Articles by David Roberts

If ELF didn’t exist, the Bushies would have to invent it.

Why are the DOJ, FBI, and ATF making so much noise about "eco-terrorism"?

FBI deputy assistant John Lewis said, "The No. 1 domestic terrorism threat is the eco-terrorism, animal-rights movement."

Put aside for a moment the conspicuous running together of two different movements. By no reasonable metric would eco-terrorism and animal-rights direct action combined be judged the premiere domestic threat of our times. The number of lives taken and property damaged by organized crime swamps anything done by the ELF, even if we accept every claim made on its behalf. Drugs, prostitution, smuggling, piracy -- all kill more and damage more property. Hell, white collar crime makes the $23-million-over-10-years attributed to "eco-terrorism" look like a laughable rounding error.

In terms of lives and lucre, there are manifold forms of crime under the FBI's jurisdiction that do more damage. Other than its status as "terrorism," as determined on the sole authority of the executive branch, what marks "eco-terrorism" worthy of the enormous time and resources being devoted to it?

Especially since, as we were all recently reminded, Osama bin Laden is still very much alive, and radical Islamic terror has already done more than $23 million in damage -- in one day, you might recall.

The cynical among us might suggest that it is to the executive branch's great benefit at the moment to be seen securing high-profile victories over terrorism, however defined or identified. It is also to this administration's advantage to associate environmentalism -- a source of vocal and embarrassing bi-partisan and international criticism -- with violence and extremism. If the ELF didn't exist, the Bush administration would have to invent it.

So say the cynics. Dirty, no-good cynics!

It’s pretty low-end

I would hope it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway: I do not condone the acts of the ALF or, to the extent it's extant, the ELF. Arson is a crime and should be prosecuted. Flooding, vandalism -- not cool. Graffiti, well, it's a menace.

To deem one's cause more worthy than a living, breathing human being is the ultimate in jackassery. As yet, ELF has not gone there.

But destroying people's stuff is also jackassery. A distinctly lower-order form of jackassery, but jackassery nonetheless. Only a jackass indulges in jackassery.

And let's face it. Somebody's going to get hurt. The more the feds inadvertently (?) publicize ELF, the more ELF will attract attention and self-proclaimed membership. Eventually it will attract a crank who will injure or kill someone. My sympathy for that crank is nil and I'm all for throwing the book at him.

My concern is not whether "eco-terrorism" should be morally or legally condoned -- it obviously shouldn't. My concern is whether it is particularly significant, in terms of threats to the health and welfare of Americans. It seems to me the Bush administration is using it quite crassly, for political purposes, in a manner all out of proportion to the real danger it poses.

Eco-terrorist commits suicide

This raised my eyebrow:

[U.S. Attorney Karin] Immergut said a pledge by the defendants to never reveal each other's identities to law-enforcement officials made the investigation more difficult. But investigators persuaded some alleged participants to act as informants, providing details of the crimes.

...

[40-year-old Arizona bookstore owner William C.] Rodgers, who also was identified by federal prosecutors as the mastermind of the 1998 arson at Vail, Colo., but was not charged in connection with that crime, committed suicide last month in an Arizona jail.

From the indictment, Rodgers appeared to be a key figure in the cell, allegedly involved in many of the most high-profile crimes.

There are differences

It doesn't seem to me that the ELF and the ALF should always be spoken of in the same breath. The Animal Liberation Front is decades old and well-established in over 20 countries.

The Earth Liberation Front didn't really appear on the radar until 1998, when a Vail ski resort was torched. There are questions about the communique in which ELF claimed responsibility. There are questions about the authenticity of ELF website. There are questions about whether the ELF exists as an organization in any ontologically robust sense.

In general, the animal-rights movement has a much longer and more storied history of violent direct action than the environmental movement. Lumping them together as one amorphous threat is driven as much by the political needs of the powers-that-be as by events on the ground.