Feds Charge 11 in Ecoterrorism Conspiracy

[James Curry]

www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,182347,00.html


Above link to Fox News article below plus a Pdf file of the original indictment handed up.

Feds Charge 11 in Ecoterrorism Conspiracy
Friday, January 20, 2006



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Two Charged in Northwest Ecoterrorism Probe
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Woman Eyed in Ecoterror Attacks, Including Colo. Ski Resort Firebombing
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Feds Announce Arrests in Ecoterrorism Attacks
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Six Arrested for Ecoterrorism Attacks
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FBI Warns of Eco-Terrorism Threat
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Alleged Ecoterrorist Arrested in Oregon
WASHINGTON — Eleven people were indicted in a series of arsons, claimed by the radical groups Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front, in five Western states, the Justice Department said Friday.

The 65-count indictment said the suspects 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.

Click here to read the indictment (pdf).
news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/environment/usalf11906ind.pdf

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller were expected to talk about the indictment Friday at a news conference in Washington.

Eight defendants have been arrested. Three people remain at large, and are believed to be outside the United States, according to a statement from the Justice Department.

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.

(Story continues below)

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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.

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 other six were arrested in December.

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.


www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,182347,00.html

[James Curry]

www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2006/apr/06/040610248.html
Today: April 06, 2006 at 17:32:18 PDT

Four indicted in 2001 corral fire near Susanville
By SCOTT SONNER
ASSOCIATED PRESS

RENO, Nev. (AP) - Four people were indicted on federal arson charges Thursday in the 2001 firebombing of a federal corral near Susanville, Calif., that housed wild horses and burros rounded up from public rangeland.

Three of the four suspects in the firebombing at the Bureau of Land Management facility about 80 miles northwest of Reno already have been indicted on federal charges mostly in Oregon in connection with a string of cases of alleged eco-terrorism across several Western states.

One of them, Canadian Darren Thurston, 36, remains in custody in Oregon. Two others previously indicted, Rebecca Rubin, 32, and Joseph Dibee, 38, are listed as fugitives, as is the fourth suspect named for the first time in Thursday's indictment, Justin Solondz, 26.

U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott and FBI Special Agent Drew Parenti announced the new three-count indictment on Thursday in Sacramento charging the four with conspiracy to commit arson, arson of a government building and use of a destructive device during and in relation to a crime of violence.

They said the charges were the product of an extensive investigation by the FBI and its Joint Terrorism Task Force.

"Those who would commit acts of terror, such as arson, in the name of the Earth Liberation Front, and the Animal Liberation Front should be on notice: federal law enforcement will do everything in its capacity to track you down and hold you accountable for your dangerous behavior," Scott said in a statement issued by his office in Sacramento.

"Today's indictments of these four eco-terrorists bring to 11 the total number of ELF or ELF-ALF related defendants charged in three separate cases brought by this office over the past year."

Dibee is among three suspects earlier charged with torching the Cavel West horse slaughterhouse in Redmond, Ore., in July 1997. Rubin, also a fugitive, is among three suspects charged in an arson fire at U.S. Forest Industries in Medford, Ore., in December 1998.

Four firebombs had been rigged to ignite at the BLM's Litchfield corral along U.S. Highway 395 about 20 miles northeast of Susanville, Calif., but only one went off, destroying the hay-filled barn on Oct. 16, 2001. A military bomb squad disarmed the others. No one was injured.

About two weeks after the firebombing, a spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front said that another group, the Earth Liberation Front, appeared to be taking credit for the attack as a form of protest against the federal roundup of wild horses.

Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Steven Lapham, who is prosecuting the case, said Thursday that in addition to the bomb that went off a second device was located in the hay barn adjacent to the one that burned.

A third device was located on the front porch of the BLM office, and a fourth was under the car of a BLM horse wrangler.

"Although this incident occurred more than 4 years ago, the FBI and its JTTF partners continued to investigate these acts of extremism, and are pleased charges have been filed against those responsible," Parenti said Thursday.

If convicted, the penalties under federal law for conspiracy to commit arson and arson are 20 years maximum, a mandatory minimum of five years in prison, and a three-year term of supervised release.

The penalty for use of a destructive device during a crime of violence is 30 years to be served consecutively to the underlying crime, and a five-year term of supervised release.

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