Another Skokomish Power Outage

Resident of the Skokomish Valley are chafing at the frequent power outages they endure at the hands of PUD#1. Yet another one lasting several hours occurred 1-3-13 (Thursday) @ ~7:40 p.m.  This one was due to a disruption originating with the BPA (Bonneville Power Administration) which provides electricity to PUD#1 as a retailer of the same.

The outage affected PUD#1 & PUD#3 residents alike including those of Lake Cushman. The time has come to discard the band-aid maintenance of 20th century infrastructure in favor of more reliable 21st equipment (and buried distribution lines) for the more critical needs commensurate with our modern technology based existence. Today, repeated power failures mean dead phone lines, no e-mail or internet access, lack of water (well pumps), frozen water lines in the dead of winter, loss of business, no communication with emergency services, no heat, no light, and an increasingly lasting level of frustration.

Isn’t it time to elect PUD#1 commissioners who will recognize how great the need and failure has become…willing to bite the bullet and spend the money to serve customers who, in theory, own PUD#1? We are no longer a back woods community, but one who needs to fully participate in the 21st century to survive.

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(A)nti-Work: The Secret Is To Tell

Journalism is printing what someone doesn’t want published, everything else is Public Relations!” -George Orwell-

“The gypsies rightly believe that one must never speak the truth except in one’s own language; in the enemy’s language, the lie must reign.” -Translator’s Introduction by Bill Brown-

When the Scriblerus Club of Verona, Italy first published Il segreto è dirlo (“The Secret is to Tell”) in 1983, it was an anonymous work. In the words of the very brief text on its back cover, this novel is the story of the “life and adventures of Salvatore Messana,” who is “a thief, sinner, adulterer, sailor, bank robber, militant of the extreme left, swindler and, finally, a ‘specialist in getting sacked’ who amassed a large fortune.”

Before going any further, allow me to remark that, though I can certainly understand why someone would want the story of downtrodden Salvatore Messana (a kind of Savior Messiah) to have a happy ending, that last idea is false. Though the novel’s hero may have “earned” money by being such an intentionally bad worker (a saboteur, in fact) that his employers were forced to buy him out of his work contracts, he certainly didn’t “amass a large fortune.” His various scams only netted him enough money (no more than $10,000 at a time) to be able to live without having to have a steady job.

Normally, such people – scam-artists, con men and the like – do not reveal their secrets. As Guy Debord says in Panegyrique, which is the story of his own life and adventures, “The gypsies rightly believe that one must never speak the truth except in one’s own language; in the enemy’s language, the lie must reign.” This is why the hero calls himself Salvatore Messana (it appears that his real last name is Upim) and why the author of Il segreto è dirlo wanted to remain anonymous. To be safe from police prosecution, they both did not want to be correctly identified. (Note well that my use of the word “both” assumes that Upim and the author aren’t one and the same person.)

But Salvatore Messana is not a typical scam-artist or con man. Unlike his friend Piras, who chose “to take the money and disappear,” he is dedicated to the education of his fellow proletarians, who, thanks to him, “learned more in an instant than they had learned their whole lives.” To educate as many people as possible, Messana opens Il segreto è dirlo with a short statement entitled “Preliminary Points.” In it, he explains that the secret (the ultimate secret: not just a particular one) is not to keep everything a secret. Telling one’s secrets is a very good way to piss off “the prudent cowards, who are always ready to whisper appeals to stay silent, and the muddled minds that get bogged down in the details, murmuring that the secret is to say nothing,” as well as his own “cunt of an attorney […] who immediately advised me to not divulge the systems that have allowed me to increase my revenues at the expense of the bosses.”

This is what distinguishes Salvatore Messana from his friends in the extreme Left. Unlike them, he knows – and wants it generally known – that engaging in militant class struggle isn’t simply “the right thing to do” and that it doesn’t require one to renounce the acquisition of money and the good things that it can buy. If done in a certain way, class struggle pays. “If you went through the necessary negotiations,” Messana says, “this accursed modern society was able to provide even the outcasts with a salary.”

In 1989, Il segreto è dirlo was translated into French as Le Secret C’est De Tout Dire! (“The Secret is to Tell All!”) by Monique Baccelli and published by Editions Allia. Apparently informed of this translation, and supposedly involved in its preparation (“the majority of the footnotes were created following the author’s indications”), the creator of Salvatore Messana decided that the time had come to identify himself. In the words of a short text that appears on the back cover of the French edition,

Gianni Giovannelli was born in Ferrara in 1949. An attorney, he lives and works in Milan. He has published Svaraj Gandharva (Bianca e Volta, Milan, 1982; second edition: Tranchida, Milan, 1986); Confessioni di un uomo malvagio (Tranchida, 1988); and, under the pseudonym Palmiro, Lettera al Giudice Forno (Machina Libri, Milan, 1981) and Poesie dalla latitanza (C.T.A., Milan, 1982).

I have checked: these books really exist. But of course this does not rule out the possibility that, in the same way that “Palmiro” is a pseudonym for Gianni Giovanni, “Gianni Giovannelli” is a pseudonym for someone else. I say this because there is in fact a well-known Italian politician by that name, and he is closely affiliated with the notorious crook Silvio Berlusconi. As such, he would make an excellent target for a disrespectful parody.

“My book appeared anonymously,” the man calling himself Gianni Giovannelli says in his preface to the French edition, “so as to avoid confusion with the bands of little opportunists who published ambiguous and insidious chronicles of the Italian struggles in the obvious hope of obtaining some crummy job.” This is reasonable, I suppose: an anonymous author cannot hope to use his book to obtain “some crummy job.” But there are problems with this explanation. On the one hand, Il segreto è dirlo is not an “ambiguous and insidious” chronicle of the class struggles in Italy during the 1970s: it is in fact quite clear and open about its intentions. On the other hand, I know of two books that are “ambiguous and insidious chronicles of the Italian struggles” of the 1970s – The Truthful Report on the Last Chances to Save Capitalism in Italy and Letters to the Heretics – and both of them were not anonymous originally, but were passed off as the works of authors who did not in fact write them (a conservative capitalist who called himself Censor and Enrico Berlinguier, the head of the Italian Communist Party, respectively). And, just like Il segreto è dirlo, these books (which were actually written by Gianfranco Sanguinetti and Pier Franco Ghisleni, respectively) were tributes to the anti-work politics of the Situationist International and clearly intended to destroy Italian capitalism. (Note well that Il segreto è dirlo is in part dedicated to someone named “Gianfranco” and that Sanguinetti seems to be alluded to in the book’s last chapter: he is the “strange character, who had made the art of wreaking havoc into his philosophy of life.”)

