Feds arrest six in ecoterrorism investigation

Federal authorities announced Thursday the biggest eco-terrorism bust in U.S. history, clearing up a series of arsons that plagued the Pacific Northwest from 1998 to 2001.

The U.S. Attorney for Oregon, Karen J. Immergut, announced the arrests of six alleged ecosaboteurs from Portland to New York accused of taking part in four arsons attributed to the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front, as well as the vandalizing of power transmission lines.

The nine-year investigation cleared up, in order, the June 1998 arson of a U.S. Department of Agriculture building in Olympia; the December 1998 torching of U.S. Forest Industries in Medford; the January 2001 arson at Superior Lumber Co. in Glendale; and the May 2001 arson at Jefferson Poplar Farms in Clatskanie.

Authorities also announced they have cleared up the downing of a power transmission line near Bend on the eve of the 2000 millennium celebration.

Arrested were Sanislas G. Meyerhoff, 28, in Charlottesville, Va.; Daniel G. McGowan, 31, in New York; Kevin M. Tubbs, 36, in Springfield, Ore.; William C. Rodgers, 40, of Prescott, Ariz.; Sarah K. Harvey, 28, in Flagstaff, Ariz.; and Chelsea D. Gerlach, 28, in Portland.

More complete story for the details:

U.S. accuses 7 of eco-sabotage

The government Thursday announced the most extensive bust of eco-saboteurs in U.S. history, charging seven people with a series of arsons and vandalism that plagued the Pacific Northwest for nearly three years.

Those arrested include a Portland woman accused of taking part in the nation's only act of sabotage on the eve of the 2000 millennium celebration, the toppling of a high-voltage tower near Bend.

Federal agents took six men and women into custody from Oregon to New York on Wednesday, tying them to nearly $5 million in arson and vandalism damage from 1998 to 2001.

The crimes turned Oregon at that time into the epicenter of an underground assault on timber companies, research scientists and meat processors. Federal agents say the saboteurs, operating in small units called cells, have burned, vandalized and sometimes bombed enterprises that they accuse of profiting from the destruction of the planet and its living creatures.

Members of the Oregon FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force worked the cases for the better part of nine years, though they developed suspects early in the investigation.

Members of the task force told The Oregonian in July 2001 that they had tied five Northwest arsons -- including two connected to Wednesday's arrests -- to "signature" firebombs made of cheap digital timers and large containers of fuel. The task force then reported that it was closing in on at least three suspects and several compatriots. But no arrests were made until Wednesday.

The government declined to comment Thursday about why arrests were so long in coming. However, a federal prosecutor in Portland, Kent Robinson, noted that Wednesday's coast-to-coast roundup was coordinated to avoid suspects fleeing after learning of other arrests.

"These indictments prove that we're going to pursue these arsons until we solve them," said Robinson, who leads the criminal division for Oregon U.S. Attorney Karen J. Immergut. "And we're still investigating."

Authorities arrested Chelsea D. Gerlach, 28, Wednesday in Portland. Also arrested, according to prosecutors, was Kevin M. Tubbs, 36, in Springfield; Stanislas G. Meyerhoff, 28, in Charlottesville, Va., where he attended Piedmont Community College; and Sarah K. Harvey, 28, in Flagstaff, where she was a student at Northern Arizona University. The government also arrested Daniel G. McGowan, 31, of New York, and William C. Rodgers, 40, of Prescott, Ariz.

Robinson acknowledged that federal authorities employed a provision of the USA Patriot Act to close in on the alleged saboteurs. The law allowed them to obtain search warrants from U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas M. Coffin in Eugene and search in other states for evidence.

According to the indictments, the accused saboteurs first struck on June 21, 1998, with simultaneous fires at two U.S. Department of Agriculture research facilities in the Olympia area. The Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front, groups that the FBI later described as America's greatest domestic terrorist threat, claimed responsibility for the fires:

"The arrogant humans who make money by killing and destroying nature would have the public believe that beaver, deer and other wildlife are responsible for the decimation of our public lands -- not clearcutting!"

Tubbs and Rodgers were charged with setting fire to one of the USDA buildings.

The next arson came two days after Christmas in 1998, when U.S. Forest Industries in Medford was firebombed, causing at least $500,000 in damage. ELF claimed responsibility. The government has charged Harvey with arson in that case.

Saboteurs struck again on Mother's Day 1999 in Eugene, when Childers Meat Co. went up in flames. A criminal complaint filed Thursday accuses Gerlach, who went by the name "Country Girl," of serving as a lookout in that arson.

The indictment quotes a confidential source as saying that Gerlach used a handheld radio to communicate with fellow saboteurs. The source told an FBI agent, John Ferreira, that the informant was a participant in the conspiracy to commit the arson.

