Are they do-gooders or Terrorists???

[calamaridog]

interesting article

Authorities arrest 6 ecoterror suspects
By Leslie Slape
Dec 08, 2005 - 11:58:29 pm PST
Six people were arrested Wednesday in connection with Northwest eco-terror attacks dating back to 1998, including the 2001 arson at Jefferson Poplar Farms near Clatskanie.

The arrests were made Wednesday in New York, Virginia, Oregon and Arizona, and each of the defendants has been indicted in Oregon or Washington, the U.S. attorney's office said. The attacks included three arsons in Oregon, the destruction of a research facility in Olympia and the toppling of a Bonneville Power Administration transmission tower near Bend.

The underground Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front took credit for most of the acts.

The May 21, 2001, explosive fire at Jefferson Poplar Farm destroyed two large storage buildings, shop equipment and 15 to 19 vehicles. Damage was estimated at more than $1 million.

"We're very pleased to see that people are being brought to justice for what occurred in the bombing of the farm," said Jeff Nuss, president of GreenWood Resources in Tigard, Ore., which manages the 10,000-acre plantation. Renamed Columbia Tree Farm, it raises several varieties of hybrid poplars for the paper industry and the solid-wood markets.

Immediately after the arson investigators suspected Earth Liberation Front, a shadowy group that uses violence to stop practices it believes are unnatural or environmentally harmful.

Graffiti reading "You cannot control what is wild" and "ELF" had been painted on a shed between the two burned buildings.

Investigators found numerous explosives, including some around the office building that did not explode. Ness said it's fortunate those bombs didn't go off because one of the farm's employees ran into the office when he arrived at the early-morning fire.

ELF spokesman Craig Rosebraugh visited the scene several hours afterward and told investigators at the time that he doubted authorities would solve the case. "The ELF came into this country in 1997 and they've done a very good job of evading most law enforcement agencies," he said.

ELF issued a statement two weeks later, claiming "we dealt a blow" to Jefferson Poplar.

"Hybrid poplars are an ecological nightmare threatening native biodiversity," the statement said.

"Give us the science behind that one," Nuss said Thursday. He said the farm uses "natural breeding techniques" and maintains genetic diversity.

No trees were destroyed in the fire, he said.

"But when you lose that level in value and assets, it affects your business a little bit," Nuss said. "We're pretty resilient. We have good people and it's a good tree farm."

Suspects Stanislas Gregory Meyerhoff, 28, and Daniel Gerard McGowan, 31, face life in prison if convicted. They also have been indicted in the Jan. 2, 2001, arson at the Superior Lumber Company, in Glendale, Ore.

Meyerhoff was arrested in Charlottesville, Va., where he was attending Piedmont Community College. McGowan was arrested in New York City.

Kevin M. Tubbs, 36, and William C. Rodgers, 40, face up to 20 years each if convicted of a June 21, 1998, arson at the Agriculture Department's Animal and Plant and Health Inspection Services facility in Olympia. Tubbs was arrested in Springfield, Ore., and Rodgers was arrested in Prescott, Ariz.

Sarah Kendall Harvey, a 28-year-old student at Northern Arizona University, was arrested in Flagstaff after being charged with a Dec. 27, 1998, fire at U.S. Forest Industries in Medford, Ore. That fire caused an estimated $500,000 in damage. She faces up to 20 years if convicted.

Chelsea Dawn Gerlach, 28, of Portland, was charged with conspiring to destroy an energy facility and destruction of an energy facility in the Dec. 30, 1999, attack on the BPA transmission tower. She faces up to 25 years.

The suspects were scheduled to make initial appearances in federal court in the districts where they were arrested.

The FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, Eugene Police Dept., Portland Police Bureau, Oregon State Police, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Oregon Department of Justice and the Lane County Sheriff's Office participated in the investigation, which is continuing.

 

[otter]

OK I just skimmed that terrorist book. Did you see the table of contents? ******!!! And the jackhole that wrote the forward is just up the road from Tucson.

Hey,
Find out where he lives and spike his driveway!
eric:hehe:

 

[calamaridog]

ELF indictment

Man indicted for showing how to make firebomb By Marty Graham
Fri Feb 24, 11:19 AM ET


A radical environmental activist has been indicted by a federal grand jury for demonstrating how to build a firebomb in a speech just 15 hours after a fire that his group claimed responsibility for destroyed a large apartment complex being built nearby.

