-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">
</A> -Cui Bono?-
http://www.heartland.org/environment/feb00/ecoterror.htm
Environment & Climate News -- February 2000
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Feds protected ecoterrorists, report says
by Gretchen Randall
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A House Resource Committee task force assigned three years ago to
investigate eco-terrorist activity at a timber site in Oregon has
issued an interim report that paints a disturbing picture of
aiding and abetting by top Clinton-Gore administration officials.
The Task Force's investigation was launched after an e-mail from
Agriculture Department employee Thelma Strong to Tom R. King was
made public.
"I'm told that Leon Panetta [then chief of staff to President
Clinton] directed the FS [Forest Service] not to remove
protestors from the Warner Creek sale," wrote Strong on August 6,
1996.
Strong's e-mail refers to a timber sale underway at Warner Creek,
Oregon. A band of eco-terrorists had encamped on the site,
barricading themselves there illegally from September 1995 to
July 1996 in an effort to stop the sale.
On July 9, 1996, the Forest Service and local law enforcement
officials were about to move to expel the eco-terrorists when
word was received from top Clinton-Gore administration officials
to "back off."
Dan Glickman, Secretary of Agriculture, told then-Forest Service
Chief Jack Ward Thomas he needed to check with "people above his
pay grade" about how to handle the situation, according to
contemporaneous notes made by Thomas. The next conversation
between Glickman and Thomas was a permanent stand-down order.
According to the Task Force's investigation,
+ " . . . several interviewees have alleged that political
pressure from within the Clinton-Gore administration was
used to protect the protestors, prolonging the occupation
and endangering both government property and law enforcement
personnel."
+ ". . . the organization behind the protest was in contact
with Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) within the White
House during the protest, airing their complaints and
threatening political consequences if the White House failed
to act."
+ ". . . the suspicion of illegal leaks to the protesters was
corroborated by telephone notes of a senior Justice
Department official [Peter Coppelman], which were obtained
under subpoena, noting that a senior CEQ official [Dinah
Bear] was suspected of being the source of the law
enforcement information leaked to the protestors."
Elena Kagen, associate White House counsel, was aware of the
information leaks because she had discussed them with Dinah Bear,
who was accused of making them. According to the Task Force
report, though, neither Kagen nor any other representative of the
Clinton-Gore administration initiated an investigation, despite
their legal duty to report criminal wrongdoing. Moreover, the
Forest Service was never informed about the leaks. Kagan has
since been nominated by President Clinton to the D.C. Circuit
Court of Appeals.
The Warner Creek timber sale was initiated in 1991, when an arson
fire burned 9,000 acres on the site. The sale, intended to
salvage usable timber from the trees that had died as a result of
the fire, would also have cleared dead and decaying trees to
reduce the risk of insect infestation and forest fires. Reducing
the number of dead trees was thought to be a positive solution
for the forest as well as for animals, campers, and hikers in the
area.
Eco-terrorists began protesting against the salvage logging in
June 1995, and even blamed loggers for the arson fire. (There is
no evidence that loggers were responsible.) In September of that
year, the protests became illegal as the eco-terrorists blocked
the road and camped at the site. According to the Forest Service,
they also erected barricades, dug trenches, washed out roadways,
and left human waste -- efforts that polluted the waterways
downstream. They made "booby-traps" of trenches and sharpened
metal spikes to damage vehicles or people and chained themselves
to buried structures. At least one protester was heavily armed.
According to the Task Force report, the Forest Service was
concerned because eco-terrorists had recently fire-bombed a
Forest Ranger Station and burned a Forest Service truck.
Eco-terrorists at other sites had shot squirt guns full of urine
at Forest Service personnel and assaulted officers. It was known
that eco-terrorists often rotated between sites, and there was
concern for the personnel at Warner Creek because of these other
incidents.
Mark Tarantino, Forest Service Special Agent, states in a sworn
declaration that "protestors had planned to 'lock down' in
various locations in the roadway" and "items such as spikes, nail
boards, rocks, and portions of trees had been placed in the
roadway." He also noted that the "protestors are becoming more
confrontational with increased potential for violence." He then
noted that "protestors had cellular telephone communication and a
phone list to call from the site."
The eco-terrorists were allowed to remain on the Warner Creek
site for almost a year. They did extensive damage to the
environment and about $20,000 in damage to a Forest Service road
in the area. When the environmentalists didn't leave, law
enforcement decided to move in. That is when they were stopped
by the White House.
Before law enforcement officials were permitted to expel the
eco-terrorists, they were required to participate in several
meetings and teleconferences with high-level officials of the
Clinton-Gore administration. According to the Task Force, law
enforcement officers were told this was necessary to avoid
"another Waco or Ruby Ridge," where protestors had been killed by
government agents. Despite arguments by Forest Service Chief
Thomas that "such delay imperiled the element of surprise and
would likely compromise the operation," Glickman "repeated his
order."
Law enforcement personnel began to suspect information had been
leaked by officials in Washington to the Warner Creek
eco-terrorists. Tarantino said, "It was like they were inside our
briefings." He further testified to the Task Force that "it
seemed as though they (the protestors) knew a lot about what we
were doing. And when we shared information up the line through
the administration or through the Department (of Agriculture), it
would appear to me as though information was finding its way to
the field."
Over a month later, on August 16, 1996, Tarantino moved forward
with the arrest and ejection of eco-terrorists without notifying
Washington officials. This time, no leaks occurred and the
operation was successful. The Forest Service road was re-opened
and arrests were made of five eco-terrorists who refused to leave
the area. Three were convicted, whereupon the eco-terrorists
staged a riot outside the jail, resulting in injuries and 39
additional arrests.
The Warner Creek timber sale never took place. Instead, in an
agreement between the Justice Department and the logging company,
the government paid the logging company approximately $475,000
not to salvage the dead trees.
Forest Service Chief Thomas expressed his disappointment, saying,
"The Secretary [of Agriculture], fearing violence, called off
pending actions to remove the demonstrators. Then, that error was
compounded by the decision to avoid any potential violence by
'buying out' the timber sale purchaser. This handed a clear
victory to the protestors, who had illegally destroyed government
property, blocked a road, and committed other acts in defiance of
law."
He added, "Hardcore environmentalists have learned to 'go to the
top' to get what they want -- and they get what they want most of
the time. Worst of all, the people at the 'top' have a tendency
to believe what they are told with no effort to discern the
truth -- or, at least, the truth as perceived by the Forest
Service."
.
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