Gibson raided? Wtf?

[jarder]

I came accross this article and found it a bit disturbing. Idk if anyone has seen it yet, but it is pretty bull shit. Apparently Gibson was raided by Federal government officials that seized large amounts of rare woods and ebony. Maybe this is why Gibson now makes shitty expensive guitars now.

http://www.naturalnews.com/033454_Gibson_Guitar_armed_raid.html

[Bassboar]

Hmmmmmmmm. That is pretty shocking, however, the writer does seem to be a bit biased against the government, just the way I'm reading it though. That's crazy stuff man.

[Achtane]

It's happened before.

THE FIREBIRD X IS MADE FROM SLAVE BLOOD!
AT ITS CORE...THE HEART OF AN ORPHAN.

[Mudfuzz]

This is not new news...

[Mudfuzz]

It's happened before.

THE FIREBIRD X IS MADE FROM SLAVE BLOOD!
AT ITS CORE...THE HEART OF AN ORPHAN.

No way! if they actually had their black magic that together it would have ended up a lot cooler.

[Fuzzy Fred]

This is the second time in 2 or 3 years they have been raided.

The feds are trying to protect humanity from the firebird x coming out. They saw that gibson finally got through their own delays and they can't let that happen to humanity

[devnulljp]

[jarder]

Article is completely biased, but so is almost any article you will read on anything. If MSNBC wrote the article,it would be demonizing Gibson for not being environmentally sound while FOX cried about how this somehow helped terrorists kill our troops.

[Toonster]

but the question is: how would the article be if it was written by a non-American news-source?

[McSpunckle]

GIBSON IS AN UPSTANDING AND ETHICAL COMPANY I WON'T HAVE THEM SPOKEN NEGATIVELY OF.

[Achtane]

GIBSON IS AN UPSTANDING AND ETHICAL COMPANY I WON'T HAVE THEM SPOKEN NEGATIVELY OF.

MCSPUNCKLE IS A GIBSON ROBOT HO HO DO YOU SEE WHAT I JUST DID THERE

[dubkitty]

this has been galloping around a couple of other forums i'm on for days. the Feds have been harrassing Gibson ever since the Lacey Act was amended, via language slipped into an unrelated farm bill in 2009, to include wood products among endangered plants illegal to import into the US. for those who know anything about US endangered-species law, that means that anything made out of endangered woods like ebony, rosewood, and Honduras mahogany AT ANY TIME, new or used, is potentially subject to the same controls, including seizure at the border, as ivory, leopard skins, and other endangered animal products. the only thing keeping this from taking place is Federal discretion, i.e. they haven't said they can yet; the only controlling legal authority is two sentences in the Federal Register saying they do not "intend" to enforce these provisions against private parties as of the time of that publication (2/2009).

some speculate, and i wouldn't dismiss the possibility, that there's a political aspect given that the president of Gibson is a large GOP contributor and Gibson is a non-union shop in a Republican state (as compared to Martin, whose president is a major DNC contributor, runs a union shop in a Democrat state, and uses the same exotic woods in far larger quantities in his company's products). however, my suspicion is that DoJ really wants to use Gibson as a test case to establish their own ability to impose a stricter interpretation of other countries' law than those countries themsevles impose; part of the Federal case stands on their claim that the wood was not sufficiently processed in India to meet Indian law, though India passed the wood for export. once the Feds have a court precedent that's stood up to appeal that says fingerboards are illegal if they haven't been sufficiently processed in India, they can change their "intent" and it's open season on musicians. that's one way to lower the national debt. and finally get someone to buy those horrible "Smartwood" Martins.

[Heatmonger]

[McSpunckle]

this has been galloping around a couple of other forums i'm on for days. the Feds have been harrassing Gibson ever since the Lacey Act was amended, via language slipped into an unrelated farm bill in 2009, to include wood products among endangered plants illegal to import into the US. for those who know anything about US endangered-species law, that means that anything made out of endangered woods like ebony, rosewood, and Honduras mahogany AT ANY TIME, new or used, is potentially subject to the same controls, including seizure at the border, as ivory, leopard skins, and other endangered animal products. the only thing keeping this from taking place is Federal discretion, i.e. they haven't said they can yet; the only controlling legal authority is two sentences in the Federal Register saying they do not "intend" to enforce these provisions against private parties as of the time of that publication (2/2009).

some speculate, and i wouldn't dismiss the possibility, that there's a political aspect given that the president of Gibson is a large GOP contributor and Gibson is a non-union shop in a Republican state (as compared to Martin, whose president is a major DNC contributor, runs a union shop in a Democrat state, and uses the same exotic woods in far larger quantities in his company's products). however, my suspicion is that DoJ really wants to use Gibson as a test case to establish their own ability to impose a stricter interpretation of other countries' law than those countries themsevles impose; part of the Federal case stands on their claim that the wood was not sufficiently processed in India to meet Indian law, though India passed the wood for export. once the Feds have a court precedent that's stood up to appeal that says fingerboards are illegal if they haven't been sufficiently processed in India, they can change their "intent" and it's open season on musicians. that's one way to lower the national debt. and finally get someone to buy those horrible "Smartwood" Martins.

And here I thought they were just being watched more closely because this stuff has happened before.

It's hard to find info on this that isn't on a right-wing blog site, or just a site that generally hates the government. But here's something from Reuters:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/ ... 0820110825

It alludes to the government (customs) got some illegal ebony from India back in June that wasn't necessarily for Gibson. So I doubt they're just picking on Gibson.

ALSO, in the OP article, apparently Gibson's CEO wasn't told why the wood was siezed, but in the Reuters article, it looks like they -did- tell him.

The way I see it, Gibson consumes -a lot- of exotic woods, and they're naturally going to have more legal issues than, say, Fender that mostly just uses maple, ash, and alder.

In closing,

What the hell, Obama?!

[Bellyheart]

gibson...GOP...I could never see that bridge...ever...

I thought this was for the raid of awhile ago...they just keep fucking up.