How the U.S. Got the World to View Environmentalists as "Terrorists”

In the finale of our Real Free Speech Threat season, we look at how the U.S. military and its national security agencies have helped stoke a global crackdown on environmental protest, and bring you the inspiring story of one Filipino land defender who's been targeted by the state for years and is still fighting.

Annotated Transcription:

Alleen: We’ve spent more than a year on Drilled’s Real Free Speech Threat season, looking at all the ways environmental protest is being criminalized around the world. We’ve looked at who’s driving that trend, too, from corporate operatives to right-wing think tanks. [1]There’s another network that has been particularly influential where it comes to repressing environmental fights around the globe: The U.S. military and its national security agencies.

For our coverage of the Cop City protests, I examined how the post-9/11  “War on Terror” incentivized a crackdown on environmental activists, who have been labeled eco-terrorists[2] and environmental violent extremists.[3]

This is not just true in the U.S. America’s approach to terrorism, and the way it’s been used to crack down on peaceful protest, has spread across the globe. There’s one place that stands out as a really clear example: The Philippines.

The country sits toward[4] the top[5] of lists of dangerous countries for land defenders — people are killed there every[6] year[7] for trying to protect the environment.

That’s because the Filipino government routinely labels political opponents as “communist terrorists”, which can lead to assassinations, disappearances, and abductions. Indigenous organisers and environmental activists are often the targets.

As I started looking into it a detail caught my eye. In the wake of 9/11, the UN security council essentially required that countries pass counterterror laws, and the Philippines did just that.[8] At the same time, the US offered the Philippines military aid to crack down on terror.[9]

I began to realize that a version of what I’d documented in the U.S. had also happened in the Philippines.  These policies I had been investigating from thousands of miles away...were actually rooted right here at home, in the US. To understand what was really going on, I decided to get to know one of these so-called terrorists… that’s coming up after the break. I’m Alleen Brown, and this  is Drilled.

BREAK

Windel: I am um, Windel Bolinget, the uh, chairperson of the Cordillera [cord il iera] Peoples Alliance. I am an indigenous Igorot, the collective word referring to the indigenous peoples here in the Cordillera part of Northern Philippines.[10]

Alleen: The Cordillera People’s Alliance is one of the most important Indigenous and environmental organizations in the Philippines. They’re based in a part of the archipelago that is defined by lush, green mountains[11] that have long been a target for extractive industries. It’s also a region where Indigenous people have long struggled for their rights. That makes his homeland a military hotspot, too. In 2023, Windel was labeled a terrorist under a new terrorism law,[12] but his story began much earlier.

Windel: even during my younger days in my home village I, I was witnessed to uh, to the ongoing civil war and armed conflict ps

Alleen: At times the military would take over his school’s classrooms.[13]

Windel: we were, we were just kids that time, and we don't know the serious implications of this, but what we saw the times that the, the classrooms that we are supposed to use are occupied by the Philippine military.

sometimes we hear that near the rice fields or just outside the community. There are firefights and really we really hear the the shooting and, and, and the guns..[14]

Alleen: It was a stark contrast to what Windel was learning outside the classroom.

Windel: I grew up in an indigenous village.

It was a difficult life it was a [00:04:00] difficult life, but meaningful I attended the activities that uh, boys in our village do. Help with my parents in our economic and home activities join my parents in a plowing the fields planting and harvesting rice vegetables gathering firewood from the forest during Saturdays and Sundays when there's no classes.

I attend to the, what do you call this? You know, we have this uh, ator or that I, which is the Political and sociocultural center of the village. And this is led and governed by the Council of Elders. And as uh, indigenous boys we are there to listen stories with the elders sleep there and there we learn the affairs Of the communities.

Windel: I really uh, realized From those childhood uh, teachings that land is life for indigenous peoples.

In our ancestral land, in our ancestral domain that's where we stay. That's where we born. That's where we live and die. And this has been defended and nurtured by our uh, ancestors those teachings are very valuable and meaningful and it has to be passed on for uh, uh, future generations. Generations.

