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DALI, China — Justin Franchi Solondz, an environmental activist from New Jersey who spent years evading charges of ecoterrorism in the United States by hiding out in China, was sentenced to three years in prison by a local court on Friday on charges of manufacturing drugs in this backpacker haven. After serving his time, Mr. Solondz, 30, who is on the F.B.I.’s wanted list, will be deported to the United States, where he faces charges stemming from what the authorities say was his role in an arson rampage that destroyed buildings in three western states as a member of a...

DALI, China — Justin Franchi Solondz, an environmental activist from New Jersey who spent four years evading charges of ecoterrorism in the United States by hiding out in this backpacker haven, was convicted by a Chinese court on Friday of manufacturing drugs. After serving a three-year sentence, Mr. Solondz, 30, who is on the F.B.I.’s most wanted list, will be deported to the United States, where he faces charges stemming from what the authorities say was his role in an arson rampage that destroyed buildings in three western states as a member of a group related to the environmental extremist...

Earth First! made headlines with its tree-spiking in the 1980s, but the guy who helped make the anti-logging tactic famous didn't invent it. Mike Roselle even titled one chapter of his new book "Why I Quit Spiking Trees." In it, the co-founder of Earth First!, the Rainforest Action Network and the Ruckus Society described how the practice brought old-growth timber cutting to national awareness, but became a public relations disaster for the protesters. "I think the Wobblies can take credit for it if they want, but it's been around as long as logging," Roselle said, referring to the Industrial Workers...

Craig Rosebraugh, a longtime activist, former Earth Liberation Front spokesman and former Portland restaurateur, has started up a new quarterly magazine: "Resistance, Journal of the Earth Liberation Movement."View full sizeDoug Beghtel/The Oregonian Craig Rosebraugh in 2000.The Arizona-based magazine isn't striving for mainstream balance; it describes itself as "radical" and names Shell oil company as its "Ecoterrorist of the Season." Today's release is the second edition, but Rosebraugh is describing it as a "national launch," saying the magazine is now available at Borders and hundreds of other stores in the United States and Canada after signing on with Disticor Distribution. Rosebraugh...

Stephen James Murphy was detained in Texas by the FBI in connection with an incident in 2006 at a construction site for townhouses.The FBI has arrested an environmental activist in connection with the attempted arson of unfinished town homes in Pasadena in 2006, authorities said Thursday. Stephen James Murphy, 43, was arrested without incident Wednesday at his home in Arlington, Texas, after being named in a criminal complaint filed last week in U.S. District Court, said FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller. According to the complaint, the Pasadena Fire Department responded to a construction site on Sept. 19, 2006, and found what...

PORTLAND, Ore. - Vandals in Portland targeted some pretty pricey cars over night, throwing acid or paint stripper all over them. No one has claimed responsibility, and there's no telling just how many people were involved. The damage to as many as 15 cars is expensive. Here's one, a Hummer from the besieged Vic Alfonso Cadillac Dealership in Northeast Portland. You can see a number of spots where the paint is now peeling off the car. A sociology professor at Portland State University said there are plenty of reasons that could have motivated the vandals to do all of...

A group cited by U.S. officials as a domestic terrorism threat claimed responsibility Friday for knocking down two radio station towers in Snohomish County, Washington. Much of the tower system, owned by radio station KRKO, was "flattened like a pancake," the manager said. Much of the tower system, owned by radio station KRKO, was "flattened like a pancake," the manager said. The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) issued a statement saying opponents of the towers argue that "AM radio waves cause adverse health effects including a higher rate of cancer, harm to wildlife, and that the signals have been interfering with...

EVERETT, Wash. — Two radio station towers toppled after someone used a piece of heavy equipment to knock them down. Everett radio station KRKO's General Manager Andy Skotdal says a sign left at the scene Friday says ELF, likely a reference to the Earth Liberation Front.

