Posts on Randall Terry

We written about the confusion/animosity that exists regarding the various iterations of Operation Rescue several times before but I think we've come up with a pretty simple test to determine which OR faction is speaking at any given time. 

Here, for instance, is a press release from the Troy Newman-led group commenting on the string of loses they suffered last night of various anti-abortion ballot measures - notice how, while it might be a bit delusional, it is not fundamentally irrational:

"Yesterday's losses are just a speed bump on the road to victory for the innocent," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "Overall, Americans are more pro-life than ever before. The closeness of the votes on pro-life measures in South Dakota and in California shows that we have made great gains amongst the people. Election cycles tend to be cyclical, and we are confident that we will once again have our day."

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"These set backs will only energize us. The fight is on. We will continue to work to inform the public with our fleet of Truth Trucks, expose abortionists, and close abortion clinics. We will continue to work though every available legal means to stop abortion. The person occupying the White House will not diminish that work, nor will other perceived political set backs."

Compare that to this release from Operation Rescue founder Randal Terry in which he blames Barack Obama's victory entirely on Sean Hannity:

Sean has shown no qualms about betraying conservative principles that are Divine in origin. He is content to throw babies under the bus, throw marriage to the wolves, and lay our right to keep and bear arms at the feet of tyrants - as long as the villains are Republicans. This is not the stuff of which a true conservative, or "a great American," is made. It is shallow and partisan, treacherous to the principles we claim to honor.

Frankly put: Mr. Hannity's moral compass is shattered. He is wandering aimlessly in a wasteland of "economic conservatism" that is strewn with the bodies of dead children, killed under the watchful eye of Sean's buddies, Mayor Giuliani and Governor Schwarzenneger. And he wants us to believe that he has a map!

Which brings us to President elect Obama: When Sean repeatedly betrayed the most sacred portions of "conservatism," he guaranteed conservatism's demise. By reducing conservatism to "who is electable" and "economics," and virtually ignoring the horror of fifty million dead babies, he helped numb America to the horror of an Obama Presidency, and taught millions to put money first.

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Sean's radio show is a decent spot for some news, but don't be fooled: Sean is not a voice of legitimate Conservatism. And his voice cannot unite a cohesive resistance to Obama; because it was his voice - that repeatedly put economics and electability ahead of sacred principles and innocent blood - that helped elect Obama.

If you are reading something attributed to "Operation Rescue" and you think to yourself "well, I don't agree with that," it's probably the Troy Newman group whereas if you read something attributed to "Operation Rescue" and you think to yourself "what on Earth are they talking about, this is insanity," it's more than likely from Randall Terry.

When Randall Terry, founder of the militant anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, recently sued Troy Newman over the use of the name, he certainly opened up a can of worms.

A number of former OR activists issued a statement on Newman’s behalf, calling for Terry’s repentance for “unbiblical lifestyle decisions”; “[W]e can no longer remain silent while Mr. Terry continues to fleece unsuspecting pro-life people out of hundreds of thousands of dollars for his personal and selfish gain,” they added. Terry responded with his own list of supporters vouching for his character.

And Flip Benham, who runs Operation Rescue/Operation Save America, put aside his distaste for Terry (“Giving more money to Randall Terry is like giving booze to an alcoholic,” he has said) to attack both Newman and the former OR activists who criticized Terry. “These are the same ones who would not stand with Operation Rescue leadership in the fall of 1993 and call the premeditated shooting (murder) of abortionists, sin,’” wrote Benham, recalling the darkest period of the militant anti-abortion movement.

But while Flip Benham’s Operation Rescue and Troy Newman’s Operation Rescue remain locked in their bitter name dispute, there is at least one thing they can agree on: Barack Obama.

