SPEAKERS CONTENTS INSERTS
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59–927
2000
ACTS OF ECOTERRORISM BY RADICAL ENVIROMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON CRIME
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FIFTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
JUNE 9, 1998
Serial No. 142
Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary
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For sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office
Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office, Washington, DC 20402
HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois, Chairman
F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, Jr., Wisconsin
BILL McCOLLUM, Florida
GEORGE W. GEKAS, Pennsylvania
HOWARD COBLE, North Carolina
LAMAR SMITH, Texas
ELTON GALLEGLY, California
CHARLES T. CANADY, Florida
BOB INGLIS, South Carolina
BOB GOODLATTE, Virginia
STEPHEN E. BUYER, Indiana
ED BRYANT, Tennessee
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio
BOB BARR, Georgia
WILLIAM L. JENKINS, Tennessee
ASA HUTCHINSON, Arkansas
EDWARD A. PEASE, Indiana
CHRIS CANNON, Utah
JAMES E. ROGAN, California
LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina
MARY BONO, California
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JOHN CONYERS, Jr., Michigan
BARNEY FRANK, Massachusetts
CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York
HOWARD L. BERMAN, California
RICK BOUCHER, Virginia
JERROLD NADLER, New York
ROBERT C. SCOTT, Virginia
MELVIN L. WATT, North Carolina
ZOE LOFGREN, California
SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas
MAXINE WATERS, California
MARTIN T. MEEHAN, Massachusetts
WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts
ROBERT WEXLER, Florida
STEVEN R. ROTHMAN, New Jersey
THOMAS E. MOONEY, Chief of Staff-General Counsel
JULIAN EPSTEIN, Minority Staff Director
Subcommittee on Crime
BILL McCOLLUM, Florida, Chairman
STEPHEN E. BUYER, Indiana
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio
BOB BARR, Georgia
ASA HUTCHINSON, Arkansas
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GEORGE W. GEKAS, Pennsylvania
HOWARD COBLE, North Carolina
JAMES E. ROGAN, California
LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina
CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York
SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas
MARTIN T. MEEHAN, Massachusetts
ROBERT WEXLER, Florida
STEVEN R. ROTHMAN, New Jersey
PAUL J. MCNULTY, Chief Counsel
GLENN R. SCHMITT, Counsel
DANIEL J. BRYANT, Counsel
NICOLE R. NASON, Counsel
DAVID YASSKY, Minority Counsel
C O N T E N T S
HEARING DATE
June 9, 1998
OPENING STATEMENT
McCollum, Hon. Bill, a Representative in Congress from the State of Florida, and chairman, Subcommittee on Crime
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WITNESSES
Arnold, Ron, author of the book: Ecoterror—The Violent Agenda to Save Nature
Clausen, Barry, author of the book: Walking on the Edge—How I Infiltrated Earth First!
Peterson, Cathi, former Forest Service employee, Northern California
Rodgers, Julie, District Office Manager, office of Hon. Frank Riggs, Eureka, CA
Riggs, Hon. Frank, a Representative in Congress from the State of California
Vincent, Bruce, President, Alliance for America
LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING
Arnold, Ron, author of the book: Ecoterror—The Violent Agenda to Save Nature: Prepared statement
Clausen, Barry, author of the book: Walking on the Edge—How I Infiltrated Earth First!: Prepared statement
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Peterson, Cathi, former Forest Service employee, Northern California: Prepared statement
Rodgers, Julie, District Office Manager, office of Hon. Frank Riggs, Eureka, CA: Prepared statement
Riggs, Hon. Frank, a Representative in Congress from the State of California: Prepared statement
Vincent, Bruce, President, Alliance for America: Prepared statement
APPENDIX
Material submitted for the record
ACTS OF ECOTERRORISM BY RADICAL ENVIROMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 1998
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Crime
Committee on the Judiciary,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 2:30 p.m., in Room 2237, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Bill McCollum [chairman of the subcommittee] presiding.
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Present: Representatives Bill McCollum, Stephen E. Buyer, Steve Chabot, Asa Hutchinson and Howard Coble.
Staff Present: Paul J. McNulty, Chief Counsel; Nicole R. Nason, Counsel; Kara Smith, Staff Assistant; and David Yassky, Minority Counsel.
OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN BILL MCCOLLUM
Mr. MCCOLLUM. Good afternoon. This hearing of the Subcommittee on Crime is to consider the growing and extremely disturbing problem of violent acts by radical environmental organizations, or ''ecoterrorism.''
Our great Nation was built upon the bedrock of free expression. Those with strongly held views are welcomed in the public square. But when such advocates threaten or injure in the name of the cause they hold dear, they cross a very important line. Civilization cannot tolerate the physical attacks of another person, simply because of differing views.
Obviously, when protests results in injury or death, the message gets lost. In the case of today's witnesses, the lost message is ostensibly ''protect the earth.'' Yet, as we will hear, ecoterrorism only encourages fear and anger. In the name of protecting Mother Nature, radical environmentalists generate nothing but terror.
There is no question that society has a large responsibility for protecting our planet. We must be concerned about issues such as wholesale deforestation of the rain forests and the extinction of some species of plant or animal. Environmental groups have been very successful in heightening our collective awareness of the limits of our natural resources. We know that must plant new trees in place of the old, and we must set up protective habitats for birds, fish and other animals. Human beings have an obligation to be good stewards of our environment.
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Yet the very fact that we are already taking these important strides underscores how inexcusable and unnecessary violent and destructive behavior in the name of this cause really is. Peaceful education and consistent advocacy in defense of plant and animal life has been proven to work. We simply cannot and will not tolerate domestic terrorism in the name of Mother Nature.
It should be noted that the subcommittee has heard from the Northern California faction of Earth First!, claiming that the movement's use of violence has been exaggerated. We have welcomed them to submit testimony for the record. We certainly do not want to unfairly malign any person or group, and I invite any statements for the record which can help clarify what actions the various groups endorse.
However, there is no denying that there have already been many victims of radical environmental attacks. This is not a manufactured problem. Our witnesses today have a unique perspective to bring to bear on this issue, and many have been subjected to personal injury or have had thousands of dollars in property destroyed. They are here to simply tell their stories so that Congress may become better educated about these violent environmental movements, and I look forward to hearing from them.
Mr. Coble, do you have an opening statement?
Mr. COBLE. No, sir.
Mr. MCCOLLUM. If not, I would like to introduce our first panel today. Our first panel consists of one witness, our good friend, Mr. Riggs of California. Welcome.
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If I might, I will formally introduce Congressman Frank Riggs. He represents the First District of California and, among his many achievements in Congress, he has worked closely with this subcommittee on juvenile crime issues in his capacity as chairman of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Youth and Families.
Last year, as I recall, Frank, your district office was subjected to an attack by an environmental group; and you have personally been engaged in bringing the perpetrators to justice and exposing the violent tactics of radical movements.
You are extremely knowledgeable, from what I know, about the subject of ecoterrorism, and I welcome you for your insight today. Your full statement will be admitted to the record without objection; and it is so ordered. And you may proceed to describe this matter in any way you see fit. Thank you for coming.
STATEMENT OF HON. FRANK RIGGS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
Mr. RIGGS. Mr. Chairman, thank you—and thank you also to our friend and colleague, Congressman Coble—for convening this hearing. If you step back and take a broad look at what has been happening in this country with respect to acts of—and I don't think there is any other way to describe it—environmental or ecoterrorism, I think you would agree with me that the most appropriate venue would be somewhere in the western United States.
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Many of our communities have been under outright siege by the most militant, extreme and I would say fringe elements of the environmental movement, who basically believe, when you cut through it all, that their means justifies their ends. I literally have had now firsthand experience in dealing with these organizations, not just through my representation of California's first congressional district for 6 years but, more importantly, and especially for my employees, more traumatically, by the episode that took place at my congressional office last October.
My employees were going about their normal daily duties at the time when my office was quite literally assaulted by a group of environmental terrorists associated with the organization North Coast, as in California's north coast, Earth First!. One of them is seated to my right and will testify before us later. Her name is Julie Rodgers. Julie and her coworker, my other employee, Ronnie Pellegrini, were present in the office when a group of individuals barged in what was really an attack or a raid on my office. It was very clearly orchestrated and very carefully executed.
The raid was actually led by an individual—and I apologize for the quality of this reproduction—but was led by at least one adult male, you can tell from his overall size and build, who was dressed from head to foot—I am going to pass this up to you in a moment—head to foot in black clothing and wearing some sort of hooded ski mask over his face.
As he entered the office, his cohorts wheeled in a gigantic tree stump using a dolly. They actually used the handicapped ramp to access my office and dropped the dolly with a loud thud that reverberated through the building in the public reception area in my congressional office in Eureka.
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The thud made such a noise that occupants of the building, not just my employees but other occupants, other tenants in the building, thought a bomb had gone off at the time. Julie and Ronnie, who were working in the back—I am going to let Julie describe it in her own words—came out front to see what had transpired and literally came face to face with this individual and other individuals who were dressed in this—I guess you would politely say commando or paramilitary style.
To make a long story short, they proceeded to trash my office and traumatize my employees, and I proceeded to get acquainted firsthand with what this group is all about. As the other witnesses will I think tell us very compellingly and convincingly today, this organization is a part of a very loose-knit, nationwide network of groups and organizations that espouse vandalism and violence, as I said before, as a means to their end.
They have, in the process, wreaked havoc in resource-dependent communities. One of their goals is, obviously, to stop the resource-intensive industries of this country. My district, as you might know, is home to a still substantial but dwindling forest products industry. One of the things this group has been successful in doing, the North Coast Earth First! organization, is tying up law enforcement and basically bogging down the judicial system.
In the incident that took place at my office, in fact—you will see Julie in the background in the process of calling 911 to summon police—every available, on-duty police officer patrol unit responded to my congressional office in the greater Eureka, California, area. There was no other law enforcement unit available to respond to any other call or demand for police services during the time that this episode transpired at my congressional office.
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So this organization, make no bones about it, is taking a clear toll on resource-dependent communities. They are causing vandalism. They have resorted to violence in at least one episode in northern California.
Another group, espousing some sort of tie to Earth First!, spiked a tree. When the tree was milled at a now-defunct sawmill in Cloverdale, California, also in my congressional district, the spike actually killed a mill worker when the saw made contact with the spike. They have taken an enormous financial and psychological and emotional toll on the communities such as the communities I represent.
I might note also, ironically, for the record, this group publicly stated they were protesting a resolution to a decade-long dispute involving the logging of privately owned forestlands in my congressional district, a resolution that was contained in last year's annual spending bill for the Department of Interior. An authorization and appropriation of $260 million in Federal taxpayer funding was contained in the Interior appropriations bill for the acquisition of 7,000 plus acres of old growth forest land in my congressional district, a resolution that I went along with very reluctantly and only under the belief this would finally resolve this political turmoil that has long been festering in my congressional district.
Mr. Chairman and colleagues, I would like to make just one other reference. That is, after this episode, we began researching this group, Earth First!, a little more carefully. Prior to that, to be very honest with you, we dismissed them as being just another radical, fringe, protest group. What really brought this home to us was how well executed this raid was at my office. Come to find out that they are a very sophisticated organization. With your permission I am going to go over the charts very quickly and show you some of the information they promote on a web site that is available to any Internet subscriber—or web site subscriber.
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Mr. MCCOLLUM. Surely.
Mr. RIGGS. I apologize for showing my back side, some would say my better side, to the audience here. But this is a web site that is maintained by Earth First! and the Earth First! Journal, which is a publication that they put out. You will notice in here that it says Earth First!—the explanation point, of course, is their own added emphasis—was founded in 1979 in response to a lethargic, compromising and increasingly corporate environmental community. In other words, mainstream moderate environmentalism isn't good enough for them, doesn't go far enough.