"The source said these persons used (four) five-gallon plastic containers and each triggered by a mechanical timing device," according to the complaint. "One incendiary device was set near the front door in a porch area and the other incendiary device was set next to a natural gas main."

The Animal Liberation Front later claimed responsibility for the Childers fire, which caused $1.2 million in damage, according to the government.

On Dec. 30, 1999, an electrical transmission tower owned by the Bonneville Power Administration was toppled about 25 miles southeast of Bend. No group took responsibility.

Gerlach and Meyerhoff, along with another woman, Josephine Sunshine Overaker, were indicted on charges of conspiring to destroy the tower. Overaker has not been arrested. Gerlach pleaded not guilty Thursday to the tower charges, which were filed in December 2004.

The Earth Liberation Front would later claim responsibility for setting fire to Superior Lumber Co. of Glendale on Jan. 2, 2001. A note passed to news media from the anonymous saboteurs declared, "This year, 2001, we hope to see an escalation in tactics against capitalism and industry."

Meyerhoff and McGowan were both charged with the Superior Lumber arson and one other blaze, also believed to be the work of the ELF, near Clatskanie. The two face life imprisonment if convicted of using destructive devices to perform both arsons.

"These are not misguided college students who are performing a protest in front of the student union," said Steve Swanson, president of the Swanson Group, formerly Superior Lumber Co. "These are serious crimes. Frankly, they're just criminals and they need to be treated as such."

Meyerhoff and McGowan also were charged with taking part in at least one of two simultaneous arsons on May 21, 2001, the torchings of Clatskanie's Jefferson Poplar Farm and Seattle's University of Washington Center for Urban Horticulture. The blazes marked the first time that eco-saboteurs had committed simultaneous fires in two states.

At a hearing in federal court in Portland on Thursday, Pat Ehlers, the public defender representing Gerlach, fought for his client's release. But Robinson successfully argued that Gerlach should remain in custody.

"We believe she is involved in other arsons and is a member of a loosely affiliated group responsible for a string of arsons," he said.

Well, well, well.... isn't THIS interesting?! From an "indymedia" source in Portland:

Feds target Earth/Animal Activists across county

The FBI and Homeland Security agents have stepped up their campaign against anarchists and animal rights and environmental activists. Raids in Arizona, NYC, arrests in NYC, AZ, grand jury subpeonas in OR.

U.S - The FBI and Homeland Security agents have stepped up their campaign against anarchists and animal rights and environmental activists. On Wednesday, in New York City, a 30 year old member of the Friends of Jeffrey Luers prisoner support group was arrested while at school. His apartment was also raided and computer and person affects seized. His arrest may be in connection with a May 2001 Earth Liberation Front arson at Jefferson Poplar Farms near Portland Oregon. The arraignment will be at 11:00 am Thursday morning on the second floor of the Federal Court Building, which is located at at 225 Cadman Plaza East in Brooklyn.

Portland activists, Frank Winbigler and Shannon (Nonny) Urick were approached in a cafe by three FBI agents, one agent from Homeland Security, and an Oregon Sheriff. They were served with papers ordering them to be witnesses in a federal Grand Jury investigation, and were also advised that they are both targets of the same investigation. The Grand Jury is scheduled for March 16th of next year in Eugene, Oregon.

Later in the day more than a dozen FBI agents, along with Joint Terrorism Task Force and local police officers raided The Catalyst Infoshop in Prescott, Arizona. Environmental publications were seized and one of the groups founding members was arrested. The arraignment is scheduled for 10:00 am Thursday morning in Flagstaff where the federal courthouse is. Police in Arizona consider anarchists to be a terrorist threat. A second person has been reported arrested in Flagstaff according to www.arizona.indymedia.org

Earlier in the week federal agents were asking around Boston for Daniel Andreas San Diego, who they allege is responsible for placing an explosive pipe bomb at Chiron Corp in Emeryville, California on August 28, 2003. The Chiron Corp, a biotechnology company, was a target of the animal rights campaign to shut down Huntingdon Life Sciences, a company that performs cruel experiments on animals.

This most recent attack on the earth and animal liberation movements was obviously well coordinated and planned far in advance. Activists across the country have been doing what they can to protect themselves by sharing information about how to avoid dealing with authorities a developing a better security culture.

At least 2 additional people served with subpoenas.

I (Jennifer Adrian) was also served a subpeona today, December 7, 2005.

I was approached at my workplace by two FBI agents, and was told that many arrests had been made across the country today for animal rights actions. I was also told that many other people were talking, and was pressured to "come clean" for my own good. When I insisted on talking to an attorney, I was issued a subpeona for a Grand Jury set for the same date as the one listed for the other people mentioned here.

I was told I would see all kinds of arrests on the news tonight, but I didn't see anything, so I was looking on the Internet for information and found your site.