Newman’s OR called for anti-abortion activists to descend upon an Obama appearance at the National Council of La Raza convention in San Diego this past weekend:

“Abortionists are famous for targeting minority communities and those who are most vulnerable. When Obama throws his support behind the abortion industry, he is also tacitly supporting the exploitation of Latinos and African Americans,” said Operation Rescue spokesperson Cheryl Sullenger. “Operation Rescue urges all pro-life supporters in the San Diego area to let their voices be heard in protest of Obama’s extremist abortion policies, and his tacit approval of the abortion industry’s despicable pattern of racial exploitation.”

Meanwhile, Benham’s group is conducting an anti-abortion campaign in Atlanta, which doesn’t seem to have much to do with Obama. But in announcing a church OR plans to picket, the group adds:

According to their bulletin, this is a UCC church which will host the Human Rights Campaign Gospel Concert. The HRC is the largest group advocating gay & lesbian rights and the UCC is the denomination of Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Barak Obama. For the first time in the history of our nation, we have a man running for president who is neither a Christian nor a patriot.

Lest John McCain get too excited about this new source of support, they don’t have a whole lot of nice things to say about him, either. Benham wrote back in October, “[T]here is no way we true evangelical Christians will support Giuliani, McCain, Thompson, or Romney.”

And Randall Terry, who led a small band of protesters against GOP candidate Rudy Giuliani over the winter, recycled the same language (“an enemy inside your camp”) for McCain in an interview with Playboy:

Q: What impact would a John McCain presidency have on the pro-life agenda?

A: If McCain would appoint judges who would overturn Roe, it could be a huge boon. I don’t think we have any assurance that would happen. Justices Anthony Kennedy, David Souter and Sandra Day O’Connor were all appointed by Republican presidents who did not do their homework. If presidents Reagan and Bush Sr. had done what they said they would do, we would already have overturned Roe because we wouldn’t have had Kennedy, Souter and O’Connor. There’s a very strong movement afoot in the conservative wing of the Republican Party to deny McCain the White House. Their attitude is, an enemy outside your camp makes you vigilant and unites you, but an enemy inside your camp makes you dead because he can cut your neck in the night or poison your food by day.

Last year, we tried to untangle the complicated legacy of the militant anti-abortion protest group Operation Rescue, famous for its massive clinic blockades in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Nothing so abstract as its role in shaping the debate over reproductive choice—no, it was hard enough trying to figure out which small, bickering group using the OR name was which.

Now Randall Terry, who founded Operation Rescue back in 1988, is adding another level of confusion: He’s claiming trademark infringement by Wichita-based Operation Rescue (also known as Operation Rescue West), headed by Rev. Troy Newman.

Bo Jackson, Twiggy, Marc Chagall, Jimmy "Margaritaville" Buffett and Randall Terry find themselves in the same company: a pretender tried to steal their identity. …

Mr. Terry seeks to regain control of the name Operation Rescue, which is his moniker.

Mr. Troy Newman lied under oath to the Trademark Office when he filed his registration of the name, Operation Rescue. Moreover, Mr. Newman has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars by falsely claiming a connection with Operation Rescue. …

Randall Terry states: "Mr. Newman mistook my patience for a lack of resolve. His identity theft of a name, a heritage, and a history over which he has no right is as offensive as it is ludicrous."

Terry dropped out of the anti-abortion protest scene after declaring bankruptcy during drawn-out litigation against the National Organization of Women, but he resurfaced to help create the media circus around the death of Terri Schiavo in 2005. More recently, he returned to protesting—albeit with a more modest-sized crowd—to oppose Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign.

As we explained, Rev. Flip Benham took over OR after Terry left, eventually changing the name to Operation Save America/Operation Rescue—apparently to try to elude further lawsuits. Meanwhile, Newman moved Operation Rescue West—which moved in the same small circle of hard-core activists—to Wichita, Kansas, the place of OR’s infamous 1991 “Summer of Mercy” protest. Newman then dropped the “West” from his group’s name—much to the objection of Benham, who claimed to have never given up the OR appellation. “Troy owning the name Operation Rescue is no more legal than abortion is,” complained Benham. The two groups apparently also disagree on strategy and tactics: They released contradictory statements about James Dobson and the Partial Birth Abortion Ban.