Earth First! takes a decidedly different tactic toward environmental issues. They believe in using all the tools in the tool box, ranging from an involvement in the legal process to civil disobedience and monkeywrenching. The key word here is monkeywrenching. Because some in the media, in particular, would have you believe that this group just engages in peaceful civil disobedience. In fact, there are those that have tried to portray the incident in my congressional office that way because, thankfully, no one was actually physically injured, and the damage or the destruction of property wasn't too extensive. There are those in the media who would like to portray this as a peaceful act of civil disobedience.
But this group isn't merely aspiring to civil disobedience, because, as you go onto the other pages of the web site, you will see how they define monkeywrenching. Monkeywrenching ecotage, which is just a play on words for sabotage, ecodefense, unauthorized heavy equipment maintenance, which means, under California law, felony, vandalism, desurveying, road reclamation, are just terms for trespassing on privately owned property, tree spiking. They actually go on to say monkeywrenching is a step beyond civil disobedience.
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Then you come down here to the bottom, and it talks about a publication they put out called Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching, now in its third edition, and it is available from Earth First! Journal for $18. It goes on, according to their own web site, to say it contains detailed information on monkeywrenching techniques, as well as careful discussions on security, safety strategy and justification. The book is 350 pages long and is heavily illustrated, and it says any potential monkeywrencher would do well to study it carefully before embarking on a clearly illegal and potentially dangerous path of ecotage.
By the way, colleagues, this is very typical of their tactics. When they want credit publicly, they are the first to seek the media limelight. But when it comes to legal liability, they dissemble and they couch things in such terms so as to qualify their actions to maintain some sort of separation or distance, maybe at arms length, from the actual people involved in these episodes.
So the incident in my congressional office on October 16th was not an isolated case. It is a small example of a larger, some would call—I certainly would say—nationwide movement that espoused criminal tactics and is often engaged in criminality, as well as the politics of intimidation and terror.
I think this organization, in particular, but all organizations that are involved in this kind of activity, should be called what they are. I believe in calling a spade a spade. They are terrorists, and they are criminals. Because they are involved in a deliberate, orchestrated, systematic criminal conspiracy, as I mentioned earlier, I think we should give some consideration to expanding Federal law to bring these groups and organizations under the umbrella of the Federal law, whether it is the expansion of the RICO statute or some other Federal law that would allow us to be able to direct Federal law enforcement agencies and Federal taxpayer resources to interdicting and preventing this kind of crime.
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Lives have been lost. Too many communities have been damaged. Individuals—and this is what brought it home to me personally—individuals like my congressional employees have been traumatized, and it is time to say enough is enough.
We all care about the environment. Lord knows that those of us who live in—certainly those of us who are elected to represent—resource-dependent communities have a vested interest in the well-being of the environment. We are all stakeholders. But particularly in our communities, we certainly want to leave a better, cleaner world for our children.
Most people agree on the need to balance environmentalism with the economic needs of local communities. This is especially important, again, in the small rural communities of the western United States that have not shared, for the most part, in the boom of our national economy, and where people are still, today and for the foreseeable future, dependent on resource-based jobs to feed their families.
So, unfortunately, in conclusion, Mr. Chairman, the groups all too often, I think, put the environment before or above the lives and livelihoods of people and families and communities. They use any means, just about—to justify their ends. And all too often, if you disagree with them, their answer is to vandalize your property, intimidate your family, intimidate and traumatize your employees or even to resort to outright violence.
So I am indebted to you, Bill, for calling this hearing today. I look forward to joining with you and our colleagues hopefully on the Judiciary Subcommittee to hear the testimony of our other witnesses.
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[The prepared statement of Mr. Riggs follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. FRANK RIGGS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
Chairman McCollum, Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to testify on the serious matter of ecoterrorism and its effect on the people, local economies and communities of this nation.
I am the Representative of the First Congressional District of California. The First District stretches from the Napa Valley in the south, along 350 miles of California's North Coast to the Oregon border. To put that in perspective, the district is twenty percent larger than the State of Massachusetts. The North Coast is known for its abundance of Redwood and Douglas Fir forests. Today, as in generations past, men and women come to this place to make a living as foresters and loggers and mill workers. These environmental stewards manage the forests with love for the environment and rational science to provide wood for our nation and a future for their children. Unfortunately, times have changed and the work has become dangerous due to the radical philosophies of so-called environmentalists. These extremists do not only target loggers; they target any one who expresses a different opinion or philosophy than they do.
On October 16, 1997, my Eureka, California District Office was rocked by what sounded like a thunderous explosion. In fact, the sound was that of a 500–pound tree stump being dumped off a truck onto the office foyer floor. Upon responding to the horrific sound, my two female staff members were greeted by the visage of several Earth First! terrorists, one wearing a black ski mask, and another wearing dark goggles and a hood. The masked marauders—wearing combat boots and dressed in black from head to toe—and their cohorts, after the initial ''stump drop,''then dumped four large garbage bags of sawdust, pine needles and leaves all over the congressional office, over computers, desks and the floor. All the while, one of them videotaped the attack with a handheld video camera, making a point to get right into the faces of each of the two staff members for ''close-up'' shots.
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After the invasion, the maurders, via walkie-talkie, called in the ''peaceful'' protesters: four harmless looking women who would—once the masked men left—be the ''public face'' of the ''protest,'' left behind for the media to cover. For the next two hours, these women would then sit around the tree stump with their arms locked in a metal device designed for the sole purpose of resisting arrest.
And why was my office targeted? The trespassers were protesting the
acquisition of the Headwaters Forest, a 3500–acre tract of old growth Redwood forest. A private company, Pacific Lumber, which has logged in Humboldt County, California for over 100 years, currently owns the parcel. In exchange for their land, the Federal government and the State of California, in a bipartisan pact, agreed to compensate Pacific Lumber $380 million in taxpayer funds to forever preserve 7,500 acres of the precious forest and some surrounding land. I had a hand in crafting the deal, as did Senator Diane Feinstein, and that made me a target. The environmentalists, specifically Earth First!, wanted 60,000 acres preserved: a amount that would end all logging in Humboldt County, and leave over 1,000 people out of work in an already depressed area where unemployment hovers over 10%. But Earth First! wanted more and they were determined to terrorize any one who opposed them.
I believe the incident in my District Office is not a small isolated incident. It is the tip of the iceberg and endemic of Earth First!: an organization the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has characterized as a ''militant environmental group.''
Earth First! is an organization which, while purporting to practice nonviolence, outwardly advertises ''monkeywrenching'' on the Earth First! web site. Monkeywrenching, also euphemistically called ''ecotage,'' is the practice of sabotaging logging equipment. The web site also refers to such destruction of private property as ''unauthorized heavy equipment maintenance.'' Earth First! also advocates tree spiking, the act of driving a metal spike into a tree to damage a saw, or outright vandalism. The results of monkeywrenching vary. Most of the time it causes the cessation of logging activities. Often times it causes property damage. In Ukiah, California, which is in my Congressional District, it killed a logger. Too many times these activities have caused grave injury and even the loss of life. Many a rigger, logger and treefeller have suffered injury because of a severed hydraulic line or tree spike. Yet the Earth First! website and the Earth First! Journal actually advertise and sell Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching.
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Earth First! members are not simply backwoods vigilantes or merry pranksters. They are members of a highly organized, nationwide movement bent on the destruction of the entire natural resource industry and the families and communities bound to that livelihood. Earth First! has put the''rights'' of the tree and the insect before the rights of the humans.
Earth First! practices the politics of siege warfare. They condone the use of sit-ins to halt lawful logging practices or, in my office, the normal operation of business. While these protests are certainly within the rights guaranteed to every American under the Constitution, their goal is not public awareness. Their goal is to sap local resources by tying up law enforcement and clogging the judicial system.
Unfortunately, the end result is the loss of money from local communities' annual budget. Depressed rural communities, hurt by the decline of the federal timber program and the rise of environmental zealots, are faced with smaller and smaller operating budgets. The drain on the local treasury is immense. So many dollars are being spent on law enforcement and judicial review, citizens are being deprived essential functions of the local government, such as education, infrastructure maintenance and law enforcement protection.
Cuts in the education budget hurt our children, the future of America. Cuts in the infrastructure maintenance force roads into disrepair and sidewalks to crumble. By tying up law enforcement officers at protests, oftentimes in remote locations, citizens are no longer afforded the community the protection their tax dollars pay for. During the October 1997 protest at my Eureka office, no police officers were available to respond to any police emergencies anywhere else in the city for nearly two hours. In their zeal to save nature, they cause irrevocable harm to our communities and our children.
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Earth First! also condones the assault of public officials. On March 23, 1997, a member of Earth First! threw bison entrails on Senator Conrad Burns, Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman, and Montana Governor Marc Rocicot. Included in my testimony is a list of the most recent attacks on public officials by environmental extremists.
Mr. Chairman, these protesters are not satisfied with simply objecting to a policy or practice, they are intent on disrupting whatever they can for as long as they can. To this end, Earth First! has designed and specially constructed a device known as a lock box. These lock boxes are constructed out of two eighteen-inch steel pipes welded together in a v-shape. Inside, at the crux of the ''v,'' is a steel bar to which the protesters handcuff themselves. The protesters link arms inside these devices. Their wrists and forearms are encased in the steel pipes to prevent law enforcement officials from breaking the protesters' hold. The only recourse for law enforcement is to cut the devices with a metal grinder, which generates hot sparks and is dangerous to the surrounding area, law enforcement officers and the protesters. Or police are required to wait, which ties up the officers for hours.
These devices are specifically designed, built and used for one purpose: to purposely and deliberately resist arrest. They are intended to force law enforcement in using more aggressive forms of action. In an attempt to combat the use of these devices, I have asked the elected state officials in my Congressional District, Democrat State Senator Mike Thompson and Democrat Assemblywoman Virginia Strom-Martin, to enact legislation banning these devices. Unfortunately, my request fell on deaf ears. It took a Republican outside of the North Coast to introduce the legislation. When the bill came up for a committee vote, it was killed along party lines by Democrats in the California state Senate. I have included a copy of the correspondence between my office and the offices of the State officials.
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As I stated earlier, the incident in my Congressional Office is not an isolated case. I believe that the Earth First! invasion on October 16th is only a small example of a larger, some would call criminal, nationwide organization that believes in the politics of intimidation and terror. This organization, and all organizations like it, should be treated as all terrorist organizations are treated in this nation: as wanton criminals.
Mr. Chairman, I come before you today to ask this subcommittee to expand the scope of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute to include the illegal activities of these organizations. A casual reading of the RICO statute speaks volumes about the validity of expanding RICO authority to include ecoterrorism and ecotage.
Earth First! engages in a deliberate, orchestrated, systematic criminal conspiracy that should be punishable under the RICO statue. While RICO is stigmatized as a law for ''mobsters'' or ''organized crime,'' the statute has been expanded to protect all Americans from organized crime syndicates, a moniker I believe that fits Earth First! like a black glove.
The systematic, organized ecoterrorism of Earth First! and other militant organizations must stop. Lives have been lost. Too many communities have been damaged. Too much time has been wasted. These organizations are a threat to every American who dares to think differently than they do.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. MCCOLLUM. Well, Mr. Riggs, you certainly presented an absolutely stark and contrasting view of what is going on in the West that many of us in the East just don't see. We hear about it, we read about it, but we don't feel it. And what you described certainly doesn't sound to me as though it is a passive type of civil disobedience. If you threaten somebody, you and I both know that assault doesn't require actually punching that person out; that physical, potential threat is an actual assault.
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Do you have some kind of evidence that you are presenting in proceedings or otherwise to connect Earth First! with this? Did they acknowledge it? Did the people there claim it? How do we know and how do you know it was Earth First! that came into your office?
Mr. RIGGS. They publicly acknowledged it, Mr. Chairman, in several subsequent media interviews. Several newspaper publications ran articles quoting spokespeople, plural, for Earth First! Again, this is a very loose-knit, somewhat nebulous and I think sort of purposely disorganized—I have said they are organized and orchestrated, but in terms of their structure, they are a purposely loose-knit organization in that that makes it more difficult for legal authorities to establish responsibility and liability. But they had several spokespeople who came forward and publicly took credit.