There are a couple of other odd details in the French preface to Il segreto è dirlo. Why does it refer to the person who printed the original Italian edition (Marino Mardersteig, who runs Stamperia Valdonega), but not its original publisher? Why does it make such a big deal about “the adventures of a strange client of my services, the worker Stabile Fioravante,” when it appears that Stabile Fioravante doesn’t exist? I am reminded here of Salvatore Messana’s reference to “Professor Lapo Meneghetti,” who is thanked “for having the patience to correct my manuscript, which was written haphazardly, for having respected its spirit, and for having been happy to translate it into good Italian,” but who in fact doesn’t exist.

Perhaps it was these “tells” – or the book’s publication by Editions Allia, which has published several situationist-related titles – that caused Guy Debord to believe he recognized Gianfranco Sanguinetti behind the name Gianni Giovannelli. “Do you know the recent book by Gianfranco?” he asked Charles Vincent on the back of a postcard dated 25 February 1991. “There are pleasing things in it.” A footnote that was affixed to Debord’s possibly mistaken but certainly positive evaluation by either Alice Becker-Ho (aka “Alice Debord”) or the book’s publisher refers to “Le secret c’est de tout dire, by a [sic] Gianni Giovannelli (published by Allia),” and explains that Le Secret is a “fraud that, in a picaresque mode, mixes real facts with the ‘adventures’ of a known informer.” It is abundantly clear that the person who wrote this offensively stupid footnote never read the book in question (it is certainly not a fraud [supercherie] nor is there any reason to believe that either its author or its hero is a known informer [un indicateur avéré]) and wishes his or her readers to think the worst of Gianni Giovannelli, that is to say, Gianfranco Sanguinetti, who, ever since 1981, had been on Guy Debord’s shit list. (Note that the identification of “Giovannelli” as a pseudonym used by Sanguinetti – which is something that Gianfranco himself has denied – is repeated by the index included in the very last volume of Guy Debord Correspondance, published by Librairie Artheme Fayard in 2010. Under “Giovannelli, Giovanni” is says “see Sanguinetti, Gianfranco.”)

* * *

As the reader will see from the footnotes (all of which are mine, as are all phrases that appear within brackets [thus] and the subtitles given to the six sections of Part One), there were a good number of significant discrepancies between the Italian original and its translation into French. Sometimes whole passages were left out; other times, passages were inserted. Even worse, sometimes the French translator changed the meaning of particular passages. It is my opinion that, though she knows Italian much better than I do, I know the book’s politics much better than she does, and thus my version is easily the better of the two.

NOT BORED!
New York City
28 December 2012

The Secret is to Tell All!

by Gianni Giovannelli

Dedicated to Gianfranco, Caterina and Bruno

Preface to the French Edition (1989)
Preliminary Points (1983)

First Part *

I (The war)
II (Street urchin)
III (Maria)
IV (The Sultana)
V (In the chain locker)
VI (Return to Liguria)

Second Part

Living in Milan
The Hunt for Money
Return to the Factory
Operation Super-Cleaning
Operation Splendor
The Blitz and Operation Salve

Conclusion

Text on Back Cover

Translator’s Introduction

*The subtitles were not part of the original edition and have been added by the translator


To Contact NOT BORED!
Info@notbored.org

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Forks Fire Destroys DNR Building

FORKS – In the wee hours of the new year, a 7,500 square foot Dept. of Natural Resources (DNR) building was left in ruins by a towering inferno.

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Under Investigation

Clallam Fire Dist. #1 received the alarm @ 12:19 am before reaching the 411 Tillicum Lane address to find the blaze in the DNR maintenance building and mechanics shop, according to Fire Chief Bill Paul.

Forks and Port Angeles are centers for processing what little available old growth forests remain on the Olympic Peninsula. Washington’s DNR is the official agency selling permits to private corporations profiting from the destruction of these forests. It has also condoned the BioMassacre of Clallam forests on behalf of a Port Angeles pulp mill’s application along with the diversion from a major local fish bearing stream to water the plant.

3 Dist. #1 crews and 1 from Dist. #6 (Chief Jeff Baysinger) fought the  inferno for 4 hours, Paul said. No injuries were reported and the building was unoccupied, but destroyed. No estimate of the value of the building or its contents was given.

Besides a maintenance and mechanics shop, the structure also housed a shipment receiving area and information technology equipment. The building was the smaller of 2 on the property.

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Why (A)LF Fights Animal Research Cruelty

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Brothers

Gorilla Brothers Reunited: Long-lost siblings!!

Gorilla brothers’ emotional embrace captured after three years apart !! Handshakes, hugs and laughter were on display when two long-lost gorilla brothers were reunited after spending nearly three years apart. The pair of primates surprised staff at Longleat Safari Park, Wiltshire, with an affectionate display of brotherly love – having been apart since 2010. Kesho and his younger brother Alf were separated after the elder sibling was sent to London Zoo as part of a breeding program. The heart-warming moment as the misty-eyed pair embraced after being reunited, also appearing to share a joke, was captured on camera.
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Despite Kesho appearing almost unrecognizable, with his weight ballooning by 200lbs, head gorilla keeper Mark Tye said Alf had no problem recognizing his sibling.

‘We weren’t entirely sure that the brothers would even know each other, but the moment they met you could just see the recognition in their eyes,’ he said. ‘They were touching each other through the cage that temporarily separated them and there were no acts of aggression. ‘We put them together 24 hours later and it was like they had never been apart. ‘They were very animated and there was a lot of rough and tumble on the floor, but not in an aggressive way. ‘It is quite unusual to see that sort of childlike behaviour in a silverback.’ Kesho was recently moved to the new £3m enclosure after his attempts to father a baby gorilla were unsuccessful due to him being infertile.

‘They have formed a really tight bond and Kesho is actually incredibly tolerant,’ added Mr Tye. ‘Had they been two strangers there would have been a lot of face-to-face confrontation and some fighting and screaming. ‘But Kesho and Alf were happy to turn their backs on one another which is a sign of trust.
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‘It is great for Alf to have an older brother to look up to and learn from and Kesho seems to enjoy being the center of attention.
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‘It was very satisfying to see.’ The pair now look set to spend the rest of their days in the bachelor pad enclosure, set up due to the large amount of males in the current European breeding program.

chimpfuneral

Spontaneous Grief

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Skokomish Winter 2012

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Snowfield

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Visiting Winter Graze

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Hard Times

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Bull Elk

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Halden’s Pond

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Older Alder

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South Fork

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Elk Crossing

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Twin Towers

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Tasmanian Devil Goes to Hell

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Tasmanian Devil

If the Australian Corporate timber giants aren’t part of the Simpson (aka: Green Diamond) family, then they sound like 1st cousins.

