Free Republic

BY THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE (Compiled from news accounts, court records, public notices) Last week's arrest of a long-sought accused eco-saboteur pushed the spotlight back on a tight-knit cell of radical environmentalists responsible for a $48 million run of firebombings and other crimes across the West in the 1990s and early 2000s. Six men and five women prosecuted in Oregon received sentences ranging from three years to 13 years. They were arrested starting in 2005 in what the FBI called "Operation Backfire," a task force that tracked down the suspects with the help of an informant deep within the underground group....

French police have arrested three suspected Basque separatist militants in an Alpine ski resort, officials say. The men were reportedly armed and had false identity papers. Police arrested them in a raid on an apartment in Le Corbier Villarembert on Wednesday. One suspect, named as Alberto Machain Beraza, is thought to be linked to recent Eta bombings, including an attack in Majorca, Spanish media say. Eta has been blamed for more than 820 deaths during its separatist campaign. Eta claimed responsibility for the bombings in Spain in July, carried out just ahead of the 50th anniversary of the group's founding....

1998 Fires At Vail Ski Resort Cost $12 Million In Damage. Two people accused of setting the 1998 fire at the Vail ski resort will be sentenced in December on eight counts of arson stemming from the blaze that caused some $12 million in damage. Chelsea Gerlach and Stanislas Meyerhoff, both 29, were arraigned Wednesday in federal court in Eugene. They are to enter pleas and be sentenced on Dec. 14, when they are also to be sentenced for other arson-related crimes to which they pleaded guilty in July. Under plea deals, both agreed to have the Colorado charges transferred...