You understand that this group marauded through my office, traumatizing my employees and trashing the premises. They had walkie-talkies, by the way, and they were monitoring, apparently, the law enforcement radio frequency. When Julie called the police, they heard the call, so this group left prior to the arrival of the police.
They left behind four females, one of whom was a minor, legally, a juvenile, under the law, who then chained themselves, using one of these interlocking devices—we have an example of it—around the gigantic tree stump in my office. Now these kind of devices are interlocking. They are able to stick their arms in them, and there is a chain that runs through them—Jim Tobin of my staff is pulling it out now—and a handcuff, and they stick their arms through here and make it virtually impossible for law enforcement to remove them, and they effectively occupy the governmental office in question, in my case, my congressional district office in Eureka.
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Of course, they bring everything to an absolute standstill. The four women were left behind to put kind of a human face, a sympathetic face, on what transpired; and, unfortunately, in my view, the media focused there and not on the activities of this organization immediately preceding the arrival of law enforcement.
One of the things we are suggesting is that the State law be modified to ban the possession and use of these kind of devices because they are made—and Earth First! and the other militant, radical environmental groups acknowledge this—they are made for one purpose and one purpose only, and that is to resist arrest. So we call on State law to be modified to ban the manufacture, possession and use of these devices, or, in the converse, to make their use a felony resisting arrest, as opposed to misdemeanor resisting arrest.
Mr. MCCOLLUM. Am I correct? You said to us that the irony is you actually supported, albeit reluctantly, provisions that were in legislation, that they were protesting, wanting to get in legislation? You had already done that?
Mr. RIGGS. That is correct, Mr. Chairman. The acquisition of over 7,000 more acres of old growth forestland to add to our enormous Federal and State parks system in northwest California at an expense to taxpayers of $260 million, that is Federal taxpayers, and $130 million in State.
Mr. MCCOLLUM. So they made a hit on you in an office on an issue which was already resolved and which, even if they were ordinary folks out there protesting, they would have been irresponsible in doing that under the circumstances, it sounds like to me.
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I would like to stay and ask you more questions. Unfortunately, I have to go to the Rules Committee, Mr. Riggs. So I ask my colleague, Mr. Hutchinson, to chair. And I am sure that Mr. Coble has some questions; and if Mr. Hutchinson will come up, I will yield to him for any questions he has.
Mr. Coble.
Mr. COBLE. Thank you, Frank, for being with us.
Many people in today's climate feel so strongly about their respective issues, they believe, as you pointed out, that their means justify their ends. I mean, that their cause is so worthy that it is okay for them to trespass and assault and do this monkeywrench, if you will. For my information, Frank, does monkeywrenching include all those or is it one specific element?
Mr. RIGGS. There might be people more knowledgeable or expert than me, Howard, but I believe monkeywrenching is a broad term used to refer to acts of vandalism and violence.
Mr. COBLE. I find it interesting, the very sophisticated, unauthorized heavy equipment maintenance is nothing more than vandalism, right?
Mr. RIGGS. That is correct.
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Mr. COBLE. You may or may not know this, Mr. Riggs. Do you know whether or not victims in your district, for example, who have been traumatized, as were your office employees, are they reluctant to report these acts to law enforcement officials for fear of subsequent attacks or threats or perhaps for fear of negative publicity? Do you have any read on that?
Mr. RIGGS. As you very well know, Howard, representing a congressional district of smaller, more rural counties, there is a very real fear of recrimination. Yes, that is part of it; I don't know what you want to call it, the atmosphere of intimidation that is behind these tactics. I have been surprised, very honestly. There has been a lot of fallout from this, some of it political, but other legal, in a sense. A lot of good people, I think, remained silent, are very mute, almost cowed by the intimidation involved.
You understand that this was not the first episode to occur in our part of the world. There have been other acts, as I mentioned, of violence and vandalism. A mill worker killed in Cloverdale, California. So, yes, I think that is part of the overall goal of these individuals. I think, to an extent, they have succeeded. That is sad to say, but that is why I wanted to bring it to the attention of you and our colleagues.
Mr. COBLE. The use of intimidation or threats. Frank, is it your belief that State statutes are not adequately available to address these problems, therefore, need to expand the Federal law in this area?
Mr. RIGGS. I think State statutes are largely adequate, but I think the Federal interest in the Federal concern comes at the point where these individuals are involved across State lines. They are involved on an interstate or multistate basis. Certainly, information is exchanged. The web site is a classic example, where the web site is going out wide and far, instantly, as soon as the information is placed on the Internet through home page or web site.
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I think there is a need for Federal involvement, if not from a sanctions perspective, perhaps from an intelligence-gathering and intelligence-sharing aspect. Because, again, you will hear from other witnesses just about how widespread, some would say rampant, this kind of activity is, especially in the western United States.
Mr. COBLE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back my time.
Mr. HUTCHINSON. [Presiding.] I thank the gentleman.
Mr. Buyer.
Mr. BUYER. I apologize for coming in late. I am somewhat familiar with your issues on ecoterrorism. I took a tour a few years back throughout northern California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho; and I appreciate your leadership on the issue. I have no patience for individuals that do this type of thing. None.
I yield back.
Mr. HUTCHINSON. Mr. Chabot.
Mr. CHABOT. I don't have any specific questions, but I do appreciate Mr. Riggs bringing this to our attention, and I appreciate the Chairman's holding these particular hearings.
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But I think the one thing that reminds me—I am pro-life, always have been, always will be, but I abhor and condemn those that use violence, whether it is blowing up abortion clinics or whether it is, you know, all kinds of stunts that go on. I don't think that is appropriate. One should never endanger anyone's lives, even though they may feel strongly about a particular issue.
And I think, in my mind, ecoterrorism falls in that category. People want to protect the environment. I think that is a worthy thing. But when it gets into violence or spiking trees and things like that, where you might have a worker that could be blinded or injured in a severe way, I think that is way beyond the bounds. So I thank Mr. Riggs for bringing this to our attention, and I think we should take some action. Thank you.
Mr. RIGGS. I thank you, Mr. Chabot.
Mr. Chairman, if I might respond. I am so glad you drew that analogy, because others have drawn that analogy in the subsequent weeks and months that transpired since the episode of my office. They pointed out that the Congress felt compelled to actually pass legislation to deal with planned, organized, systematic violence at abortion clinics or planned parenthood clinics. So I submit to you, colleagues, that that may be the precedent for congressional action with respect to the kind of incidents that have taken place at my congressional office and in other locales around the western United States.
Mr. HUTCHINSON. Mr. Buyer.
Mr. BUYER. I just have one thing about RICO. I don't know if you will recall, Mr. Riggs, but Chairman Hyde on the House floor, in response to a motion by Dr. Coburn, in response to these rulings on the abortion issue, had said that he was willing to have a hearing on RICO. And RICO is becoming—it is getting away from Congress's original intent. So I am not so certain if we are talking about tightening up RICO. You are asking us to expand RICO to include the ecoterrorism, are you not?
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Mr. RIGGS. It seems to be a logical vehicle for the congressional response, if, in fact, at least a majority of our colleagues determine some sort of congressional response is appropriate and necessary.
Mr. BUYER. I would ask you to stay engaged, then, with the subcommittee as we move into the reconsiderations on the RICO statute to make sure that this is brought in.
Mr. RIGGS. I will definitely stay engaged, even just as a private citizen. Because I have a very real, long-term interest in seeing a congressional response if not immediately, hopefully over the long-term; today is just a start of that deliberative process.
Again, as I said to Chairman McCollum, I am very grateful and indebted to you and other members of the subcommittee, because at least we are beginning to bring some attention to bear on this kind of systematic, organized criminal conspiracy.
Mr. BUYER. I apologize for being late, and I don't know whether you gave any examples of individuals who have been injured in your congressional district by way of spiking or cutting, or doctoring engines.
Mr. RIGGS. I did. I will let Julie Rodgers, seated to my right, speak to you from her personal experiences, and the trauma, if you will, of working in my office and going through this particular incident, which, by the way, was in the media portrayed as just something that is just a routine part in the day of the life of a congressional employee. I take great exception to that. But, yes, I mentioned before you arrived, the mill worker in Cloverdale, California, just a few miles from where I live, who was killed by a spiked log.
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Mr. BUYER. Thank you.
Mr. HUTCHINSON. Mr. Riggs, I want to thank you for your testimony today. I haven't engaged in my questioning time, and I am going to waive that because I think it is important to hear the second panel.
This is an important issue. I come from a State in which we have a significant amount of logging, and this is an issue that is important to me. We had a significant amount of protests as well, and there is a fine balance between civil disobedience and crossing the line where you injure personal property, real property, as well as personal injury, so this is a fascinating issue to me. I think it is important that we hold this hearing. I look forward to following the issue.
Thank you, Mr. Riggs.
We will go to the second panel. If the second panel could come forward.
Mr. HUTCHINSON. Our second panel today is made up of persons who have themselves been victims of ecoterrorists or have some unique knowledge of the movements and tactics of radical environmental groups.
First, we have Mr. Ron Arnold, author of the book Ecoterror—The Violent Agenda to Save Nature. Mr. Arnold is also the Executive Vice President of the Center for Defense of Free Enterprise in Bellevue, Washington; and he runs a consulting firm that offers seminars on the problems of environmentalism for business and industry.
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Next, we have Mr. Bruce Vincent, President of the Alliance for America and a fourth-generation logger. Mr. Vincent has worked at his family's Montana's logging business since 1984, and he and his family have had several frightening dealings with ecoterrorists.
Also with us today is Mr. Barry Clausen, author of the book, Walking on the Edge—How I Infiltrated Earth First!. Mr. Clausen is a former licensed private investigator who spent a year pretending to sympathize with and support the activities of the environmental group Earth First!. He continues to research and write about the attacks committed by radical environmental and animal rights organizations.
Ms. Julie Rodgers, District Office Manager for Representative Frank Riggs, who is here to tell her story about last year's attack by Earth First! in the Eureka, California, office. Ms. Rodgers was in the office during the protest and will give her account of this frightening event.
Finally, we are pleased to have with us today Ms. Cathi Peterson, a former U.S. Forest Service employee in northern California. Ms. Peterson is currently employed as a skidder operator within the forest of the northern Sierra Nevada. She has seen firsthand how equipment is sabotaged by these radical environmental groups and has been subjected to attacks.
We welcome all of these witnesses here today. Without objection, the written statements will be entered into the record.
Mr. HUTCHINSON. I understand Mr. Arnold has been delayed; and, hopefully, he will arrive in time to testify. Without him, we will just go ahead and start left to right with Mr. Vincent. And if you could, we will have a 5-minute rule in effect, and your written testimony will be submitted for the record, so feel free to summarize your testimony if you so desire.
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Mr. Vincent.
STATEMENT OF BRUCE VINCENT, PRESIDENT, ALLIANCE FOR AMERICA
Mr. VINCENT. Thank you and thank you for the opportunity to comment to you on the issue of ecoterrorism.
My name is Bruce Vincent. I am from Libby, Montana. I am currently the President of Alliance for America. My day job, however, is business manager for a small family company that is involved in the practical application of academic forest management theory, Vincent Logging.
For the past 10 years, I have been thoroughly involved in local, regional and national attempts to make sense out of the laws governing the management of the public forest resource I live in, work in, play in and love. I volunteer as Executive Director of Communities for a Great Northwest. I help coordinate our Kootenai Forest Congress. I am a 10–year member of our Grizzly Bear Community Involvement Team.
I am from an area that does not expect easy solutions to tough forest management decisions but is working for a vision that blends our economy with the environment we love. I am here today to share with you one of the tragic consequences of this involvement that is as painful as anything I have had to deal with in my life.
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I have been and my family has been subjected to ecoterrorism.
