From UK Guardian  6th march 01

                                               Guardian website: 
 

                                              America's eco-arsonists put heat on the FBI 

                                               Underground activists in US-wide arson attacks on 'pillagers of
                                               planet'

                                               Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles
 
                                               Tuesday March 6, 2001

                                               Their message is explicit: "You build it, we burn it." They have caused more than
                                               $45m (£31m) of damage in attacks across the United States. They say they were
                                               inspired by British environmental campaigners and are regarded by the FBI as
                                               belonging to one of the fastest-growing terrorist groupings in the US. This
                                               week they claimed responsibility for an attack in California. 

                                               They are members of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and a previously unknown
                                               group called the Coalition to Save the Preserves (CSP), which has carried out
                                               arson attacks in Arizona. The two groups describe each other as "kindred spirits"
                                               and both use variations on the "build it, burn it" slogan. 

                                               As the authorities seek information on the ELF and CSP, journalists and
                                               environmental campaigners who have been contacted by the groups have been
                                               followed, had their homes raided and served with injunctions and subpoenas. 

                                               In the three years since its foundation, the ELF has become probably the most
                                               active underground group in the US, attracting the attention of the authorities
                                               from coast to coast. Its members' success in avoiding capture and carrying out
                                               spectacular attacks on property has increased the pressure on the FBI to make
                                               arrests. 

                                               This week the ELF claimed responsibility for a warehouse fire in Visalia, California
                                               in February. Its communique said the target was chosen because it "contained
                                               massive quantities of transgenic cotton seed in storage. But now, this seed will
                                               no longer exist to contaminate the environment, enrich a sick corporation, or
                                               contribute to its warped research programmes." 

                                               In January the group said that it smashed the windows of two buildings nearing
                                               completion in Louisville, Kentucky, and warned that "the once beautiful farmlands
                                               of eastern Jefferson county, Kentucky are being destroyed by earth rapers ..
                                               This was the first, be it minor, direct action. It will be a long fought battle and
                                               more actions are planned in the future." 

                                               The CSP has claimed responsibility for 11 arson attacks on homes on the edge
                                               of a desert preserve outside Phoenix, Arizona, causing around $5m of damage
                                               and leaving a note which read: "U Build It We Burn It - Again." 

                                               In Long Island the message, this time from the ELF, is the same. After the
                                               torching of a housing development, a statement read: "The actions of those who
                                               orchestrated the construction are absolutely intolerable, so we are now declaring
                                               an unbounded war on urban sprawl." 

                                               Last month the ELF said it burned down a lumber company's offices in Glendale,
                                               Oregon. It has recently made clear its intention to escalate the battle and widen
                                               its targets to "capitalism and industry". 

                                               The increasing frequency of the attacks and the fact that they are being carried
                                               out across the country has alarmed the FBI, not least because the organisation,
                                               which operates with small independent cells, has been difficult to penetrate. 

                                               However, some arrests have been made. Frank Ambrose, an environmentalist in
                                               Bloomington, Indiana, is due to be appear in court in April in connection with
                                               "timber spiking" - sticking nails in trees to damage loggers' chain saws. He
                                               denies the charges. 

                                               Three teenagers have been arrested in connection with the Long Island attacks. 

                                               In Portland, Oregon, environmentalists have been served with subpoenas to
                                               testify about the work of the ELF and the Animal Liberation Front. 

                                               Craig Rosebraugh, a spokesman for the North American Earth Liberation Front
                                               press office, explained yesterday why he believed that the organisation was able
                                               to carry out its attacks. "I think the individuals involved have a certain level of
                                               intelligence. There is no physical membership, no physical base, no hierarchy. It's
                                               an anonymous group that operates in underground cells and that makes it very
                                               difficult for the FBI to infiltrate," he said. 

                                               He said the group owed its origins to the direct action taken by
                                               environmentalists in Britain. US activists have been particularly impressed by the
                                               struggle against the Newbury bypass, which delayed the road building while
                                               gaining public support. 

                                               Mr Rosebraugh, who writes about the group in Earth First magazine, said his
                                               home had been raided and property seized. He also said he had been followed
                                               and called on to testify before a federal grand jury about the group's activities.
                                               He said the ELF was acting "out of self-defence - to preserve our air, our water
                                               and our soil .. As people see the destruction of our environment, they see what
                                               ELF is doing as a positive reaction." 

                                               James Hibberd, who has covered the arson attacks for the weekly Phoenix New
                                               Times in Arizona, has been put under pressure to assist the police after being
                                               contacted by the man who described himself as a member of a CSP cell. The
                                               county attorney went to court to make Mr Hibberd produce a tape recording
                                               supposedly made of the man's voice during his telephone call, so that police
                                               could try to match it with voice prints of a suspect. Mr Hibberd refused, citing
                                               state laws which allow a journalist to protect a source. 

                                               The man told Mr Hibberd that he was a management professional and family man
                                               with a "healthy income". He said he had no previous convictions and that the
                                               idea of the arson attacks came to him as he was mountain biking. 

                                               'Terrorist threat'

                                               The FBI in Phoenix confirmed this week that they were investigating at least 
10                                            separate arson attacks. An FBI spokeswoman in Portland said that the ELF ad
                                               now claimed responsibility for more than 20 attacks. She said the group had
                                               been declared a "terrorist threat" by the FBI and department of justice. 

                                               The ELF keeps in touch with its supporters via its earthliberationfront.com
                                               website, which currently shows a photo of a burning building on its home age.
                                               It also includes advice on what to do "if an [FBI] agent knocks". 

                                               In the latest Earth First, a member of the ELF denies that the activists are
                                               terrorists. "We condemn all forms of terrorism. We are trying to cost the rich
                                               sprawl corporations enough money so they stop destroying the planet and the
                                               health, well-being and existence of humankind."