Radical Ecoterrorist Group Topples Two Radio Towers Near Seattle EVERETT, Wash. (AP) - Two radio station towers were toppled early Friday, and the station's manager said an ecoterrorist group's initials were left at the scene. A sign bearing the letters ELF was found near the towers, said Andy Skotdal, general manager of KRKO Radio in Everett, about 25 miles north of Seattle. The Earth Liberation Front is a loose collection of radical environmentalists that has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks since the 1990s. However, Snohomish County sheriff's office spokeswoman Rebecca Hover wouldn't confirm that a sign was found. A...

SANTA CRUZ - A year ago today, UC Santa Cruz molecular biologist David Feldheim and his wife woke up at 5:45 a.m. when a firebomb exploded on their front porch of their town home on Village Circle, a small enclave of modest housing near campus. The couple and their two children, then 2 and 4, fled the flames by climbing down a second-floor fire escape. Feldheim bruised his feet as he scrambled to safety, but the rest of his family was unharmed. Minutes later, outside a cluster of faculty residences on campus, a second firebomb ripped through an unoccupied Volvo...

The boys in green are coming as the Environment Agency sets up a squad to police companies generating excessive CO2 emissions. The agency is creating a unit of about 50 auditors and inspectors, complete with warrant cards and the power to search company premises to enforce the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), which comes into effect next year. Decked out in green jackets, the enforcers will be able to demand access to company property, view power meters, call up electricity and gas bills and examine carbon-trading records for an estimated 6,000 British businesses. Ed Mitchell, head of business performance and regulation...

Fiscal Policy: The House of Representatives is preparing to vote on an anti-stimulus package that in the name of saving the earth will destroy the American economy. Smoot-Hawley will seem like a speed bump. Not since a misguided piece of legislation imposed tariffs that turned a recession into a depression has there been a piece of legislation as bad as Waxman-Markey. The 1,000-plus-page American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454) is being rushed to a vote by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi before anyone can seriously object to this economic suicide pact. It's what Janet Napolitano, secretary of Homeland Security,...

Fiscal Policy: The House of Representatives is preparing to vote on an anti-stimulus package that in the name of saving the earth will destroy the American economy. Smoot-Hawley will seem like a speed bump...As we've said before, capping emissions is capping economic growth. An analysis of Waxman-Markey by the Heritage Foundation projects that by 2035 it would reduce aggregate gross domestic product by $7.4 trillion. In an average year, 844,000 jobs would be destroyed, with peak years seeing unemployment rise by almost 2 million. Consumers would pay through the nose as electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket, as President Obama once...

Fiscal Policy: The House of Representatives is preparing to vote on an anti-stimulus package that in the name of saving the earth will destroy the American economy. Smoot-Hawley will seem like a speed bump.Not since a misguided piece of legislation imposed tariffs that turned a recession into a depression has there been a piece of legislation as bad as Waxman-Markey.The 1,000-plus-page American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454) is being rushed to a vote by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi before anyone can seriously object to this economic suicide pact.

The House of Representatives will vote Friday(Today) on the so-called “American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009” -- a.k.a the “Waxman-Markey” global warming bill. But whatever you want to call this legislative atrocity, if enacted into law, it will go down in history as the death knell of the American standard of living and way of life. If you hate America, this bill is for you. After decades of fierce battling between rabid greens -- that is, left-wingers masquerading as “environmentalists” -- and the global warming skeptics, few Americans seem to have bought into the bill’s premise ­ that...

It appears that years of debate about climate change and energy may now come down to a vote on an actual bill, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES). As I write this, the vote is scheduled for Friday. If it occurs, you will be asked to vote to implement carbon rationing in the United States.   Without regard to party or ideology, I believe that the evidence is clear that this law would be contrary to the public interest. Here is why, in a nutshell: 1.  It would be a terrible deal for American taxpayers. According to the...

Last week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released their analysis of the Waxman-Markey climate change bill that had proponents of the bill claiming Americans could save the planet for just $175 per household. That was the figure CBO estimated cap and trade would cost households in 2020 alone.[1]Both the CBO's analysis and the subsequent legislation are troubled: The analysis grossly underestimates economic costs while the legislation will have virtually no impact on climate. Overall, there are a number of basic problems with CBO's analysis: Their allowance cost numbers do not add up; They ignore economic costs such as the decrease...