When I first started speaking out on my personal beliefs on the existing environmental movement and legislative and regulatory regime, I was completely unaware of the dark side of the issue. I naively thought this discussion was going to be based on simple disagreement of fact. At first, the consequences were fairly innocuous. I began receiving letters and phone calls from unknown individuals who disagreed with my positions. There were no threats, just some irrational ramblings and a few unsigned letters of disapproval.
But in 1989, the summer of 1989, things started to change. The dialogue from the perpetrators began to get more and more vicious and began to be ended with things like you'd better shut up and then coupled with threats about getting me if I did not shut up.
In the summer of 1989, the threats became more than just idle. While working on a job in the Kootenai National Forest, our equipment was sabotaged. Dirt was put into the engine of one of our dozers. The dozer was operated by my father. Thankfully, when the engine failed, it was on flat ground because its brakes were run by hydraulics that required an operating engine. Had it failed on steeper ground, my father would have been the jockey of an out-of-control, 50-ton, deadly projectile off the mountain. They also cut the brake liens on one of our dump trucks and the hydraulic lines on an excavator under which men were working. No one was hurt in those instances.
There are other logging contractors, by the way, in our area that were hit at same time. No one was hurt; and, unfortunately, no one was ever caught.
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And while the approach to the sabotage was exactly outlined in Dave Foreman's Earth First! book, Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkey Wrenching, the terrorists didn't leave a calling card; and no one claimed they caused the activities to take place. However, a couple summers later we saw a picture of a dozer in an article that was printed in the newsletter of Wild Rockies Review. That article called to action students who were attending campuses in the inland Northwest and asked them if they would like to spend a summer burning dozers in areas like Libby, Montana. All they had to have was a desire to work within the environment and terrorize local people, and they would be put up for the summer, and they could work in areas like my home.
Shortly after our equipment was sabotaged, the phone calls and viciousness of the calls escalated. I phoned authorities and asked for help. I was told that, until something actually happened, nothing could be done for me.
During the same time period, a group in Missoula, Montana, developed a short skit in which I was portrayed as a hunter of animals, along with then U.S. Representative Ron Marlenee. At the end of the skit that was performed and videotaped on the steps of the Federal building in Missoula, I was shot and killed to protect the animals. The fear this caused within myself and my family was understandable.
In the fall of 1989, CBS's 60 Minutes called to ask if I would be available to participate in a segment on 60 Minutes. I did do that.
After participating on that segment on ecoterrorism, the producers called; and after airing the show, they had some concern. They were afraid they may have inadvertently caused something to happen, possibly some focus of unwanted attention on my family because of the airing of that show. They said they had received an inordinate number of phone calls around the country of people wanting to know the address of Earth First!. They expressed the hatred—they were thrilled to see there was some avenue for expressing that hatred, and CBS was concerned for me and my family.
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Their warnings were prophetic. Soon, the threatening phone calls—soon after the airing of that CBS show, the phone calls changed from focusing on harm to me to harm to my children. The threats changed and became graphic in their detail of what was going to happen in sexual and physical torture to my children before they were killed if I did not shut up. I was told I would be forced to watch.
One caller played a recorded version of a song written about my children. Another tragic phone call answered by my wife was a recording of children screaming in pain as they cried help me, help me, help me, mommy; and the message was, if your husband would shut up, you won't have to hear this.
They put traps on my phone, but because we have an antiquated phone system in our rural area, they couldn't trap any of the threats outside the State of Montana, and no one was ever trapped.
We worked with the FBI and others, and my Senator, Conrad Burns, and others. But until something happened, we were told we couldn't do anything; and it was suggested I carry a concealed weapon, my wife carry a concealed weapon, and we teach my children how to shoot. I did teach my children how to shoot.
There was some kind of surveillance going on of the people who were making these kind of threats, because I was told and fitted—told to wear a vest when I spoke in some places and fitted with a bulletproof vest in some places where I spoke. I was given protection for me and my family when I traveled to some of the places where I spoke. The local authorities worked out a safe-house system for my children. They are taken places where they will be safe.
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The impact of these acts on my family has been marked. When the threats started, my 4 children were age 3 through 12. We held numerous family meetings to determine whether or not we could continue our involvement in the debate over our future. We sought and got family and pediatric therapy to deal with our stress. And the decision of my family has been consistent. Faced with either shutting up as requested or speaking out so loudly that we make a terrible target, we decided to continue speaking.
My family is not the only family in America that is faced with this and the debate over our environment. You will hear from Cathi Peterson. Dean Bryant of Blue Ridge, Georgia, has had threats and had his equipment sabotaged. Candy Boak of Willow Creek, California, has given up pro-timber activities because of threats against her family. John Campbell, a timber industry executive from Scotia, California, has had his home firebombed.
We continue to speak out. Thankfully, in the last couple years, calls and threats have subsided. I wish I could say the same about the feelings of terror in my family.
I believe, I desperately want to believe the authorities are right when they say the hatemongers feel satisfied simply by making the threat. But what if some self-anointed Rambo in the ecoterror mindset acts upon the threat and attacks more than just my logging equipment?
''What if'' and ''but'' are the two words of terror in this discussion. They are small words, but they are powerful and palpable in my life. I am thousands of miles away from my home as we speak. I am the father of four children. It is my duty to protect them, and I will go to my grave wondering if I have made the right decision. Should I have let the terrorists win and gone quietly about the business of allowing them to run roughshod over my civil liberties? It seems unthinkable, but I question the wisdom of standing behind my 6–year old daughter, weeping quietly as I took the advice of the authorities and taught her and her siblings how to shoot because, in this Nation, that is how we are going to protect my first amendment rights to speak out. I am supposed to protect my children. Speaking out on the environment has exposed them to terrorists.
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In a free country, those who perpetrate the acts that generate terror should be punishable by law. Please help make that possible. I ask today that you consider legislatively amending the Animal Enterprise Protection Act of 1993 to include natural resource workers in the industries of logging, fishing, mining, energy and ranching. I will have more folks on this panel explain to you in better detail what that law means. What I ask you is to protect my rights as a citizen to speak up on the issues. Terrorism knows no right or left. It is the act of desperate people, and we have been subjected to it. It has got to stop.
Thank you.
Mr. HUTCHINSON. Thank you, Mr. Vincent.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Vincent follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF BRUCE VINCENT, PRESIDENT, ALLIANCE FOR AMERICA
Dear Committee Members,
Thank you for the opportunity to comment to you on the issue of eco-terrorism.
My name is Bruce Vincent. I am from Libby, Montana, a small timber and mining town. I am currently the President of Alliance for America, an umbrella group for several hundred farming, ranching, mining, logging, fishing and private property grassroots groups throughout America. My day job is business manager for our small family company that is involved in the practical application of academic forest management theory, Vincent Logging.
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For the past ten years I have been thoroughly involved in local, regional and national attempts to make sense of the laws governing the management of the public forest resource that I live in, work in, play in and love. I volunteer as executive director of Communities for a Great Northwest—a group that has, for ten years, provided input on forest resource management in our area and has made a decade long commitment to good faith efforts at working in a productive relationship with the forest service. I help coordinate the Kootenai Forest Congress—a local group of resource managers, conservationists, and community leaders that has developed and is working hard at moving toward a vision of the future for our forest that includes healthy ecosystems and healthy social and economic systems. I am a ten year member of our Grizzly Bear Community Involvement Team—a broad based group that attempts to work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in recovering the grizzly bear in our ecosystem.
I am from an area that does not expect easy solutions to our forest management problems—and is ready, willing, and able to work hard on the difficult choices we feel can and must be made if we are to achieve our vision. I am here today to share with you one of the tragic consequences of this involvement that is as painful as anything I have had to deal with in my life.
I have been, my family has been, subjected to eco-terrorism.
When I first started speaking out about my personal belief that the existing environmental legislative and regulatory regime was in need of reform I was completely unaware of the dark side of the debate I naively thought of as based upon simple disagreement of fact. At first, the consequences were fairly innocuous. I began receiving letters and phone calls from unknown individuals that were extremely upset with my views.
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The calls, at first, were nothing more than irrational ramblings of persons who would not give their names but with whom my views disagreed. A few unsigned letters with vicious statements of disapproval were sent that echoed the sentiments of the phone callers. No threats were made-just statements of disagreements with requests for me to ''shut up.'' During the summer of 1989, however, the nature of the calls began to change. The dialogue of the perpetrators began to get more and more vicious and the disagreements and request to have me ''shut up'' began to be coupled with threats about ''getting me'' if I didn't ''shut up.''
In the summer of 1989 the threats became more than just ''idle.'' While working on a job in the Kootenai National Forest our companies equipment was sabotaged. Dirt was put into the engine of one of our dozers. When the dozer engine failed my Father was, thankfully, operating the dozer on flat ground. Since the hydraulics on this particular 100,000 pound machine are directly connected to the engine and since the hydraulics make the brakes of this machine work, had the failure occurred on the steep ground my Father would have been the jockey of an out of control, 50 ton, deadly, projectile. Further, the brake lines on one of our dump trucks were cut and the hydraulic lines on one of our excavators were cut. Since laborers worked under the excavator boom and the boom was controlled by its hydraulic system, we were fortunate to discover the imminent failure of the boom before anyone was physically injured. During this same time period, other local logging contractors had equipment sabotaged but, unfortunately, no one was ever caught.
While the approach to the equipment sabotage was exactly as outlined in Dave Foreman's Earth First! book ''Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkey Wrenching,'' the terrorists did not leave a calling card and slipped away. Although no one ever stepped forward to take credit for the actions against our company and other companies attacked that summer, it is worth noting that the newsletter ''Wild Rockies Review'' issued a call to actions in the inland northwest two summers later. The advertisement for eco-terrorists included a drawing of a burning dozer situated on a map of northwestern Montana with the caption of ''Burn That Dozer.'' Posted on campuses throughout the area, the advertisement's plea went to students looking for summer work and promised room and board for those wanting to spend the summer terrorizing resource workers and managers.
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Shortly after our equipment was sabotaged, the phone calls and the viciousness of those calls escalated. I phoned the authorities and asked for help. I was told that unless I could prove that I had been harmed, there was nothing that could be done.
During this same period, a group of extremists in Missoula, Montana, developed a short skit in which I was portrayed as a hunter of animals along with then U.S. Representative Ron Marlenee. At the end of the skit, as performed and videotaped on the steps of the federal building in Missoula, I was shot and killed to protect the animals. The fear that this caused within myself and my family was understandable.
In the fall of 1989 the CBS news magazine, ''60 Minutes,'' called and asked if I would be available for an interview on eco-terrorism. I participated in the show and it aired in the spring of 1990. Shortly after the ''60 Minutes'' show aired, the producer of the news magazine called to tell me that the CBS studio had received an inordinate number of phone calls from persons who were asking for the address of Earth First!. The producer was concerned that by airing the show CBS may have inadvertently focused unwanted attention on me and my family since the callers seemed to be happy to learn that there was an avenue for expressing the hatred that they felt. The producer's warning proved prophetic.
Soon, the threatening phone calls turned from focusing on harm to be done to myself to harm to be done to my children. Callers threatened, in graphic detail, to do acts of sexual and physical torture to my children before killing them. I was told that I would be forced to watch. One caller played a recorded version of a song written about my children, another was a recording of children screaming in pain and terror for their mother to ''help me, help me, help me.'' Finally, my local sheriff installed phone traps on my phone line-but because of the antiquated system of phones in our area, the trapping was not effective if the call originated outside the lata, or area, of our local phone company. No one was ever trapped or caught.
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With the aid of Senator Conrad Burns office, the FBI and state authorities were called in to the situation and again informed me that until something happened there was little that they could do. It was suggested that I carry a concealed weapon and that I teach my wife and children how to handle and fire a gun. What type of investigation was attempted of those who could be a threat to me and my family was never made clear. I was alerted on occasions where it was thought that I should ''be careful'' when giving speeches. For a ''Cowboy/Logger Day Celebration'' in Missoula, Montana, Rep. Marlenee and I were both told that there was reason to be concerned for our safety. Authorities in Sweet Home, Oregon, fitted me with a bullet proof vest for a speech in Oregon and my family was given protection on a tightly secured visit to the area.
