Marc Levin
Marc Levin is the president of the American Freedom Center, a self-described "non-profit public policy institute" based in Austin, Texas.[1].
Levin is also Vice President of the Texas Review Society, "a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation concerned with educating the public about the free-enterprise system and the American way of life", an associate editor of the Austin Review, a former Vice Chairman of the Young Conservatives of Texas and director of the Center for Effective Justice at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Levin has served as vice-president of Students for a Colorblind Society and as executive director of The Campaign for a Color-Blind America, both anti-affirmative action groups.
Eco-terrorism claims
In May 2002, Nick Nichols, described by the Austin Review as an "expert on combating eco-terrorism & environmental extremism," was guest speaker at a luncheon sponsored by the Review and the Republican Club of Austin.[2] Shortly after Nichols's visit to Austin, Levin - also a frequent contributor to the Review - published an opinion piece in the Dallas Star Telegram which labelled anti-Exxon Mobil activists eco-terrorists and claimed - with no apparent evidence - that the nonviolent direct action training organisation the Ruckus Society had trained members of the Animal and Earth Liberation Fronts.[3]
The origin of Levin's claims appear to be a February 2002 article published on the website of the food, alcohol and tobacco-industry funded Center for Consumer Freedom, claiming the discovery that the Ruckus Society "has helped train eco-terrorists".[4] The same month, CFCF Executive Director Richard Berman claimed in testimony before a US House of Representatives committee that the Ruckus Society "trains young activists in the techniques of 'monkeywrenching' which, when applied, result in property crimes of enormous financial cost."[5]. Berman, however, failed to provide any evidence for this claim.
A 2003 article written by Levin, entitled "Terrorism in the Name of the Earth: Flush out eco-terrorism money" and published in the National Law Journal, Front Page Magazine, The American Enterprise, the Austin Review and the San Francisco Chronicle, asserted that "just as a small number of radical Muslims are sullying a great religion, a new breed of eco-terrorists is poisoning the environmental movement." The article indirectly asserts that property damage and vandalism attributed to the Earth and Animal Liberation Fronts is funded by donations to tax exempt environmental organisations. According to Levin:
"Environmental organizations designated by the IRS as 501(c)(3) groups are illegally transferring funds to non-exempt groups, which then use the money for eco-terror campaigns."
Levin then refers to the Public Interest Watch report Green-Peace, Dirty Money: Tax Violations in the World of Non-Profits before going on to allege that Greenpeace has committed "numerous acts of eco-terrorism".[6]
Affiliations
- American Civil Rights Institute
- American Freedom Center
- Campaign for a Color-Blind America
- Students for a Colorblind Society
- Texas Public Policy Foundation
- Texas Review Society
- Young Conservatives of Texas