The Tasmanian devil is one of the rarest animals on earth. A marsupial that has existed on this planet for thousands of years is being wiped out by a facial cancer. Timber concessionaires will bulldoze vast tracts of forests, then replant with only the desired species of trees that are turned into wood chips to export to Japan. Only certain types of wood make the best paper. These timber concessionaires then replant only the species they prefer. They grow saplings on the clearings, and these are vulnerable to insects, and rodents, deer, and many of the animals in Tasmania are very rare and endangered. Big business timber concessionaires used pesticides, then started poisoning forest creatures by dropping carrots laced with odorless, tasteless poisons made in Alabama, USA. The Taz devils ate animals that died from this poison, which in turn destroyed the Tasmanian devil’s immunity to disease. These timber concessionaires buy the lease to the lands in Tasmania, and defend their right to do as they please with the land they use. Whatever the effort that conservationists are doing to save the Taz are rendered useless if the habitat of these animals will be destroyed.

And why is Multiple Sclerosis (MS) so common in the Pacific NW, but so uncommon in southern California, arguably an even dirtier environment in some ways? Could it be the Dioxin Simpson has dumped on Mason County and in its estuaries along with the chemicals they’ve sprayed their commercial tree farm operations with have entered the food chain and aquifers? Why is the health of Mason County residents so far below par of the other Washington State Counties and cancer rates so much higher? Why do we continue to drink the kool-aid?

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Mason County Mail Box Thefts Spike

Reports/Complaints of mail box vandalism/thefts have spiked with the Holiday Season at an alarming rate according to one source in Shelton’s U.S. Post Office. Residents are urged to be especially vigilant and report any suspicious activity/presence to the Sheriff. Game/Surveillance cameras may help catch the thieves. They’ve come down in price to about the cost of a decent pair of shoes

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(A) Call to Arms: Violent Rhetoric Discredits (A)narchists

Like the rest of us, (A)narchists come in such a variety of colors, sizes, shapes, and persuasions as to defy description. Still, there are those who seek refuge within the label as a shield for their hatred of society, the state, and those responsible for law enforcement. Paraphrasing their own ideology, if these violently radical street elements ever wielded any real power, we’d have to kill them! The following article, excerpted from the (A)narchist News blog which lifted it from the Australian ‘Indymedi(a)’ blog (Sydney) in turn, reveals why:

deadcop

The Alternative?

Reposted from the (A)narchist News and an article by Black Rose Books on Australia’s Indymedia.com

“The Australian people made heroes of none, and raised no idols, except perhaps Ned Kelly, an outlaw.. ”  –Brian Fitzpatrick-

On December 6 police were called to a property in Oakville Sydney over a neighbourhood dispute about a bird aviary.

The police and media claim 19 year old Mitch and 45 year old Fiona Barbiari barricaded themselves inside their home when officers arrived and Mitch kept police at bay with a volley of arrows throughout a two hour siege. Shortly after detective inspector Bryson Anderson breached the Barbieri’s back patio, he was stabbed and would later die of his wounds. Mitch and Fiona have both been charged with his murder.

What followed was a week of commercial media hagiographies attempting to paint Bryson as a fallen hero and the NSW [New South Wales] Police Force as brave protectors and saviors of the ‘community’, while the accused have been savagely vilified. No cop is innocent of the brutality inherent in routine police work, nor of the dehumanizing barbaric torture of incarceration. As a high ranking officer with 26 years in the force, Bryson has plenty of blood on his hands.

In the early morning of the 12th of December, we dropped three banners from the Hathem St. bridge over Parramatta Rd. in Petersham. We chose this day to coincide with Bryson’s open funeral, which police and media had encouraged the general public to attend. This small action was made to expose the corporate media whitewashing of police violence and murders, with its claims ‘the whole state is in mourning’. We wished to make clear our rejection of police protection and our solidarity with the accused.

The banners read:

FREE MITCH AND FIONA BARBIERI

FROM JOSEPH LUKER TO BRYSON ANDERSON NO TEARS FOR DEAD COPS!

FUCK THE POLICE

Joseph Luker, a member of the Sydney foot police was the very first cop to be recorded as killed on duty, in 1803.

From the first police units to be established following the British invasion, to the militarized NSW police force, cops have played a central role in displacement and imprisonment of our aboriginal population, the regulation/control of convicts, the poor, the working settlers and immigrants in the interest of ruling elites.

The social ‘peace’ police uphold allows hunger while surplus food is discarded from supermarkets and homelessness while buildings sit empty for decades. This social ‘peace’ is a lie, maintained only by a constant war against the marginalized, dispossessed, and under privileged. The daily violence cops meet out to us using batons, fists, boots, OC spray, tazers, handcuffs and Glocks is no accident. They’ve chosen their side in this war, so have we. We are against any ‘peace’ under capitalism. We encourage looting, squatting and confrontations with police to reclaim communal territory from capitalists.

UNTIL THERE ARE NO POLICE PATROLLING OUR STREETS, ARRESTING OUR LOVED ONES AND HASSLING US AT EVERY TURN, THE POLICE WILL BE ATTACKED

ALL OUR HEROES KILLED COPS

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Entr(a)pment: How our Youth are Criminalized

Men cry, “Peace, Peace!”, but there IS no ‘peace’. Is peace so sweet and life so dear that we would purchase it at ANY cost?–I know not what course others may take, but as for me, Give me Liberty…or give me Death!”  -Patrick Henry-

The following article is reposted from the Sacramento News & Review:

Conspir(a)cy of Dunces

Three would-be eco-terrorists were arrested in Auburn last January (2006) for plotting acts of sabotage for the Earth Liberation Front. But would there have been a conspiracy without the prodding of FBI infiltrator Anna?
This article was published on .

The arrest of three alleged eco-terrorists on January 13 was thanks to the work of a mysterious FBI informant who went by the name of Anna.

ILLUSTRATION BY GIA-BAO TRAN

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On the morning of January 13, the FBI was keeping a close eye on a cabin in Dutch Flat, about a half-hour north of Auburn. The government had the cabin and its four occupants—two men and two women—under 24-hour surveillance for nearly a week because the group was suspected of plotting acts of domestic terrorism in the name of the Earth Liberation Front.

The four left the cabin at around 10 a.m. in a 1997 maroon Chevy Lumina and traveled about 30 miles to a Kmart in Auburn. There were agents inside the store, watching them shop.

Agents outside watched the parking lot, too, as one of the men, 28-year-old Eric McDavid—tall and athletic, who wore his red hair short under a baseball cap—returned to the car with his companion, Anna, a pretty, dark-haired woman in her mid-20s. Inside, 20-year-old Lauren Weiner and 20-year-old Zachary Jenson continued to shop, stopping a clerk to inquire about Pyrex cookware. All the while, agents watched and waited.

Once all four reassembled in the parking lot, carrying bags full of household cleaning supplies and a Pyrex bowl—bomb-making materials, according to the government—members of the FBI, the SWAT team and the Joint Terrorism Task Force moved in.

It wasn’t a violent takedown.