WASHINGTON – America’s third largest party urged the U.S. House Tuesday to defeat plans for a $1.9 trillion energy tax hike over eight years. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is attempting to rush H.R. 2454, the Waxman-Markey energy tax bill, to a vote this week. “With unemployment rising above and beyond what President Obama said it would be with the multi-hundred billion dollar stimulus bill, now is not the time to dismantle our economy with a multi-hundred billion dollar energy tax hike,” said William Redpath, Libertarian National Committee Chairman. “Libertarians urge House members to defeat this job-killing tax hike on Americans,”...

ABSTRACT: Democratic leaders in the House have scheduled a Friday vote on a climate change bill that would establish a complex cap-and-trade system to limit the nation's greenhouse gas emissions, a priority for President Obama. The House Rules Committee unveiled the latest version of the bill, which weighs in at 1,201 pages. It features new items such as $7.5 billion in "green bonds" for a new federal financing agency called the Clean Energy Deployment Administration, extra emission allowances for politically powerful rural electric cooperatives, greater flexibility for states that want to use free allowances for mass transit, and tweaks benefiting...

Is an imperfect climate bill (Waxman-Markey) better than no bill at all? Al Gore says yes.To bring environment supporters together, Gore will host a nationwide conference call on June 23 at 8 p.m. ET. The purpose, according to his Repower America e-mail sent to a selected audience, is “to build urgency around this bill and make sure it passes. We have to go to the grassroots – we have to continue building support in communities across the nation.”“As this climate legislation moves before the full Congress this summer, we have an opportunity unlike anything we’ve seen yet,” the e-mail concludes.Gore...

It was 4 o'clock in the morning when David Jentsch, a neuroscience professor at UCLA, awoke to a loud bang and the sound of his car alarm. He hurried to his bedroom window and saw the orange glow of his new Volvo luxury sedan burning in his yard. He suspected immediately that it was the work of animal rights activists. "Enough of my colleagues had been attacked that I had a feeling they were responsible," Jentsch said about the March 7 torching of his car. "Two days later the Animal Liberation Brigade took credit for it. The irony of the...

A vehicle was firebombed outside the home of a university researcher on Saturday, prompting Chancellor Gene Block to issue a statement condemning the attackers. There were no reports of injuries, said Phil Hampton, a university spokesman. Animal rights activists claimed responsibility for the firebomb in a statement released through the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, which speaks on the behalf of the activists. They threatened in the statement to continue to harass the targeted researcher – whose name was not released because of the ongoing investigation - until he stops his research. Block responded to the threats on Monday....

Officers swooped on environmental protesters as they prepared a mass raid that could have disrupted supplies to tens of thousands of homes. The demonstrators are thought to have gathered at night in readiness to move on Ratcliffe-on-Soar power-station, Nottinghamshire. They were rounded up shortly after midnight on Sunday at the Bakersfield Community Centre in Sneinton, Notts, by scores of officers. Detectives later revealed they recovered specialist equipment that suggested the group represented a "serious threat" to the station's safety. Supt Mike Manley, of the Nottinghamshire force, said 114 men and women from across the UK were detained during the dramatic...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://detroit.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/de032709.htm The United States Attorney's Office Western District of Michigan Press Release SENTENCING IN 2001 ECO-TERRORISM ATTEMPT AT MICHIGAN MARQUETTE, MI—Ian Jacob Wallace, 27, of East Setauket, New York, was sentenced on Monday by U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes Bell to serve three years in Federal prison for his role in the November 5, 2001, attempted fire-bombing of U.S. Forest Service property located on the campus of Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Michigan, U.S. Attorney Donald A. Davis announced today. Wallace, who committed the offense on behalf of the activist environmental group known...

