Pro-Life Groups and Leaders "Not Responsible" - Randall Terry Press Conference - Rightwingwatch.org
" The same hate machine I was part of is still attacking all abortionists as "murderers." And today once again the "pro-life" leaders are busy ducking their personal responsibility for people acting on their words. The people who stir up the fringe never take responsibility. But I'd like to say on this day after a man was murdered in cold blood for preforming abortions that I -- and the people I worked with in the religious right, the Republican Party, the pro-life movement and the Roman Catholic Church, all contributed to this killing by our foolish and incendiary words.
I am very sorry. "
Francis Schaeffer June 1, 2009 after the murder of Dr. Tiller
Tiller the Baby Killer- Bill O'Reilly
Bill O'Reilly claims Dr. Tiller kills babies for the money.O'Reilly says Tiller " runs a Death Mill ". He claims the AG interferred in Tiller's legal case to get him off.
Kathleen Sebelius defends George Tiller
The suspect Scott Roeder in the murder of Dr. Tiller . Scott Roeder is a registered Republican who had been "previously arrested for having bomb materials in his car -- posted this chilling message on an Operation Rescue Web site called Charge Tiller in 2007 (via the Daily Kos):
"It seems as though what is happening in Kansas could be compared to the "lawlessness" which is spoken of in the Bible. Tiller is the concentration camp "Mengele" of our day and needs to be stopped before he and those who protect him bring judgement upon our nation."
If Roeder had been arrested previously for having bomb materials in his car & had been known for making threats against Tiller & other abortionists then why wasn't he treated as a real & imminent threat & as a Domestic Terrorists,. This seems to be part of the problem in the US when it comes to Domestic Terrorists who are on the right & connected with powerful right wing or Religious Right organizations that they often do not serve the time they should for their crimes. Why wasn't he under constant surveillance by the FBI. If he had been a peaceful member of an anti-war group we know he would have been under surveillance. It's like the KKK they are still often treated as a bunch of harmless people who according to US laws are able to preach hatred & even Genocide since this is their is their right to freedom of speech & freedom of assembly. As we many of the crimes committed by the KKK & other racist organizations often go unpunished because of public sympathy or that of an all white jury or a judge or prosecutors who sympathize with the KKK or other racist groups or even individuals who are racist. These racists & fanatical anti-abortionists & Religious Right groups as we know are part of the Republican base & that of the US Conservative Movement.
And so where is the outrage on the right & the conservatives & Republicans & their Network of Choice Fox News when it comes to this type of Domestic Terrorism.
Since the election of President Obama there has been a rise in threats against abortion clinics across the US and against groups such as Planned Parenthood. So it should come as no surprise that the threats have been growing since Obama's inauguration & now resulted in the murder of Dr. Tiller by a Domestic Terrorists egged on by the Religious Right & their media enablers while Obama has been careful not to offend these self-righteous angry mean spirited groups .
It is unfortunate that many liberals in the US have been unwilling to speak out more against these religious fanatics - do they fear the Religious Right, do they fear offending these self-righteous hypocrites who claim to be pro-life yet celebrate the death of an abortion doctor.
Meanwhile those on the Religious Right are also the most outspoken in their support for the abuse & torture of detainees. So bashing a man's head up against a wall or shoving a broom handle up his rectum or sodomizing young boys is the right & privilege of a Christian Nation or so they say.
They are also the same folks who were the most enthusiastic supporters of Bush & Cheney's unnecessary war in Iraq. And so they are quite enthusiastic about killing even innocent Iraqis because they are deemed unworthy of life or are subhuman or evil because they have not found JESUS.
These are also the same people who prefer helping out the rich while criticizing those American's who find themselves without jobs , unable to pay their mortgages or other bills. Hagee & Pat Roberson have no pity for the poor & Hagee has said the government has no business helping the poor & so he says they should be left to starve. So the children of poor parents must be left to starve because of their parents financial problems. So much for respecting human life.
