[sadly, all the media coverage is on arsonists, not having bioengineered food, recently - Will] ----- forwarded message ----- Date: Sun, 03 Jun 2001 12:08:19 +0200 From: secr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Earth Liberation Front inflames arson strategy ----- forwarded message ----- Subject: [EF!] Earth Liberation Front inflames arson strategy Date: Sat, 02 Jun 2001 14:32:33 -0700 From: radman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Earth Liberation Front inflames arson strategy http://news.bellinghamherald.com/stories/20010602/FrontPage/55238.shtml The Associated Press Saturday, June 2, 2001 PORTLAND, Ore. -- The Earth Liberation Front, a shadowy group blamed for costly arson attacks across the country, is stepping up efforts to punish companies and institutions it says threaten the environment, the FBI said Friday. The ELF this week posted a manual on its Web site that tells would-be arsonists how to build simple incendiary devices. On Friday, the group claimed responsibility for fires last month at the University of Washington and a tree farm in Oregon. Several hours earlier, three logging trucks were torched in an Oregon forest. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, and federal authorities were investigating. Promise of violence FBI officials said the group is making good on a promise it made earlier this year to ratchet up the violence. The agency considers the ELF one of the nation's most dangerous terrorist groups. "I don't think there's any doubt the ELF is upping the ante," said Beth Anne Steele, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Portland. No one has been hurt in the ELF's four-year spree of violence and the group has said its aim is to protect the environment, not harm anyone. But the FBI worries it's only a matter of time before a firefighter or someone else is harmed. "The Earth Liberation Front says it doesn't commit violent acts that hurt people," Steele said. "But arson fires are unpredictable." The ELF and a sister organization, the Animal Liberation Front, have claimed responsibility for more than two dozen acts of vandalism since 1997. They include arson at three luxury homes in Mount Sinai, N.Y., sabotaged logging equipment in Indiana and a 1998 fire that caused $12 million damage at the Vail, Colo., ski resort. On Friday, the ELF claimed responsibility for two May 21 arson fires -- one at the Jefferson Poplar Farms in Clatskanie, Ore., and the other at the University of Washington Center for Urban Horticulture in Seattle. Both operations are developing hybrid poplar trees. The fire at the university caused as much as $3 million in structural damage; the Oregon fire caused at least $500,000 in damage. Eagle Creek, Ore. Before dawn on Friday, someone tried to torch six logging trucks at a company in Eagle Creek, 40 miles southeast of Portland. One truck was destroyed and two others were damaged. Plastic milk jugs were found beneath the trucks, apparently filled with a flammable liquid. The trucks were going to be used for harvesting trees at a nearby site in the Mount Hood National Forest. For the past two years, environmental activists have been trying to block logging at the site. Steele said it is not yet known who torched the trucks. Truck owner Ray A. Schoppert Logging Inc. and the Oregon Council Against Arson each offered a $1,000 reward for information. Steele refrained from blaming the ELF and said usually their claims of responsibility for an arson attack are delayed. The FBI suspects the reason for delays in the past is the ELF wants to make sure no one was hurt before asserting responsibility, Steele said. "These are not stupid people," she said. Little is known about the ELF. The group's spokesman, Craig Rosebraugh, owns a vegan bakery in Portland. Rosebraugh says he sympathizes with the ELF, but insists his only involvement is forwarding to the news media the group's claims of responsibility for attacks. If information on the group's Web site is to be trusted, the ELF has no leadership, centralized organization or official membership. Instead, it operates in "small groups that consist of one to several people" and each cell is anonymous, not just to the public, but also to one another. History of vandalism A partial list of acts of vandalism for which the Earth Liberation Front has claimed responsibility since 1997: � May 21, 2001, arson fires at the University of Washington Center for Urban Horticulture in Seattle and the Jefferson Poplar Farms in Clatskanie, Ore. The fire at the UW caused as much as $3 million in structural damage; the Oregon fire caused at least $500,000 in damage. � Jan. 1, 2001, Superior Lumber Co. in Glendale, Ore., is burned. � Dec. 29, 2000, four luxury homes at Island Estates on Long Island are burned. � Dec. 19, 2000, a Long Island home under construction is burned. � Nov. 27, 2000, a luxury home in a new Colorado subdivision is burned. � Oct. 18, 2000, logging equipment in Indiana's Martin County State Forest is sabotaged. � Sept. 9, 2000, Monroe County Republican Party Committee headquarters in Bloomington, Ind., is set on fire. � July 21, 2000, experimental trees are cut down at a U.S. Forest Service research station in Rheinlander, Wis. � Jan. 23, 2000, a luxury home in Bloomington, Ind., is set on fire. � Dec. 31, 1999, arson fire at Michigan State University's Agriculture Hall in East Lansing, Mich. � Dec. 25, 1999, Boise Cascade office in Monmouth, Ore., is burned. � Dec. 28, 1998, U.S. Forest Industries' corporate headquarters in Medford, Ore., is burned. � Oct. 19, 1998, fire sweeps through part of the Vail, Colo., ski resort. � Nov. 29, 1997, fire at the Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse Corrals near Burns, Ore. Four hundred horses are released. The ELF and the Animal Liberation Front claim joint responsibility. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