Rodney Adam Coronado, a 39-year-old member of the Earth Liberation Front, was indicted on a charge of giving instructions on how to build a destructive device, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. The indictment was unsealed on Wednesday.

The law under which he was charged has been used just four other times since it was enacted in 1997, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Shane Harrigan. The law makes it illegal to tell others how to build destructive devices with the intent of having them commit crimes.

"In the speech, Coronado mentioned the fire that had just occurred," Harrigan said. "We have to prove his intent was to have others go out and commit arson."

No one has been charged in the August 1, 2003, early morning fire that did about $50 million in damage to the complex being built in University Town Center, a high technology and business center near the University of California San Diego.

Authorities say the case is still under investigation.

The Earth Liberation Front took responsibility for the fire, leaving a banner at the site and sending an e-mail to a local newspaper.

Coronado has told reporters he showed people how to build a firebomb, which he used to destroy an animal testing facility in Michigan in 1992. He served four years in prison for that arson.

He is in federal custody in Tucson, Arizona, awaiting sentencing after being convicted of going into a public recreation area to disrupt efforts to trap and move mountain lions there.

Three people who attended Coronado's speech were jailed for refusing to testify before the grand jury about the content of the speech. All have been released.

 

[Scott Brady]

I wonder if he lives in a house, built with the wood from trees, part of urban sprawl, etc.

How does he heat his home, or transport himself from place to place?

Just being human and seeking shelter and food (a job) requires the use of natural resources.

Now we should all be conservationists, but to direct violence towards others way of life is ignorance on parade. For example, burning of the apartment complex. Now, there will be an insurance claim, then more trees cut and more wood used, not to mention the carbons sent into the air from their little demonstration.

 

[datrupr]

Scott, while you are absolutly correct, unfortunately these "activists" don't see things in the same manner as any sensible person would. Their line of thinking is that if they burn it down, they are doing a favor to the environment and slowing progress in the hopes that they builders, etc. will just give up and not build anymore. They don't seem to understand the even more adverse affects of their actions.

 

[DaktariEd]

Scott, while you are absolutly correct, unfortunately these "activists" don't see things in the same manner as any sensible person would. Their line of thinking is that if they burn it down, they are doing a favor to the environment and slowing progress in the hopes that they builders, etc. will just give up and not build anymore. They don't seem to understand the even more adverse affects of their actions.

I would suggest that these so-called "activists" are of the same mindset as those wackos who in the name of "___" (fill in your favorite prophet, God, etc.) kill other humans and claim it is "the will of ____" (same prophet, God, etc.).

Absolutely incomprehensible to me....

Ed

 

[crawler#976]

Prescott Arizona - my home town, has a serious problem w/ eco-terrorist. This guy was a "respected member" of the Prescott College community. Prescott College is home to a group of ultra radical eco-whacko's, and anti-recreationalist. (I REFUSE to call them environmentaists - I beleive those of us who promote responsible/sustainable joint use, and those of us that PAY the fees (use permits, hunting/fishing licences, OHV licences, etc.) are the true environmentalists...)

http://www.phoenixanarchist.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=528

MORE TO COME LATER...

 

[crawler#976]

Just got back from running Smiley Rock after work - 2x4 all the way baby! :victory:

Hadn't had the BPOS out since Christmas, so I was due for a putput.

_______________

Anyway,

As mentioned before, Prescott has a history of people being involved with the radical ecoterrorist groups. Bookoo many years ago one of my FS freinds was living with Peg Millet...later found to be an EcoTerrorist with Earth First. She is regarded as a "hero" by many in the local area.

http://www.juggling.org/~conway/millett/lumberjack.html

 

[Westy]

One of my good friends family lives in a neighborhood in North north Scottsdale, it borders Tonto National Forest and State Trust Lands where several popular mountain bike trails exist. These extreme eco freaks regularly move boulders and plant new bushes and cactus at trailheads trying to restrict access and lately I have seen a couple USFS signs placed in washes nearby this neighborhood as well that they likely stole (the no motor vehicle,atv, mountain bike signs) from nearby trails. these people are out of their minds...

 

[calamaridog]

Activists' passion turns to violence

Activists' passion turns to violence

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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/...lfwomen18.html

Activists' passion turns to violence

One worked with the nation's top atmospheric scientists; the other was an aspiring journalist. Now they both face years in prison for the ELF arson fire at a UW research facility

By PHUONG CAT LE
P-I REPORTER


Jennifer Kolar and Lacey Phillabaum seem unlikely criminals.