Three from the group were quietly handcuffed and loaded into patrol cars. Their shopping bags were inspected, quickly inventoried and loaded into the trunk of another. All but Anna were taken to the Sacramento County Jail and then charged with conspiracy to commit arson. The government alleged that the conspiracy was part of a planned terrorist bombing campaign targeting power stations in San Francisco, a forest-genetics research lab in Placerville and even the Nimbus Dam.

The three never saw Anna again. She had befriended them, brought them together, paid the rent on the Dutch Flat cabin and encouraged them every step of the way. She had been an FBI informant all along.

According to a report from FBI agents, Jenson muttered, “Friday the 13th, what a day,” from the back of the squad car as they drove away to jail.

The green scare
The arrest of the three would-be eco-terrorists was part of a larger crackdown on what the government considers one of the most fearsome domestic terrorist organizations in the United States: the Earth Liberation Front.

That same month, with great fanfare, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice announced the arrests of 17 alleged members of ELF, charged with 65 counts of arson and conspiracy. That investigation was called Operation Backfire.

But critics, like the National Lawyers Guild, call Operation Backfire and other investigations and arrests of eco-radicals the “green scare” and a misuse of resources to fight terrorism.

“The indictment tells a story of four-and-a-half years of arson, vandalism, violence and destruction claimed to have been executed on behalf of the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front—extremist movements known to support acts of domestic terrorism,” said Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at the press conference announcing the results of Operation Backfire, on January 20, just a week after the arrests of Weiner, McDavid and Jenson.

“Investigating and preventing animal-rights and environmental extremism is one of the FBI’s highest domestic-terrorism priorities,” said FBI Director Robert Mueller at the same press conference.

That quote was widely reprinted in newspapers all over the country. Here’s another, which didn’t  make it into most media accounts: “The FBI becomes involved, as it did in this case, only when volatile talk crosses the line into violence and criminal activity,” Mueller also said.

Keep that in mind as you read further. The government says that its confidential source, Anna, foiled the plot cooked up by McDavid, Jenson and Weiner. But court documents suggest that it took a lot of care and feeding, encouragement and money from the FBI informant, Anna, to get this particular conspiracy to hatch.

In May, Weiner agreed to plead guilty. She faces a maximum of five years in prison and is free on bail, living with her family in New York.

Last week, after more than six months in the Sacramento County Jail, Jenson also agreed to a plea bargain, and to testify against McDavid. He’s been released on bail and is scheduled to be sentenced in early October.

That leaves McDavid left to stand trial. He’s the oldest, and the one prosecutors say was the real leader behind the plot. He was also the one who was closest to Anna, the FBI informant who stuck with McDavid for a year-and-a-half, asking him questions, making suggestions and acting as if she were his lieutenant while reporting on his every move to the FBI. According to testimony from Sacramento-based FBI Special Agent Nasson Walker, she got paid at least $75,000 for her work.

The defendants’ lawyers say that there could have been no conspiracy at all without Anna. Documents from the investigation reviewed by SN&R suggest that Anna provided much of the financial support, the encouragement and the know-how needed to turn their talk into action. They also show that whenever the group started to lose focus, or to have second thoughts, Anna badgered them about being all talk and not sticking to an action plan.

“She was the glue,” said defense attorney Mark Reichel, who represents McDavid. “Take away Anna, and they would have scattered in the wind like so many tumbleweeds.”

Anna the anarchist
ELF, and its sister group, ALF, the Animal Liberation Front, has been a tough organization for the FBI to crack—mostly because, as U.S. Attorney Steven Lapham notes, “it’s not an organization.”

It’s not an organization in the sense that a criminal gang, or the Mafia, or a group like Al Qaeda is an organization. Federal law enforcement works against these groups in large part by arresting the foot soldiers and prying information out of them about the higher-ups. With perseverance, and enough underlings flipping on their bosses, you’ve got a shot at decapitating the organization.

Not so with ELF. These folks are, after all, anarchists who believe in an anti-authoritarian way of organizing society. Nobody pays membership dues; there are no bosses or foot soldiers. They carry out their actions, from simple tagging and vandalism to firebombings causing millions of dollars’ worth of damage, under the banner of ELF. They have been credited with $110 million in property damage to date, from car dealerships to ski resorts since 1997. Though the government considers ELF one of the most important domestic terror groups in the nation, if not the most important, so far, nobody has died as a result of an ELF action.

Lapham prosecuted the ELF firebombing of a UC Davis veterinary clinic in 1987. He also prosecuted the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, in 1998 and members of the San Joaquin County Militia for conspiring to blow up two large propane tanks in Elk Grove—in order to start the second American Revolution—in 2002. And he’s the lead prosecutor against McDavid, Weiner and Jenson.

Anna pushed the others constantly to stick to the plan. She told them she liked the idea of taking out the Nimbus Dam.

ILLUSTRATION BY GIA-BAO TRAN

He claims ELF is a serious threat. “These people are committed to a cause, a cause that has as its tenets property destruction and violence.”

Cracking ELF requires a special approach. And that’s where someone like Anna comes in.

In an affidavit filed in the case, FBI Special Agent Walker said that the “confidential source” (the government never refers to Anna by name; it’s always the “source”) had been used in at least 12 prior investigations of anarchists and anarchist groups. “Her information has proved accurate and reliable,” Walker said, and she was “granted authority to participate in Tier 1 Otherwise Illegal Activity” as part of the investigation. Tier 1 means investigations of the most dangerous criminals: terrorists. OIA means just that. Anna was allowed to break the law in order to get her collar.

McDavid first encountered Anna in Iowa in 2004, at an anarchist convention called CrimethInc. He was already friends with Jenson, who also went to Iowa that time.

“She showed up with this pink hair and camo miniskirt. I guess she was pretty cute,” said Reichel.

According to Reichel, Anna and McDavid never slept together, but there was romantic tension between the two over the next year-and-a-half. “They argued like a couple. Everyone around them assumed they were sleeping together. She definitely had my boy after her.”

The two would see each other again about a year after the Iowa convention. In the meantime, it seems, Anna had work to do in southern Florida.

According to accounts of organizers of a protest against the Organization of American States in June 2005, Anna showed up in the Miami area, posing as an activist and volunteer medic.

Miami organizer Ray Del Papa said he believes the FBI was monitoring organizers of the demonstrations, even though they were legal, permitted and not intended to include any civil disobedience or “direct action.”

“I was on the phone one day, complaining to someone that we only had one volunteer medic,” Del Papa explained.

“I think the phones were tapped, because the next day, this woman Anna shows up, with short blond hair, in these leather pants, with a medic bag.”

But Del Papa said Anna didn’t seem very interested in offering medical care and comfort to protesters. She was more curious about the protest organizers.

“She started asking all of these really specific questions about who was coming and how many people were coming. She got really aggressive about wanting detailed information about our plans.”