Lincoln County, Montana, and other local authorities and the schools worked out a system of removal of my children from schools or home to safe houses when a threat was made. Our home, located in a sparsely populated area twelve miles south of our small town, was given additional security by the local state patrolmen. We purchased a large dog. We put security systems on our home. We went for periods of time where our children were not allowed to answer the phone for fear of them getting a direct link to the lunacy.
The impact of these acts upon my family have been marked. When the threats started my four children were aged three through twelve. We held numerous family meetings to determine whether or not we should continue our involvement in the debate over our future. We sought and got family and pediatric therapy to deal with the stress. The decision of my family has been consistent—faced with either shutting up as requested or speaking out so loudly that we make a highly visible and therefore, hopefully, poor target—we chose to speak out.
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My family is not the only family in America feeling this terror. Although there are many who elect to ''shut up'' (and I will never judge or disagree with that decision), there are some who are speaking. Cathi Peterson, a skidder operator in the Sierra Nevada has been a victim. Dean Bryant of Blue Ridge, Georgia, has had threats and equipment sabotage enter into his family business of logging. Candy Boak of Willow Creek, California, has given up her pro-timber activities for fear of her life and that of her family. John Campbell, a timber industry executive from Scotia, California, has had his home firebombed.
My family speaks openly and candidly with each other about our situation. We were assured by the authorities with experience that most terrorist threats were just that—threats—and that the odds of anyone actually carrying out one of the threats was minute.
Thankfully, the calls and threats have subsided. I wish I could say the same about the feelings of terror in my family. I believe, I desperately want to believe, that the authorities are right and that the hate-mongers feel satisfied by making simple and idle threats. But, what if some self anointed rambo of the eco-terror mind-set acts upon a threat and attacks more than just my logging equipment. It is in this one small word—but—that the power of terrorism is real and palpable in my life. ''But'' and ''what if'' are horrifying thoughts to have when you are hundreds or thousands of miles away from home.
As the father of four children I will go to my grave wondering if I have made the right decisions. Should I have let the terrorists win and gone quietly about the business of letting them run roughshod over my civil liberties? That seems unthinkable . . . but I question the wisdom of standing behind my six year old daughter, weeping quietly as I took the advice of the authorities and taught her and her siblings how to shoot. I wonder if I have made the right decision in speaking at this hearing. I am supposed to protect my children and exercising my first amendment right, speaking out on the environment—has exposed them to terrorists.
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In a free country, those who perpetrate the acts that generate terror should be punishable by law. Please help make that possible.
I ask you today to consider legislatively amending the Animal Enterprise Protection Act of 1993 to include the natural resource workers and industries of logging, fishing, mining, energy and ranching. That Act federalized crimes of property damage over $10,000, and or resulting in any dismemberment or any death to a human being as a result of criminal syndicalism but is currently narrower in the scope of protected sectors of our public than it should be.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify.
Mr. HUTCHINSON. Ms. Peterson.
STATEMENT OF CATHI PETERSON, FORMER FOREST SERVICE EMPLOYEE, NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Ms. PETERSON. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for affording me the opportunity to come before you today.
My name is Cathi Peterson, and I am a resident of Meadow Valley, California. I am employed in the logging industry as a skidder operator within the forest of the Northern Sierra Nevadas.
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In the 5 years I have worked as a logger, I have personally witnessed incidents of ecoterrorism and have become aware of other incidents perpetrated upon the local logging community. Prior to becoming a logger, I was an employee of the U.S. Forest Service in the State of Oregon, not California, where we were familiar with the ecoterrorist group known as Earth First!. We often discussed among ourselves how radical and dangerous this group is, due to their propensity for sanding logging equipment, cutting hydraulic and fuel lines, laying themselves across logging roads and spiking trees.
These activities are not only harmful to the logging companies, as they must bear the cost of replacing sabotaged equipment, but to the men and women themselves who work in an already unforgiving and inherently dangerous occupation. It only takes the strategic placement of a monkey wrench or a pair of bolt cutters to forever change the life of a hard-working individual. It is not mere coincidence that Earth First! founder Dave Foreman wrote his infamous Guide to Monkey-Wrenching using that particular title.
The American Heritage dictionary defines terrorism as the intentional use of terror and intimidation to gain a political goal. The term ecoterrorism is defined as the intentional use of terror and intimidation to gain an ecological goal-for example, a total ban on logging, mining, ranching, fishing, hunting, et cetera.
I became a victim of ecoterrorism in 1994 when hydraulic lines were cut on a piece of logging equipment on a job I was on. Two years later, I was once again victimized by an ecoterrorist when a fuel line on my skidder was cut, partially cut through, allowing me to enter the forest and then experience an equipment failure which resulted in my skidder stalling on that steep slope.
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Since that time, I have suffered mental anxiety and am constantly concerned for my personal safety. I arrive at the job site prepared to encounter sabotaged equipment and inspect the landing area much as a soldier would inspect a battlefield looking for mine fields. I look at every footprint and every tire track to see if they match those belonging to my crew. If they do not, I am then left to wonder whether or not they were made by a casual observer, curious about our equipment and activities, or were they made by an ecoterrorist with darker plans in mind.
I personally inspect every nut and bolt holding the wheels onto my skidder and at fuel, hydraulic and brake reservoirs and lines specifically. Should an ecoterrorist want to cause injury, or worse, all he or she would have to do is loosen or cut any of the above items.
As a victim of ecoterrorism, I would like to ask that you please consider the seriousness of these crimes against the men and the women who work within natural resources and extend to us the same rights and protections afforded to the rest of the American public by addressing this issue. You have taken the first steps to give myself and other resource workers the opportunity to work within a crime-free environment and the knowledge that the perpetrators will be pursued and punished for their actions.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to submit this addendum to my written testimony for the record.
Mr. HUTCHINSON. Without objection, it will be accepted in the record.
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Ms. PETERSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The ecoterrorism incidents which I have experienced are only the tip of the iceberg. I am but one victim in a long-suffering line of countless, faceless victims who have suffered in silence far too long.
Ecoterrorism victims such as myself have been made to fear as if the experiences we have shared as a collective group have isolated ourselves and our communities from the rest of America. This has led to the sharing of knowledge and experiences common to those of us who have been victimized by this crime.
Although I have shared my experiences with other members of natural resource communities, until now I have been unable to tell my story to the public because of the misconception that these are isolated incidents. The truth is they are not. They are occurring regularly throughout rural America. For each of us testifying before you today, we are representative of thousands of others whom are unable to be here today to tell their stories. On their behalf, I would like to personally thank each and every one of you who are here today.
Mr. HUTCHINSON. Thank you, Ms. Peterson.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Peterson follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF CATHI PETERSON, FORMER FOREST SERVICE EMPLOYEE, NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
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Mr. Chairman, and Members of the Committee: I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the opportunity to come before you today.
My name is Cathi Peterson, and I am a resident of Meadow Valley, California. I am employed in the logging industry as a skidder operator within the forests of the Northern Sierra Nevada.
In the five years I have worked as a logger, I have personally witnessed incidents of Eco-terrorism, and have become aware of other incidents perpetrated upon the local logging community. Prior to becoming a logger, I was employed by the U.S. Forest Service, where we were familiar with the eco-terrorist group known as Earth First!, and often discussed amongst ourselves how radical and dangerous this group is, due to their propensity for sanding logging equipment, cutting hydraulic and fuel lines, laying themselves across logging roads and spiking trees.
These activities are not only harmful to the logging companies, as they must bear the costs of replacing sabotaged equipment, but to the men and women themselves who work in an already unforgiving and inherently dangerous occupation. It only takes the strategic placement of a monkey wrench or a pair of bolt cutters to forever change the life of a hard working individual. It is not mere coincidence Earth First! Founder Dave Foreman wrote his infamous ''Guide To Monkey-Wrenching'' using that particular title.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines terrorism as the intentional use of terror and intimidation to gain a political goal. The term Eco-terrorism is defined as the intentional use of terror and intimidation to gain an ecological goal; ie: a total ban on logging, mining, ranching, fishing, hunting, etc.
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I became a victim of Eco-terrorism in 1994, when hydraulic lines were cut on a piece of logging equipment on the job I was on. Two years later, I was once again victimized by an Eco-terrorist when a fuel line on my skidder was partially cut through, allowing me to enter the forest, and then experience an equipment failure which resulted in my skidder stalling on a steep slope.
Since that time I have suffered mental anxiety, and am constantly concerned for my personal safety. Each morning I arrive at the job-site prepared to encounter sabotaged equipment, and inspect the landing area much as a soldier would inspect a battle-ground for a mine-field. I look at every footprint and tire track to see if they match those belonging to my crew. If they do not, I am then left to wonder whether or not they were made by a casual observer curious about our equipment and activities; or were they made by an Eco-terrorist with darker plans in mind?
I personally inspect every nut and bolt holding the wheels onto my skidder; and at the fuel, hydraulic and brake reservoirs and lines specifically . . . Should an Eco-terrorist want to cause injury or worse, all he/she would have to do is loosen or cut any of the above items.
As a victim of Eco-terrorism, I would like to ask that you please consider the seriousness of these crimes against the men and women who work within natural resources, and extend to us the same rights and protections afforded to the rest of the American public. By addressing this issue, you have taken the first steps to give myself and other resource workers the opportunity to work within a crime-free environment, and the knowledge that the perpetrators will be pursued and punished for their actions.
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Thank you for your time and consideration.
Mr. HUTCHINSON. Ms. Rodgers.
STATEMENT OF JULIE RODGERS, DISTRICT OFFICE MANAGER, OFFICE OF HON. FRANK RIGGS, EUREKA, CA
Ms. RODGERS. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, I would like to thank you for this opportunity to come before you today.
My name is Julie Rodgers. I am a District Office staff member of Representative Frank Riggs of the First Congressional District of California.
I have been a resident of Humboldt County, California, for the past 19 years and have witnessed the growing controversy regarding timber and natural resource issues within my own and surrounding communities. Many mills have closed, close friends have lost their jobs, families have been split and torn apart. Fourth-and fifth-generation loggers have had to leave the State in search of work. Incidents of domestic violence and child abuse have greatly increased. Communities' economies have been devastated, and community resources have been depleted.
The escalation of friction, frustration and violence has been exacerbated in large part by repeated and prolonged invasions of our communities by extremists or radical environmental activist groups, their growing aggression and blatant disregard for private property rights or the law.
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Others will tell you specifics of their structure, agendas and funding sources. I am here to tell you what happened in the Eureka District Office of Representative Frank Riggs on October 16, 1997. Unfortunately, this is but one example of the increasing incidence of unlawful, criminal and often violent activities many American citizens have been experiencing for years.
About 10 a.m. on October 16, 1997, I was in the reception area of our office in telephone conversation with a staffer in our D.C. office. My coworker, Ronnie, was down the hall in her office. Two young adults entered our office and inquired if the Congressman was in. When I told them no, they stated they wanted to protest the proposed Headwaters Forest deal, so I took a constituent comment sheet from the credenza, and I began to date it.
Two men with their faces covered quickly entered the office, pushing a dolly or hand truck with a large hardwood tree stump and dumped it on the floor of our reception area. The crashing sound reverberated throughout the building, shaking walls and rattling windows. We were later told by people in the office building they thought a bomb had gone off, so significant was the noise. Four women followed closely behind the men with the stump and hooked themselves together around the tree trunk with four specially manufactured metal sleeves, as Representative Riggs has already shown you.
My direct access to front door was blocked by the desk I was standing behind, and there was no way for me to bar their entry. At least two men wore what I perceived as ski masks. They were dressed in dark clothing and carried large lawn bags full of sawdust, wood chips and shavings and twigs, which they proceeded to spread around the stump, the women now locked around the stump, and our reception area, including onto desks and equipment.