It’s not clear where Terry fits in to all this, other than as a sui generis publicity hound. While Benham’s group is apparently the same one Terry founded, Terry makes no mention of it in his press release. Indeed, Benham has no love for Terry: He published an article on his web site entitled “Please Remove Randall’s Feeding Tube.” “Giving more money to Randall Terry is like giving booze to an alcoholic,” Benham is quoted is saying.

Randall Terry continues to protest and get arrested outside of Rudy Giuliani's NH office and demands to know "Why Are [the] Clergy Silent?"

Not every religious-right leader has fallen in love with Mike Huckabee. Although Christian Coalition founder and “700 Club” host Pat Robertson has a lot in common with Huckabee, whose surge in Iowa in some way mirrors Robertson’s run in 1988, Robertson is a firm backer of Rudy Giuliani, as he made clear last week.

Perhaps responding to Huckabee’s recent rise in South Carolina and even in Florida—Giuliani’s stronghold—Robertson has taken a break from meteorology to hit the campaign trail (by radio, anyway). On a Panama City, Florida station, Robertson emphasized that terrorism is his first priority, followed by the economy—no mention of those social issues that make James Dobson so angry:

BURNIE THOMPSON: “[G]lad to have you and I’ll tell you, Mayor Giuliani really does want Bay County’s vote. He’s been on talking with northwest Florida and I know that Florida’s very important to the Mayor. But I’ve got to tell you Dr. Robertson, I’m sitting with a very conservative Republican friend of mine who’s an evangelical Christian and his question he said ‘Please ask Dr. Robertson why, why would you endorse … Mayor Giuliani’”

ROBERTSON: “Well it’s real simple. I think the overriding issue in our society is going to be defense against terrorism. We’re in a war against militant Islam and I think we have to defend the American people. I think that’s the overriding issue and the second issue has to do with whether we’re going to destroy the economy or whether we’re going to build it up and have a future for our children.”

And on a Savannah, Georgia—Hilton Head, South Carolina station, Robertson promised right-wing Supreme Court appointments:

EDWARDS: “[H]e also is an administrator and most of the other people running for president have never run anything.”

ROBERTSON: “Well I felt that too. You know the United States government is the biggest corporation---executive decisions that a president has to make. … And especially the thing that strikes me also is his selection of judges. He has promised the American people, promised me, promised others that he’s going to put in judges after the stripe of Scalia, Thomas …”

Where does that leave Giuliani nemesis Randall Terry, who protested Robertson’s endorsement at the D.C. office of the televangelist’s Christian Broadcasting Network? Terry headed in the opposite direction, holding “vigils, literature drops, pickets and more” in New Hampshire “to expose the agenda of Rudy Giuliani.” Terry’s “literature” includes a fake pamphlet for the campaign of a white supremacist named Smith—“A Candidate with the courage to deal with the disaster of free Negroes, and the ‘white man’s right to own!’” The punchline: It’s a thickly-veiled metaphor for Giuliani, of course.

Should a Christian vote for someone who supports slavery? No!

Should a Christian vote for a racist who supports segregation? No!

Then how can a Christian vote for a candidate that supports the murder of children by abortion?! …

Don’t be seduced! If you vote for Rudy or Hillary or any pro-choice candidate, you share in the sin of child-killing, and betray the very Law of God. … Do the right thing: vote according to principle, not party; life, not death.

When Pat Robertson endorsed Rudy Giuliani for president last month, many on the far Right were outraged. Randall Terry, a militant anti-abortion activist, was crushed that the religious-right icon would side with “Beelzebronx”:

Is Pat Robertson so terrified of Hillary that he will betray the Right to Life, Marriage, Self-defense, and The Church Herself as long as a fellow Republican snatches power? Rudy may wade through the blood of the innocent to reach the throne; he may be a stench in the nostrils of Angels – and the nostrils of devils for that matter – but at least Rudy is a stench that comes from the GOP stable – and he's not Hillary. Is this the conviction we expect from Christian Leaders?

