'Earth Liberation Front Essay\r'

'With e reallywhere 600 sorry dos resulting to to a greater extent than $100 cardinal thousand thousand in lieu costs, the human race pouch look has been dubbed as the most officious and destructive domestic scourgeist thronging in the get together States by the federal function of Investigation (FBI). Un wish swell up international terrorist act, broadly speaking carried disclose by Muslim radicals desire â€Å"Holy War” with America, domestic terrorism falls nether the category of peculiar(prenominal) interest extremists according to the FBI, the choose power in counterterrorism.\r\nSpecial interest extremists moderate acts of politically motivated violence to effectiveness segments of society, including the general cosmos, to change attitudes approximately issues considered consequential to their ca put ons. These assorts occupy the extreme fringes of animal remediates, pro- spirit, surroundal, antinuclear, and different(a) vogues (FBI, 1 999, p. 20). The scallywag conducts random frugal countermine by destroying facilities and industries involve in logging, heritable engineering, energy production and auto do to pr eccentric the development of the inborn environment.\r\nThe root believes that in order to preserve the nation’s ecological balance they take a crap to tear mow the U. S. capitalist economic system that continually ab works nature for profit. mob F. Jarboe, FBI’s house servant Terrorism surgical incision Chief, testified in 2002 before the U. S. congress describing the hob as the top domestic terror aggroup which could incur a unsafe flagellum to nuclear sites. In 2005, the U. S. segment of Homeland Security smirched pyxie as the most aggressive terrorist fellow member among the radical environmental doing. Members, who call themselves â€Å"Elves”, act on in a new brand of hostility named eco-terrorism.\r\nThey atomic number 18 institutionalizeted to match their cause by all elbow room necessary through direct actions and extremist violence. Due to the autonomous nature of the movement with no formal chain of command, fair play enforcement agencies admitted that they ask difficulty in infiltrating the group despite several major arrests and indictments. The FBI assert that William C. Rodgers was the leader of the group. He was arrested in declination 2005 but committed suicide sequence in jail victimisation a plastic bag. pyxie’s stem turn of mathematical process is mainly located in Canada, United Kingdom, and United States.\r\nOrigin: passing low frequency originated in 1992 in Brighton, England devoted to hold dear and save the environment. It was established by a more radical group of activists know as earth First who thinks that criminal acts like economic pervert would best(p) advanced its cause rather than sancti whizzd protests. The name was derived from an other(a) movement puppet release Front (ALF ) who likewise use the somared method in promoting their ideals of liberating the animals from abuse. The dickens organizations forged alliance in 1997 and kick in claimed more than 1,200 criminal acts causing over $100 million in proportion detriments for the past 15 forms.\r\nMembers exercise illegal direct actions by using fire-raising in confronting companies and practices they see as abusive and immoral. With such tactic they want to impose economic loss or cripple business operations. rapscallion surfaced in America in 1996 by callousing a U. S. Forest Service hand truck in operating theatre’s Willamette home(a) Forest and spray-painted the building with anti-logging slogans. Since then, rascal go on attacking big businesses year afterwards year becoming the most cherished terrorist group. The movement is funded by wealthy benefactors and other allied organizations sympathetic to its cause like the People for Ethical Treatment of sensuals (PETA).\r\ nOrganization, political theory and Tactics: ELF is an underground movement with a decentralize structure. It is a heart-to-heart ne iirk of small groups or individuals who translate with the movement. Anyone can be a member as long as he or she simply follows the ELF’s guidelines: to inflict maximum economic damage on those profiting from the destruction and exploitation of the natural environment, to reveal to, and to educate the public about the atrocities committed against the orb and all species that lie in it and to take all necessary precautions against harming smell (Rosebraugh, 2004, p.\r\n18). The group is practically invisible with no official members, leaders or spokesperson. In this manner, they can continue to laxly shin for their cause without the fear of being jug and this practice has been proven to be very effective. The group is rooted in an ideology that considers all living existences on earth possess moral rights and deserve touch on c ar as the humans. In addition, the ELF as well believes in deep environmental science favoring the rollback of civilization and restoring the environment modify by selfish interests brought about by the industrial age.\r\nThis philosophy maintains that modernization has created imperishable injustices on the planet that pull up stakes lead to the destruction of human existence on earth and the extinction of wildlife habitat. ELF recognizes that the environmental movement has failed to bring the message crossways and brought about changes in preserving the environment. The legal protests did not catch the trouble of the public and the regimen but instead rights grant boost many big businesses to profit from the exploitation of the earth’s natural resources.\r\nMembers of the group believe that it is within their rights to protect the environment and enforce the natural law. They accomplish their complaint in many innovative tactics or techniques. Their primary weapon i s arson intense various properties, research laboratories, fomites, equipment, and buildings. They would use crude inflammatory devices like candles that are attached to a plastic jugs fill with gasoline. They use booby trapped letter with poisoned razor blades and issue death threats to exploiters. Members also engage in vandalism by spray painting their positions as well as break windows and glue locks.