Earth Liberation Front

The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) is the collective name for anonymous and autonomous individuals or groups that, according to the now defunct Earth Liberation Front Press Office, use "economic sabotage and guerrilla warfare to stop the exploitation and destruction of the natural environment." [1] The organization has been active in the United States, Canada, Greece, and the United Kingdom where the movement was founded. ELF sympathizers say that it is an eco-defense group dedicated to taking the profit motive out of environmental destruction by targeting and causing economic damage to businesses through the use of direct action ^[1].

The ELF was classified as the top domestic terror threat in the United States by the FBI in March 2001 ^[2]^[3]. However, supporters and sympathizers of the group usually object to being called terrorists because no human has been injured by any action claimed by the ELF. The ELF's guidelines require that individuals or groups acting on its behalf "take all necessary precautions against harming any animal — human and nonhuman." [2]. On the lack of deaths from ELF action, the FBI's deputy assistant director for counterterrorism has said, "I think we're lucky. Once you set one of these fires they can go way out of control." ^[4]

Their techniques involve destruction of property that they believe is being used to injure animals, people or the environment. These activities are sometimes called ecotage and there are marked differences between their actions in the United States and in the United Kingdom. The Earth Liberation Front has no formal leadership, membership or official spokesperson; instead it consists of individuals or small groups who choose to use the term. However, the FBI says that activist Rod Coronado is "a national leader" of the ELF in the USA, while Coronado describes himself as an "unofficial ELF spokesman" ^[5]. Craig Rosebraugh served as an unofficial spokesperson for the ELF from 1997 to early September 2001 ^[6].

History

The Earth Liberation Front was founded in 1994 in Brighton, England by members of the "Earth First!" environmental movement. The name was derived from the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), a group that uses similar tactics to liberate animals or sabotage companies using them. ^[7] In the September–October 1993 issue of the Earth First! Journal, an anonymous article announced the creation of the ELF in England. It said the ELF "is a movement of independently operating eco-saboteurs" that split from the "British EF! movement, which has focused directly on public direct actions." The author noted that, unlike the ALF which seeks publicity, "ELF cells, for security reasons, work without informing the press and do not claim responsibility for actions... The surest way to be done for conspiracy or to attract surveillance or infiltrators is to seek attention."

Earth Liberation Front in the UK

In contrast to their US counterparts, the actions of the ELF in the United Kingdom have mainly focused around small, unreported, covert ecotage, and have fallen short of eco-terrorism or major arson. Such actions are often attributed to the "elves" and "pixies", a pun on the acronym. ELF(UK) has never had its own media outlets; instead actions have been reported in EF!(UK) publications such as Action Update and Do or Die!. Many acts were reported around co-ordinated Earth Nights or protest camps connected with road-building, airports, or quarrying. Since 1996 virtually no actions have been claimed by the UK ELF, although covert ecotage does continue ^[8].

ELF guidelines for action

The Earth Liberation Front has published guidelines for action. These guidelines say:

Any direct action to halt the destruction of the environment and adhering to the strict nonviolence guidelines, listed below, can be considered an ELF action. Economic sabotage and property destruction fall within the guidelines.^[9]

To inflict maximum economic damage on those profiting from the destruction and exploitation of the natural environment.
To reveal to, and to educate the public about the atrocities committed against the earth and all species that populate it.
To take all necessary precautions against harming any animal - human and nonhuman.

Actions, police response, and convictions

See Timeline of Earth Liberation Front actions

ELF "monkeywrenching" (a euphemism for acts of sabotage, arson, and vandalism) has been carried out against facilities and companies involved in logging, genetic engineering, home building, automobile sales, energy production and distribution, and a wide variety of other activities, all charged by ELF with exploiting the environment. Individuals work in autonomous affinity groups and are self-funded.^[10]

In late 2005 and early 2006, as part of Operation Backfire, US grand juries indicted a total of 18 activists on a range of charges related to "violent acts in the name of animal rights and environmental causes" ^[11]. According to the FBI, many of these acts were carried out on behalf of the ELF ^[12]. Although some of those arrested deny any affiliation with the ELF ^[13], others, including Rod Coronado, have established ties to the group ^[14].