Well-educated young women passionate about environmental causes, they share a love of the outdoors and similar backgrounds. Both grew up in Spokane and attended the same public high school.

Those who know Phillabaum call her bright, outspoken, sometimes in-your-face but never dull. She was a skilled debater in high school and college and once worked for a well-regarded non-profit that promotes sustainable agriculture.

Kolar studied under one of the nation's top atmospheric scientists while pursuing a doctoral degree and had the makings of a good scientist, her adviser said, but her heart seemed elsewhere.

The women were concerned about what was going on around them -- the logging of old-growth forests, the slaughter of animals for sport. Like many Northwest activists, they pushed for change.

But their activism morphed into something more dangerous -- and now both are headed to prison.

Before dawn on May 21, 2001, Kolar cut the glass that allowed fellow Earth Liberation Front members to sneak into the University of Washington office of professor Toby Bradshaw, who was studying the genetics of fast-growing hybrid poplar trees. Phillabaum's role is still unclear, but she was also on the scene, court documents show.

Bradshaw and other researchers at the UW Center for Urban Horticulture would be arriving within hours, so the ELF squad must have worked quickly to plant the firebombs -- plastic buckets of fuel rigged with cheap digital timers, assembled in someone's garage. Their goal: destroy the research on genetic engineering of poplars to avert an "ecological nightmare" for native forests.

The fire ignited in Bradshaw's office spread through the building and raged for hours. Rare books, endangered plants and decades of botanical research went up in flames, causing $7 million in damage.

By then, Kolar, Phillabaum and the three others involved in the arson had disappeared.

At the UW, researchers tried to salvage their work. A new facility was built. But the trail to the perpetrators seemed to peter out. For nearly five years, the crime went unsolved.

While investigators searched for clues, Kolar and Phillabaum didn't go into hiding.

Kolar bought a two-story house in Wallingford, raced in local regattas and was active in a Seattle yacht club. Phillabaum pursued a career as a journalist, freelanced articles and sought mentoring from a professional journalism group. Others involved in the arsons also went on to do other things.

"The series of arsons stopped in 2001, and since then many of the people implicated in those have gone on to lead lives in the mainstream society," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Friedman in Seattle.

But investigators eventually closed in.

In December, federal agents arrested many of those believed responsible for a series of arson attacks across five states, including an Oregon poplar farm that had been torched at the same time as the UW center.

Three people were indicted earlier this year: Justin Solondz, 27, formerly of Jefferson County, who is believed to have fled the country; William Rodgers, 40, who committed suicide in an Arizona jail cell weeks after his arrest; and Briana Waters, 30, a Berkeley, Calif., violin teacher who faces trial.

This month, federal prosecutors identified for the first time the two remaining suspects: Kolar, 33, and Phillabaum, 31.

Both women are cooperating with authorities and have admitted to belonging to ELF and participating in the UW firebombing. The FBI has branded ELF an underground radical group and a top domestic terrorism threat.

At their January sentencing in Seattle, Kolar faces between five and seven years in prison; Phillabaum faces three to five. Defense attorney Gilbert Levy declined a request to interview his client, Phillabaum. Kolar declined comment through her attorney, Michael Martin.

"Paradoxes and ironies abound here, and they're all wedded to a tragedy," said David Frank, a University of Oregon professor who knew Phillabaum when she was in his debate program.

"How could such bright, articulate, well-meaning people ... how could they have been tempted by violence?"


From sit-ins to firebombs

Phillabaum was socially conscious even as a teenager at Shadle Park High School, former school officials say. She grew up in Deer Park, and her parents were partners in a Spokane law firm. In high school, she was voted "Teacher's Pet" in her senior year and won debate contests.

"She had a strong mind of her own," said Emmett Arndt, a former assistant principal at Shadle Park.

At the University of Oregon, Phillabaum studied art history and graduated in three years. She continued to debate in college, partly "to learn more about the reasons why the environment was under threat," said Frank, who teaches rhetoric.

The program taught students to use reason, research and persuasion to affect change, but Phillabaum left after a year, feeling frustrated with the lack of action, he said.

Typical of many students, "she found her way into activist groups," he said. "She was surrounded by people who were equally frustrated, equally angry. Out of those conversations came a dedication to more violent actions to achieve their actions."