\r\nIn addition, the ELF advocates â€Å"monkeywrenching,” a euphemism for acts of sabotage and property destruction against industries and other entities perceived to be damaging to the natural environment. â€Å"Monkeywrenching” includes tree spiking, arson, sabotage of logging or construction equipment, and other types of property destruction (FBI, 2002, ¶10). Their main mark is merely to channel public attention to their cause and not kill people. So far of all the criminal acts the group committed thither has been no case-by-case human casualty reported.\r \nThe group has locomote effective in their c vitamin Aaign magic spell eluding authorities because of its leaderless resistance. Leaderless resistance is a technique by which terrorist groups can withstand out violent acts trance bring down the risk of infiltration by law enforcement elements. The basic principle of leaderless resistance is that there is no centralized authority or chain-of-command. The various cells are linked by shared ideology but other are autonomous, for the most part fragmented and unknown to each other (Leader & Probst, 2004, p. 2). Before an attack is executed, the group plans conservatively its every(prenominal) move.\r\nMembers would thoroughly cultivation the target with video and photo surveillance, conduct give-and-take operation gathering, and research the industry. In 2001, the ELF came out with a handbook entitled background signal Fires with Electrical timers: An Earth Liberation Front Guide. The 37-page manual details how to asse mble an old fashioned Kitchen Timer and a SCR Digital Timer complete with instructions, tips, diagrams, materials, and tools needed. It advises members on the rules of a palmy arson, where to place incendiary devices, and fuel requirements to burn down a building.\r\nCurrently, ELF has launched a nationwide campaign of arson against catching engineering and genetically modified organism activities. The group believes that these actions, genetically alternating life forms, are types of oppression and destruction. In its felonious Incidents Report: A 25 stratum History of Illegal Activities by Eco and tool Extremists, the Foundation for Medical Research in majuscule, D. C. noted that both ELF and its accomplice ALF were responsible for 529 attacks against research facilities, universities, drug stripping companies, and various organizations from 1981 to 2005.\r\nThe assaults were made up of vandalism (45%), theft (23%), harassment (15%), arson (10%), and bomb (7%). harmonise to U. S. law enforcement, radical environmentalism presently poses the most visible homegrown threat to the national security of the United States. As recently as June 2004, the FBI designated â€Å"eco-terrorism”â€the use of or threat to use violence in protest of harm inflicted on animals and the manhood’s biosphereâ€as the rustic’s progeny one militant altercate emanating from internal its own borders (Chalk, Hoffman, Reville, & Kasupski, 2006, p. 47).\r\n poisonous Activities: This shadowy movement has unprecedented say of criminal activities that continuously threaten American society and democracy. Their history of violence expands across the U. S. hitting various institutions such as government, private citizens, education, and other forms of development. In 1997, ELF fire down the situation of priming Management horse corral in surgery and on the following year set fire on a ski resort in Vail, conscientious objector that resulted in $12 million in damages. The group set seven divide fires destroying collar buildings and damaging four chairlifts.\r\nThe FBI considered this event as the most destructive act of eco-terrorism in U. S. history. In 1999, ELF radicals were voluminous in the burning of an 8,000 square-foot structure of the capital of Idaho Cascade logging company in Monmouth, Oregon and the destruction of the Agricultural anteroom of the Michigan State University. In kinsfolk 8, 2001, the group burned a McDonald egress in Tucson causing $500,000 in damages. In 2003, this extremist set fire on a housing complex that was under construction in San Diego knocking down a cinque-storey building and a 100-foot crane.\r\nThe damage was estimated at $50 million. Six weeks later, they burned three other houses that were being build within the area. In addition, the ELF assaulted three car dealers in Southern calcium setting ablaze 40 Hummers and SUVs amounting to $2 million in damages. The group vanda lized the cars by painting the words â€Å"Fat lazy Americans”. They did the same in Los Angeles where 125 period of play utility vehicles were also vandalized and burned inside auto dealer shops and along the neighborhood.\r\nAccording to FBI investigations the ELF were responsible for attacking vehicle dealerships and construction sites. In February 2005, the group burned down a new Pinewoods flat complex in Sutter Creek, California with an incendiary device leaving a graffito that said â€Å"We Will Win †ELF”. five-spot months after, the same group torched two homes that were under construction in Whatcom County, Washington causing $100,000 in damages to the other house while the other one was destroyed. They also vandalized and damaged a number of construction equipment.\r\nThe arson campaign went on in 2006 with the burning of more houses. In Camano Island, Washington, the ELF set fire on a 9,600 square foot swag house worth $3 million. In its official co mmunication made in 1997, the ELF declared their struggle to free all species in the planet. We are the burning rage of this dying planet. The war of rapaciousness ravages the earth and species die out every day. ELF works to speed up the collapse of industry, to scare the rich, and to undermine the foundations of the state. We squeeze social and deep ecology as a practical resistance movement.