How I (and Other "Pro-Life" Leaders) Contributed to Dr. Tiller's Murder by Frank Schaeffer, at Huff Post , June 1, 2009
In the late 1970s my evangelical pro-life leader father Francis Schaeffer and Dr. C. Everett Koop (who soon become Surgeon General in the Reagan administration) went on the road with me taking the documentary antiabortion film series I produced and directed ( Whatever Happened to the Human Race?) to the evangelical public. The series and companion book eventually brought millions of heretofore non-political evangelical Americans into the antiabortion crusade. We personally also got people like Jerry Falwell, Ronald Reagan and countless Republican leaders involved in the "issue."
In the early 80s my father followed up with a book that sold over a million copies called A Christian Manifesto. In certain passages he advocated force if all other methods for rolling back the abortion ruling of Roe v. Wade failed. He compared America and its legalized abortion to Hitler's Germany and said that whatever tactics would have been morally justified in removing Hitler would be justified in trying to stop abortion. I said the same thing in a book I wrote (A Time For Anger) that right wing evangelicals made into a best seller. For instance Dr. James Dobson (of the Focus On the Family radio show) gave away over 100,000 copies.
Like many writers of moral/political/religious theories my father and I would have been shocked that someone took us at our word, walked into a Lutheran Church and pulled the trigger on an abortionist. But even if the murderer never read Dad's or my words we helped create the climate that made this murder likely to happen.
In fact that very thing has happened before. In 1994, Dr. John Bayard Britton and one of his volunteer escorts were shot and killed outside an abortion clinic in Pensacola, Florida. Paul Hill, a former minister, was convicted of the killings and executed in 2003. Paul Hill was an avid follower of my father's.
Scott Roeder Held As "Person Of Interest" In Probe Of Dr. George Tiller's Murder at Huff post, May 31, 2009
McClatchy Newspapers is reporting that Scott Roeder, the "person of interest" held by police in Kansas, belonged to the "Freemen" anti-government group in the 1990s and was once arrested for having bomb-making materials in his car:
"Freemen" was a term adopted by those who claimed sovereignty from government jurisdiction and operated under their own legal system, which they called common-law courts. Adherents declared themselves exempt from laws, regulations and taxes and often filed liens against judges, prosecutors and others, claiming that money was owed to them as compensation.
In April 1996, Roeder was arrested in Topeka after Shawnee County sheriff's deputies stopped him for not having a proper license plate. In his car, officers said they found ammunition, a blasting cap, a fuse cord, a one-pound can of gunpowder and two 9-volt batteries, with one connected to a switch that could have been used to trigger a bomb.
Christina Page argues that there has been a rise in violent rhetoric & chatter on the right since Obama's election & so it is no surprise that violence should be the result.She notes there was a similar rise in violence on the right during the Clinton administration but it declined during the Bush Regime.
"The Murder of Dr. Tiller, a Foreshadowing" by Christina Page at Huff Post ,May 31, 2009
For those who would like to think today's murder in church of Dr. George Tiller, an abortion provider, is an isolated incident, here's the horrifying news: You are wrong. The pattern is clear and frightening.
In March 1993, three months into the administration of our first pro-choice president, Bill Clinton, abortion provider Dr. David Gunn was murdered in Pensacola, Florida. That was the beginning of what would become a five-fold increase in violence against abortion providers throughout the Clinton years.
Today's assassination of Dr. George Tiller comes 5 months into the term of our second pro-choice president. For anyone who would like to believe that this is a statistical anomaly, a coincidence that doesn't portend anything, again, you are wrong.
During the entire Bush administration, from 2000-2008 there were no murders.
During the Clinton era, between 1994-2000 there were 6 abortion providers and clinic staff murdered, and 17 attempted murders of abortion providers. There were 12 bombings or arsons during the Clinton years.
During the Bush administration, not only were there no murders, there were no attempted murders. There was one clinic bombing during the Bush years.
One can only conclude that like terrorist sleeper cells, these extremists have now been set in motion. Indeed the evidence is already there. The chatter, the threats, the hate-filled rhetoric are abundant.
In the last year of the Bush administration there were 396 harassing calls to abortion clinics. In just the first four months of the Obama administration that number has jumped to 1401.
