FBI Investigating Possible Eco-Attack Against Boise Cascade
12/30/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: FBI investigating possible eco-attack; Statement Appears to
Link Fire to Earth Liberation Front
Source: MSNBC
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 30, 1999
PORTLAND, Ore., Dec. 30 - Officials are trying to determine whether a
Christmas Day arson fire that destroyed the Oregon offices of paper
manufacturer Boise Cascade Corp. was the work of radical
environmentalists, an FBI spokesman said Thursday.
A COMMUNIQU claiming to be from the Earth Liberation Front said
members of the underground group started the fire early Christmas
morning with four buckets of diesel fuel and a kitchen timer. The
group said Boise Cascade "ravaged the forests of the Pacific
Northwest."
The communiqu, came with a news release from the Liberation
Collective, which is in contact with ELF, and which said ELF was
responsible for the fire.
Craig Rosebraugh, a spokesman for the Liberation Collective, said his
group was a Portland-based nonprofit social justice organization that
receives "anonymous communications" from the ELF. "I just pass that
information along to the press and public," he said.
"I didn't even hear about the fire until this communication was
received," he told MSNBC. He said he verified that the fire actually
took place before distributing the statement to news media.
The release described the ELF as "an underground environmental
organization that uses economic sabotage to end the exploitation and
destruction of the natural environment and its inhabitants."
A FEDERAL MATTER
An FBI spokesman said that Oregon state police were investigating the
fire at Boise Cascade's offices in Monmouth, Ore., but that the
letter allegedly from ELF made it a federal matter.
"Now that ELF has allegedly taken credit for this fire, it does move
into a potential violation covered by the FBI under the domestic
terrorism statutes, and the FBI will conduct the investigation as
such," said Gordon Compton, a spokesman for the FBI's Portland
office.
"We will be investigating those individuals responsible for the
fire," Compton told Reuters. "It has been determined that the fire
was started by an accelerant, an arson."
Rosebraugh told MSNBC that a representative of the federal Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was trying to contact him about the
communiqu,, and in fact said at the end of the interview that the ATF
representative was at his door.
Boise Cascade spokesman Michael Moser said the company's Monmouth
offices, where 25 employees work, was destroyed by a fire on Dec. 25
and that state and federal authorities were investigating the
incident as an arson. He said he could not comment on the communiqu,
or the press release because he had not seen them.
The communiqu, sent along with the press release read: "Boise Cascade
has been very naughty. After ravaging the forests of the Pacific
Northwest, Boise Cascade now looks toward the virgin forests of
Chile.
"Early Christmas morning, elves left coal in Boise Cascade's
stocking. Four buckets of diesel and gas with kitchen timer delay
destroyed their regional headquarters in Monmouth, Oregon. Let this
be a lesson to all multinational corporations who don't respect
their ecosystems. The elves are watching."
The release said ELF was also responsible for a $12 million fire at a
Vail, Colo., ski resort in 1998 and for a $500,000 blaze at U.S.
Forest Industries in Medford, Ore., last December.
Reuters contributed to this story.