"She was probably feeling frustrated with the system, with the exploitation of the Earth and species, and not having immediate results with above-ground organizing," said an associate of Phillabaum's, who asked not to be identified.

In college, she worked on Insurgent, a left-leaning campus publication that critiqued foreign policy.

The mid-1990s was the height of protests against logging on public lands, and Phillabaum was in the thick of it. She protested timber harvests in Oregon's Umpqua National Forest and joined others in blocking a logging road to Warner Creek, according to news accounts.

"You couldn't call her commitment into question," said a Eugene, Ore., activist who has known her for a decade.

At a 1997 tree-sit in Eugene, Phillabaum and others tried to save 40 trees from being leveled for a downtown development. Police arrested her and others for criminal trespassing. She was fined $100 and sentenced to three days in jail, according to the Lane County District Attorney's Office.

In other aspects, Phillabaum led a relatively normal life. She had a lot of friends, was well-grounded and came from a loving family, those who know her say. She spent a lot of time in the outdoors -- rafting rivers and hiking mountains.

An aspiring journalist, she also edited Earth First! Journal, which calls itself the voice of the radical environmental movement. In February 2001, she landed a job at In Good Tilth, a newsletter sent out by Oregon Tilth, a non-profit promoting sustainable farming.

"She was an exemplary employee," said Chris Schreiner, Oregon Tilth's quality-control manager. "She brought a new level of quality and content to the newsletter."

She worked at the newsletter for four years. She also joined the Society of Environmental Journalists and sought mentoring help from veteran reporters, said the group's executive director, Beth Parke.

In 2005, Phillabaum moved to Charlottesville, Va., to take a writing job at the C-VILLE Weekly. The alternative paper fired her after three months, said editor Cathy Harding, who declined to say why.

Phillabaum's double life was quickly catching up to her.

In December 2005, federal agents arrested Stanislas Meyerhoff, 29, of Charlottesville, who they accused of masterminding the UW and Oregon tree farm firebombings. At the time, Meyerhoff was Phillabaum's boyfriend, a Charlottesville newspaper reported. Meyerhoff pleaded guilty to conspiracy and arson charges in July.

Phillabaum's role in the UW arson would soon be revealed, as would Kolar's.


...continued next post...

 

[calamaridog]

Activists passion - continued

...continued...


'It's a puzzle'

It's not clear whether Phillabaum and Kolar knew each other at Shadle Park, but they overlapped at the school, located in a middle-class neighborhood of north Spokane.

Kolar graduated two years before Phillabaum and went on to the University of Colorado in Boulder. She majored in applied mathematics and later earned a master's degree in astrophysical, planetary and atmospheric sciences, according to the school.

"I never thought that atmospheric sciences was her passion, or something that was her lifelong ambition," said Merritt Deeter, an atmospheric scientist who shared an office with Kolar when both were grad students. "She kind of prided herself on her activist nature."

Kolar was bright and skilled but distracted, said her doctoral adviser, Peter Webster, now a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

"If she had applied her passions to science, she would have been a good scientist, but she had other things that were much more important to her," Webster said.

She was passionate about animal rights and often protested against animals being hunted for sport, Webster said. "It's not the least bit surprising to me that she carried her passions that far."

In grad school, Kolar volunteered for such groups as Rocky Mountain Animal Defense. She tried to stop the Denver Zoo from allegedly sending surplus animals to hunting ranches, said David Crawford, the group's founder.

He stressed that his group doesn't condone violence and that she left in 1996.

In July 1997, Kolar allegedly took part in an arson that destroyed a horse slaughterhouse in Redmond, Ore.

She's expected to admit her role in that crime, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Peifer in Portland. She also has pleaded guilty to attempting to firebomb a Colorado gun club that organized turkey shoots in 1998.

Kolar settled in Seattle several years ago. She bought a house in Wallingford a year after the UW arson, joined the Corinthian Yacht Club in Seattle and competed in Puget Sound regattas. Her profile on that club's Web site noted that she loved the outdoors and co-owned the Manta Ray, a 30-foot performance sailboat.

Kolar was a crew member on a boat that recently won at the Swiftsure Lightship Classic, said the skipper, Alex Wigley.

"It's a puzzle. It just blindsided me," said Wigley, who described Kolar as capable, funny and intelligent.

"This whole event has made me wonder how well I know anyone."

P-I reporter Phuong Cat Le can be reached at 206-448-8390 or phuongle@seattlepi.com.