Ian Wallace is a graduate student in anthropology in New York who has studied fossils in Kenya, combed excavations in Syria and France and written about his research in scholarly journals. But next week, he will be sentenced to federal prison for trying to blow up two buildings at a Michigan university in 2001 when he was a radical eco-saboteur. It is another case of federal agents catching up to people who formerly were passionate members of the Earth Liberation Front, known as ELF. "Ian Wallace's past has come back to harm him," The FBI contacted him in January 2007...

Vandals who claim to act in the name of animal rights and the environment are expanding their targets from laboratories and constructon sites that offend them to homes and cars of those with whom they disagree. On Feb. 19 in Tucson, a UA researcher had her water valve cemented shut and a mining company employee had her car tires flattened and her windows etched with hateful sayings. A press release posted on the San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center site by a group calling itself "Tucson H.A.A.N.D." or "Hooligans Attack at Night, Duh," claimed responsibility for the acts. It...

Briana Waters is on trial in Tacoma for her alleged role in the 2001 arson at the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture. It was one of a number of incidents of vandalism in the Northwest attributed to Earth Liberation Front's campaign to rid the world of things that aren't "wild." So what is wild?On the afternoon of May 21, 2001, investigator Cheryl Glenn of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) walked through the charred remains of several buildings at the Jefferson Poplar Farm in Clatskanie, Ore. Periodically she would stop, adjust her gloves, get down...

SAN FRANCISCO - The FBI said Friday it has opened a domestic terrorism investigation a day after two small bombs damaged the headquarters of biotechnology company Chiron Corp. The bombs were detonated between 2:55 a.m. and 4 a.m. Thursday at the company's Emeryville campus. No one was injured and damage was limited to a few broken windows. Chiron and its executives have been confronted in recent weeks by animal rights activists protesting the company's relationship with a New Jersey lab which tests drugs on animals. On Friday, an animal rights group calling itself variously the "Animal Liberation Brigade" and the...

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Angry survivors blame council 'green' policy Andrea Petrie, Arthurs Creek February 11, 2009 Page 1 of 2 | Single Page View ANGRY residents last night accused local authorities of contributing to the bushfire toll by failing to let residents chop down trees and clear up bushland that posed a fire risk. During question time at a packed community meeting in Arthurs Creek on Melbourne's northern fringe, Warwick Spooner — whose mother Marilyn and brother Damien perished along with their home in the Strathewen blaze — criticised the Nillumbik council for the limitations it placed on residents wanting the council's help...

PICTURED: The dramatic moment when protesters rammed a Japanese whaling ship This is the moment when a protest ship rammed a Japanese harpoon ship in the bitter clash over whaling...the Steve Irwin tried to prevent a whale being dragged on board the factory ship Nisshin Maru.... The moment the protesters' ship collided with the stern of Japanese harpoon whaling ship. It was trying to stop a minke whale being dragged aboard the factory ship the Nisshin Maru which can be seen in the background A helicopter from the protesters' ship hovers over the Japanese factory whaling ship the Nisshin Maru...

The government says a 20-year prison sentence for a woman who committed arson at Michigan State University would be the toughest punishment ever in a case of so-called eco-terrorism. Marie Mason is due in federal court at 9 a.m. today. The explosion and fire at Michigan State's Agriculture Hall in 1999 was a protest against genetically modified crops. Damage exceeded $1 million. Prosecutors want a 20-year prison sentence for the 47-year-old Cincinnati woman. Mason's lawyer says that would be extreme. Mason has admitted other acts from 1999 through 2003, including fires at homes under construction in southeastern Michigan and Indiana....

January 23, 2009 Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel09/fugitive012309.htm Possible Sighting of FBI Fugitive in British Columbia The FBI is working with Canadian authorities to confirm the possible sighting of one of its Domestic Terrorism fugitives. Last November, the Bureau announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of four eco-terrorists known as “The Family.” Rebecca Rubin, one of the four fugitives, was spotted by a tipster who may have seen her near her hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia. We received several tips about all of the fugitives as a result of the publicity. Some of...

| New Delhi: If you are still carrying groceries or vegetables from the market in plastic bags or using them to dispose of your garbage, you run the risk of a jail term or fine, or both. An indulgent official machinery may give you time to find alternatives but the ban was put in place last Saturday and covers all shopping areas and big eating joints, hotels and hospitals. The notification is silent on the earlier rider that bags with thickness of 40 microns and more will be allowed. Since it’s difficult to measure thickness on the spot, the government...

