If you have nothing to hide and have no information about underground animal liberation activities, what is the danger in talking to an investigator? One important thing to remember is that anytime you agree to talk to one of these agents of repression, what you actually say and what they say you said can be completely different things. Your statements can be misconstrued, distorted, exaggerated or downright fabricated. If you refuse to talk at all, the chances of this happening are less. The best scenario is to have a lawyer (Larry Weiss!) to act as a go-between, because if investigators ever allege that you said something, it is better if you can say that their allegations are impossible because you do all of your dealings through your lawyer.

My father is a federal prosecutor and as far as he is concerned, he would like to see all A.L.F. activists behind bars. Yet when he heard about the Utah firebombing, he specifically told me not to talk to any investigators at all under any circumstances. Obviously he is not interested in protecting those who did the act, but he is concerned about my safety. His concern was not in what I might say, but in what they might say that I said if they did get a chance to talk to me.

So even if you think that you have nothing to hide, know nothing, and can be of no help to any criminal investigation, it is still imperative that you refuse to comment to any investigators except in directing them to your lawyer. Anything and everything you say (and don't say) can and will be used against you and your friends and others in the movement.

History proves that, in the end, it is not the underground activist who is hurt by such babbling anyway. We are the ones who are hurt--the ones who are visible and the ones who are publicly and openly trying to make change happen. The underground activists cover their footsteps and tell no one, and since law enforcement knows this, it is the aboveground, legal activists who will be punished, because it is with us that the true power of the A.L.F. lies. We are the ones who are vocal and can explain why these actions are necessary. Without an educational component, direct action can only go so far. And vice versa.