Alleen: Windel's earliest involvement in protest was less about protecting the environment and more about fighting the militarization of his community -- though he would find soon that the two went hand in hand.

Windel: One incident was one, one kid was killed. When uh,

soldiers fired and killed one one civilian a child.[15]

when there was uh, a uh, protest rally organized, I, I joined.

Alleen: Many people outside the Philippines are unaware that the country has been embroiled in a civil conflict for more than 50 years.[16] It began during the Cold War, under the brutal dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos Sr. To understand what happened, it's useful to look at how the Philippines came to have a special relationship with the USA.

Jayson Lamchek, a Filipino research fellow at Deakin University in Melbourne,[17] who has researched human rights and counterterrorism[18] in the Philippines walked me through it.

Jayson: After, becoming free from Spain, the Americans came to the Philippines and colonized the Philippines. Until [00:08:00] World War II.[19] And after that, we became, officially an independent country but we maintained so called special relationship[20] with the United States. For example, we hosted American bases in the Philippines.[21]

for a long time, we were like Cold War allies in that region. All of our governments were like rabid anti communist governments supporting the United States in the region.[22]

Alleen: The most infamous[23] of those rabid anti communist[24] governments was led by Marcos.

Jayson: As you know, you may know the, we had a, like a 20 plus year period[25] in which we only had one president who sort of was the law of the land, you know, he was a dictator, so there was not much room for, Resisting the regime through open, you know, political contestations, such as through elections.

And so a lot of people you know, [00:09:00] thought it was logical to resist the Marcos regime through armed resistance. And that's why you have the NPA and the CPP. The CPP stands for communist party of the Philippines[26] and it has an armed wing called the new people's army. And they arose in the 1960s in, in resistance to the Marcos dictatorship.[27]

Alleen: Years of marshall law and human rights violations,[28] didn’t stop the U.S. government from providing hundreds of millions of dollars[29] in aid to the Marcos government. The dictator was seen as a strategic ally in fighting communism in the region[30]. It was during these same years that the Filipino environmental movement was born, so right from the beginning, the easiest way to undermine it was to paint it Communist red.[31]

One of the biggest environmental battles in the Philippines during those years was the fight the Cordillera’s people put up against the Chico River Dam project.

Windel: the Cordelia Peoples were threatened with a building of uh, big hydropower dams. As I said, that time under uh, the dictator Marcos. Who's son now the junior is now the president,

unfortunately. And that was to be funded by the World Bank.[32]

If the project was not successfully stopped, then it would have displaced around 100, 000 people along the Chico river[33]

Alleen: The Indigenous people of the Cordillera region organized. They obstructed construction, participated in acts of sabotage and were at times joined by armed members of the New People's Army.[34] The dam project was never completed.[35] However, one of the leaders of the resistance to the dams, Macli-ing Dulag [00:11:00] was shot and killed[36] in his home in 1980[37] and remains a symbol of the Indigenous and environmental movement in the Philippines.

Windel: The historic and brave resistance of these communities in the face of martial law was really inspiring.

I learned that it's really the right to defend and it was a just cause to resist

Alleen: The Chico river Dam wouldn’t be the last project the Cordillera peoples would fight on their land.

Windel: the cord is uh, targeted again of several big mining projects by local and foreign corporations.

Big hydropower dam projects[38] geothermal, geothermal power projects,[39] wind mill or wind farm projects,[40] again to provide [00:12:00] energy when in fact the cord is already host to several big

uh,

dump projects.

We are not taking this sitting down it is our collective obligation to defend and nurture the environment for the future generations. It is in indigenous communities where you can find biodiversity[41], the remaining rich forest and environment because we have always believed that land is life and the land should not be endangered for the sake of profit because that's not how indigenous peoples look at land and resources.

Alleen: When he left college in 1996,[42] Windel started working for the Cordillera People's Alliance, which grew out of the fight against the Chico River dam[43].

Windel: we do barricades[44] to prevent the uh, equipment of these companies to come inside.

