Pro-Life Group Recalls Eerie Run-In with Discovery Channel Gunman

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C.,
September 2, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com)

The crazed eco-extremist who flung himself into the national spotlight yesterday after taking three hostages at the Discovery Channel headquarters is no stranger to the pro-life community in the nation’s capital.
Newly unearthed footage shows an unsettling 2009 confrontation between pro-lifers and a man who they say they have identified as James J. Lee, 43, who was destined to be gunned down by police a year later, after acting on his extreme dedication to "stopping the human race from breeding any more disgusting human babies."
The drama began to unfold about around 1 pm. yesterday, when Lee entered the Silver Springs building with a gun and what appeared to be pipe bombs strapped to himself; he confirmed to a CNN producer who called the office building that he was in possession of at least one explosive.
After approximately four hours of negotiations, Lee pointed a handgun at one of his hostages, at which point he was shot and killed by police snipers. The hostages and others in the building were not harmed during the hours-long showdown with police.
As stated in a manifesto published online, Lee hoped to force the Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel (TLC) to "stop all shows glorifying human birthing." Instead the stations should air shows geared toward halting the overpopulation of "parasitic human infants" in order to save the planet from global warming and pollution. Lee was likely targeting TLC programming such as "19 and Counting" and "Jon & Kate Plus 8," both of which follow the daily lives of large families.
TLC is owned by Discovery Communications, which also operates the Discovery Channel.
According to MSNBC, Lee credited his "awakening" to former Vice President Al Gore's 2006 movie "An Inconvenient Truth," which blamed man-made pollution for global warming.
Last year, Lee's passion for suppressing the human race brought him to the steps of the Planned Parenthood building in Washington, D.C., where members of the American Life League were holding a protest against the dangers of the birth control pill.
In a video of the encounter, filmed by Lee himself, and uploaded to his Youtube account, Lee takes issue with the group's "religious" aspect, and criticized Biblical faith as "unsustainable." "You can't say that we can breed as many children as I want, and that the earth is unlimited - the earth is limited. You can't just say we got to fill the earth, have all these children, and nevermind all the other creatures. That's what the Bible says," the man told the group.
"See, personally I don't care if you humans destroy yourselves with your stupid wars. But, you can't destroy the natural world. The atomic bomb hurts other creatures ... Why don't you guys just slice yourselves with knives instead of something, but please don't hurt the wildlife like that, there's only so many of them," he continued.
"Animals are wonderful creatures ... they live sustainable lives. They mean no harm .... But humans are really environmentally destructive and we gotta stop breeding or something."
Katie Walker, communications director with the American Life League, told LifeSiteNews.com that, during the confrontation, she noticed the man's strange sense of disconnection from the human race.
"I was very struck by his disconnection with rational thought and his absolute disdain for human beings' lives," said Walker.
Walker said that "one of the main things that freaked us out at the time" was Lee's referral to the pro-life witnesses as "you human beings."
"He did not count himself one of the human race," she said.
The young pro-life leader said she felt "shock" when she identified the Discovery Channel gunman as the same man she met outside Planned Parenthood - yet, she says, at the time of their encounter, she was "not too terribly surprised" at his disturbing philosophy.
"After all, when you stand in front of Planned Parenthood, you become very used to talking to people who don't believe in the sanctity of human beings' lives," said Walker. "His views on human beings' lives are simply the logical end of the views espoused by many in the pro-abortion movement."