And so the execution of Tiller, 67, is not only tragic but ominous. He was born into an era when being an abortion provider meant saving women's lives. And the cold-blooded murder in church and in front of his wife of this stalwart defender of women rights and beloved physician, comes as a message for others, as well as tragic deja vu.
and :
Eleanor Bader, co-author of Targets of Hatred: Anti-Abortion Terrorism, in an article in March for RHRealityCheck.org about clinics bracing for an uptick in violence after the election of Obama wrote, "immediately after Obama's election, Douglas Johnson, Legislative Director of the National Right to Life Committee, called him a "hardcore pro-abortion president." The American Life League dubbed him "one of the most radical pro-abortion politicians ever," and Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life warned that Obama will "force Americans to pay for the killing of innocents." Americans United for Life, the Family Research Council and Operation Save America quickly joined the chorus."
and she concludes:
Holder and his Justice Department should take note of the chatter and move aggressively against this form of domestic terrorism. The hate-filled rhetoric against Obama from the anti-abortion movement is at unprecedented levels, even for this reflexively inflammatory group. They refer to him as the "Most Pro-Abortion President Ever" ignoring the fact that he is the first to extend an olive branch in hopes that together we can make abortion more rare.
Anti-abortion groups will put out carefully worded press statements condemning the murder of Dr. Tiller, as became routine for them during the Clinton years. But unless the rhetoric they choose from now on becomes careful too -- they may be the enablers of murder and terror.
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" Piecing Together the Murder of Dr. George Tiller: Right-Wing Violence Rears Its Head " By AlterNet,June 1, 2009.
Tiller was the target of vicious on-air attacks by Bill O'Reilly. Could the murderer have been inspired by O'Reilly's rants?
Scott Roeder, 51, has been detained for questioning.
Tiller had long faced the threat of right-wing violence. The Tiller Women’s Health Clinic clinic was bombed in 1985; in 1993, Tiller was shot in both arms by abortion protester Rachelle Shannon. The heavily fortified clinic was guarded by a private security team, and Tiller relied on a bodyguard outside of work.
Recently, Tiller had aired concerns about his safety to federal investigators. The Associated Press reports:
[Tiller's Attorney Dan] Monnat said Tiller had asked federal prosecutors to step up investigations of vandalism and other threats against the clinic out of fear that the incidents were increasing and that Tiller's safety was in jeopardy. [Wichita Deputy Police Chief Tom] Stolz, however, said police knew of no threats connected to the shooting.
In early May, Tiller had asked the FBI to investigate vandalism at his clinic, including cut wires to surveillance cameras and damage to the roof that sent rainwater pouring into the building.
Tiller had also long been the target of vicious attacks by conservative pundits like Bill O'Reilly, who often denounced Tiller on his show. Brad Reed writes on Brad Blog following Tiller's acquittal in March on charges that he had broken a Kansas abortion law:
O'Reilly continued his series of programs focusing on the Kansas physician, charging him with "operating a death mill" , and alleging that he was "executing babies"
O'Reilly had previously been highly critical of the state's Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, charging, during his "Talking Points" commentary in 2007, that she was "allowing [Tiller] to continue the slaughter."
Writing for Salon, Gabriel Winant argues that O'Reilly's vicious slander of Tiller may well have served as a provocation for the shooting. Although O'Reilly certainly did not instruct his listeners to commit violence:
... there's no other person who bears as much responsibility for the characterization of Tiller as a savage on the loose, killing babies willy-nilly thanks to the collusion of would-be sophisticated cultural elites, a bought-and-paid-for governor and scofflaw secular journalists. Tiller's name first appeared on The Factor on Feb. 25, 2005. Since then, O'Reilly and his guest hosts have brought up the doctor on 28 more episodes, including as recently as April 27 of this year. Almost invariably, Tiller is described as "Tiller the Baby Killer."
and :
"This is where O'Reilly's campaign against George Tiller becomes dangerous. While he never advocated anything violent or illegal, the Fox bully repeatedly portrayed the doctor as a murderer on the loose, allowed to do whatever he wanted by corrupt and decadent authorities. "Also, it looks like Dr. Tiller, who some call Tiller the Baby Killer, is spending a large amount of money in order to get Mr. Morrison elected. That opens up all kinds of questions," said O'Reilly on Nov. 6, 2006, in one of many suggestions that Tiller was improperly influencing the election."
and so it goes,
GORD.
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