tacit, though not active, support to the terrorists are doing so because these people are living in squalor and see no hope for themselves and their children. To the extent that the Rainforest Alliance and similar organizations can work with industry and government to ensure that globalization provides benefits to local communities, rather than exploit them and their environment, we will reduce their anger and despair."

RA's Chairman of the Board (and co-founder) is Daniel Roger Katz, who also serves as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Another RA Board member is Wendy Gordon, a former Executive Director of Mothers & Others for a Livable Planet.

RA receives funding from the Ford Foundation, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the Prospect Hill Foundation, the Blue Moon Fund, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Pew Charitable Trusts, the AT&T Foundation, the J.M. Kaplan Fund, the Lear Family Foundation, the Summit Charitable Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, the Turner Foundation, and numerous others.

The common connections or threads running through all of these groups would support the notion that they are all part of the global environmental push through the United Nations' "Agenda 21", the bill also was heavily supported by Unions, notably United Steelworkers.

A senate bill was also proposed, which was supported by additional groups here is that information:

Supporters of the Combat Illegal Logging Act (S.1930) and of the Legal Timber Protection Act (H.R.1497)

American Forest & Paper Association

Center for International Environmental Law

Conservation International

Defenders of Wildlife

Dogwood Alliance

Environmental Investigation Agency

ForestEthics

Friends of the Earth

From the Mountain Sources, LLC

Global Witness

Greenpeace

Hardwood Federation

International Brotherhood of Carpenters and

Joiners of America

International Brotherhood of Teamsters

Lowe’s Home Improvement

Natural Resources Defense Council

Rainforest Action Network

Rainforest Alliance

Sierra Club

Society of American Foresters

South Cone Trading Company

Sustainable Furniture Council

The Nature Conservancy

Tropical Forest Trust

United Steelworkers

Wildlife Conservation Society

Wood Flooring International, Inc.

World Wildlife Fund

The question that lingers throughout this discussion is very simple – where is the authority under our Constitution that places American companies subject to the laws of foreign nations in instances such as this? Not to mention the additional restriction placed upon American individual citizens for the same potential “violation” of some foreign law?