Numerous articles – or rather, lazily re-written press releases – about so-called terrorist Daniel Andreas San Diego appeared in many publications over a week ago as San Diego was caught and arrested in an unassuming village in North Wales on Monday 25 November.

So, a vegan, animal rights activist is on the MOST WANTED TERRORIST list – next to Bin Laden, no less – for allegedly being involved in blowing up a building in 2003 in which no one was hurt? And one of the buildings suffered no more than a few broken windows? Really?

Surely there are more dangerous people (though corporations are very touchy about having their property damaged) to put on their list, you know, like serial killers, mass murders and fascist dictators? Oh hold on, they’re our world leaders, there for all to see. There are buildings in Gaza and Ukraine being destroyed on a daily basis; over 160,000 buildings have been damaged in Ukraine in the last few years. Which is all perfectly legal and sane, of course.

Reading Daniel’s MOST WANTED TERRORIST poster is interesting, for we learn more about his eating habits and tattoos than his supposed crimes. Daniel is known to follow a vegan diet and, for those Americans unfamiliar with the term, the poster kindly explains this means “eating no meat or food containing animal products”.

Daniel SHOULD BE CONSIDERED ARMED AND DANGEROUS. Well, it’s probably safe to say if anyone has a gun they’re probably dangerous. Whether they’re a soldier or hunter, having a gun is a dangerous thing. Daniel might have a gun, I don’t know or care, but there are 378 million guns in the United States, so he’s not the only one. 378 million is a lot of danger in a trigger happy country.

Our world leaders are also armed and dangerous, with bombs and armies at their disposal, which they use on a regular basis (under Trump, the US, on average, dropped a bomb every 12 minutes in 2018, despite not actually being at war with anyone).

Of course, newspapers sent their journalists to North Wales to interview locals who predictably came out with cliched platitudes. The neighbours are “reeling in disbelief” because, of course – yawn – he was “quiet”, “never went out” and also “you don’t expect things like this to happen here”. The BBC chimed in with a headline straight from The Sun, circa 1988: ‘I sold my house to man on FBI’s most wanted list’.

In fact, most locals never even saw Daniel, who had lived in his house for up to two years in the village. And no one saw the FBI storming his house and arresting him, either. It all seems completely made up to me (actually it sounds a bit like the novel The Understory by Richard Powers).

But as the world is being destroyed by war or greed or selfishness, let’s focus on a man who might – or might not – have had something to do with blowing up – or attempting to blow up – up a building, owned by companies who test their products on animals, over 20 years ago. (The biotechnology and nutritional products corporations both had links to Huntingdon Life Sciences, who conducted tests on animals.)

Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (Shac), an animal rights organisation, officially gave up their 15-year campaign against the corporation in 2014 after “an onslaught of government repression”, including new laws and police crackdown.

Since then the situation has only worsened, with severe penalties for environmental activists even peacefully (if disruptively) protesting: earlier this year, sentences of five and four years were given to five Just Stop Oil activists (including a 77-year-old woman with health problems) for stopping traffic on the M25 (I would have given them a Knighthood – almost as bad as destroying corporation property is disrupting the flow of Capitalism. At a time when jails are at bursting point, giving lengthier sentences to peaceful protesters than those who commit violent, sexual abusive or drug offences is outrageous).

Peaceful and not-so-peaceful protest has a fine tradition throughout history, with change often happening when the oppressed have had enough of the oppressors. From the Luddites and the Suffragettes to the Civil Rights Movement, change has happened. But then one million people protested on the streets of London about Tony Blair and the so-called Weapons of Mass Destruction. And George Floyd. And Palestine. And nothing really seems to change.

I don’t know anything about Daniel, but let’s imagine him 20 years ago, finished uni in Berkeley, that once hotbed of liberal activism. A bright guy, caring, a vegan, and upset at the local corporations testing on animals. He’s into rock music and gives up alcohol, drugs, meat and dairy. He works in IT and in his spare time he’s developing a recipe for vegan marshmallows (unfortunately since invented by other companies; will they say in years to come, like with Hitler being rejected from art school – oh, if only his vegan marshmallow recipe had worked out, none of his would have happened?). He’s apparently “very nice and personable”. This is one of the world’s most wanted terrorists? On a par with Bin Liden? For breaking two panes of glass?

You know what? The bad people are the ones running the world, not the ones trying to protect it. Daniel, I forgive you.