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Ronnie, having heard the stump crash to the ground came running down the hall. She later told me she thought a bomb had detonated, and she expected to find me dead. The first images she focused on in the reception area were the masked men.
I told our D.C. staffer, who was still on the phone, to contact Capitol Police and ask them to inform our Chief of Staff. Ronnie engaged our audible alarm. I next dialed 911. I wanted the police to know what was taking place in case something happened to us.
I looked up from the phone, and my eyes focused on dark gloves. I looked to the man's face. It was covered. I stopped making eye contact with the intruders, and I feared for my own as well as Ronnie's safety.
One of the men who had entered the office with this group videotaped the events and had, in fact, had the camera directly in my face. He moved over to Ronnie, but she was not facing him. He put a hand to her shoulder to adjust her so he could get a full face view of her into the lens. I started to move in her direction, because I didn't know what he meant to do with her.
Someone said they needed to leave as the police would arrive soon. Those not hooked around the tree scattered. I noted Ronnie was then out of my sight, and that concerned me.
Two of the intruders who had gone out of the front door reentered and went out of the side door, attempting to get out by way of a locked gate. They climbed up on the Electric Company meter boxes and went over a six-foot brick wall outside onto the sidewalk on the other side. The alarm was blaring, all of our phones were ringing, and the office was a mess.
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The next thing I remember, I was seeing blue uniforms. Police had arrived, and I could see them just outside our office in the building's lobby. I spotted Ronnie speaking with them and was relieved she was safe. My camera was in my car, and I went out to retrieve it. I thought I should document the damage for the Congressman, and I wanted to find out how many were out in the parking lot.
I saw a local reporter from one of the news stations and about a dozen or so protesters. Shortly after my return, a police evidence technician arrived to take photos and video. I went down the hall to our District Director's office and as I called our Chief of Staff, I looked out the window and counted about 30 more protesters walking toward our building. Soon, there were over 60 in front of our office. I went into my office, and I called my husband as I did not want him to hear about this on the radio. Then I called my son's high school to ask them to divert him from coming to our office after school, as is customary.
These events happened very quickly. This was a well-orchestrated attack or invasion on our office. In a later deposition, one of the protesters arrested in our office stated she had been in on four separate meetings having to do with planning this action on our office. They knew exactly what they were doing, and they intended to intimidate and frighten us to gain control of our office. The situation was chaotic and frightening. I had to keep telling myself to stay focused and remain calm throughout.
Since that day, we have been vilified, followed and harassed. The van I was riding in while attempting to depart another event weeks later was surrounded with people beating on the van and shouting obscenities. At least one person called for the Congressman's assassination.
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Mr. Chairman, members of this committee, this terrorism of American citizens must stop. We can no longer look the other way. These acts, while committed under the auspice of a noble environmental or political cause are still criminal acts and are perpetuated against specific targets to effect a desired result. These are hate crimes. They are increasing. They cost communities dearly, and the cost to the victims is incalculable.
Thank you for your time.
Mr. MCCOLLUM. [Presiding.] Thank you, Ms. Rodgers.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Rodgers follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF JULIE RODGERS, DISTRICT OFFICE MANAGER, OFFICE OF HON. FRANK RIGGS, EUREKA, CA
Mr. Chairman, Members of the committee: Thank you for this opportunity to come before you today.
My name is Julie Rodgers. I am a District Office staff member of Representative Frank Riggs of the First Congressional District of California.
I have been a resident of Humboldt County, California for the past 19 years and have witnessed the growing controversy regarding timber and natural resource issues within my own and surrounding communities. Many mills have closed, close friends have lost their jobs, families have split and been torn apart, fourth and fifth generation loggers have had to leave the state in search of work, incidents of domestic violence and child abuse have greatly increased, communities' economies have been devastated, and community resources have been depleted.
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The escalation of friction, frustration, and violence has been exacerbated in large part by repeated and prolonged invasions of our community by extremist or radical environmental activist groups, their growing aggression, and blatant disregard for private property rights or the law. Others will tell you specifics of their structure, agenda, and funding sources. I am here to tell you what happened in the Eureka District Office of Representative Riggs on October 16, 1997. Unfortunately, this is but one example of the increasing incidents of unlawful, criminal, and often violent activities many American citizens have been experiencing for years. With permission, I will submit written testimony from my co-worker, Ronnie Pellegrini who is the mother of two very young daughters.
At about 10:00 a.m. on October 16, 1997, I was in the reception area of our office in telephone conversation with a staffer in our D.C. office. My co-worker, Ronnie was down the hall in her office.
Two young adults entered our office and inquired if the Congressman was in. When I told them no they stated they wanted to protest the proposed Headwaters Forest deal so I took a constituent comment sheet from the credenza and began to date it.
Two men with their faces covered quickly entered the office pushing a dolly or hand truck with a large hardwood tree stump and dumped it on the floor of our reception area. The resulting crashing sound reverberated throughout the building shaking walls and rattling windows. (We were later told by many of the people in the office building they had thought a bomb had gone off, so significant was the noise.)
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Four women followed closely behind the men with the stump, and hooked themselves together around the tree trunk with four specially manufactured metal sleeves. My direct access to the front door was blocked by the desk I was standing behind and there was no way for me to bar their entry.
At least two men wore what I perceived as ski masks. They were dressed in dark clothing and carried large plastic lawn bags full of saw dust, wood chips and shavings, and twigs which they proceeded to spread around the stump, the women now locked around the stump, and our reception area, including onto desks and equipment.
Ronnie, having heard the stump crash to the ground, came running down the hall. She later told me that she thought a bomb had detonated and she expected to find me dead. The first images she focused on in the reception area were the masked men.
I told our D.C. staffer, who was still on the phone to contact Capitol Police and asked them to inform our Chief of Staff. Ronnie engaged our audible alarm. I next dialed 911. I wanted the police to know what was taking place in case something happened to us. I looked up from the phone and my eyes focused on dark gloves. I looked to the man's face. It was covered. I stopped making eye contact with the intruders and I feared for my own as well as Ronnie's personal safety.
One of the men who had entered the office with this group videotaped the events and had in fact had the camera in my face. He moved over to Ronnie but she was not facing him. He put a hand to her shoulder to adjust her so he could get a full face view of her into the lens. I started to move in her direction not knowing what he meant to do to her.
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Someone said they needed to leave as the police would arrive soon. Those not hooked around the tree scattered. I noted Ronnie was then out of my line of sight and that concerned me.
Two of the intruders who had gone out of the front door reentered and went out of the side door attempting to get out by way of a locked gate. They climbed up on the electric company meter boxes and went over the six foot brick wall to the sidewalk on the other side. The alarm was blaring, all of our phones were ringing, the office was a mess.
The next thing I remember was seeing blue uniforms. Police had arrived and I could see them just outside of our office in the building's lobby. I spotted Ronnie speaking with them and was relieved she was safe.
My camera was in my car and I went out to retrieve it. I thought I should document the damage for the Congressman and I wanted to find out who and how many were out in the parking lot. I saw a local reporter for one of the news stations and about a dozen or so protesters.
Shortly after my return a Police evidence technician arrived to take photos and video. I went down the hall to our District Director's office and as I called our Chief of Staff I looked out of the window and counted about 30 more protesters walking toward our building. Soon there were over 60 in front of our office.
I went into my office and called my husband as I didn't want him to hear about this on the radio. Then I called my son's high school to request they divert him from coming to the office after school.
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These events happened very quickly. This was a well orchestrated attack/invasion on our office. In a later deposition, one of the protesters arrested in our office stated she had been in on four separate meetings having to do with planning this action on our office. They knew exactly what they were doing and they intended to intimidate and frighten us to gain control of our office. The situation was chaotic and frightening. I had to keep telling myself to stay focused and remain calm through this whole ordeal.
Since that day we have been vilified, followed, and harassed. The van I was riding in while attempting to depart another event weeks later was surrounded with people beating on the van, shouting obscenities. At least one person called for the Congressman's assassination. Mr. Chairman, members of the Committee, this terrorism of American citizens must stop. We can no longer look the other way. These acts while committed under the auspice of a noble environmental or political cause are still criminal acts and are perpetrated against specific targets to affect a desired result. These are hate crimes. They are increasing. They cost communities dearly and the cost to the victims is incalculable. Thank you for your time.
Mr. MCCOLLUM. Mr. Clausen, you are recognized.
STATEMENT OF BARRY CLAUSEN, AUTHOR OF THE BOOK: WALKING ON THE EDGE—HOW I INFILTRATED EARTH FIRST!
Mr. CLAUSEN. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, I thank you for this opportunity to speak to you today.
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My name is Barry Clausen. I represent North American Research of Port Ludlow, Washington. For over 9 years, myself and others have monitored the actions of many extremist groups throughout the United States and several countries.
In December 1989, as a licensed private investigator in the State of Montana, I was tired by timber workers and mining and ranching interests to investigate acts of sabotage against their equipment and their industries.
This particular investigation led to Earth First!. Earth First! is an organization which the FBI has labeled, ''a militant environmental group. In 1990, with the knowledge of two Federal agencies, the FBI and the United States Forest Service, I infiltrated the group and spent the entire year as one of them. During that time, I discovered how militant and violent this group was. It still is. Mr. Chairman, this group advocates anarchy, revolution and terrorism to the youth of our country. Not only must this be addressed, this must stop.
Since 1990, North American Research has worked with many organizations nationwide to monitor the actions of Earth First!. We monitor their publications, the sabotage attributed to them, their ideologies, their supporters, their financial supporters as well as their connections and crossover to other groups. Some of those groups include the Earth Liberation Front, which has taken credit for several arson fires, some of those against government facilities; the Animal Liberation Front, ALF, who, according to an article in the February 18, 1998, edition of the Dallas Morning News, the FBI labeled as a terrorist organization.
Starting in March 1997, radical extremists began using new tactics against public officials and law enforcement agencies in order to intimidate officers, thwart the law and achieve their desired goals. Even those working in the offices of elected officials have been harassed and terrorized by Earth First!, as you have heard.
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In 1997, Delyla Wilson, an Earth Firster from Bozeman, Montana, was convicted in both State and Federal court of assault on Senator Burns, Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman and Montana's Governor Mark Racioct after having thrown rotten bison entrails on the men during a public meeting.
In an attempt to hamstring law enforcement by removing some of their tools to force compliance with the laws, the Sheriff and deputies of Humboldt County in California and the Chief of Police in Eureka, California, are being sued by protesters. Police officers in Eugene, Oregon, are also being sued, as are the deputies in Okanogan County, Washington. The goals are to intimidate law enforcement officers into reluctance to make arrests for fear of reprisals through additional lawsuits, to limit law enforcement's abilities to take those arrested into custody or take those arrested into custody and deplete county court resources.
There are Federal law enforcement officers within Federal agencies known to myself who would have welcomed the opportunity to testify before this committee today regarding the violence and magnitude of crimes they have documented involving Earth First! and other radical environmental and animal rights groups. However, they are concerned about testifying for fear of reprisals by their supervisors and heads of their respective agencies should they testify and their identities become known.
Actions by persons connected to these extremist groups have led to millions of dollars lost due to sabotage committed against increasing numbers of industries within our country. There have also been an as yet unknown number of death threats to American citizens and families, including myself, as well as actual incidents of attempted murder and murder itself.
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There have been numerous arson fires and bombings, including one the FBI labeled as, ''the second worst terrorist attack against a government facility in the history of our country.''
These acts have not only been advocated in literature published by these groups but have also, in some cases, been committed. North American Research, in conjunction with other organizations, have documented over 1,400 acts of sabotage against industry, homes and American citizens, ranging from smashed windows to attempted murder and deaths, which understandably have impacted tens of thousands of lives.
Rodney Adam Coronado, a member of the Animal Liberation Front who has acknowledged publicly his connection to Earth First! and other extremist groups, was arrested and convicted in 1995 for a 1992 arson fire at Michigan State University. He was quoted on the front page of the February 15, 1998, edition of the Dallas Morning News when he stated, ''I see a trend toward actions that do more destruction.''