We barricade to prevent [00:13:00] them from operation. We organize mass mobilizations and protest actions.[45] We engage international governmental bodies such as the United Nations,[46]

But most important is community organizing. And not just the organizing of affected communities, but also the different sectors of youth women farmers, and even uh, the elders.

Alleen: Unlike some of the Chico River dam activists, the land defenders with the Cordillera People's Alliance are not armed.[47] But those opposing their work are.

Alleen: Windel couldn’t have known when he began this work what he would face in the years ahead. The Filipino government branded Windel an armed communist. They charged him with murder. They put him on a hit list. Most recently, they officially labeled him a terrorist.

Windel: Several of my colleagues in CPA have been killed by state forces, abducted, and several of them are not yet [00:14:00] surfaced until now, illegally detained… because of what we do.

Alleen: About 210 land and environmental defenders were killed in the Philippines between 2014 and 2024 alone.[48] There’s evidence of state involvement in 109 of those cases, according to a recent investigation by In These Times magazine.

Windel joined the CPA at a turning point for Filipino environmental defenders. A few years after he was hired, global events would provide the Filipino government with the cover to pursue him as a terrorist

BREAK

George W Bush: Every nation [00:15:00] in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.

Alleen: A little over a week after 9/11[49] U.S. president George Bush gave a speech to Congress launching what would become known as the Global War on Terror.[50]

George W Bush: From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime. Our nation has been put on notice. We're not immune from attack. We will take defensive measures against terrorism to protect Americans. Today, [00:16:00] dozens of federal departments and agencies as well as state and local governments have responsibilities affecting Homeland Security.

These efforts must be coordinated at the highest level. So tonight I announced the creation of a cabinet level position reporting directly to me, the Office of Homeland Security.

Alleen:

It’s difficult to overderstate the role of the U.S.-led global war on terror in the global criminalization of land defenders.

In the US, corporations had spent the 1990s trying to get police to pursue eco-saboteurs as terrorists. After 9/11, their wishes were granted.[51]

Across the U.S. facilities  called “fusion centers” popped up in state after state Operating under the newly created Department of Homeland security, they brought together national  security officials, and local and federal law enforcement to surveil environmental activists.[52] The agency developed a whole language for classifying activists that damage property [00:17:00] as domestic terrorists, or environmental violent extremists. At the same time, new law enforcement resources and incentives encouraged policing of those activists, and new penalties like the terrorism sentencing enhancement, meant they faced more severe punishments.[53]

Then soldiers trained in counterinsurgency during the U.S. anti-terror wars in Afghanistan and Iraq brought wartime tactics into private security companies, hired by corporations to protect everything from factory farms to pipelines.

Nearly 25 years after 9/11 the US government’s aggressive push for a crackdown on terrorism continues to play an indelible role in U.S. struggles for land and water.[54]

In the rest of the world, a similar pattern played out, driven by U.S. foreign policy.

Fionnuala D. Ní Aoláin: As the ash was smoldering, as the twin towers had fallen, [00:18:00] the Security Council meets, and in that first month[55], they create a new resolution, UN Security Council Resolution 1373.[56] We have adopted a very ambitious Comprehensive strategy to fight terrorism in all its forms throughout the world. The meeting is adjourned. Requires them to legislate against terrorism,

Fionnuala D. Ní Aoláin:  there's no agreed definition of terrorism, so each state essentially has got to define what terrorism is on its own terms.

And the absence of a common definition has meant that there's been this real ripeness for abuse.

Alleen: That was Fionnuala D. Ní Aoláin,[57] the recently departed[58] UN special rappoteur on counter-terrorism and human rights,[59] speaking in a short UN documentary

States get to define whomever they like as a terrorist with almost no consequence at the domestic level. [00:19:00] And so what we're seeing around the globe is the imprisonment of a civil society actor. We're seeing direct targeting, in some cases killing, by The permissive framework of counterterrorism. This

Alleen: The documentary was made to go with a damning report that was released in 2023 on the impact for human rights defenders of over 20 years of counterterror efforts.[60]

The report underlined that "in every region of the world, defenders are targeted with legislation  and other measures purportedly designed to counter terrorism."[61]

The United States drafted that United Nations resolution that she mentioned.[62] The U.S. also pushed another international body called the Financial Action Task [00:20:00] Force to create new standards meant to prevent terrorism funding.[63] The task force explicitly called on governments to ensure that non-profit organizations cannot be misused to finance terrorism.[64] It encouraged countries to pass laws freezing accounts linked to terrorism.

