Firebrands of 'ecoterrorism' set sights on urban sprawl

An ELF "communiqué" taking responsibility for last September's firebombing of a US Forest Service research station in Pennsylvania declared: "While innocent life will never be harmed in any action we undertake, where it is necessary, we will no longer hesitate to pick up the gun to implement justice, and provide the needed protection for our planet that decades of legal battles, pleading, protest, and economic sabotage have failed ... to achieve."

The group's website includes a 37-page how-to manual titled "Setting Fires With Electrical Timers."

The ELF is an ideological cousin to the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), a group that began in England about 12 years ago as a more radical alternative to Earth First. The ELF claimed its first "action" in the United States in 1997 - releasing wild horses and torching a US Bureau of Land Management corral near Burns, Ore.

Since then, it's claimed credit for what it says are hundreds of attacks and some $50 million in damages. The FBI does not dispute those figures.

Few arrests or prosecutions have followed from the violent actions of environmentalists or animal-rights advocates - and, indeed, most such crimes remain unsolved. One "ecoterrorist" on the FBI's "wanted" list is Michael James Scarpitti, accused of torching concrete mixing trucks and Oregon logging equipment.

The ELF has no central location, leadership, or hierarchy. It's organized into autonomous cells that work independently and anonymously. Its "communiqués" and website are managed by supporters without clear links to ELF crimes.

While mainstream environmentalists generally reject ELF tactics, some activists object to the portrayal of the group's assaults on property as "terrorism": So far, at least, the vandalism, even the violence, has not caused any death or major injury.

But the federal government defines "terrorism" as "the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives" - a definition that would appear to match the aims and activities of the ELF.

Frustrated by the growing number of attacks and lack of prosecutions, lawmakers in several states are cracking down. A bill recently passed by the Oregon senate adds "ecosabotage" to the list of crimes that could be prosecuted under state racketeering laws, allowing triple damages. The bill would lift the two-year statute of limitations, giving prosecutors five years to pursue such crimes. Ecoterrorism bills have also been proposed in New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Missouri.

• Randy Dotinga in San Diego contributed to this report.

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