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....

SNIPPET: "ZAMBOANGA CITY—A wide swath of Western Mindanao and a large part of Lanao del Norte were plunged into darkness after rebels toppled down a transmission tower of the National Transmission Corp. (Transco), officials disclosed. 1Lt. Steffanie Cacho, Western Mindanao Command information officer, said the incident took place at about 2:30 a.m. on Saturday in barangay Tingin-Tingin, Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte. Cacho said the rebels used four homemade bombs in toppling Line Tower 22. One of the bombs, she said, failed to explode. SNIPPET: "No one has claimed responsibility for the incident, the first to take place this year. Last...

/begin my excerpt Why Did They Destroy Transmission Tower? Frequent sabotages since 2000... N. Korean authorities “should crush activities of anti-party element” [2007-09-12 14:34] /snip It is true that high voltage transmission towers were destroyed which relay electricity from S. Hamkyong Province to Yanggang Province in June, 2003, causing blackout in the entire Yanggang Province. The power outage even stopped the operation of weapon's plants such as Samjiyon Precision Machinery Factory. It also stopped the ventilation fan at Youth Mine in Hyesan, which had been repaired and was due to be operational again. Frequent transmission tower sabotages since 2000...