A complex architecture of international anti-terrorism institutions and policies was being constructed. And it continues to justify repressive measures today.

Here's Jayson from Deakin University  again.

Jayson: the legacy of the War on Terror in the Philippines, you know, it's really profound. When the war of terror started, the Philippine government was one of the first to sign up. to the so called Coalition of the Willing.[65]

President Arroyo then saw that as an opportunity to reignite military relations with the United States.[66]

The communists were in peace talks with the Philippine government, but that broke down[67] because of, because eventually the United States tagged the CPP [00:21:00] NPA as terrorists.[68]

The Philippine government recast the way it saw dissenters, first armed dissenters, armed groups who were, you know, locked in armed struggle with the Philippine government as terrorists. So, so at first it was just the Abu Sayyaf group,[69] which was Which was sort of like this kidnapper ransom group, which was also engaged in bombings.[70]

And then eventually, the leftists the communists,[71] so the National Democratic Front,[72] the New People's Army, the Communist Party of the Philippines, were branded as terrorists.

And then, besides these groups who are engaged in armed conflict with the government, People who were engaged in [00:22:00] peaceful dissent, such as the above ground leftist organizations who were ideologically aligned with the Communist Party, but not organizationally aligned, were also considered part of this so called communist terrorist movement.

Alleen: Just as it had in the U.S., in the Philippines this new approach to terrorism meant a massive expansion of who was considered a terrorist.

Jayson: above ground activists were, have always been sort of like fair game, but with the war on. You also had an added dimension that, uh, this was all sort of like legitimate from an international point of view because as you know, the United States also engage in a diplomatic. Slash legal campaign whereby the notion of countering terrorism became sort of like an international obligation on everyone, right?

Alleen: In the midst of the Filipino government's newly revamped counterinsurgency [00:23:00] crackdown,[73] Windel got his first serious taste of repression.

Windel: in 2006, my name appeared in uh, military hit list.[74] This military hit list was uh, a list of uh, some leaders of CPA. The Cordera Peoples Movement targeted for assassination.[75] And some of my colleagues who were in that list were killed.[76] For example Marcus Bangit, one of my colleague in CPA was killed in June, 2006[77].

In front of his son when they were bound from Tabuk to Baguio and accompany his son supposedly to enroll in college, but when the bus stopped for the passengers to rest and eat. A military assassin fired several shots against Marcos Bangit, I was afraid. The normal and expected reaction was we fear for our security

and not just us individually. But also our family and colleagues in the organization as a whole,

Alleen: Windel said the killings and threats made him seriously consider stepping away from his activism.

Windel: of course to be honest about it. because I have four Children, I have a wife, I have siblings and parents and my parents, advise me. Why don't you just uh, stop I don't know. Before being killed like your colleagues, because the killings and abductions are really happening that time.

It's not it's, it's not just a public statement of the state. The reign of terror is really there, but again, I, I, I resolved to myself. That this is precisely why they are [00:26:00] doing this to stop us from what we are doing to silence us from the course we are advancing and we should not allow what they want.

It is uh, a difficult process that I really have to process within myself, my family. for having me. And convince my uh, siblings and of course, my parents

Alleen: Amid growing anxiety among environmental and human rights defenders and , with encouragement from the U.S. government, the Philippines passed a new anti terrorism law, the Human Security Act of 2007.[78] It would soon be followed by a terrorism financing law in 2012.[79] The legal foundations were being laid to formalize repression against government dissenters like Windel.

Windel: the role of the U. S. In this so called the counter terror legislations is [00:27:00] uh, is clear.