Page 138 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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112———Earth Liberation Front

away from Earth First! to form the Evan Mecham Zakin, Susan. Coyotes and Town Dogs: Earth First! and
Eco-Terrorist International Conspiracy (EMETIC), the Environmental Movement. New York: Viking
which was infiltrated by the FBI. Before his arrest for Penguin, 1993.
conspiracy to sabotage nuclear power stations
(Foreman pleaded guilty in 1991), Foreman told Earth
First! cofounder Roselle that he was “working on EARTH LIBERATION FRONT
something more radical.”
By the 1990s, other members of Earth First! were
leaving as well. In 1992, British members formed the In 1998, the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), an
Earth Liberation Front (ELF), believing Earth First! extremist environmentalist group, perpetrated one
had become too timid, too invested in becoming main- of the costliest and most sophisticated acts of
stream. However, while ELF and similar groups “ecotage”—economic sabotage in the name of the
conducted underground “ecotage,” Earth First! used environment—in U.S. history, thereby becoming a
its more moderate position to become the most recog- primary focus of the FBI.
nizable group in the radical environmental movement. ELF was formed in Brighton, England, in 1992,
It is still active today, with chapters throughout North when a few members of Earth First! became frus-
America, Great Britain, and Australia. trated with that group’s unwillingness to break the
law to achieve its goals. Modeled after Britain’s
See also ANIMAL RIGHTS MOVEMENT; EARTH LIBERATION Animal Liberation Front (ALF), ELF is composed of
FRONT; ECOTERRORISM; EVAN MECHAM ECO-TERRORIST autonomous, anonymous cells that engage in direct
INTERNATIONAL CONSPIRACY actions to cause economic hardship to businesses and
institutions that they believe are destroying the envi-
Further Reading ronment. Like members of ALF, the members of
Foreman, Dave. Confessions of an Eco-warrior. New York: ELF—who call themselves “elves”—take precau-
Harmony Books, 1991. tions against harming animals and humans during
Scarce, Rik. Eco-warriors: Understanding the Radical their actions. To date, they have not physically
Environmental Movement. Chicago: Noble, 1990. harmed anyone.
In November 1997, a
communiqué announced
the presence of ELF in
North America, after an
attack on the Bureau of
Land Management wild
horse corrals in Burns,
Oregon, which ELF con-
ducted in conjunction with
ALF. Most of the group’s
early actions, however,
were against logging acti-
vities, using “monkey
wrenching” techniques,
such as disabling heavy
machinery used by loggers,
borrowed from Earth First!
The aim was to make
cutting down trees unpro-
fitable for lumber compa-
Members of the environmental group Earth First! demonstrate in front of the U.S. nies and, in later actions,
Forest Service headquarters in Laconia, New Hampshire. targeted suburban sprawl,
Source: © Corbis.