ABSTRACT: Just as the U.S. gets a new President who promises to reverse years of climate change neglect, with Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore at his side, American environmental experts worry that Europe's resolve on climate change is substantially weakening. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has gone out of her way to show herself as a climate saviour. But those times are over. Now, with heads of state and government from the European Union gathering in Brussels at the end of the week to approve the bloc's climate goals, Merkel has begun singing a different tune. She said that she...

Hostile Green Takeover: The Auto Industry Faces Environmental Thuggery Senate Floor Speech - November 20, 2008   Contacts: Matt Dempsey 202-224-9797Elizabeth French 202-224-8260 November 20, 2008 Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) – Ranking Member, Environment and Public Works Committee:   Mr. President, Americans are once again being asked to foot the bill for yet another “urgent” bailout.  In October, Congress voted for an unprecedented $700 billion bailout of Wall Street, and now much of the same alarmist rhetoric is being employed to pressure members to act quickly.    The latest bailout demand making the rounds in Washington is for the Big Three auto...

Al Gore does Oprah - was anybody watching?29 11 2008 A guest post by: Russ Steele from NCWatchWe can only hope the most people in the US are shopping on Black Friday and not watching the Oprah Winfrey Show today.  Al Gore has brought his global warming propaganda machine to share with Oprah.  You can find the details on Oprah’s web page.  Here are some of the topics that Gore is pushing:Classic Gore:“Some of the leading scientists are now saying we may have as little as 10 years before we cross a kind of point-of-no-return, beyond which it’s much more difficult...

Abstract: President-elect Barack Obama said attacking global climate change is a "matter of urgency" that will create jobs as he got advice from Al Gore, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the issue. Obama made clear he would adopt an aggressive approach to global warming when he takes over the White House on January 20. He and Vice President-elect Joe Biden met for nearly two hours with Gore at Obama's presidential transition office in Chicago. Obama hopes addressing climate change can create the kind of jobs that will help pull the U.S. economy out of a...

Los Angeles, CA (AP) -- Anti-animal research activists are claiming responsibility for torching two vehicles they thought belonged to a researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles. Activists connected to the Animal Liberation Front say they destroyed the vehicles on Nov. 20 to protest the work of Goran Lacan, a researcher who used animals while investigating treatments for morbid obesity and eating disorders. The group accidentally targeted the wrong address, . . .

We need your help in locating these four fugitives. Click on their names or photographs to see their wanted posters. It has been 10 years since a group known as “The Family” torched a ski resort in Vail, Colorado, causing $26 million in damage and drawing international attention to eco-terrorists—those who break the law in the name of the environment and animal rights. Since that time, we’ve joined our federal, local, and state law enforcement partners in establishing Operation Backfire to bring these criminals to justice. Our efforts have been successful, but four individuals under indictment remain at large. At...

The FBI on Wednesday quintupled rewards for four suspects in the $26 million arson of a Colorado ski resort 10 years ago. The four suspects, who are thought to be the last members of the eco-terror group known as "The Family," are believed to have fled overseas. "The Family" was thought to be affiliated with ELF, the Earth Liberation Front. Together, the four are suspected in "at least 25 domestic terrorism criminal actions totaling over $48 million in damages, including the largest eco-related arson in history, a $26 million arson at the Vail Ski Resort," ... "These individuals are terrorists;...

Fear of deadly attack by lone maverick as officers alert major firms to danger of green extremism. Police have warned of the growing threat of eco-terrorism after revealing they are investigating a group which has supporters who believe that reducing the Earth's population by four-fifths will help to protect the planet. Officers from a specialist unit dedicated to tackling domestic terrorism are monitoring an eco-movement called Earth First! which has advocates who state that cutting the Earth's population by 80 per cent will ease pressure on other species. Officers are concerned a 'lone maverick' eco-extremist may attempt a terrorist attack...

