ELF says it set fire to UW plant center

Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. — Earth Liberation Front, an underground group that’s carried out arson attacks from coast to coast, is stepping up its efforts to punish companies and institutions it says are threatening the environment.

ELF on Friday claimed responsibility for two simultaneous fires last month at the University of Washington and at a tree farm in Oregon.

Several hours earlier, a plastic milk jug filled with a flammable liquid destroyed a logging truck that was going to be used to harvest trees in the Mount Hood National Forest. There was no claim of responsibility by ELF, although the attack was similar to those staged previously by the group.

Earlier this week, ELF posted a manual on its Web site that tells would-be arsonists how to build incendiary devices.

ELF is making good on a promise it made earlier this year that it was going to ratchet up the violence, said the FBI, which considers ELF one of the most dangerous terrorist groups in the nation.

"I don’t think there’s any doubt the ELF is upping the ante," said Beth Anne Steele, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Portland.

So far, no one has been hurt in ELF’s four-year spree of violence. The group says its aim is to protect the environment, not to harm anyone.

But the FBI worries that it’s only a matter of time before a firefighter or someone else is injured or killed.

"The Earth Liberation Front says it doesn’t commit violent acts that hurt people," Steele said. "But arson fires are unpredictable."

Before dawn on Friday, someone tried to torch six logging trucks at a company in Eagle Creek, about 40 miles southeast of Portland. One truck was destroyed and two others were damaged. Plastic milk jugs were found beneath the trucks, apparently filled with a flammable liquid.

The logging trucks were going to be used for harvesting trees at a nearby site in the Mount Hood National Forest. For the past two years, environmental activists have been trying to block logging at the site.

Steele said it is not yet known who torched the trucks. She refrained from blaming ELF.

She also said there has usually been a delay between the day ELF claims responsibility for an arson attack and the day of the violence. The FBI suspects the reason for delays in the past is ELF wants to make sure no one was hurt before asserting responsibility, Steele said.

"These are not stupid people," she said.

ELF and a sister organization, the Animal Liberation Front, have claimed responsiblity for more than two dozen acts of vandalism since 1997.

The violence has included arson at three luxury homes in Mount Sinai, N.Y., sabotaged logging equipment in Indiana, several fires in Oregon and a 1998 fire that caused $12 million damage at the Vail, Colo., ski resort.

On Friday, ELF claimed responsiblity for two May 21 arson fires, one in Oregon at the Jefferson Poplar Farms in Clatskanie and the other at the University of Washington Center for Urban Horticulture in Seattle.

Both operations are developing hybrid poplar trees. The fire at the university caused as much as $3 million in structural damage; the Oregon fire caused at least $500,000 in damage.

Little is known about ELF.

The group’s spokesman, Craig Rosebraugh, owns a vegan bakery in Portland.

Rosebraugh said he sympathizes with ELF, but insists his only involvement is forwarding to the news media the group’s claims of responsibility for attacks.