Friday, January 16, 2004

'Earth Liberation Front' Admits SUV Vandalism
The Associated Press
    The radical environmental group Earth Liberation Front claims its members caused thousands of dollars in damage at a Santa Fe Land Rover dealership and to U.S. Forest Service equipment in the Jemez Mountains.
    The environmental group released a list this week claiming responsibility for 75 illegal acts. Among them are the Sept. 5 vandalism of 12 sport-utility vehicles in Santa Fe and an Oct. 8 incident in which U.S. Forest Service construction equipment was vandalized in the Jemez Mountains.
    Employees at Land Rover Santa Fe arrived at work in September to find one third of the company's inventory of SUVs had been spray-painted with many words, including each of the seven deadly sins and ELF.
    Santa Fe police haven't identified a suspect in the vandalism, according to deputy police chief Eric Johnson.
    The FBI, which has identified Earth Liberation Front as its No. 1 domestic-terrorism priority, is offering up to $20,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the vandalism at the Land Rover dealership. The ELF report, titled Underground Direct Action Totals for 2003, posted on the group's Web site, claims responsibility for acts across the nation.
    "The Earth Liberation Front alone caused upward of $55 million dollars in damages in a series of anti-development and SUV-dealership attacks that captured headlines across North America," according to the report.
    The group focused on logging operations in the Pacific Northwest for many years but has expanded its efforts.
    "All I can tell you is that they are moving out around the country," said Paul Bresson, an FBI spokesman in Washington, D.C.
    The front's actions last year, some of them joint actions with the Animal Liberation Front, ranged from freeing chickens from an egg farm in California to spray-painting cars on a circus train. More frequent acts, however, included arson, graffiti and various forms of vandalism to SUVs.

Non-text portions of this message have been removed.
 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted
material  herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have
expressed  a  prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and  educational purposes only. For more information go to:
 http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml