Eleven indicted for ELF/ALF sabotage

Federal prosecutors have indicted 11 people in a series of arson cases in the Northwest that have been claimed by the radical groups Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and Animal Liberation Front (ALF). The suspects are being held responsible for 17 environmentally-motivated incidents in Washington, Oregon, California, Wyoming and Colorado that occurred between 1996 and 2001. The indictment unsealed on Jan. 21 listed 65 charges, including arson, sabotage and conspiracy in attacks against government facilities, research centers and private businesses. In announcing the indictment alongside Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, FBI Director Robert Mueller said one of the bureau's "highest domestic terrorism priorities" was prosecuting people who commit crimes "in the name of animal rights or the environment." Six of those indicted were arrested on other federal charges last month; two others were arrested this week. Officials said the authorities were looking for the remaining three defendants, who were believed to be outside the United States. The six defendants arrested last month were Kendall Tankersley (formerly known as Sarah Harvey), 28; Daniel Gerard McGowan, 31; Stanislas Gregory Meyerhoff, 28; Darren Todd Thurston, 34; Chelsea Gerlach, 28; and Kevin Tubbs, 36. The defendants arrested this week were Jonathan Mark Christopher Paul, 39, and Suzanne "India" Savoie, 28. The three still at-large are Joseph Dibee, 38; Josephine Sunshine Overaker, 31; and Rebecca Rubin, 32. The federal indictment charges that the group used homemade incendiary devices made from milk jugs, plastic buckets, petroleum fuels and timers to destroy buildings, vehicles and other targets, including a meatpacking company in Deschutes County, OR; a ski center in Vail, CO, and a timber company in Douglas County, OR. The indictment also accused three of the suspects of being involved in the firebombing of the University of Washington's Urban Horticulture Center in May 2001. Accused of involvement are Meyerhoff, a Charlottesville, VA, man also known as "Country Boy," and William Rodgers of Prescott, AZ. Gerlach, a Portland woman also known as "Country Girl," is accused of having conducted reconnaissance of the center before the firebombing. Rodgers, who was named as an unindicted co-conspirator, reportedly committed suicide in an Arizona county jail shortly after his arrest. According to court papers, Meyerhoff has agreed to testify for the prosecution. The government has moved to try the eleven people together as codefendants. They are alleging that all eleven individuals were members of a cell known as "The Family." The ELF describes itself as an anonymous, leaderless organization and says on its website, "Any individuals who committed arson or any other illegal acts under the ELF name are individuals who choose to do so under the banner of ELF and do so only driven by their personal conscience." People identifying themselves with the ALF often convey information through a separate organization called the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, whose website says actions carried out in ALF's name may be "illegal under a current societal structure that fails to recognize the rights of nonhuman animals to live free of suffering." The only evidence in the 83-page indictment comes from the testimony of five "confidential sources," which includes 35 CDs of recorded conversations and 40,000 pages of transcripts, police reports and photographs. Investigators say that they expect to be making more arrests in the case soon. Others arrested Eric McDavid, 28; Lauren Weiner, 20, and Zachary Jensen, 20, were arrested on Jan. 13 in California for allegedly conspiring to blow up US Forest Service buildings and cell phone towers on behalf of the ELF. FBI documents released on Jan. 18 reveal details about the case against them. According to the criminal complaint, the group considered bombing the Nimbus Dam on the American River near Sacramento, a cellular telephone tower, a power station, banks, trucks, mountaintop-removal mine sites in West Virginia and Communist Party offices. The complaint went on to claim that the three "scoped out" the US Forest Service's Institute of Forest Genetics building in Placerville, CA, on Jan. 10. The following day they allegedly purchased ingredients for a homemade bomb at an area Wal-Mart store. Agents say that they recovered a notebook from McDavid which contained a diagram of the Forest Service Institute and pictures of pipe bombs. Information in the complaint comes from a paid "confidential source (CS) who is deeply imbedded within the subjects' cell. The CS has worked for the FBI since early 2004. S/he has agreed to testify in court." Supporters of those arrested identified the CS as a young woman named "Anna" who "went to Auburn" with the defendants shortly before their arrests. The document says that she has provided information in at least 12 anarchist cases since 2004. She has traveled to and infiltrated various anarchist gatherings and protests across the country including the Biodev 2005 demonstrations in Philadelphia, a CrimethInc. convergence in Indiana and the Feral Visions green anarchist gathering in Madison County, NC. The defendants are also being linked to a police officer who suffered a fatal heart attack during a confrontation at the Philadelphia protests. FBI Special Agent Nasson Walker testified that the CS wore a hidden recorder and that the FBI financed the source's renting of a house where the four stayed for a short time this month. The agent said that the house was rigged with hidden sound and video equipment and that the CS has been paid about $75,000 plus expenses over the past two years to infiltrate the ELF and gather information. Additional information provided in the complaint was gathered from the defendants' own blogs and MySpace.com, an online community where at least one of the defendants has a personal profile and blog. A profile on the LiveJournal.com personal publishing site and online community was also used as evidence. Walker acknowledged that some of the money used to buy bomb-making materials came through the CS from the FBI. He also acknowledged that the CS authored part of the plans referenced in the notebook.