Radical Green Group: We Set Fires
June 2, 2001 9:10 am EST

Earth Liberation Front Says It Torched Lab, Tree Farm

SEATTLE, JUNE 1, 2001 (CBS News) - A radical environmental group Friday claimed responsibility for setting two fires last month that destroyed a university lab and a commercial tree farm.

The fire at the University of Washington's urban horticulture center in Seattle last week destroyed the offices of scientists who did research into the genetic modification of trees to make them larger and more useful to the timber industry.

Not far away and at about the same time, two buildings on the Oregon tree farm were also destroyed by a firebomb. There, scrawled on a wall, police found the signature of the ELF, as well as the message: "You Cannot Control What is Wild."

The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) on Friday claimed responsibility for those fires.

A fax from the ELF relayed to The Associated Press stated: "At 3:15 a.m. on Monday, May 21, the research of Toby Bradshaw was reduced to smoke and ashes. We attacked his office at the University of Washington while at the same time another group set fire to a related target in Clatskanie, Oregon, 150 miles away." Bradshaw is a researcher at the university lab.

The fax was relayed by Craig Rosebraugh, a Portland vegan bakery owner who receives communiques from ELF but says he is not affiliated with the group.

The fire at the UW caused as much as $3 million in structural damage, and botanists said they also lost years of research on topics ranging from wetland restoration to endangered species protection. The Oregon fire caused at least $500,000 in damage. No one was injured in either blaze.

Police and fire officials said both fires were the result of arson, noting the presence of sophisticated timing devices.

Another ELF spokesman said last week that the bombings were likely the work of the group and defended the act.

Another Suspicious Fire Three logging trucks were torched Friday near a federal forest where environmental protesters have camped out to try to keep loggers from cutting down trees. No one was injured in the blaze. A logging company had tentatively planned to begin harvesting trees in the Mount Hood National Forest on Friday, and activists had vowed to try to stop them. But the group fighting the logging said it was not behind the fires. Six simple incendiary devices were planted on each of six trucks parked in a rural area near the site southeast of Portland. Only one ignited, authorities said. One of the trucks, valued at about $50,000 apiece, was destroyed; two others were damaged. Federal agents were investigating but no other details were immediately released, and no one claimed responsibility. Protesters have been living among the trees for two years, trying to prevent logging at the site, including a handful of protesters who have been living in tree "pods" — aerial platforms strung between trees. (AP)

"The risk of genetic pollution getting released into the environment is potentially devastating," said Leslie Pickering, who identified himself as a spokesman for the group. He added that any wildlife conservation data lost in the Seattle fire would be a minor concern.

"Whatever was lost in that particular building is microscopic compared to what could happen if genetic pollution gets released into the natural environment," Pickering said.

ELF members have taken responsibility for an increasing number of blazes set across the country.

CBS News has learned more FBI agents have recently been assigned to investigate and attempt to infiltrate the ELF and similar ecoterrorist organizations.

Recently, the ELF has been linked to an arson campaign in Phoenix, tree spiking in Indiana, an attack on facilities at Michigan State University, several bombings on New York's Long Island, and an attempt last month to burn down a Nike Inc. outlet store in Minnesota to protest use of "sweatshop" labor.

In testimony to Congress this year, FBI director Louis Freeh said that eight terrorist incidents in 1999 were conducted either by ELF or a related group, the Animal Liberation Network, with several other incidents under investigation.

ELF opposes everything from genetic engineering to urban sprawl. Its costliest terrorist act to date was the $12 million fire set at the Vail ski resort in Colorado in 1998, reports CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes.

According to the FBI, the ELF set the fire to block the resort from expanding and destroying the last lynx habitat in Colorado.

"Eventually people may be injured in these fires or be killed," said Stephen Peifer, the assistant U.S. attorney in Oregon. "It's similar to groups that are dedicated to shutting down abortion clinics by violence. It's the same type of technique and the same type of objective"

-- Anonymous, June 02, 2001

Answers

DEF: "EXTREMISTS" (LEFTISTS, GREENIE, DANGEROUS)

HOW THEY DARE TRY TO "JUSTIFY" SETTING FIRES:

The fire at the UW caused as much as $3 million in structural damage, and botanists said they also lost years of research on topics ranging from wetland restoration to endangered species protection. The Oregon fire caused at least $500,000 in damage. No one was injured in either blaze. Police and fire officials said both fires were the result of arson, noting the presence of sophisticated timing devices. Another ELF spokesman said last week that the bombings were likely the work of the group and defended the act.

-- Anonymous, June 02, 2001

The rationale for such behavior is common to all true-believer groups whether in politics or religion. These evangelicals are probably "nice" people or at least started out that way. They have strong opinions about an issue and as time goes on they become frustrated that insufficient progress is made using conventional tactics. They are convinced that dark conspiracies prevent the people from seeing their "truth". They become more and more convinced that their view is the moral view which makes it ever easier to demonize and dehumanize those who do not see things as they do. Finally they reach a conclusion that only violence will advance their cause and, since their cause is "just", the ends justify the means.

This dynamic is played out over and over. It is the basis of violent revolution, of the "you can't make an omelet without breaking an egg" mentality. Timothy McVeigh, abortion doctor murderers, ELF, ALF, IRA, PLF, The Weather Underground, etc ad nauseum are all the same in this respect.

I don't see this ever changing. And sometimes violent acts are the only way to effect change. Trouble is, the revolutionaries usually become as corrupt as those they overthrow.

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose

-- Anonymous, June 02, 2001

The truly worst part of this is the ability to "Spread" and "Recruit" and even raise money for such SPURIOUS CAUSES aided now by the "cost effective" Internet emails and web sites.

That was a lesson of Y2k and the other was how few have learned that such tactics that the Violent Green and the Y2k Fud people used are used in more mundane areas.

If there is one thing that will come out of the Dot Com crash it will be the understanding that the Dot Com MEME was spread by some very self serving forces not the least of all were the V.C.s and Investment Bankers promoting sheer Toilet Paper as "securities".

In the collapse we have the same form of denial we know so well: "Only a few got hurt and they were well aware of what they were doing."

What never comes out in the discussions is that on Wall St. "everyone is doing it" is a pure signal to do exactly the opposite if you want to profit. When the Punks were sneering at Warren Buffett in 1999, he kept warning people (as did Greenspan) that there was irrational pricing. Few "analysts" stood up and demanded an end to the abuse of the Yahoo, Raging Bull and Silicon Investor list forums that were polluted by anonymous posters pitching and shilling the "Company line" and abusing the doubters.

A fast tour of some of the posts will show the same PR tactics and shilling are done even on the Fucked Company Web site. BUT THE TECHS HAVE OTHER THINGS TO SAY ......about the same companies that Wall St. was trumpeting.

LINK

http://www.fuckedcompany.com/

-- Anonymous, June 03, 2001