\r\nWe beget to show the enemy that we are grave about defending what is sacred. Together we have teeth and claws to match our dreams. Our greatest weapons are imagination and the ability to strike when to the lowest degree expected (Pickering, 2007, p. 10). accomplishment funk: In response to the attacks, the FBI initiated in 2004 Operation Backfire intended to investigate acts of terrorism by the ELF. It put together several autonomous investigation bodies from the agency’s Portland, Oregon field office and rounded up suspected eco-terrorists. Seven people were arrested in fou r different states.\r\nThey were Stanislas Meyerhoff, Chelsea Gerlach, Daniel McGowan, Darren Thurston, Kevin Tubbs, William Rodgers, and Kendall Tankersley. In addition, five others were taken into custody namely Jonathan Paul, Josephine Overaker, Rebecca Rubin, Suzanne Savoie and Joseph Dibee. Federal prosecutors together with U. S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales indicted in 2006 11 suspects with 65 counts of conspiracy charges to commit arson in Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Colorado and California. some of those apprehended turned informants for the government.\r\nThe arrests and indictments were the outcome of a nine-year old investigation on the serial publication of arsons in America where the ELF claimed responsibility. The operation is on going around the country. Those participating in the investigation besides the FBI are the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Eugene Police Department, the Portland Police Bureau, the Oregon State Police, th e U. S. Forest Service, the U. S. Bureau of kingdom Management, the U. S. Department of Agriculture, the Oregon Department of rightness and the Lane County Sheriff’s Office.\r\nSome of those arrested have been convicted of the crime in U. S. Federal Courts. They are as follows: Stanislas Meyerhoff †13 historic period, Kevin Tubbs †12 long time 7 months, Chelsea Gerlach †9 old age, Kendall Tankersley †3 years 10 months, Suzanne Savoie †4 years 3 months, Darren Thurston †3 years 1 month, Daniel McGowan †7 years, Jonathan Paul †Sentencing in abeyance, Joyanna Zacher †7 years 8 months and Nathan Block †7 years 8 months ( justness, 2007, ¶4). Other suspects were released on bails while some were placed on restrictions unfinished their trial.\r\nA few decided to meet while the rest tolerate imprisoned. Operation backfire was highly criticized because of coercion and paid informants. Other sectors called the bold move unc onstitutional but Atty. General Gonzales argued that such acts unaccompanied constitute violent criminal activity, which may violate the right of every U. S. citizen. windup Terrorist groups like the ELF are anti-progress and as long as development continues they will not stop their modus operandi in terrorizing the public and businesses, which already have incurred heavy losses.\r\nThe scenario is extremely dangerous and alarming. It is imperative that authorities and intelligence organizations have to assess the threat and study the behavior of these terrorists who are becoming more advanced and knowledgeable in their strategies. on that point is a need for effective counterstrategies to give away and prevent acts of terror at the same time proper allocation of resources in order to efficiently combat these adversaries. As a loose organization, ELF could become even more dangerous because its members do not follow any rules.\r\nThe group constantly poses great risk to the co untry’s democracy, endangers American lives and undermines the constitution that guarantees trade protection to the citizens. There is also possibility that such group could turn violence as a way of life and strewing its corrupt ideals to the younger generation, which is already stirred by media violence. For the government to combat this kind of domestic terrorism, it has to take more proactive actions in preventing further destructions to the economy. While doing so, its programs should remain within the framework of freedom without violating one’s constitutional rights.\r\nAuthorities mustiness strengthen their intelligence network to prevent arson attacks. Though the ELF has its right to voice their concerns, they must be contained and stop immediately. References FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation). (1999). Terrorism in the United States 1999. Counterterrorism. 30 Years of Terrorism: A Special Retrospective Edition. Threat sound judgment and Warning Unit C ounterterrorism Division. Report. Federal Bureau of Investigation Rosebraugh, C. (2004). Burning Rage of a Dying Planet (P): Speaking for the Earth Liberation.\r\nLantern Books, New York. Leader, S. H. & Probst, P. (2004). The Earth Liberation Front and Environmental Terrorism. Retrieved December 2, 2007, from http://cjc. delaware. gov/PDF/ELF%20ALF%20article. pdf Chalk, P. (2006). Trends in Terrorism: Threats to the United States and the proximo of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act. RAND monograph series. RAND centre of attention for Terrorism Risk Management Policy. RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA. ISBN: 0833038222 Pickering, L. J. (2007). Earth Liberation Front 1997-2002. Arissa Media Group; second ed. , New York.\r\nFBI. (2002). Testimony of James F. Jarboe, Domestic Terrorism Section Chief, Counterterrorism Division, FBI Before the residence Resources Committee, Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health. http://www. fbi. gov/congress/congress02/jarboe021202. htm DOJ (D epartment of Justice). (2007). Final Sentencing Hearing Held in facial expression of Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and Animal Liberation Front for Acts of Eco-Terrorism in Five Western States. Press Release. Retrieved December 2, 2007, from http://portland. fbi. gov/dojpressrel/2007/elfsentencing080307. htm\r\n'