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Unchecked by Federal Law Enforcement, Green Terrorism Is On the Rise

By Tom DeWeese

On the night of Sunday, October 18, 1998, America changed. Whether it will be a change for good or bad depends entirely on the resolve of the American people, and in particular, on the nation's law makers and law enforcers.

On that night in October, the term "eco-terrorism" finally gained national attention as buildings, ski lifts and a new hotel construction site in Vail, Colorado were burned to the ground. When the smoke cleared, over $12 million of private property lay in rubble. The Earth Liberation Front (ELF), an arm of the radical Earth First!, took credit, saying it lit the fires to protect endangered species. The fires came after the environmentalists had lost a court battle to block construction of the new hotel.

The national news media was puzzled by the violence, saying in headlines, "Radical environmentalists take NEW approach." The Associated Press (AP) produced an incredibly uninformed story indicating a link between the violence and a local "class" warfare between the rich inhabitants of the ski resort and the workers who are facing sky-rocketing costs brought on by the resort. The usually reliable Washington Times even produced an editorial saying the eco-terrorists really just "hated the rich" because the ELF issued a statement saying, "putting profits ahead of Colorado's wildlife will not be tolerated."

It is clear the news media haven't a clue as to the true mission of environmental terrorists like the Earth Liberation Front. The attack had literally nothing to do with class warfare. And there was absolutely nothing NEW about the attack on the Vail ski resort. Such environmental violence has been going on for over ten years. The only change is that the Vail attack was much more visible than the attacks on ranches and the timber industry which have been the main victims of eco-terrorism. Also, at Vail the amount of the damage was much higher than usual.

So this time, finally, the attack attracted the attention of the FBI. But even for the FBI, the attack was a puzzlement. The FBI has no one assigned to investigate eco-terrorism, nor does it have any active investigations open for violent groups like the Earth Liberation Front or Earth First.

In fact, under orders from Attorney General Janet Reno, the FBI has indeed been busy beefing up its domestic terrorist unit - for one purpose - to investigate right wing and conservative groups. But FBI agents have admitted quietly, off the record, that they have found absolutely no evidence of violence coming from the right. Not even from the militias. But they have no orders to investigate the left.

So it seems that America's leadership is ill-equipped to meet the new challenge it now faces. Nevertheless, the green terrorists are prepared to up the ante by increasing their violent attacks in a vicious war that has been raging quietly - unopposed by federal officials - for over a decade. It's a war being waged by violent, radical revolutionaries whose goal is to destroy our very way of life.

More Than 1,500 Eco-Terrorist Attacks - With No Government Reaction

Arson, property destruction, murdered livestock, fence cutting, bomb threats and intimidation have all been a part of an intense campaign by eco-terrorists. It's enough to make any law enforcement agency salivate for action. But little has been done.

In October , 1996, arson fires in Eugene, Oregon cause more than $7 million in damage to U.S. Forest Service buildings. The Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front took credit for the destruction.

On June 21, 1998, these same groups took credit for two arson fires in Olympia, Washington that destroyed two United States Department of Agriculture research facilities. Damage was more than $2 million for each fire.

Environmental terrorists declared October 29, 1996 to be an "International Day of Action." Earth First Journal published a communication for an eco-terror group call "End Corporate Dominance." The group called on green activists to take action against corporate targets. "Whether your group chooses (names of corporations) or whether your target is the corporate headquarters, a neighborhood toxic dump or the CEO's private residence, corporations around the world will feel our united rage." And so they did.

In the Willamette National Forest in Oregon, the U.S. Forest Service announced a plan to permit logging on parts of the forest. Environmental activists set up a blockade of a logging road into the forest. There they picketed and blocked access to the road for eleven months.

On the night of October 29, 1996 arson fires burned trees across 9,000 acres of the Willamette Forest. Another fire broke out at the Detroit Ranger Station in the forest. One ranger vehicle was destroyed and graffiti was spray on four others. An undetonated incendiary device was found on the roof of the Station. The Earth Liberation front took credit for the action.

Elsewhere in the forest that same night, at the Oakridge Ranger Station, a building used by 73 employees was destroyed by fire. Estimated damaged was between $5 and $7 million. As the fire department responded it had to deal with hundreds of nails spread on the road at the entrance of the facility. The FBI called this arson the "second worst terrorist attack against a government facility in the history of the country." Yet, the national media did not cover the story.