Before dawn, this morning, two FBI agents from the Eugene office and several state police officers came to Southern Oregon to subpoena Suzanne Savoie, to appear before a federal grand jury on February 16, 2005 in Eugene.

Savoie believes she was under surveillance for a couple days prior to the visit. Agents claimed they were going to visit people all over the country today, trying to intimidate and scare people into talking. They are claiming that Savoie took part in three arsons that took place years ago, the Jefferson Poplar farm on the OR coast, the Superior Lumber Company in Glendale, OR, and Romania car dealership in Eugene.

They told Savoie that if she didn't start giving them information she would take the fall for all the men they said were involved. They said women usually take the fall for men and that she shouldn't let that happen. They showed Savoie four named photos of men who they said were the "bombmakers" and that they wanted her to give information about them. The FBI also used the usual tactics of threatening 60 years in jail to intimidate Savoie.

Most recently Savoie has been doing local community organizing in the Applegate Valley, fighting to stop the Bald Lick timber sale and a long term campaign to preserve Black Mountain on the Siskiyou Crest.

Usually a private person, Savoie nonetheless believes that this is a time for people who have been targeted to tell their stories.

I personally believe that it is important for all who know those targeted to offer the utmost support for them at this time.

More on Daniel McGowan who has shown to have both east coast and west coast ties... (envirowhacko moonbat alert)

Welcome to Infoshop News Saturday, December 10 2005 @ 07:57 AM PST Brooklyn Activist Daniel McGowan Falsely Arrested by FBI

Activist Daniel McGowan of Brooklyn was arrested at work and charged with a multiple count arson-related federal indictment stemming from his alleged involvement in an incident in 2001.

Brooklyn Activist Daniel McGowan Falsely Arrested by FBI
Daniel Defense Committee Issues First Statement to Public

The following statement comes from the authority of the 20 experienced activist members of the Daniel McGowan Defense Committee who met in Brooklyn after Daniel's court date. More information will be coming soon. For more information contact bpersky@defendanimals.org

Activist Daniel McGowan of Brooklyn was arrested at work and charged with a multiple count arson-related federal indictment stemming from his alleged involvement in an incident in 2001.

Daniel has denied all charges made against him, knowledge of the incident, and any membership in groups related to illegal activity of any sort.

His application for bail was denied by the judge today pending another hearing tommorow. We are asking that people continue to show support by attending another court date at the same place, FRIDAY DECEMBER 9TH at 2:00pm.

Court will be held at 225 Cadman Plaza East in Brooklyn, in the Federal Court Building, 2nd Floor.

Be there at 2:00PM SHARP.

PLEASE DRESS ACCORDINGLY.

Directions to the Courthouse:
SUBWAYS:
The following NYC subway lines stop in the vicinity of the Courthouse. The 2 and 3 trains stop at Borough Hall and Clark Street.
The numbers 4, 5 and the M and R stop at Court Street/Borough hall.
The A, C and F trains stop at Jay Street/Borough Hall. The A and C trains also stop a High Street. However, since this is not a very populous station, it is not recommended.

BUSES:
The following lines stop at Borough Hall: B25, B26, B37, B38, B41, B45, B51, B54, B61, B65, B67, B75.

LONG ISLAND RAILROAD:
The Long Island Railroad stops at Flatbush Avenue. At that point it will be necessary to take any of the following lines to Court Street/Borough Hall: M, R, 2, 3, 4 or 5 or the B41 bus.

For other directions to the courthouse visit: http://www.nyed.uscourts.gov/Jury_Service/Travel_Directions/Travel_-_Brooklyn_/travel_-_brooklyn_.html

-- Animal Defense League PO Box 1587 Huntington, NY 11743 ADL@riseup.net http://www.AnimalDefense.info http://www.InsideHLS.com

The links are all there for anyone to check. This is from activistcash.com:

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals provides aid and comfort for the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF). The two groups are responsible for more than 600 crimes since 1996, causing (by a very conservative FBI estimate) more than $43 million in damage. ALF’s “press office” brags that in 2002, the two groups committed “100 illegal direct actions” -- like blowing up SUVs, destroying the brakes on seafood delivery trucks, and planting firebombs in restaurants.

The FBI calls ALF and ELF the nation’s “most serious domestic terrorism threat.” Bruce Friedrich, PETA’s “vegan campaign director” and third-in-command, didn’t seem to care when he addressed the Animal Rights 2001 convention in Virginia, telling a crowd of over 1,000 activists that “blowing stuff up and smashing windows” is “a great way to bring about animal liberation.”

“It would be great,” he added, “if all the fast-food outlets, slaughterhouses, these laboratories and the banks who fund them exploded tomorrow.”