As an American citizen and a 6–year military veteran who believes in our country, our freedoms and our rights, I would like to ask this committee to please listen, please consider what you hear today and please act to preserve those freedoms and rights.
Mr. Chairman, as part of my testimony, I would like to submit this report that we have done for the record.
Mr. MCCOLLUM. Without objection, it is so admitted.
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Thank you very much, Mr. Clausen.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Clausen follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF BARRY CLAUSEN, AUTHOR OF THE BOOK: WALKING ON THE EDGE—HOW I INFILTRATED EARTH FIRST!
Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, I thank you for this opportunity to speak to you today.
My name is Barry Clausen, I represent North American Research of PortLudlow, Washington. For over nine years myself and others have monitored the actions of many extremist groups throughout the United States and several countries.
In December of 1989, as a licensed private investigator in the state of Montana. I was hired by timber workers, mining and ranching interests to investigate acts of sabotage against their industries.
This particular investigation led to Earth First!. Earth First! is an organization which the FBI has labeled ''A militant environmental group.'' In 1990, with the knowledge of two federal agencies, the FBI and the United States Forest Service, I infiltrated the group and spent the entire year as one of them. During that time I discovered how militant and violent this group was. It still is. Mr. Chairman, this group advocates anarchy, revolution and terrorism to the youth of our country. Not only must this be addressed, this must stop.
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Since 1990 North American Research has worked with many organizations nation wide to monitor the actions of Earth First!. We monitor their publications, the sabotage attributed to them, their ideologies, their supporters, their financial supporters as well as their connections and crossover to other groups. Some of those groups include the Earth Liberation Front, which has taken credit for several arson fires (some against government facilities), the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), who, according to an article in the February 18, 1998 edition of the Dallas Morning News the FBI labeled ALF as a terrorist organization.
Starting in March of 1997 radical extremists began using new tactics against public officials and law enforcement agencies in order to intimidate officers, thwart the law, and achieve their desired goals. Even those working in the offices of elected officials have been harassed and terrorized by Earth First! as you have heard. In 1997 Delyla Wilson, an Earth Firster from Bozeman, Montana was convicted in both State and Federal court of assault on Senator Burns, Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman and Montana's Governor Mark Racioct after having thrown bison entrails on the men during a public meeting.
In an attempt to hamstring law enforcement by removing some of their tools to force compliance with the laws, the Sheriff and deputies of Humboldt County in California and the Chief of Police in Eureka, California are being sued by protestors. Police officers in Eugene, Oregon are also being sued as are deputy sheriffs in Okanogan County, Washington. The goals are to intimidate law enforcement officials into reluctance to make arrests for fear of reprisals through additional lawsuits, to limit law enforcement's ability to take those arrested into custody, and deplete county court resources.
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There are federal law enforcement officers within federal agencies known to myself who would have welcomed the opportunity to testify before this committee today regarding the violence and magnitude of the crimes they have documented involving Earth First! and other radical environmental and Animal Rights activist groups. However, they are concerned about testifying for fear of reprisals by their supervisors and heads of their respective agencies should they testify and their identities become known.
Actions by persons connected to these extremist groups have led to millions of dollars lost due to sabotage committed against an increasing number of industries within our country. There have also been an as of yet unknown number of death threats to American citizens and families, including myself as well as actual incidents of attempted murder and murder itself. There have been numerous arson fires and bombings, including one the FBI labeled as ''The second worst terrorist attack against a government facility in the history of our country.'' These acts have not only been advocated in the literature published by these groups, but have also in some cases been committed. North American Research, in conjunction with other organizations have documented over 1400 acts of sabotage against industry, homes and American citizens ranging from smashed windows to attempted murder and deaths, which have understandably impacted tens of thousands of likes.
Rodney Adam Coronado, a member of the Animal Liberation Front who has acknowledged publicly his connection to Earth First!, and other extremist groups, was arrested and convicted in 1995 for a 1992 arson fire at Michigan State University. He was quoted on the front page of the February 15, 1998 addition of the Dallas Morning News, ''I see a trend toward actions that do more destruction.''
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As an American citizen and a six year military veteran who believes in our country, our freedoms and our rights, I would like to ask this committee to please listen, please consider what you hear today and please act to preserve those freedoms and rights.
Mr. MCCOLLUM. We thank you very much for being with us.
We have been joined by Mr. Arnold. The rest of the panel has given their testimony. Your full testimony will be admitted to the record without objection, and I hear none, and you may summarize your testimony. We are glad you are here, sir.
STATEMENT OF RON ARNOLD, AUTHOR OF THE BOOK: ECOTERROR—THE VIOLENT AGENDA TO SAVE NATURE
Mr. ARNOLD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, my name is Ron Arnold. I am testifying as the Executive Vice President of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, a nonprofit citizen organization based in Bellevue, Washington. The Center has approximately 10,000 members nationwide, most of them in rural, natural resource industries.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank you on behalf of our members for holding this hearing today. It is long overdue.
For the past 5 years, our members have routinely contacted our headquarters to report crimes committed against them of a type we have come to call ecoterrorism, that is, a crime committed to save nature. These crimes generally take the form of equipment vandalism but may include package bombs, blockades using physical force to obstruct workers from going where they have a right to go, and invasions of private or government offices to commit the crime of civil disobedience. So you can see, Mr. Chairman, the range of ecoterror crimes spans the most violent felonies of attempted murder to misdemeanor offenses, such as criminal trespass, but they are all crimes. I am not here to discuss noncriminal actions that do not result in arrests and convictions.
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My organization's membership is nationwide. There is no region in the United States where I have not received complaints from members about being victimized by ecoterrorists. It is a broad and pervasive crime that is seriously under-reported because the victims are terrorized and fear reprisals, copycat crimes or, in the case of corporations, loss of customer confidence and resulting drops in share prices.
I am the author of a book on the subject of this hearing entitled EcoTerror; and, in researching that book, I have investigated and reported on organized vandalism, called by environmentalists, monkeywrenching, which means sabotage against goods, producers and their equipment in order to save nature.
Now ecoterrorism has been studied by social scientists with illuminating results. In particular, the tactics of the group known as Earth First! have been described in the Academy of Management Journal in a study titled Acquiring Organizational Legitimacy through Illegitimate Actions. I request that pages 699 and 715 through 717 of the study be made a part of the record, which I provided for the purpose.
Mr. MCCOLLUM. Without objection, so ordered.
Mr. ARNOLD. Thank you.
[The information referred to follows:]
59927a.eps
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59927b.eps
59927c.eps
59927d.eps
Mr. ARNOLD. Now I have interviewed the lead author of this study to verify its contents. Kimberly Elsbach told me the data she used were gathered directly from Earth Firsters who allowed her to witness or report criminal acts on the condition she destroy her notes as soon as her scholarship no longer required them; and those notes have been destroyed, according to her.
One of the most pertinent tactics that she discovered was called decoupling, which has law enforcement implications. It is a set of techniques denying the crime while deploring the conditions that caused the perpetrators to become so frustrated they had to commit the crime. Thus, decoupling throws blame onto the victim while it denies guilt. However, law enforcement officers have concluded that, in fact, Earth Firsters were the perpetrators, a conclusion drawn as a result of several arrests and convictions in which the defendant admitted connection to Earth First!.
As Earth First! in recent years has tried to mainstream itself, ecoterror crimes have become more destructive to their wishes for a good public image. Therefore, the late Judi Bari, an Earth First! leader, recently deceased, wrote an article in the Earth First! Journal recommending that a decoupling group call itself Earth Liberation Front in order to create deniability for Earth Firster crimes. I document this in my book, EcoTerror on Page 270, and I request that be entered into the record of the hearing for which I have provided a copy.
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Mr. MCCOLLUM. Without objection.
[The information referred to follows:]
FEBRUARY, 1994
EUGENE, OREGON
JUDI BARI WROTE AN ARTICLE TITLED ''MONKEYWRENCHING'' for the Earth First Journal. It was a recommendation that Earth First perform the classic decoupling maneuver separating their above-ground group from under ground groups for the sake of gaining legitimacy. Monkeywrenching, she said, had helped to ''isolate and discredit our movement, and drive away some of our best activists.'' While strongly emphasizing that ''Direct action does not just mean demonstrations. It means action at the point of production, designed to stop or slow production,'' Bari warned that ''mixing civil disobedience and monkeywrenching is suicidal.'' She was saying that she clearly knew that Earth First had been monkeywrenching.
England Earth First! has been taking some necessary steps to separate above ground and clandestine activities. Earth First!, the public group, has a non-violence code and does civil disobedience blockades. Monkeywrenching is done by Earth Liberation Front (ELF). Although Earth First! may sympathize with the activities of ELF, they do not engage in them.
If we are serious about our movement in the US, we will do the same. Earth First! is already an above ground group. We have above-ground publications, public events, and a yearly Rendezvous with open attendance. Civil disobedience and sabotage are both powerful tactics in our movement. For the survival of both, it's time to leave the night work to the elves in the woods.
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APRIL 22, 1996
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA
MEMBERS OF THE SIERRA CLUB VOTED to support the end of commercial logging in national forests. The initiative measure was forced onto the Club ballot by dissidents calling themselves the John Muir Sierrans, including Chad Hanson of Eugene, Oregon, and carried by a 2 to 1 margin of those who voted.
In the spring of 1995, Dave Foreman and David Brower had been elected to the Board of Directors of the Sierra Club. To the surprise of most Sierra Clubbers, Dave Foreman opposed the logging ban initiative.
1995–1996
NORTH AMERICA
ANIMAL RIGHTS VANDALS INCREASED THEIR ACTIVITY on several fronts. Their attacks on restaurants and fast food outlets increased, penetrating security and damaging McDonalds; and Burger King facilities so extensively the corporate managements will not allow personnel to discuss it. The Ani mal Liberation Front website, Diary of Actions, 1996, included this sample of restaurant and food store attacks:
3/15/96—SYRACUSE, NY; HICKORY HOUSE BBQ'S STORE FRONT WAS PAINT BOMBED, 5 PICTURE WINDOWS SMASHED, ALL SIDES OF THE BUILDING WERE COVERED IN A.L.F. SLOGANS, ALL LOCKS FILLED WITH . . .
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ARNOLD. In fact, Earth Liberation Front has subsequently become a well-known entity to law enforcement. Furthermore, Mr. Chairman, the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front signed a joint communique stating their solidarity and their blending.
I have been able to determine that certain criminal Earth Firsters, Earth Liberation Front members and Animal Liberation Front members are, in fact, the same people. Examples are David Barbarash and Darren Thurston, convicted felons now under indictment in Canada for attempted murder by pipe bombs, who at one time acknowledged themselves as Earth Firsters.
I am stating that there is no difference between ecoterrorism and animal rights terrorism, and there evidently has been some dispute about that difference. The perpetrators are, in large part, the same people; and the solidarity of action between them is openly declared.
Now these crimes to save nature are very difficult to solve for law enforcement. The solution, I believe, is to extend Federal protection to loggers, miners, fishermen, farmers, ranchers and others who are the most frequent targets of ecoterror attack. A simple way to accomplish that would be to add those classes of people to the list of persons protected by the existing Animal Enterprise Protection Act of 1993. Now that law Federalized crimes of property damage over $10,000 or that resulted in dismemberment or death to a human being as a result of attacks on animal enterprises.
A simple amendment would create the Resource Enterprise Protection Amendment of 1998 by adding to the list of protected persons loggers, miners, fishermen, farmers, trappers, ranchers, food outlets, processors and all resource enterprises subject to ecoterror crimes. This law also needs a citizen attorneys general clause to allow harmed parties to seek relief in Federal court, and it needs a periodic report to Congress.
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The existing Animal Enterprise Protection Act also needs to be reviewed because its enforcement has proven to be lax and virtually ineffectual. Congressional oversight of its enforcement is badly needed.