During the march, Del Papa said, Anna started recruiting high-school students to stage a sit-in to block traffic, right in front of a large group of Broward County sheriff’s officers in riot gear. Del Papa was sure the provocation would lead to arrests and to the police clearing protesters from the area around the Fort Lauderdale Convention Center where the protest was being held. “It was a trap,” Del Papa told SN&R. That’s when Del Papa was sure that Anna was a government agent. Not that it’s uncommon for political demonstrations and meetings to have an undercover agent or two in their midst.

“What bothers me is that they’ve gone from being information gatherers to being provocateurs. To provoking people into these actions.”

Mark Reichel went to Miami to check it out. He brought a photo of the Miami Anna, taken by organizers there, back to his client in the Sacramento jail. It was the same Anna, McDavid told him.

Reeling them in
In late June, Anna left Miami and headed for Philadelphia and the BIO 2005 conference, where many activist groups, including some anarchists, were gathering to protest the biotech industry.

Anna’s real contact with McDavid, Weiner and Jenson started with meetings in a Philadelphia coffee shop. It was there that McDavid told Anna of his interest in “direct action.” It was there also that McDavid first mentioned the “Placerville tree factory.” He was vague on the details, but he knew that “they genetically modify trees there.” The “tree factory” turned out to be the Institute of Forest Genetics—one of the alleged targets in the conspiracy.

According to the government’s complaint, the four agreed to meet again in the fall in Northern California. After Philadelphia, McDavid went back to the Auburn area. Weiner stayed in Philadelphia, and Jenson roamed around a bit, sleeping on couches in D.C., Oregon and San Francisco.

Getting the three anarchists together must have been something like herding cats for Anna. E-mail records and other notes from the investigation show that Anna was the one trying to keep the others on a time schedule.

Anna bought Weiner’s plane tickets to California, said Reichel. Later, in audio transcripts of a conversation between the two women, Anna asked Weiner, “You’re going to pay me back for those plane tickets, right?”

“They needed money to survive. They had no money at all. They were ‘freegans,’” said Reichel.

In November, the four met at McDavid’s parents’ house in Foresthill, where, according to the government, they discussed carrying out some sort of “direct action” in the name of ELF. They ate stir-fried shrimp and vegan pancakes. They hiked and read. They also discussed a recipe that involved crystals created by mixing and heating ammonia and bleach. Those crystals, McDavid believed, then could be mixed with “plumber’s putty” to create an explosive akin to C4. According to the FBI, McDavid acknowledged that they were involved in a criminal conspiracy.

After the fall meeting, Anna wrote numerous e-mails trying to coordinate the group’s plans.

She urged Jenson to help convince Weiner to come back to California, saying, “You should help me work on ff.” (FF stands for Firefly, a nickname of Weiner’s.) In another e-mail, she wrote, “[Weiner] wants to push off Cali till later. I told her that’s bullshit. Argh.”

The alleged conspirators never did manage to create any explosive material—despite Anna’s help.

ILLUSTRATION BY GIA-BAO TRAN

During this time, according to FBI notes included in evidence, in December, Weiner purchased a copy of the book The Poor Man’s James Bond—containing recipes and instructions for various makeshift explosives and do-it-yourself weapons—from an anarchist bookstore in Philadelphia. Reichel said that earlier, Anna had told the group that she had worked as a high-school chemistry teacher.

On December 10, 2005, Anna gave McDavid the recipe for potassium chlorate in an e-mail that she had encoded with a simple letter-shift code (A equals G, B equals H, etc). The e-mail starts, “I think this is what you meant at your house. If you want the rest, tell me …”

“It was really unsophisticated,” Reichel said. “I think she was trying to think of something that could possibly yield something and was simple enough to do in the backyard for three idiots.”

At first, McDavid didn’t get it. He thickly replied, “Did you see what you sent me? You need to lay off the caffeeen cheeka.”

Anna replied, “Why don’t you think a little broader about what I sent you?”

“Don’t take it so hard/or me so seriously cheeka,” he wrote back.

Later, Anna wrote to Jenson complaining about McDavid. “Tell the Pirate [McDavid’s nickname] I’m sorry I snapped. I worked really hard on that e-mail, it seemed like he just laughed it off.” She asked Jenson to write to McDavid and give him the key to decoding the message. “Tell him to subtract six,” she explained.

She and McDavid smoothed things over, because two days later she wrote, “I’m just glad were talking again. Talk to me more. I miss you and am counting down the days.”

Cabin fever
Before the others arrived back in Northern California, Anna had rented the cabin in Dutch Flat, which she described in one e-mail as “a place that’s totally under the table, secure, hidden, but not too hidden that we look like Ted Kazynciski [sic].”

The group would stay in the cabin for less than a week—from January 8 to January 13—unaware that there was a hidden video camera already set up beside the television and an FBI surveillance team set up outside videotaping and recording what was happening inside.

FBI agent Walker confirmed during the bail hearing of Weiner that Anna rented the cabin and may have helped buy some of the materials for making the potassium chlorate that the four agreed to test while at Dutch Flat.

Much of the surveillance of the cabin captured the mundane details of the lives of four young people on vacation. There are reports of the four traveling to a pizza restaurant, buying pizza, returning to the cabin and eating pizza. They discussed music. Weiner enjoys Jimi Hendrix and Jello Biafra. Anna likes Beyoncé and Destiny’s Child. The other three never seemed to realize that Anna was an informant, even when she used a heavy hand to guide their conversations.

“All right, what do we wanna do next? Do we want to go back to Auburn and recon banks and gas stations?” she asked at one point on the tape. “You guys change your mind a lot,” she offered later. Then, later still, “It seems like you guys don’t want to do it at all.”

On January 10, the four toured the Institute of Forest Genetics in Placerville, using fake names and posing as college students for a tour. They were under surveillance the whole time by FBI agents and agents of the U.S. Forest Service.

The government says in its complaint that McDavid said that he felt human casualties would be acceptable in an action against the IFG. But McDavid denies that he ever said that. “We’ve asked them to show us where on the tapes he said that. They can’t find it because he never said that,” Reichel insisted.

On January 11, there’s a report that Anna “goes outside” to meet an agent. Not into town, not down the road—she just “goes outside.”

“I know. I know. How did they not realize?” Reichel said, laughing. “These are not the most sophisticated people. This is not the Symbionese Liberation Army.”

On January 11, Anna drove the other three in her Chevy Lumina to Wal-Mart in Natomas, where the group bought the items needed to make the explosives from Anna’s recipe.

McDavid and Weiner tried to cook bleach and other chemicals down to create crystals of potassium chlorate, in full view of the FBI surveillance team outside. But the glass container they were using became too hot and broke, spilling its contents on the ground. The two would-be guerrillas had nothing to show for their troubles but rattled nerves and a puddle of warm bleach.