PETA’s connections to ALF and ELF are indisputable. “We did it, we did it. We gave $1,500 to the ELF for a specific program,” PETA’s Lisa Lange admitted on the Fox News Channel. PETA has offered no fewer than eight different explanations of what the “specific program” was, but law enforcement leaders have noted that since the Earth Liberation Front is a criminal enterprise, it has absolutely no legal “programs” of any kind.

For instance, in 2003, ELF set fire to an unfinished, 200 unit condominium complex near San Diego. The arson caused $50 million in damage, and according to a San Diego Fire Captain: “It could have killed someone.” ELF left its calling card in the form of a twelve foot sign that read: “If you build it -- we will burn it -- the ELF’s are mad.”

PETA also has given $2,000 to David Wilson, then a national ALF “spokesperson.” The group paid $27,000 for the legal defense of Roger Troen, who was arrested for taking part in an October 1986 burglary and arson at the University of Oregon. It gave $7,500 to Fran Stephanie Trutt, who tried to murder the president of a medical laboratory. It gave $5,000 to Josh Harper, who attacked Native Americans on a whale hunt by throwing smoke bombs, shooting flares, and spraying their faces with chemical fire extinguishers. All of these monies were paid out of tax-exempt funds, the same pot of money constantly enlarged by donations from an unsuspecting general public.

PETA president Ingrid Newkirk is also an acknowledged financial supporter of a publication called No Compromise. This periodical operates on behalf of the radicals of ALF, and often publishes underground “communiqués” and calls to arms from ALF leaders.

Most ominously, PETA president Ingrid Newkirk was involved in the multi-million-dollar arson at Michigan State University that resulted in a 57-month prison term for Animal Liberation Front bomber Rodney Coronado. At Coronado’s sentencing hearing, U.S. Attorney Michael Dettmer said that PETA’s Ingrid Newkirk arranged ahead of time to have Coronado send her a pair of FedEx packages from Michigan -- one on the day before he burned the lab down, and the other shortly afterward.

The first FedEx, according to the Sentencing Memorandum, was delivered to a woman named Maria Blanton, “a longtime PETA member who had agreed to accept the first Federal Express package from Coronado after being asked to do so by Ingrid Newkirk.” The FBI intercepted the second package, which had been sent to the same address. It contained documents that Coronado stole before lighting his firebombs, as well as “a videotape of the perpetrator of the MSU crime, disguised in a ski mask.” Since Coronado was convicted of the arson, we now know that he himself was that masked man. “Significantly,” wrote U.S. Attorney Dettmer, “Newkirk had arranged to have the package[s] delivered to her days before the MSU arson occurred.” (emphasis in the original)

A search warrant executed at Blanton’s home turned up evidence that PETA’s other co-founder, Alex Pacheco, had also been planning burglaries and break-ins along with Rodney Coronado. The feds seized “surveillance logs; code names for Coronado, Pacheco, and others; burglary tools; two-way radios; night vision goggles; [and] phony identification for Coronado and Pacheco.”

Shortly after Coronado’s arrest, PETA gave $45,200 to his “support committee” and “loaned” $25,000 to his father (the loan was never repaid and PETA hasn’t complained). Now free from jail, with an expired parole, and with the benefit of an expired Statute of Limitations on his many earlier arsons (to which he readily confesses in his standard stump speech), Coronado stood before a crowd of hundreds of young people at American University in January 2003 and demonstrated how to turn a milk jug into a bomb. A few days later, ALF criminals tried to burn down a McDonald’s restaurant in Chico, California, using a firebomb that matched Coronado’s recipe.

The following month, Ingrid Newkirk told ABC News that Rodney Coronado is “a fine young man.”

Newkirk wrote a book called Free the Animals! The Untold Story of the U.S. Animal Liberation Front and Its Founder, ‘Valerie.’ In it she writes: “The ALF has, over the years, trusted People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to receive copies of the evidence of wrongdoing … I have also become somewhat used to jumping on a plane with copies of freshly purloined documents and hurriedly calling news conferences to discuss the ALF’s findings.” Indeed, PETA has held such press conferences just hours after ALF arsons and other break-ins.

PETA has published a leaflet called “Animal Liberation Front: the Army of the Kind.” In another pamphlet, “Activism and the Law,” PETA openly offers advice on “burning a laboratory building.”

“I will be the last person to condemn ALF,” says Newkirk. And in another interview: “I find it small wonder that the laboratories aren’t all burning to the ground. If I had more guts, I’d light a match.” In ALF’s publication Bite Back (yes, this terrorist group has a newsletter), Newkirk has said: “You can’t have all politeness and patience, all potlucks and epistles … Some people will never budge unless [they are] pushed to budge.”

Perhaps Newkirk’s most telling comment, though, came in a 2002 U.S. News & World Report feature. “Our nonviolent tactics are not as effective,” she admitted. “We ask nicely for years and get nothing. Someone makes a threat, and it works.”

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