Marie Mason, Eco-Terrorist Serving 22 Years, Gives First Interview

Guardian:

She is, in the eyes of the law, America's most dangerous eco-terrorist: a self-confessed serial arsonist who resorted to fire and destruction to register her opposition to the fur industry and genetically modified crops.

But to those who know her and to some legal experts, the 22-year jail term handed to Marie Mason, 47, is a consequence of America's preoccupation with terrorism in the post-9/11 world.

Read the whole story: Guardian

Comments

[Wrenn]

11:17 PM on 03/25/2009

Non-Violent Action is (In my opinion) is honerable civil action. If the towers would have crumbled without the loss of One (1) Firefighter, Or Innocent, It would have made a more poinent point. I think your sentance should be adjusted in your favor Because the Firefighters who delt with that "Action" were well trained and No-one was Hurt while responding to & containing those actions. In my opinion, we should plan organized Burns of all GMO planting fields. There is a reason "Beefalo" & "Jackasses" Can't breed! As a volunteer wildland Firefighter, I'll tell you though, I dont want to die on a fire started for causes that I Believe in. Do with this what you will. Harm No Other. Don't give up. We don't want to eat the same grain of rice, or the same Cow for the rest of our lives! (CAN'T) Thanks Marrie.

[LeeX]

11:06 AM on 03/28/2009

Good lord! I think that you may have been dropped on your head as a youngster!

[howcome]

02:11 PM on 03/25/2009

Eco-Terorist, Enviro-Terrorist,, is apply applied to those like her or greenpeace vesssels or the fearmongering from the ganggreen

[KPinSEA]

01:55 PM on 03/25/2009

I don't care whether you bomb an abortion clinic or an agricultural research facility ... you're someone who has abandoned the political process in favor of terrorism, and you're lucky they don't throw away the key when they catch you.

[LeeX]

01:55 PM on 03/25/2009

I met Marie in Detroit and tho I did not know her very well she seemed to have some emotional issues. She had angry and hostile manner. She was into the anarchist scene, very much involved in direct action. What she did was drastic and she knew that if she got caught she would be in serious trouble. It was really pointless to do what she did, childish really. I feel sorry for her family. I read that this was a cold case until a homeless guy found some bomb-making material in a dumpster, which led police to her ex-husband. He informed on Marie and the rest is history.

[ecotopian]

02:39 PM on 03/25/2009

He didn't inform on Marie and her ex. Unless he knew them personally and knew what they were up to. From what you wrote, this homeless guy found materials to make a bomb and went to the police. It was the police who pieced it together and made the arrest. How is turning over that material informing? Did he say anything? Or are you saying that if you found material of that mature in a dumpster, you would have just left it there?

[LeeX]

03:05 PM on 03/25/2009

I didn't say that the homeless guy informed on her. How could he know who's stuff it was? I said that her ex-husband informed on Marie. Read it again. Boy are you stupid!

[grn1]

01:19 PM on 03/25/2009

"Professor Daniel Clay, who worked at the institute in 1999 and is now the director, said the attack had a severe impact on the staff. "It really was a shock," he said. "It was a very difficult period for all of us. People were frightened and we asked ourselves how close did this come to physically harming someone."

I wonder if this bright professor ever considered what he is doing frightens others, especially when it has been proven GE crops do physically harm others

[howcome]

02:04 PM on 03/25/2009

I wonder if you think an abortionist frightens others, spefically that unborn child he is stabbing or sucking out

[grn1]

02:27 PM on 03/25/2009

Obviously that is why clinics are also targets. The only difference being, abortion is a choice. Genetically engineered agriculture is a mandate.

[Palemoon]

12:18 PM on 03/25/2009

By the way, why is there no outrage against corporate giant Monsanto who is knee deep in sending this woman to prison? She harms not 1 single person. Monsanto is on the hook for the deaths of thousands, with the forced enslavement of thousands more child laborers.

