ELF calls for "direct action" at FBI offices and other federal buildings
Copyright 2001 Associated Press
March 14, 2001
PORTLAND, Ore. - The FBI was expected to issue a warning to all of its offices and other federal buildings after spokesmen for an eco-terrorist group called for demonstrations and other "militant direct action" on April 5.
The Earth Liberation Front issued an e-mail alert Tuesday from its Portland press offices, targeting those offices for "direct action" on the same day an accused ELF saboteur is scheduled to appear in an Indiana court.
Frank Ambrose was charged in January with spiking trees to thwart logging of a state forest in Bloomington, Ind. Ambrose, the first person charged with committing a crime on behalf of the ELF in North America, has maintained his innocence.
"It is up to us to resist this repression by any means necessary," wrote the group's press officers, Craig Rosebraugh and Leslie Pickering.
The spokesmen say they do not know the identities of ELF members, and receive anonymous claims of responsibility from the culprits that they relay to news media.
The group has claimed responsibility for 19 arsons and four other significant crimes from Oregon to New York since 1996, including the arson of a Colorado ski resort that caused $12 million in damages.
The ELF targets enterprises - typically logging, homebuilding and road construction - that it accuses of profiting from destruction of the natural world.
The FBI calls the ELF a domestic terrorist organization.
Supervisory Special Agent Kevin Favreau, who heads the Portland bureau's domestic terrorism unit, said he hoped the protests would mirror last year's peaceful gatherings to protest the FBI's investigations of the ELF and its sister organization, the Animal Liberation Front.
But he said it's only a matter of time before some extremist acting on beliefs held by the group commits a disastrous crime, such as a bombing.
"What's dangerous about this is the fact that someone might take militant direct action to mean something outside the ELF guidelines," he said.
Rosebraugh and Pickering said they hoped their public call for action would prompt militant demonstrations - and perhaps more - against federal authorities.
"If they're angry, they ought to do more than just hold a sign," Pickering said.