In late 2006, a number of self-described ELF members pled guilty to arson and other charges in U.S. federal courts.[3]

On November 11, 2006, Joyanna Zacher, Nathan Block, Daniel McGowan and Jonathan Paul pleaded guilty to several eco-sabotage related charges, as part of a global resolution agreement with prosecutors. Judge Ann Aiken presided over the hearings. The change of pleas from the four defendants resolves all current “Operation Backfire” cases in Oregon.[4]

On December 15, 2006, Chelsea Dawn Gerlach and Stanilas Gregory Meyerhoff, pleaded guilty to $20 million worth of arsons committed between 1996 and 2001 by the Eugene-based cell of the ELF known as "The Family". Their fire-bombing of a Vail ski resort resulted in $12 million and the FBI characterized the ELF as the United States' "top domestic terrorism threat". Gerlach has previously pleaded guilty to 18 counts of arson in other attacks, saying she was motivated by "a deep sense of despair and anger at the deteriorating state of the global environment," but adding that she has "since realized the firebombings did more harm than good." Meyerhoff has renounced ELF and pleaded guilty to 54 counts, but is still under indictment in Michigan, Arizona, Washington, Wyoming and California.[5]

The FBI alleged that the group was led by William C. Rodgers, who was arrested in December 2005 and committed suicide in jail just before he was to be transferred to Oregon. Two other ELF members indicted in the Vail arson, Josephine Sunshine Overaker and Rebecca J. Rubin, have not been apprehended.

Vail Resorts Inc. has since rebuilt the firebombed lodge.

Criticism of ELF

The FBI designate the ELF as "eco-terrorists." ^[15] Representative Scott McInnis, then chairman of the US House Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health, subpoenaed Craig Rosebraugh in an effort to investigate the ELF's activities. On hearing Rosebraugh's testimony, McInnis suggested it was "luck" no one has been killed by an ELF (or ALF) attack. ^[16]

Referring to the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front, ATF Deputy Assistant Director Carson Carrol has said, "The most worrisome trend to law enforcement and private industry alike has been the increase in willigness by these movements to resort to the use of incendiary and explosive devices." ^[17]

It has also been claimed the ELF's actions harm the environment, a spokesman for the Vail Ski Resort, which the ELF fire bombed in 1998 in protest of a planned extension, explained, "more logs were used to rebuild the resort than were cut for the [original] expansion" [6] (pdf). In 2001 the ELF targeted the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture in with the aim of disrupting research into genetic engineering. However, the targeted researcher was investigating hybridization in poplar trees, and the resulting fire killed a significant number of endangered plants ^[18].

Trivia

Folk musician David Rovics performs a song dedicated to the ELF called "Song for the Earth Liberation Front" ^[19] as well as a song about accused ELF activist, Jeffrey Luers titled "Free", after Luers' nickname. ^[20]
Edward Abbey published The Monkey Wrench Gang in 1975. The book is thought to be the inspiration for the formation of Earth First!, but more closely resembles the ELF. In 1989 he published a sequel Hayduke Lives.
In the 2004 novel by Michael Crichton, State of Fear, a fictional group based on the Earth Liberation Front, but called the Environmental Liberation Front instead, is the main villain.

References

External links

[1] ttp://arkangelweb.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=405

[2] ttp://prfamerica.org/EarthLiberationFrontNo1onFBIList.html

[3] ttp://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress02/jarboe021202.htm

[4] ttp://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/19/domestic.terrorism/index.html

[5] ttp://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10370129

[6] ttp://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/02/334091.shtml

[7] ttp://greenfield.fortunecity.com/tree/16/fire.html#

[8] ttp://www.cardiff.ac.uk/cplan/teaching/cpt637/background/article1.pdf

[9] ttp://www.tkb.org/Group.jsp?groupID=41

[10] ttp://www.tkb.org/Group.jsp?groupID=41

[11] ttp://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/speeches/mueller012006.htm

[12] ttp://www.fbi.gov/page2/jan06/elf012006.htm

[13] ttp://www.indymedia.org/en/2006/01/831928.shtml

[14] ttp://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10370129

[15] ttp://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0130/p20s01-sten.htm

[16] ttp://www.stopecoviolence.com/pdfs/2_12_02.pdf

[17] ttp://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/19/domestic.terrorism/index.html

[18] ttp://www.museum-security.org/01/116.html

[19] ttp://members.aol.com/drovics/elfl.htm

[20] ttp://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/12/306830.shtml

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