On January 12, cabin fever set in. The audio transcripts contain a long and convoluted discussion that evening involving all four members of the group. The transcripts reveal a lot of disagreement and doubt.

At this point, the IFG facility was out, at least for the time being, partly because, even after its tour, the group still wasn’t quite sure what the scientists there did. McDavid suggested the IFG could be a fallback plan.

The Nimbus Dam was out; Weiner didn’t like the idea of creating another New Orleans. “Why would we want to create that?” she asked.

“It’ll kill people and take out people’s homes,” Jenson agreed.

The four moved on to a discussion of blowing up buildings, banks and ATMs. Jenson liked the idea of targeting power stations to cause power outages. Anna asked him, “So you’ll study power grids?”

McDavid threw in, “I think smaller stuff, right now.” Jenson added, “It doesn’t need to be done, like, now, right?”

Eric McDavid’s attorney, Mark Reichel, says the government is “manufacturing crime.”

ILLUSTRATION BY GIA-BAO TRAN

Anna pressed them. “I thought we were going to do the tree factory because it was easy,” she complained. Weiner replied, “But it’s not,” and the two guys agreed. McDavid apologized for his waffling. “I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings,” he said.

During the conversation, McDavid asked Anna what was wrong. “Big shuffle a little too big for you?” Anna replied, “I’m just sad we lost the Forest Service one.” It’s not lost, Weiner answered. “It’s not going anywhere,” McDavid added.

But Anna was getting frustrated. “I guess I’m just different than you guys. I don’t like amorphous crap. … I wish one day we could keep the damned plan. I wish one day you guys could stick to a list. Why can’t one of you guys say, ‘Hey, this is what we want’?”

Here, Reichel said, Anna sensed that the conspiracy was falling apart, and she began trying hard to get them to make statements about specific targets. “Yeah, I would like a damned goal,” she pleaded with the others.

The four agreed that they needed to purchase more supplies to keep experimenting with the explosive. “But at that point, it’s over,” said Reichel. “The whole thing had peaked,” and the conspirators were going to break up and leave Dutch Flat. But then Friday the 13th happened.

Terrorists or knuckleheads? 
U.S. Attorney Lapham refused to answer specific questions about the evidence against the three would-be ELF members. He wouldn’t comment on things Anna did or didn’t do, or respond to questions about the transcripts from FBI surveillance of the cabin or the e-mail correspondence between the group members. “I just can’t be perceived as trying my case in the press,” Lapham explained. He did speak generally about what is in the government’s complaint against the three and about conspiracy and entrapment generally.

For example, he disagreed that debate about possible targets, such as the conversation on January 12, indicated a lack of agreement about carrying out a criminal act.

“Let’s say Al Qaeda has a meeting, and one guy wants to target the World Trade Center, and another guy wants to target Congress, and another wants to target the White House,” Lapham explained. “Just because there’s a debate, does that mean there’s no conspiracy to target buildings in the United States?”

“Bullshit,” responded Reichel. “If you had to choose, with limited resources, which of these places to protect from these people, you’d say, ‘None of them.’”

Like his rival, Reichel has some history with cases against anarchists.

He’s defended anarchists before, like Wobbly organizer Harjit Gill, who was convicted of lying to a grand jury about a McDonald’s that was torched in Chico in 2003 in the name of ALF. (Gill was never accused of being involved in the fire.)

Reichel describes himself as a mainstream Democrat. “I eat at McDonald’s. I live in a tract home. I drive an Excursion.” He likes his client, but he has a habit of calling McDavid a knucklehead and an idiot.

And he’s getting ready to file a motion to dismiss the case because of “outrageous government misconduct.”

His client engaged in stupid, evil talk, said Reichel. But that was all. There could have been no conspiracy, he insisted, without Anna, the FBI agent who seemed to have all the answers.

“She provides the money. She provides the car. She rents the cabin. Oh, and by the way, ‘I used to be a high-school chemistry teacher, so this is second nature to me.’” All that adds up to entrapment and worse, he said. “This is a case where the government is manufacturing crime,” Reichel added.

Professor George Harris, who teaches at McGeorge School of Law, isn’t so sure. He explained that federal law gives law enforcement and prosecutors a lot of latitude.

“Just because the FBI provides an opportunity to commit the crime doesn’t make it entrapment,” Harris said. He added, “Federal conspiracy law has developed in a way that is quite broad. It’s generally fairly easy to prove. That’s why prosecutors like it a lot.”

Consider the recent arrest for conspiracy of a group of Haitians in Miami, who had no expertise, no bomb-making materials and only an inkling of what they wanted to target. The government declared another victory against domestic terrorism in that case, but it raised questions of “pre-emptive” arrests in the national media.

Closer to home, the trial of father and son Umer and Hamid Hayat revealed that an FBI informant encouraged Hamid to attend terrorist training camps in Pakistan, exactly what Hayat was tried for.

The jury will have to decide whether those activities constituted entrapment or good clean anti-terrorist work. “If the defense of entrapment is raised, the government does have the burden of proving that the defendant wasn’t induced into the crime. We think we can do that,” Lapham said.

“You don’t have to wait until the match is lit to take action,” he added. McDavid is facing somewhere between 17 and 20 years in federal prison for the conspiracy. He’s eligible for the maximum penalty because it was considered a terrorist conspiracy.

Reichel said that, unlike Weiner and Jenson, McDavid wants to go to trial—though life in custody is taking its toll. “He lives a life of total hell. He spends 24 hours a day in his tiny cell.” McDavid is in what jailers call “T-sep,” or total separation. It’s supposed to be for McDavid’s own protection. Having been labeled a terrorist, he’s more likely to be attacked by other inmates, Reichel explained.

But McDavid is no terrorist, Reichel said. He’s just a big talker who got manipulated by an informant eager to produce a real live terrorist for her bosses.

“There’s a certain angst that comes with being a certain age. You say things you probably wouldn’t act on.”

“But when you have someone poking you and prodding, egging you on, that’s different,” Reichel added.