Terry, known for his aggressive clinic protests in the 1980s and 1990s, issued a clarion call for pro-life activists to turn those tactics on the D.C. bureau of Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network. Here are a few highlights:

The Los Angeles Times recently reported on the reappearance of a somewhat rusty tactic in the anti-abortion movement’s tool belt: attempts to pass a “Human Life Amendment” to several state constitutions, which would purportedly grant full “personhood” rights beginning at conception. Such an end-run would circumvent a protracted political debate—which they could lose, as they did when South Dakota voters rejected an abortion ban last year—and likely end up in federal court, where activists hope new right-wing Supreme Court justices will take the opportunity to overturn Roe v. Wade. But the major national religious-right groups have preferred a more incremental strategy of advancing less-sweeping restrictions and promoting Republican politicians who promise to appoint anti-abortion judges, leaving absolutist activists out in the cold, as the Times notes:

For the most part, the campaigns are run by local activists, with little support or funding from big national antiabortion groups. Similar efforts have failed in the past: Proponents in Michigan could not collect enough signatures to put a personhood measure on the ballot in 2006. The Georgia proposal stalled in the Legislature this year.

Indeed, Clarke Forsythe and Denise Burke of Americans United for Life—a legal group active since the 1970s—published an article in National Review today calling the HLA “a losing move for the pro-life movement.” While AUL is hardly an influential group in this decade, its anti-HLA commentary recalls the anti-abortion movement’s in-fighting in the 1980s and 1990s over militant clinic protests (and the occasional murder of doctors). Although AUL was happy to represent militant activist Joseph Scheidler and his Pro-Life Action League in court, at the same time it pooh-poohed the frenzied “Summer of Mercy” protest in Wichita in 1991. “[I]t is better to show the public that [the abortion provider’s] practices are unlawful than to engage in tactics that attract attention to the unlawfulness of pro-lifers,” cautioned AUL’s president.

That is what can be expected coming out of Operation Rescue's 20th Anniversary Convention where Alan Keyes will be the keynote speaker: "This event is the kickoff of a year of demonstrations and civil disobedience designed to put abortion on the front page of this election year's political debate. Our mission is to train and mobilize the next generation of pro-life activists and leaders who bring legalized child-killing to an end."

Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue and veteran of extremist anti-abortion protests and federal prison, had a new target this week – his old friend Pat Robertson. While many Religious Right figures slammed Robertson for his endorsement of Rudy Giuliani, Terry’s was in its own rhetorical league, blasting Robertson for having been “seduced” by Giuliani’s “hypocritical and seductive evil.”

So we looked for a high-energy event when Terry announced he would protest outside the Washington, D.C. bureau of Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network on Saturday. A Friday release announced a move from the originally planned protest at CBN headquarters in Virginia beach “because a number of young people and college students in the DC area wanted to participate.”

It appears as if the rift forming in the Right over which candidate, if any, to back in the Republican Presidential primary has been exponentially exacerbated by Pat Robertson’s decision to back Rudy Giuliani. 

And while many of his erstwhile allies have limited themselves to publicly blasting Robertson for his decision, it looks as if Randall Terry and whatever remains of Operation Rescue are set to turn the whole thing, as they always do, into a public spectacle:

"I am literally sick to my stomach over Dr. Robertson's decision. He wrote a forward to my book, Operation Rescue, I have been on the 700 Club, I have spoken at Regent University, CBN helped me get started in radio, and the attorneys of the ACLJ have been heroic advocates for our pro-life mission.

"This is what happens when a leader puts party ahead of principle; it corrupts ones ability to reason consistently. We can only pray that this horrific decision of Dr. Robertson is ignored by the 'Christian Right' and the 'Christian Coalition,' and that he comes to his senses quickly. God have mercy on him, and give long life to him."