Remember, this is a company that was legally represented by Clarence Thomas and whom even Donald Rumsfeld benefited greatly from too. It's a neocon organization through and through. It's most famous products? Agent Orange, Dioxin and Bovine Growth Hormone to be put in our milks. But wait, there's more... one of the latest dubious experiments they are concocting, is sterile plant seeds. Meaning, they are in the process of replacing traditional plant seeds with sterile seeds in which the new plants do not give off any future seeds, requiring farmers (and anyone else) to constantly repurchase seeds from them in order to grow stuff after every use and/or season. How's that for another example of capitalist "planned obsolescence"??

When did we put the profit margins of corps ahead of our safety and welfare?

[Zofomofo]

01:17 PM on 03/25/2009

This is an article about someone who CONFESSED to arson and the amount of her jail time. If it was an article about what you spoke of, then you would see outrage regarding that I guarantee you.

You claim she is innocent below and her husband was the arsonist. Why did she confess?

You realize you can be a critic of Monsanto and still think she is wrong right?

Or is it us against them, black and white with you?

[Palemoon]

02:46 PM on 03/25/2009

I realize she confessed after she was entrapped by her husband who was a long-time government agent and informant. I mean, when your supposed husband has been wearing a wire for months, if not years, in order to entrap anyone who he could convince to take part in his scheme, duh, I thik she figured she might get some kind of plea deal out of it?

This is why people like myself want to do away with coercive systems of government. It's bad enough that they now run 90% of our lives, holding our hands, having big pity parties for us. Then when the system breaks down, like Wall Street and Katrina and Iraq, well, they leave us up the creek without a paddle and then blame us for the government putting us there in the first place. As if we had any say so! And then whine when we wanna pull our money out of the banks to safeguard it our own selves.

[JnrNorman]

12:18 PM on 03/25/2009

Maybe Soy Estrogen made her feel like Superwoman?

Soy and the BrainApr 28, 2004 ... John MacArthur discusses the effects of soy on the brain. ... midlife had up to 2.4 times the risk of later developing Alzheimer’s disease. ..... the quarterly magazine of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Fall 2000. ...
www.westonaprice.org/soy/soyandbrain.html

[Palemoon]

12:05 PM on 03/25/2009

I wanna know why Mr. Ambrose, who was the actual firestarter and confessed to setting all of the fires, only got 9 years in prison. That means Mrs. Mason got 22 years for nothing more than spray painting graffiti onto walls to leave behind a message. She had no part in the actual arson, other than being along for the ride. After all, it was Mr. Ambrose's idea to do all of this.

I feel this was simply a recruit and entrap ploy by Mr. Ambrose since he was already a well known activist long before he met Mrs. Mason. He was facing serious time, and the only way he could avoid spending the rest of his life in prison, was to recruit and entrap other people in which to make them poster boys and girls for the Feds to use in prosecutorial media campaigns. Pretty much like Fitzgerald using Blago as a media campaign on behalf of the republicans. Not a single charge has been brought against Blago. I rest my case.

[lowgear]

11:26 AM on 03/25/2009

how's the organic tomatos

was it worth the organic soy products in the big house?

[cruisepuppy7452a]

11:05 AM on 03/25/2009

Number one, there is nothing wrong with opposing something, showing your outrage, disgust, working for better solutions. I am the ring leader folks. However, there is also a line you do not cross that groups like this, CODE PINK, and others fail to see. They do more harm to thier causes, than good with thier desire to become arrestees, inciting riots and taunting federal agents and police. That does not make them look smart, or cool, it makes them look like fools. It gets them negative attention isntead of positive attention, and in this case, no, its not good to get it. I was asked to join Code Pink, and refused. I love thier causes, but won't fight my fights as they choose, am not willing to injure anyone or myself, get myself arrested to move my cause forward. You can achieve the same results, smarter, faster, with better outcomes if we plot out whom we contact, with info that gets seen and heard by the right people. These groups are nothing more than wasting thier time.