As for Anna, nobody but her FBI handlers knows where she is today. There are rumors that she’s back in Iowa, though she could be anywhere that young anarchists and radical environmentalists are congregated. In fact, the next time you attend a large demonstration, against the World Trade Organization or maybe the Democratic National Convention, you might meet her.

anna-face FBI

Anna: FBI Informant

“Anna” (DOB ~1986, according to court testimony): of Miami, Florida when she started working for the Feds

Informant Status: Worked as an informant in the anarchist/environmental/animal rights movements since at least 2003 (during the FTAA protests in Miami). She attended various gatherings, meetings and protests up until January 2006 when Eric McDavid, Lauren Weiner, and Zachary Jenson were arrested in Auburn, CA and charged with conspiracy to destroy public and private property. During her time with the trio, Anna wore a wire, had a recording device in her car, possibly her bag, and the house they were living in (that the Feds paid for) was wired. She reported back to the feds about anyone and everyone she came into contact with—not just Eric, Zach and Lauren. The criminal complaint against Eric states that Anna was involved in the prosecution of at least 12 other “anarchist” cases. According to her testimony at Eric McDavid’s trial, she was recruited by the FBI after going “undercover” to write a paper for a class about the FTAA protests. During her time as an informant, she reported on people attending Crimethinc gatherings, the DNC, the RNC, BioDev in Philly, the G8, Feral Visions and more. Her work entrapping Eric McDavid landed him in prison for a term of almost 20 years.

anna-bike

Anna on Holiday

Current Information: Anna is approximately 5’4’’ and of average build. During her time working for the feds, she dyed her hair frequently—sometimes blond, sometimes red, sometimes brown. She told people she was a medic, wore a medic’s garb and carried a medic’s bag, although no one ever actually saw her perform any of the functions of a medic. She boasted of previous actions, was bold in her speech, and was incredibly pushy. She always had seemingly bottomless pockets and even paid for Weiner to fly across the country. According to FOIA documents, Anna was residing in Philadelphia at some point after Eric’s arrest. Before Eric was arrested, Anna had used the email address: annadavies99@yahoo.com. She used this phone number prior to the arrests: 954-821-2477. She also sometimes told people that Anna was an alias and that “Grai Damiani” was her real name.

For more insight into Anna, you can read court transcripts of her testimony at Eric’s trial at: supporteric.org

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FBI Tactics Targeting (A)LF/ELF

Marie Mason and Eric McDavid received the longest sentences of any convicted for environmental activism in the U.S.–Marie’s was 22 years pursuant to her guilty plea of engaging in direct action, Eric’s almost 20 years for merely talking about it with an attractive young paid FBI informant calling herself ‘Anna’. The following article which boasts of the newest entrapment techniques was lifted from the FBI’s web site itself, thus no copyright interests attach.

Putting Intel to Work
Against ELF and ALF Terrorists  06/30/08

In early 2006, eco-terrorist Eric McDavid and two associates met in a secluded cabin in Dutch Flat, California to discuss making improvised explosive devices and to choose targets to bomb. Soon after, they began casing the targeted facilities and buying supplies to make bombs. But before they started mixing the ingredients, we swooped in and arrested them.

How did we know what McDavid was up to? How were we able to prevent attacks that could have caused thousands or millions of dollars in property damage and possibly harmed people?

In a word, intelligence.

Our intelligence—which included the use of an FBI source who was actually with McDavid and his associates inside that California cabin—allowed us to piece together the entire plot ahead of time.

Since 9/11, we have greatly strengthened our ability to identify, collect, analyze, and share intelligence across all of our national security and criminal priorities. And that has carried over into our investigations of violence and terror committed in the name of the environment—as well as of animal rights.

Together, eco-terrorists and animal rights extremists are one of the most serious domestic terrorism threats in the U.S. today…for several good reasons:

  • The sheer volume of their crimes (over 2,000 since 1979);
  • The huge economic impact (losses of more than $110 million since 1979);
  • The wide range of victims (from international corporations to lumber companies to animal testing facilities to genetic research firms); and
  • Their increasingly violent rhetoric and tactics (one recent communiqué sent to a California product testing company said: “You might be able to protect your buildings, but can you protect the homes of every employee?”).

ELF and ALF are probably the names you’re most familiar with. The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) are loosely-organized movements whose adherents engage in crimes like arson, fire bombings, vandalism, intimidation, assaults, stalking, etc. No membership dues are necessary—the only way to become a “member” is to engage in “direct action”…criminal activity designed to cause economic loss or destroy the victim company’s operations.

So what are we doing to counter the threat? For one, we’ve mapped our environmental and animal rights extremism cases in order to give our investigators around the country and our executive management a big-picture look at what’s happening and where. We’re also analyzing information from financial records, phone records, and mail…and working to increase our human source reporting. And we’re sharing intelligence with our partners through our Joint Terrorism Task Forces and other investigative endeavors. Sharing info with our partners, particularly at the local level, is crucial because many times they’re the first ones at the crime scene.

We’re also taking advantage of the 2006 revision to the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, which toughened penalties, created additional protections for people (the original law only covered property damage), and included secondary targets (often times companies that do business with primary targets are themselves targeted).

Our efforts have paid off—since 2005, our investigations have resulted in indictments against 30 individuals.

Of course, fully cognizant of the right to free speech, we investigate all animal rights and environmental extremism cases in strict accordance with the law and our guidelines.

So whatever happened to Eric McDavid? In May, he was sentenced to nearly 20 years in federal prison.

Read up on more cases:

Eco-Terror Indictments
‘Operation Backfire’ Nets 11  
01/20/06

 Photograph of Vail Ski Resort
The arson at the Vail Ski Resort in Vail,
Colorado, in 1998 caused an estimated
$12 million in damages.

On 1/20, 11 people were charged with acts of domestic terrorism on behalf of the extremist Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and Animal Liberation Front (ALF) over a five-year period.

The 65-count indictment alleges the defendants committed acts of domestic terrorism between 1996 and 2001 in Oregon, Wyoming, Washington, California, and Colorado.  Specifically, the indictment includes charges related to arson, conspiracy, use of destructive devices, and destruction of an energy facility.

The defendants are implicated in 17 attacks, including the $12 million arson of the Vail Ski Resort in Vail, Colorado, in 1998 and the sabotage of a high-tension power line near Bend, Oregon, in 1999. The indictment follows a series of arrests on Dec. 7, 2005 and again earlier this month. Three suspects named in the indictment are believed to be outside the U.S.

“Terrorism is terrorism, no matter what the motive,” FBI Director Robert S. Mueller said during a press conference Friday at the Department of Justice. “There’s a clear difference between constitutionally protected advocacy—which is the right of all Americans—and violent criminal activity.”

Terrorism, both international and domestic, is the FBI’s top investigative priority. In this case, the FBI’s Portland field office in 2004 consolidated seven independent field office investigations and dubbed it “Operation Backfire.” A year-long investigation, aided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and other federal, state, and local law enforcement officials, yielded evidence of an ongoing conspiracy by members of ELF and ALF. On Jan. 19, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Eugene, Oregon, obtained an indictment of criminal conspiracy for the following individuals:

  • Joseph Dibee
  • Chelsea Dawn Gerlach
  • Sarah, Kendall Harvey
  • Daniel Gerard McGowan
  • Stanislas Gregory Meyerhoff
  • Josephine Sunshine Overaker
  • Jonathan Mark Christopher Paul
  • Rebecca Rubin
  • Suzanne Savoie
  • Darren Todd Thurston
  • Kevin M. Tubbs

“Today’s indictment proves that we will not tolerate any group that terrorizes the American people, no matter its intentions or objectives,” said Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzalez.