Demonstration at CBN, with News Conference

When: Saturday, November 10, 1:30 – 2:30 P.M. (ET)

Where: CBN Washington DC Headquarters, 1919 M Street, NW, between 19th and 20th.

Who: Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue, and pro-life activists from the Washington DC area.

Randall Terry announces a press conference to discuss efforts to derail a potential Giuliani nomination and blasts supposed "pro-life" politicians who have endorsed him as "typical treacherous politicians. They have betrayed innocent blood to support a child-killer; we can only wonder what '30 pieces of silver' they are seeking."

So says Operation Rescue Founder Randall Terry: "[O]ur mission is simple; deny Giuliani the Republican nomination. Failing that, we must deny him the White House at all costs – even if it means Hillary becomes President. Rudy is the GOP's crazy aunt. Every family has a crazy aunt in the basement. So what do you do with her? Don't give her the family checkbook; don't give her the keys to the car; and by all means, keep her in the basement."

According to the National Organization for Women, Joseph Scheidler once likened his militant Pro-Life Action Network to a “pro-life mafia.” Now, Scheidler is celebrating the final dismissal of a lawsuit that sought to hold his group’s (sometimes violent) intimidation activism accountable to an anti-mob racketeering law. “I’ve waited 21 years for this news!” said Scheidler. The ruling following a Supreme Court decision last year that federal racketeering laws don’t apply to organized crime without extortion or robbery.

Troy Newman, president of the current incarnation of Operation Rescue, praised Scheidler as a “true American hero.” The original Operation Rescue, run by Randall Terry, was also part of the NOW v. Scheidler lawsuit, but Terry agreed to a permanent injunction against his brand of clinic blockades and a monetary settlement back in 1998. (Terry, who declared bankruptcy to evade the settlement, found himself in the news again two years ago as the spokesman for Terri Schiavo’s parents.)

Throughout the period of militant anti-abortion protesting, when clinic bombings and murders of doctors spotted the headlines, Scheidler was unapologetic about his group’s tactics. “I’m doing what I have to do. So what? I’ve got some misdemeanors … I don’t consider myself a criminal,” he said (AP, 12/5/93). He bragged about his unusual actions, such as absconding with fetal remains (Wash. Post, 12/6/93) or picketing the homes of doctors (“Home Pickets Work,” USA Today, 10/19/95).

Randall Terry, the far-right founder of the militant anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, was a key figure in the debate about Terri Schiavo in late 2004 and early 2005, orchestrating a full-scale media campaign, appearing regularly on national television, and meeting with Gov. Jeb Bush to urge him to intervene in various ways in the family dispute over end-of-life care. Terry, who once ran for Congress in New York State, decided next to run for Florida Senate against Jim King, a Republican who was recently president of the state Senate. As the Orlando Sentinel notes,

The two have crossed swords before. In 2005, when Terry lobbied state lawmakers to pass a bill to reinsert Schiavo's feeding tube, King was one of nine Republican senators who helped block the bill. Terry singled out King, called him "Judas" and vowed that if Schiavo died, there would be "hell to pay."

Now Terry is apparently seeking to present himself to primary voters as more moderate. He has posted several homemade videos to his campaign web site, in which he tells the camera that he has “mellowed out” in recent years. “What Jim King wishes is that this election was about Terri Schiavo, and it's not,” Terry recently claimed.

Unfortunately, not all of Terry’s allies on the Right have gotten the message. Paul Schenck, executive director of the National Pro-Life Action Center, issued a press release condemning Gov. Jeb Bush for opposing Terry, saying, “Shame, shame on Jeb Bush for betraying the memory of Terri Schindler Schiavo by endorsing Jim King. As Senate president, King had the power to protect Terri, but for cynical political purposes he did not. Now Jeb Bush wants us to forget that King was largely responsible for Terri's death.”