WASHINGTON
- Eleven people were indicted in arsons across five Western states that have
been claimed by the radical groups Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation
Front, the Justice Department said Friday.
The
65-count indictment said the suspects called themselves “The
Family” and are responsible for 17 incidents in California,
Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming, including sabotaging a high-tension
power line, in a conspiracy that dates back to 1996. The indictment was
returned Thursday by a federal grand jury in Eugene, Ore., and unsealed Friday.
“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 or Earth Liberation Front, extremist
movements known to support acts of domestic terrorism,” Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales said at a news conference Friday.
Appearing
with Gonzales, FBI Director Robert Mueller declared, “Terrorism
is terrorism, no matter what the motive.”
“There is a clear difference between constitutionally protected
advocacy ... and violent criminal activity,” Mueller added.
“It
is one thing to write concerned letters or to hold peaceful
demonstrations,” Mueller said. “It is another thing entirely to
construct and use improvised explosives to harass and intimidate victims by
destroying property and to cause millions of dollars in losses by acts or
threats of violence.”
Three
at large
Eight defendants, including one Canadian citizen, have been
arrested. Three people remain at large, and are believed to be outside the
United States, Gonzales said.
In Eugene,
two defendants, Jonathan Christopher Mark Paul, 39, and Suzanne Nicole
“India” Savoie, 28, were both ordered held without bail, pending
further hearings.
A criminal
complaint filed in federal court in Eugene accused Paul, a firefighter, of
setting firebombs that burned down a horse slaughterhouse in 1997. The ALF
claimed responsibility for that fire, which caused an estimated $1 million in
damage.
Savoie,
who works in a group home for the developmentally disabled, is accused of
serving as a lookout for a fire in 2001 that destroyed offices of a lumber
mill. The ELF claimed responsibility for that fire.
Ecoterrorists have done more than $100 million in property
damage over the past decade, officials told NBC News on Friday.
The other
defendants are Joseph Dibee, Chelsea Dawn Gerlach, Sarah Kendall Harvey, Daniel
McGowan, Stanislas Meyerhoff, Josephine Overaker, Rebecca Rubin, Darren Todd
Thurston and Kevin Tubbs.
Dibee,
Overaker and Rubin have not been arrested.
The six other ecoterror
suspects were arrested in early December. Another suspect arrested in
December, William Rodgers of Prescott, Ariz., later suffocated himself in
prison while awaiting charges.
Using
improvised incendiary devices made from milk jugs, petroleum products and
homemade timers, they carried out attacks between 1996 and 2001, the indictment
alleged. Targets included U.S. Forest Service ranger stations, U.S. Bureau of
Land Management wild horse facilities, lumber companies, meat processing
companies, a ski area and the power line, the indictment said.
The FBI
says ecoterrorism is the most widespread and damaging form of domestic
terrorism.
Millionaire firefighter held
The FBI arrested Paul on
Tuesday outside Ashland, Ore., said FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele. Savoie
turned herself in to the FBI on Thursday.
Assistant
U.S. Attorney Douglas Fong argued that Paul presented a high flight risk and a
danger to society due to the nature of the charges and the fact that he had a
trust fund and other assets worth $1.7 million, which would allow him to post a
$400,000 bond and still have plenty of cash to flee.
Defense
attorney Stu Sugarman countered that Paul has lived openly in southern Oregon
for nine years, had a wife and family, and demonstrated in the past that he was
willing to surrender to authorities rather than hide.
In 1993,
Paul spent five months in jail for contempt of court in Spokane, Wash., for
refusing to testify in the investigation of another ALF case, a 1991 raid that
caused $100,000 in damages to U.S. Department of Agriculture offices at
Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. He was released after a judge
concluded imprisonment would not persuade him to talk.
Questionable testimony?
Sugarman argued that the only
evidence is testimony from people facing lengthy prison terms for their own
involvement.
According
to an FBI affidavit, an unidentified informant involved in the Cavel West
horsemeat packing plant fire told investigators that Paul and an unidentified
woman set the blaze using five-gallon plastic buckets filled with a mix of
gasoline, diesel oil and soap that were ignited by an electronic timer.
The
buckets have been a signature of ELF and ALF fires.
Paul
prepared the fuel mix, adding soap shavings so it would form a gel and burn
more slowly, the affidavit said. They did a dry-run a week before. The night of
the fire, one of the buckets went off unexpectedly, igniting a fireball, and
two didn't ignite, according to the affidavit.
Cavel has
been criticized by animal-rights groups for slaughtering wild horses rounded up
from U.S. Bureau of Land Management lands in the West. The Belgian-owned
company never rebuilt the Redmond plant, but continues to operate one in
DeKalb, Ill.