Earlier, on September 4, 1996, as suggested in the Earth First Journal, a corporate CEO did indeed have his private home attacked by eco-terrorists. At the home of John Campbell, CEO of Pacific Lumber, gasoline was poured on a portion of the house and the surface of his swimming pool. The pool was ignited, but the flames did not spread to the house. A sign left at the scene said: "Save the Headwaters." This referred to a logging area being protested by Earth First.

Added to their destruction of property, eco-terrorists have added a new tactic - intimidation of elected officials and business leaders.

In 1997, the offices of Congressman Frank Riggs was invaded by a gang of Earth First activists who spread urine and filth around the office after first dumping a 400 pound tree stump in the middle of the lobby and handcuffing themselves to it.

Earlier that same year, Montana Senator Conrad Burns, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman and Montana Governor Mark Racicot were attacked at a public meeting and pelted with rotten bison entrails. Since July of 1998, the American Farm Bureau Federation, based in Chicago, has received at least eight bomb threats. Behind the letters and threatening phone calls is an environmental group which wants the Farm Bureau to drop its court challenge to the wolf-recovery program at Yellowstone National Park. Experts suggest the threats could be coming from the Animal Liberation Front.

The targets of eco-terrorists are not just U.S. companies and property owners. Activists move back and forth across the Canadian border. As a direct result of environmentalists' intimidation and legal assaults, Price Waterhouse has estimated that the Canadian timber industry has lost about a billion dollars.

One Canadian company has decided to speak out about the attacks. The Alberta Energy Company Ltd (AEC) published a paper entitled "Terrorism and a Fractured Community." In it the company details the effect the green terrorism is having on its community and its citizens. The paper details an 18 month reign of terror in which the company and its employees experienced bombings at two of its facilities; nails across the roads; tire slashings; holes drilled through pipelines; high-powered rifle shots taken at plants and offices; and finally ruptured pipe lines and explosions. Employees, says the report, are "living and working under a state of siege."

Why Is There No Effort To Bring These Terrorists To Justice?

From Mexico to Canada and throughout the United States millions of dollars of property is being destroyed. Businesses are attacked. Citizens are living in fear. These are international terrorists. Clearly this is a job for the FBI.

Evidence indicates that there may be a much more sinister side to the eco-terrorism story. Why hasn't the FBI opened investigations? With violence on the scale of the attack on Vail, where is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF)? Why haven't government agencies like the Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Forest Service taken direct action to report on and detain known radical environmentalists who regularly make threats of violence? Why aren't they at least investigating the attacks against their own facilities? Where is Congress? Where are the investigative hearings? Why the silence? Why the news blackout? The questions are puzzling. The answers may be shocking.

The FBI is beefing up its domestic terrorism unit. But, under orders from Attorney General Janet Reno, their assignment is to investigate the right wing and Conservative groups. The Wise Use Movement, made up of ranchers, farmers, timber and mining workers and property owners, has been the target of an investigation by the State of New Mexico.

Recently, the Attorney General of New Mexico was forced to rescind a report that accused the Wise Use Movement of violent activities. The report was withdrawn because there was no evidence whatsoever to back up its charges.

Meanwhile, New Mexico has launched a campaign to investigate Americans who speak out against U.S. involvement in the United Nations. New Mexico authorities, saying they are working under directives from the FBI are currently investigating the activities of Henry Lamb. Mr. Lamb is a great friend of The DeWeese Report and has never taken part in, or advocated the use of violence. He is a researcher. Interestingly, no authorities in New Mexico have taken steps to investigate eco-terrorists.

FBI agents have said confidentially that they have found no evidence of violence perpetrated by right-wing organizations - including the militias. None. They have, however reported that there is strong evidence to indicate that green activists are involved in violent acts. But the FBI has not been given orders to mount an investigation.

In addition, leadership of the Fish and Wild Life Service and the Forest Service are not informing the FBI of violent acts taking place in their jurisdictions.

Still, the violence on the scale of the Vale arson is too big for the FBI to ignore. So the investigation has begun, but agents are ten years behind. They have no research on the ideology of green groups or on their network of activists and publications. They are literally starting from scratch -hampered by Janet Reno's Justice Department.

But why has the media ignored such a story of violence and terror? Sources reveal a possible attempt by government agents to cover up such activities. And those agents may have contacts very high in the Clinton Administration. Could it be that the Clinton White House is trying to protect radical environmentalists that are friendly to its agenda? Could the path lead as high as Vice President Al Gore?

In a casual, off the record, discussion with a Forest Service agent, a source for this article asked the nature of the agent's job. He said it was his job to keep Earth First's violent activities out of the news. This was a federal agent who apparently is assigned the duty of keeping known terrorist activities from coming to light.

It gets worse. At a recent meeting in the Supervisors office of the U.S. Forest Service in Eugene, Oregon, concerned citizens and federal agents met to discuss the eco-terrorist activities surrounding the Wilamette Forest. Citizens wanted to know why it took the Forest Service eleven months to step in and arrest Earth First protesters.

More precisely, the citizens wanted to know why the Earth First activists were able to get away with their activities - free - without arrest or repercussions.

One citizen asked the agents: "did anyone in the Clinton Administration tell you to leave Earth First alone?" The question was met with silence.

Then the question was asked, "was it Katy McGinty?" One agent responded, "you don't have to go any further."

Katy McGinty was the director of the White House's Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). She worked directly under Vice President Al Gore. McGinty had led the effort to develop the President's American Heritage Rivers Initiative.

Here now, were federal agents indicating that Katy McGinty was responsible for orders directing the U.S. Forest Service to protect environmental terrorists who had caused millions of dollars in damage to government facilities and private property. Who gave Ms. McGinty her orders?

We may never know because shortly after that meeting, Congressman Don Young, Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee set up a commission to look into the Willamette Forest situation. Within a few weeks of that announcement, Katy McGinty resigned her position with CEQ and left for India to join her husband in working for the United Nations.

And so the intimidation and violence go on. Businessmen are afraid to speak out for fear of retaliation. A spokesman for the Wyoming Farm Bureau said, "this has been going on for about three years, but we have kept it quiet. We didn't want to give the terrorists oxygen." Meanwhile, Congressmen and even FBI agents have received death threats.

Hearings were finally held in Congress this past summer. But there was no publicity. There was no action taken. There were no hearings held in the Senate. It was a nice show, but there are no further investigations on environmental terrorism taking place in the halls of the United States Congress.

The Vail incident has finally gotten the FBI's and the media's attention. Reporters like to ski. And there have been several stories about safety in Vail. Terrorists have promised more attacks. The Utah Olympics are coming up. Will they be safe?

Are tourists safe anywhere now? Cruise ships have been accused of polluting the oceans. Yellowstone National Park has been declared too crowded for the taste of environmentalists. Swimmers and boaters pollute rivers and lakes. Airplanes damage the Ozone layer and help create global warming. Campers invade wildlife habitat and start forest fires. According to radical environmentalists, all of these activities are enemies of the Earth. Therefore, all must be stopped. No tourist is safe from eco-terrorists.

And how long will the FBI's new investigation last if orders come down from Janet Reno's office ordering them to stop such nonsense and get back to the investigation of those dangerous ranchers?

Environmental terrorists perpetrate their violence because they have an agenda. They want an end to human development. They seek the re-wilding of more than 50% of America's land mass. Their violence is designed to run property owners and business out of rural areas - as step one to their radical plans.

Does it all sound too preposterous? Could the radical greens' dream of a vast wilderness actually be accomplished?

Any movement can achieve its goals if it is protected from opposition. So far, this one has been hidden for more than a decade. It hasn't been reported on. It hasn't been subjected to federal investigation. Worse, it is being funded by its own victims who pay blackmail in a hopeless attempt to be spared from its violence.

Can the green terrorists succeed? What will stop them?

Information and documentation for this article was provided by Barry Clausen, North American Research, P.O. Box 311, Cutten, CA 95534. Mr Clausen is a professional investigator who spent over a year undercover, investigating Earth First. He is a consultant to several companies on the subject of domestic terrorism and has testified on the issue before the United States Congress.