Eight years ago, the Earth Liberation Front claimed responsibility for sabotaging the U.S. Forest Service Facility in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, because the facility was performing genetic engineering research on trees. Underground activists “girdled” about 500 trees, removing a strip of bark, a few inches wide, around the circumference of the trees that caused them to die. Activists also used spray paint and etching cream to sabotage U.S. Forest Service vehicles.
Now, eight years later, the government has announced the indictment of three activists for the crimes. Aaron Ellringer, Katherine Christianson, and Bryan Rivera have been charged with destruction of government property and conspiracy. The indictment also names Ian Wallace (a government informant) and Daniel McGowan (one of the “Operation Backfire” defendants you’ve read about on this site). It also ominously names others “known and unknown to the grand jury.”
What stood out to me in the indictment is the language being used by the government, language that echoes “terrorism enhancement” provisions applied to McGowan and others in the Operation Backfire cases, language like “direct actions are acts of vandalism or arson designed to intimidate business, government, and the general civilian population into ceasing activities that individuals in these movements believe are harmful to the natural environment.” I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if the government is gunning for another “War on Terrorism” victory.
Details are still emerging about all of this, and I’ll be following up here, but there is one inspiring note. Daniel McGowan was recently subpoenaed to testify at a grand jury about this crime. He refused to testify, refused to help the government make an absurd “terrorism” case against other activists, and was placed in civil contempt. As a result, he lost “good time” toward his 7-year sentence. And now he’s at the “terrorist prison” in Terre Haute, Indiana, and will soon head to a special unit in the federal prison in Marion, Illinois.
It’s outrageous that, with all the issues facing the country, the government thinks its a priority to revive an eight-year-old case, months before it will expire, for activists that stripped bark off of trees and caused about $500,000 in damage. I feel safer now, don’t you?
As always, if you have been approached by law enforcement, please let us know at GreenIsTheNewRed.com and call the NLG Green Scare Hotline, 1-888-NLG-ECOL.