<p>The FBI is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the arrest of four environmental extremists accused of sabotage attacks in five Western states — including a 1998 firebombing at a Colorado ski resort that caused $12 million in damage.</p>

REDFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - A business owner checking a Dumpster for scrap cardboard was alarmed by something else: gas masks, maps, an M-80 explosive, arson photos and anti-government writings. "It was kinda scary," Andy Wishaw recalled. "Some of my employees said it's nothing. I thought, 'What's it going to hurt to call the police?'" The discovery turned out to be a big break for the FBI. Agents on the trail of eco-terrorism used the contents to help solve more than a dozen acts of arson and tree spikings in Michigan and Indiana committed in the name of a radical...

Wiebo Ludwig,(Alberta farmer) convicted of bombings in 1990s, says he understands frustration that leads to sabotage. RCMP called in members of a local search and rescue team on Saturday to help sift through a 300-metre debris field surrounding the second of two pipeline bombings. "It's likely we'll still be there tomorrow," RCMP spokesman Tim Shields said. Anything out of the ordinary hidden in the long grass and fallen leaves could lead them to the bomber. RCMP also released a partial description of a pickup truck seen leaving the scene the morning of the latest explosion. That blast happened before dawn...

FBI Warns of Potential Terror Attacks The FBI and Department of Homeland Security today issued an analytical "note" to U.S. law-enforcement officials cautioning that al-Qaida terrorists have in the past expressed interest in attacking public buildings using a dozen suicide bombers each carrying 20 kilograms of explosives. Authors with the U.S. Office of Intelligence and Analysis added that they have "no credible or specific information that terrorists are planning operations against public buildings in the United States." The FBI and DHS analysts said they were releasing the note because "it is important for local authorities and building owners and...

Tamsin Omond: Retiring from the 'frontline' I'm too terrified of jail to carry on, says eco-warriorBenedict Moore-Bridger 15.10.08     CAMBRIDGE graduate and "face" of the climate change campaign Tamsin Omond today revealed she was withdrawing from frontline action, admitting the thought of prison "terrifies" her.The 23-year-old told the Standard that her first full night behind bars had given her a "reality check", and how her parents are now concerned for her future.Ms Omond became one of the leading names in climate change campaigning after joining the so-called "Commons Five" who scaled Parliament in February to protest over plans...

A self-confessed hostility toward people who drive Hummers, along with worries about family and finances, prompted a 72-year-old Southlake man to scratch paint on five of the sports utility vehicles, police said.... The vehicles, he complained, "have a big carbon footprint and they use four times as much gas as the rest of us," according to the affidavit. Detective K. Fulgium, who wrote the affidavit, also said Jeppe complained that Hummer drivers take two parking spaces and "park wherever they want." Jeppe told Fulgium that he is a member of two well-known environmental groups....Police subsequently learned that the man was...

A self-confessed hostility toward people who drive Hummers, along with worries about family and finances, prompted a 72-year-old Southlake man to scratch paint on five of the sports utility vehicles, police said. (snip) '' 'I've got a mentally ill son and everything went together, my wife is diabetic and having problems, the stock market, and I just looked at the truck and I gashed it. 'I don't have a twin, I'm 72 years old and I'm awfully sorry.' ''

KAYSVILLE - Three Utah members of the Animal Liberation Front claimed credit Monday for breaking into a Kaysville farm early Sunday, destroying property and releasing thousands of minks. A statement posted on the ALF Web site states that the group entered the farm, released the minks and destroyed all breeding records. It states that they destroyed an electrical fence, vandalized trucks and equipment and cut about 100 holes in the perimeter fence. Juan Becerra, spokesman for the the FBI's Salt Lake City office, said his bureau was assisting local detectives, but that it was too early in the investigation to...