[Palemoon]

12:00 PM on 03/25/2009

You saw how well that worked when we elected a new Congress in '06 and strengthened it in '08. We have no smarter, faster, better outcomes. Just the same old ones. Business as usual in Washington DC with zero change. Unless you count the change being the names on the desks. The government doesn't care even if you are seen and heard. Just ask Pat Tillman's family. You saw how far that investigation went, didn't you? You saw how people were held accountable over that, right?

You are living in a dream world.

[Zofomofo]

12:57 PM on 03/25/2009

And you are ridiculous. Were you so naive to think that one election was going to reset the country completely? And that when it didn't that the answer is arson?

You should try some rational thought, because you are leading yourself down a dangerous line of "logic," which will lead you to become those you despise.

If you are serious and want to make a violent gesture or burn some things down (which is awesome for the enviornment BTW) try lighting yourself and your possesions on fire. It will make the news and your message will get out and you won't have to join the side of the enemy who is willing to destroy others and their possessions to make their arrogant point.

[RightWingMarine]

01:54 PM on 03/25/2009

the problem is we elected people with the same ideology just with a different letter after their name. Demos and Repubs are the same. Vote Libertarian for real change.

[RightWingMarine]

10:30 AM on 03/25/2009

there is a difference between civil disobediance and arson. The punishment fits the crimes.

[openhand]

11:03 AM on 03/25/2009

Where does invading a country and sparking a civil war fit in your fair and balanced world? I am still struggling with the concept of a Bush library.

[RightWingMarine]

11:15 AM on 03/25/2009

I'm fiercely Libertarian. I don't agree with everything any administration has done but I fought because I swore an oath to defend the Constitution and the President is the Commander in Chief of the military.

[glockman]

11:24 AM on 03/25/2009

So, you support arson then?

Because your pathetic attempt at trying to link two situations that are in no way related to each other suggests the fact that you must not be able to understand the scope of the article.

[QueenCeleste]

08:31 AM on 03/25/2009

Her sentence is too harsh, and it seems she is being used as an example. I do not agree with what she did. But in the case of fur farming (as in laboratories using animals in vivisection) the true violence is practiced by those running the "farms." It is alarming to see animal rights advocates targeted, especially as the vast majority are not proponents of violence--indeed, just the opposite.

God bless this woman, and may she not have to serve out her entire sentence.

[howcome]

09:26 AM on 03/25/2009

Would you feel the same for that mild mannered activist who tried to stop unborn children from being terminated,,, She is as despicable as that abortion clinic bomber ...

[openhand]

11:06 AM on 03/25/2009

Amazing what dots we choose to connect so that we don't have to move our position. Is there a difference between the coal trucks to a power station and the trucks to Auschwitz?

[amdezurik]

12:49 PM on 03/25/2009

except she did not murder anyone unlike the clinic shooters and bombers.

[glockman]

11:26 AM on 03/25/2009

"God bless this woman"

For targeted arson? Surely you jest. All animal rights activists are not being targeted as you suggest, only those who partake of violent acts on persons and property.

By the way, fur farming and vivisection are two different things.

[isis]

08:29 AM on 03/25/2009

Arson is a serious crime no matter what the cause. She was trying to set fire to a lab. There could have been explosions and lots of injuries. I would not even call her an ECO-terrorist since fires release particulate matter, carbon dioxide, and a building fire would have released lots of VOCs and violated reduce, reuse recycle.

[RnR]

08:07 AM on 03/25/2009

Good thing Monsanto has so much political clout. They can force networks to pull documentaries, harass the investigators and keep themselves under the radar in spite of what they are doing to family farmers worldwide.

God Love America. When you hold the powerful accountable you may speak.

[freedomitchy]

07:58 AM on 03/25/2009

We need many more like her, imprisoned.