The defendants are accused of attacks on federal land and animal management sites, private meat packing plants, lumber facilities, and a car dealership with damages reaching $80 million. In 2004, the FBI estimated ELF, ALF and related extremist groups had committed more than 1,100 criminal acts since 1976 with damage estimates over $100 million.

Director Mueller called the indictments “a substantial blow” to domestic terror groups and said they should have a “dramatic impact on persons who contemplate these crimes.”

“Persons who conduct this kind of activity are going to spend a long time in jail, regardless of their motive,” he said.

Note: The individuals pictured or identified here may have been apprehended or may no longer be wanted by law enforcement since the above information was posted on this website.

(FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 2006)

11 Defendants Indicted on Domestic Terrorism Charges

Group Allegedly Responsible for Series of Arsons in Western States, Acting on Behalf of Extremist Movements

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Eleven defendants have been indicted on charges including arson and destruction of an energy facility for allegedly participating in a campaign of domestic terrorism in five western states on behalf of the extremist Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) movements, the Justice Department announced today.

The 65-count indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in Eugene, Ore., Thursday, alleges that the defendants committed acts of domestic terrorism in Oregon, Wyoming, Washington, California, and Colorado from 1996 through 2001. Specifically, the indictment includes the charges of conspiracy to commit arson; conspiracy; arson; attempted arson; use and possession of a destructive device; and destruction of an energy facility.

Eight defendants were arrested prior to the indictment and three are believed to be outside the United States.

The indictment alleges that the group committed arsons with improvised incendiary devices made from milk jugs, petroleum products and homemade timers in a series of attacks in the five states. The targets of these attacks included U.S. Forest Service ranger stations, Bureau of Land Management wild horse facilities, meat processing companies, lumber companies, a high-tension power line, and a ski facility in Colorado. The indictment alleges that the group claimed to be acting on behalf of ALF and ELF.

“The trail of destruction left by these defendants across the western United States caused millions of dollars in damage to public and private facilities,” said Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales. “Today’s indictment proves that we will not tolerate any group that terrorizes the American people, no matter its intentions or objectives.”

“Investigating and preventing animal rights and environmental extremism is one of the FBI’s highest domestic terrorism priorities,” said FBI Director Robert Mueller. “We are committed to working with our partners to disrupt and dismantle these movements, to protect our fellow citizens, and to bring to justice those who commit crime and terrorism in the name of animal rights or environmental issues.”

“To those who use arson and explosives to threaten lives and destroy property, ATF will continue to dedicate all of our expertise to solve these crimes,” said ATF Director Carl J. Truscott. “We will work relentlessly with our law enforcement partners to find you and bring you to justice.”

According to the indictment, Joseph Dibee, Chelsea Dawn Gerlach, Sarah Kendall Harvey, Daniel Gerard McGowan, Stanislas Gregory Meyerhoff, Josephine Sunshine Overaker, Jonathan Mark Christopher Paul, Rebecca Rubin, Suzanne Savoie, Darren Todd Thurston, and Kevin M. Tubbs conspired to commit numerous acts of domestic terrorism as part of a group they called “the Family,” an alleged group of the extremist movements ALF and ELF. The indictment follows a series of arrests on Dec. 7, 2005, in Oregon, Arizona, New York, and Virginia. Gerlach, Harvey, Meyerhoff, McGowan, Thurston, and Tubbs were arrested at that time for various charges, including the destruction of an energy facility. Paul was arrested on Jan. 17, 2006, on a criminal complaint charging him with one of the arsons mentioned in the indictment. Savoie was arrested on Jan. 19, 2006, on a criminal complaint. Dibee, Overaker and Rubin are believed to be outside of the United States.

The indictment refers to attacks on 17 sites:

Oct. 28, 1996, at the U.S. Forest Service Detroit Ranger Station in Marion County, Ore.;

Oct. 30, 1998, at the U.S. Forest Service Oakridge Ranger Station in Lane County, Ore.;

July 21, 1997, at the Cavel West, Inc. meat packing company in Deschutes County, Ore.;

Nov. 30, 1997, at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse and Burro Facility in Harney County, Ore.;

June 21, 1997, at the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Wildlife Facility in Olympia, Wash.;

Oct. 11, 1998, at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse Holding Facility in Rock Springs, Wyo.;

Oct. 19, 1998, at the Vail Ski Facility in Vail, Colo.;

Dec. 27, 1998, at U.S. Forest Industries in Jackson County, Ore.;

May 9, 1999, at Childers Meat Company in Lane County, Ore.;

Dec. 25, 1999, at the Boise Cascade office in Polk County, Ore.;

Dec. 30, 1999, at a Bonneville Power Administration high-tension power line tower near Bend, Ore.;

Sept. 6, 2000, at the Eugene Police Department West University Public Safety Station in Eugene, Ore.;

Jan. 2, 2001, at the Superior Lumber Company in Douglas County, Ore.;

March 30, 2001, at Joe Romania Chevrolet Truck Center in Eugene, Ore.;

May 21, 2001, at Jefferson Poplar Farms in Columbia County, Ore.;

May 21, 2001, at the University of Washington Horticultural Center in Seattle; and

Oct. 15, 2001, at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse Facility in Litchfield, Calif.

An indictment is not evidence of guilt. The defendants named in this indictment are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The cases are being prosecuted by the office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon. The cases are being investigated by the FBI and ATF, along with the Eugene Police Department, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, Oregon State Police, Portland Police Bureau, Oregon Department of Justice, and the Lane County Sheriff’s Office.

rmueller

Robert S. Mueller, III, FBI Director

  • Operation Backfire Press Conference – RFK Main Justice Building
  • Washington, D.C.
  • January 20, 2006

Good afternoon. Today’s indictment marks the culmination of an intensive investigation by the FBI and our partners,  focused on a group of individuals who have committed numerous violent acts in the name of animal rights and environmental causes.

Terrorism is terrorism — no matter the motive. The FBI is committed to protecting Americans from all crime and all terrorism, including acts of domestic terrorism on behalf of animal rights or the environment.

There is a clear difference between constitutionally protected advocacy — which is the right of all Americans — and violent criminal activity. It is one thing to write concerned letters or hold peaceful demonstrations. It is another thing entirely to construct and use improvised explosives or incendiary devices, to harass and intimidate victims by destroying property, and to cause millions of dollars in losses by acts or threats of violence.

The FBI becomes involved, as it did in this case, only when volatile talk crosses the line into violence and criminal activity. No person — no matter what his or her political or moral convictions are — is above the law.

Today’s indictment marks significant progress in our efforts to combat animal rights extremism and eco-terrorism. Thanks to outstanding cooperation and strong partnerships, we have taken the first steps towards bringing this cell to justice. We in the FBI will continue to work with our partners to investigate and bring to justice the animal rights and environmental extremist movements whose criminal acts threaten the American economy and American lives.

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