Anonymous
22nd June 2002, 15:38
The ELF: Terrorists or Defenders of the Planet?
Quick, name the FBIs number one domestic terrorist organization.
If you said a cabal of radical Muslims or a posse of white supremacists, youd be the weakest link. The U.S. governments most wanted homegrown terrorist group is the Earth Liberation Front (ELF).
First formed in England from an EarthFirst! splinter group in the mid-90s, the highly secretive, non-hierarchical organization has been responsible for a well-orchestrated campaign of arson attacks against businesses and organizations that they claim are destroying the planet.
The ELF web site includes a handy primer on setting fires with electrical timers.
Basing much of their structure and ethics on the Animal Liberation Front, the ELFs first official attack in the U.S. was in 1997. Since then they have caused tens of millions of dollars of damage, including the burning of a ski resort in Vail, Colorado ($28 million), various genetic engineering labs and a Republican party office in Indiana. Their web site takes credit for more than three-dozen acts, and even includes a handy primer on setting fires with electrical timers.
Because of its autonomous cell structure, the ELF has so far been extremely successful in eluding law enforcement. But last summer, Jeff Free Luers, a 22 year-old ELF operative, was convicted of setting fire to a Eugene, Oregon Chevrolet dealership and attempting to ignite a gasoline tanker nearby. The fire torched three pickup trucks, the tanker failed to ignite. No one was hurt. Luers was sentenced to 22 years, 8 months. Three days before he was sentenced, as he sat in jail, another ELF cell hit the same dealership, causing ten times the damage - burning thirty-six SUVs.
"The best way to deal with eco-terrorists is to use the same tactics we're using in our current war on terrorism."
To its growing roster of powerful critics, the ELF are terrorists who, like Al Qaeda, pose a threat to Americas very way of life. The loaded rhetoric has only increased since 9/11. Armed with increased powers from the USA/PATRIOT Act and other more recent easings of restrictions on government snooping, law enforcement appears willing to do whatever it takes to take the group down. During a Feb. 12 congressional hearing, Rep. George Nethercutt (R-WA) stated, "The best way to deal with eco-terrorists is to use the same tactics we're using in our current war on terrorism."
The criticism is not just from inside the Belt Way, some moderate greens call the ELF reckless, immature and ultimately harmful to an environmental movement trying to gain mainstream support.
Their attacks are meant to send a message and it hit enemies of the planet where it hurts the most, in the wallet.
But the ELF doesnt seem to care what either thinks. They see themselves as eco-warriors perpetrating health ops - the vanguard of a radical fringe willing to put their freedom on the line to save an increasingly threatened environment. Their attacks are meant to send a message and it hit polluters, clear-cutters, and others they see as enemies of the planet, where it hurts the most, in the wallet. They claim to take all necessary precautions to avoid any human or animal casualties. So far none of their arson attacks have hurt people.
With all the heat, you might think tracking down the ELFs new spokesperson, Leslie James Pickering, would be difficult. In fact, the group welcomes getting the word out. So recently, GNNs info-guerrillas in the misty northwest Charles Maol and Roland Glasgow met up with the bespectacled Pickering at a Portland caf and listened as he outlined the groups ideology of economic sabotage, their blistering critique of moderates, the governments seeming inability to infiltrate them, and the long road ahead.
This month, the UN issued a disturbing new report which stated that if current development continues unabated, in the next 30 years the Earth could be littered with a wasteland of urban slums, see the extinction of a quarter of its mammal species and have significant populations dying of thirst and water-borne disease.
Is the ELF our last, best hope for avoiding this horrifying vision? Or is the group just a bunch of aggro-treehuggers armed with outdated ideas and a dangerous propensity to burn things?
You decide . . .
Quick, name the FBIs number one domestic terrorist organization.
If you said a cabal of radical Muslims or a posse of white supremacists, youd be the weakest link. The U.S. governments most wanted homegrown terrorist group is the Earth Liberation Front (ELF).
First formed in England from an EarthFirst! splinter group in the mid-90s, the highly secretive, non-hierarchical organization has been responsible for a well-orchestrated campaign of arson attacks against businesses and organizations that they claim are destroying the planet.
The ELF web site includes a handy primer on setting fires with electrical timers.
Basing much of their structure and ethics on the Animal Liberation Front, the ELFs first official attack in the U.S. was in 1997. Since then they have caused tens of millions of dollars of damage, including the burning of a ski resort in Vail, Colorado ($28 million), various genetic engineering labs and a Republican party office in Indiana. Their web site takes credit for more than three-dozen acts, and even includes a handy primer on setting fires with electrical timers.
Because of its autonomous cell structure, the ELF has so far been extremely successful in eluding law enforcement. But last summer, Jeff Free Luers, a 22 year-old ELF operative, was convicted of setting fire to a Eugene, Oregon Chevrolet dealership and attempting to ignite a gasoline tanker nearby. The fire torched three pickup trucks, the tanker failed to ignite. No one was hurt. Luers was sentenced to 22 years, 8 months. Three days before he was sentenced, as he sat in jail, another ELF cell hit the same dealership, causing ten times the damage - burning thirty-six SUVs.
"The best way to deal with eco-terrorists is to use the same tactics we're using in our current war on terrorism."
To its growing roster of powerful critics, the ELF are terrorists who, like Al Qaeda, pose a threat to Americas very way of life. The loaded rhetoric has only increased since 9/11. Armed with increased powers from the USA/PATRIOT Act and other more recent easings of restrictions on government snooping, law enforcement appears willing to do whatever it takes to take the group down. During a Feb. 12 congressional hearing, Rep. George Nethercutt (R-WA) stated, "The best way to deal with eco-terrorists is to use the same tactics we're using in our current war on terrorism."
The criticism is not just from inside the Belt Way, some moderate greens call the ELF reckless, immature and ultimately harmful to an environmental movement trying to gain mainstream support.
Their attacks are meant to send a message and it hit enemies of the planet where it hurts the most, in the wallet.
But the ELF doesnt seem to care what either thinks. They see themselves as eco-warriors perpetrating health ops - the vanguard of a radical fringe willing to put their freedom on the line to save an increasingly threatened environment. Their attacks are meant to send a message and it hit polluters, clear-cutters, and others they see as enemies of the planet, where it hurts the most, in the wallet. They claim to take all necessary precautions to avoid any human or animal casualties. So far none of their arson attacks have hurt people.
With all the heat, you might think tracking down the ELFs new spokesperson, Leslie James Pickering, would be difficult. In fact, the group welcomes getting the word out. So recently, GNNs info-guerrillas in the misty northwest Charles Maol and Roland Glasgow met up with the bespectacled Pickering at a Portland caf and listened as he outlined the groups ideology of economic sabotage, their blistering critique of moderates, the governments seeming inability to infiltrate them, and the long road ahead.
This month, the UN issued a disturbing new report which stated that if current development continues unabated, in the next 30 years the Earth could be littered with a wasteland of urban slums, see the extinction of a quarter of its mammal species and have significant populations dying of thirst and water-borne disease.
Is the ELF our last, best hope for avoiding this horrifying vision? Or is the group just a bunch of aggro-treehuggers armed with outdated ideas and a dangerous propensity to burn things?
You decide . . .