Three people were excused and one person invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself Wednesday during the first day of a San Francisco grand jury hearing designed to investigate two 2003 Bay Area bombings connected to the animal rights movement.

Activists say the federal government is on a statewide witch hunt, convening grand juries in both San Francisco and San Diego this week in an effort to harass protesters of all kinds, but especially members of animal rights and environmental groups.

But authorities respond that they have no desire to interfere with law-abiding protesters, only those who use violence to further their cause.

In recent years militant animal rights and environmental activists have resorted to stalking executives whose companies test their products on animals, to activating explosives, setting arson fires and committing vandalism, causing millions of dollars of damage in California alone. The FBI has made no secret that catching domestic terrorists is one of the agency's top priorities.

At least 10 people have been subpoenaed in the Bay Area to appear before the San Francisco grand jury investigating the whereabouts of fugitive Daniel Andreas San Diego, who is charged with planting bombs at two East Bay companies in 2003.

Three of those subpoenaed were given a temporary reprieve from having to testify Wednesday after their lawyers filed motions accusing the government of violating the protesters' Fifth Amendment rights.

Stella Sythe, a fourth person who was subpoenaed to testify, said she took the stand and refused to answer questions by invoking her right not to incriminate herself.

About 75 people protesting the grand jury hearings waited outside the federal courthouse on Golden Gate Avenue chanting and carrying signs. Ben Rosenfeld, a lawyer who is representing the group on behalf of the National Lawyers Guild, called the secret proceedings a star chamber used to conduct an illegal fishing expedition.

"If the government really believes that these people have been harboring Mr. San Diego, then what they're doing is asking them to incriminate themselves in front of the grand jury," he said. "But I don't think they really believe that. This is political. It's a government shakedown."

San Diego evaded FBI agents who were following him from Sonoma to San Francisco in October 2003 and has been in hiding ever since.

Agents searched his car trunk in San Francisco and found components and ingredients that matched the bombs used in the predawn explosions on August 28, 2003 at Chiron Corp., an Emeryville biotech firm, and a month later at Shaklee, a Pleasanton company that sells health, beauty and household products, according to federal documents.

No one was hurt in the bombings, which caused minor structural damage. But LaRae Quy, a spokeswoman for the FBI in San Francisco, said it's just a matter of time before someone dies in one these explosions.

"If the emergency response team had arrived just a few minutes earlier at Chiron when the second bomb went off, one of its members could have been killed," she said. "And if someone is killed, it's going to be murder."

In Southern California, at least nine people have been called to testify before a San Diego federal grand jury investigating a 2003 arson fire that destroyed an apartment complex that was under construction there.

A banner signed by the Earth Liberation Front that was left at the scene said, "If you build it, we'll burn it."

Three people were called to testify in San Diego on Tuesday. The three asked for a continuance so they could have time to seek legal guidance, but were denied, according to Rich Macgurn, who is acting as a spokesman for the group.

Michael Cardenas, a software engineer who says he does not consider himself an animal rights or environmental activist -- but was part of a coalition of groups that organized a series of "Revolution Summer" events in 2003, including a speech given by a well-known ELF activist hours after the apartment fire was set -- said he invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to answer the grand jury's questions.

Before asserting his right, he said he was asked if he knew the activist Rod Coronado, if he was present at Coronado's speech and if he was familiar with certain organizations.

After each question, Cardenas said, he asserted his right not to incriminate himself.

Macgurn said many activists see the interrogations as a gross abuse of the grand jury system and a "further sign of growing governmental hostility to legitimate political activity."

FBI agent Quy, who is legally barred from discussing grand jury investigations, responded in general: "There are perfectly legitimate animal rights and environmental movements out there ... We're only after those who resort to violence or break the law."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/06/23/BAGTTDD68R1.DTL