I feel that this modest proposal would meet with congressional approval and would go far to protecting the interests of all natural resource producers in America.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, again, for holding this hearing.
Mr. MCCOLLUM. Thank you very much, Mr. Arnold.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Arnold follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF RON ARNOLD, AUTHOR OF THE BOOK: ECOTERROR—THE VIOLENT AGENDA TO SAVE NATURE
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, my name is Ron Arnold. I am testifying as the executive vice president of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, a nonprofit citizen organization based in Bellevue, Washington. The Center has approximately 10,000 members nationwide, most of them in rural natural resource industries.
Mr. Chairman, the Center does not accept government grants and is in full compliance with House Rule XI, clause 2(g). Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank you on behalf of our members for holding this hearing today. It is long overdue. For the past five years our members have routinely contacted our headquarters to report crimes committed against them of a type we have come to call ecoterrorism, that is, a crime committed to save nature. These crimes generally take the form of equipment vandalism, but may include package bombs, blockades using physical force to obstruct workers from going where they have a right to go, and invasions of private or government offices to commit the crime of civil disobedience. So you can see, Mr. Chairman, the range of ecoterror crimes ranges from the most violent felonies of attempted murder to misdemeanor offenses such as criminal trespass. But they are all crimes. I am not here to discuss noncriminal actions that do not result in arrests and convictions.
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My organization's membership is nationwide. There is no region of the United States where I have not received complaints from members about being victimized by ecoterrorists. It is a broad and pervasive crime that is seriously under-reported because the victims are terrorized and fear reprisals, copycat crimes, or in the case of corporations, loss of customer confidence and resulting drops in share prices.
I am the author of a book on the subject of this hearing, titled, EcoTerror. In this book I have reported the tactics of organized vandalism called by environmentalists ''monkeywrenching,'' which means sabotage against goods producers and their equipment in order to save nature. Ecoterrorism has been studied by social scientists with illuminating results. In particular, the tactics of the group known as Earth First! have been described in the Academy of Management Journal in a study titled Acquired Organizational Legitimacy Through Illegitimate Actions. I request that pages 699, 715, 716, and 717 of this study be made a part of the record.
I interviewed the lead author of this study to verify its contents. Kimberly Elsbach told me that the data were gathered directly from Earth Firsters who allowed her to witness criminal acts on condition that she destroy her notes as soon as her scholarship no longer needed them. One of the most pertinent tactics she discovered was called ''decoupling,'' which is a set of techniques denying the crime while deploring the conditions that caused the perpetrators to become so frustrated they committed the crime. Thus decoupling throws blame for the crime on the victim while it denies guilt. However, law enforcement officers have concluded that in fact Earth Firsters were the perpetrators, a conclusion drawn as a result of several arrests and convictions in which the defendant admitted connection to Earth First.
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As Earth First in recent years has tried to mainstream itself, ecoterror crimes have become more destructive to their wishes for a good public image. Therefore, Judi Bari, an Earth First leader, wrote an article in the Earth First Journal recommending that a decoupling group call itself Earth Liberation Front in order to create deniability for Earth Firsters crimes. I document this in my book EcoTerror on page 270, which I respectfully request be made part of the record. In fact, the Earth Liberation Front has subsequently become a well-known entity to law enforcement. Furthermore, Mr. Chairman, the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front signed a joint communique stating their solidarity and blending. I have been able to determine that certain criminal Earth Firsters, Earth Liberation Front members and the Animal Liberation Front members are the same people. Examples are David Barbarash and Darren Thurston, convicted felons now under indictment in Canada for attempted murder by pipe bombs, were at one time Earth Firsters. I am stating that there is no difference between ecoterrorism and animal rights terrorism. The perpetrators are in large part the same, and the solidarity of action is openly declared.
These crimes to save nature are difficult to solve for law enforcement. The solution is to extend federal protection to loggers, miners, fishermen, farmers and ranchers, and others who are the most frequent targets of ecoterrorist attack. A simple way to accomplish that would be to add those classes of people to the list of persons protected by the Animal Enterprise Protection Act of 1993. That law federalized crimes of property damage over $10,000 or that resulted in dismemberment or death to a human being as a result of attacks on animal enterprises. A simple amendment would create the Resource Enterprise Protection Amendment of 1998 by adding to the list of protected persons loggers, miners, fishermen, farmers, trappers, ranchers, food outlets and processors and all resource enterprises subject to ecoterror crimes. This law also needs a citizen attorneys general clause to allow harmed parties to seek relief in federal court, and it needs a periodic report to Congress. The existing Animal Enterprise Protection Act also needs to be reviewed because its enforcement has proven to be lax and virtually ineffectual. Congressional oversight of its enforcement is badly needed.
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I feel that this modest proposal would meet with congressional approval and would go far to protecting the interests of all natural resource producersin America.
Thank you again, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing.
Mr. MCCOLLUM. Thank you, all of you, who traveled quite some distance to be here today. It is an important hearing, and everything you testified to needs to be put forward to the American public and in the record.
I will recognize myself for 5 minutes of questioning, and we will go onto others who wish to ask questions.
Mr. Vincent, I would like to comment, while I wasn't able to be present during your actual testimony due to a commitment in the Rules Committee, I did read it, and I am aware of some of the things that happened and some of the threats that occurred that you talked to us about today. I would comment to you that some of the things would clearly be assaults and crimes that you have described; and in the case of those phone calls that were threatening your children and you, it would seem to me that there was an intentional infliction of mental distress, which is a tort in most States today, and one of the worst kinds of torts. So it is very difficult for me to imagine anyone who would find these folks particularly innocent in this.
Is this the Earth First! group, do you think, that was doing this to you or do you have any idea?
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Mr. VINCENT. As I stated in the testimony, they don't leave a calling card when they do these things. What I do know, and the reason I participated in the 60 Minutes show on this subject, is that they print the material that causes the atmosphere for this to happen against people and families like mine.
Mr. MCCOLLUM. So whether or not it was they who did it directly, you feel there is a responsibility on the part of them as the leading proponent of this type of activity and that they should be held accountable accordingly, is that essentially correct?
Mr. VINCENT. Absolutely. And it happened in the days when the Internet was not like it is now. The atmosphere that was created by the books and the journals and their speaking and the protests and the material they handed out to people who may be easily influenced in a direction were different when this started in 1988 against my family than they are now. Many homes are now equipped with the Internet and can bring the information directly into the bedrooms of 14–, 15–, 16–year-old children. I think they should be held accountable.
Mr. MCCOLLUM. You see a greater problem now potentially than there was at that time?
Mr. VINCENT. I think there is a great threat now, that this could escalate because of telecommunications.
Mr. MCCOLLUM. Mr. Clausen, when you infiltrated the Earth First! group, did you find any evidence that they were plotting, planning, carrying out activities of an ecoterrorist nature across State lines, where a group of organizers or some of the home office people, if you want to call it that, were in California and they were working with or directing activities in the State of Montana, Mr. Vincent's State or elsewhere?
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Mr. CLAUSEN. Yes, sir, I did. One of the things we discovered is, if there was a problem in an area like Mr. Vincent, the actions that happened to his equipment would not come from the local group. They would not come from a State group. There would be communications between the State group and another group from another State. They would travel. They would do the actions in Montana, and then they would go back to their State. The reason, as this was explained to me at that time, was the local sheriff didn't have the resources or the ability to track them. The State agencies didn't, and the Federal agencies weren't.
Mr. MCCOLLUM. Ms. Rodgers, it seems to me you well may have been in a strange and awkward position when you were in Mr. Riggs' office the day the big stump was put in there. The Earth First! people are claiming, at least verbally, that they didn't have the whatever to appear here today in front of us, but, through messages they sent our way, I gather they are claiming there was no threat to you personally, that their entire actions were against an inanimate object and that is the only way they operate. How do you respond to that? Were you in personal fear of your own safety?
Ms. RODGERS. Yes, sir. I would suggest that anyone confronted with people coming into your office wearing ski masks or facial coverings, you don't know what their intent is. When someone goes into a bank dressed like that, they are drawn on. We know they are not there to make a deposit. This wasn't business as usual, this was a violent act. Yes, I was afraid.
Mr. MCCOLLUM. What is spiking of a tree? Can somebody tell me that? Mr. Vincent? Anyone? Mr. Arnold?
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Mr. VINCENT. Spiking of a tree is the placement of, it used to be the placing of a metal object or a railroad spike into a tree at certain intervals so if the tree were harvested and sent to a mill, it would provide a great danger to the people who would process it.
Mr. MCCOLLUM. In other words, it could cause physical harm if you were sawing it up and suddenly you came and confronted this with your equipment, is that correct?
Mr. VINCENT. It indeed could. Not just physical harm in the mill itself where the log went to-but, for instance, if one of my brothers who worked in the woods was trying to cut one of those trees and his chain saw, with the chain spinning at a thousand RPMs, hit one of those spikes, the chain could bust and fly a shrapnel back in his face. So it is not just dangerous to the people in the mill but it is dangerous to the people on the ground.
Mr. MCCOLLUM. Do any of you people know of people who have experienced this type of injury as a result of activities like spiking or other things where they have done this monkeywrenching and done it to equipment that was later activated in some way that caused injury?
Mr. VINCENT. That would best be answered by the people who have done studies on this, including Representative Riggs' office. They had an incident down in his district.
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Mr. MCCOLLUM. Where somebody was injured with spiking, that type of thing, Ms. Rodgers, are you familiar with that?
Ms. RODGERS. There was a mill worker down in the southern part of our district whose saw blade in the mill, did strike a spike, and he was severely injured. I believe he lost an eye.
Mr. MCCOLLUM. Somebody could easily be killed. If they were killed, that would certainly be manslaughter, probably voluntary manslaughter, maybe something worse than that. Some people could conceivably be convicted of murder if they intended an injury like that, that could cause death. And I don't know that most people think of it that way. That is what ecoterrorism really means, it seems to me, and we ought to put it bluntly.
If you are out there doing these things to property that are spiking or messing up equipment in a way that makes the handling of that equipment physically dangerous to somebody in a way that could actually kill them, and that certainly could, which Mr. Vincent has described and you have described, that is a very, very serious crime against a person. It isn't just a crime against a property that we are talking about potentially being involved here, and I think that point needs to be made, and I have.
Let's see. Mr. Hutchinson, you got to chair this for a while and you have been here for the longest. I am going to recognize you.
Mr. HUTCHINSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to follow up with a couple questions and thank you for conducting this hearing.
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Mr. Clausen, you testified that you infiltrated the group Earth First!
Mr. CLAUSEN. Yes, sir.
Mr. HUTCHINSON. And you indicated you did that with the approval of the FBI.
Mr. CLAUSEN. It wasn't with their approval. I was hired as a licensed private investigator to do it. As a private investigator, I have no more authority than anybody on this panel to make an arrest, so what I did was I went to both the FBI and the U.S. Forest Service. We discussed what would transpire. And I can't say with their approval, but they said if we got information that was pertinent, they would take the information, which they did take.
Mr. HUTCHINSON. Did they indicate whether there was any basis of Federal jurisdiction?
Mr. CLAUSEN. I met with the FBI, a task force in San Francisco, and they gave me what they called an hello number, so that if I had information about a specific crime I could call the number and they would respond to it.
Mr. HUTCHINSON. It looks to me, like, particularly in the great Northwest, in a natural resource State, this type of violence and criminal activity would be a high priority with local law enforcement. Has there been a positive response for investigation of these type of cases by local law enforcement? What are the hurdles that they run into? And is it a matter of resources? Because if we just change the Federal law and give Federal jurisdiction, that doesn't help us with the greatest problem, of who these culprits are and how can we prove a case against them.
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Mr. Clausen and then someone else might want to comment.
Mr. CLAUSEN. I am not here to be critical of the FBI, but one of the things we have discovered over the years is local low enforcement agencies, primarily Sheriff Departments, Humboldt County Sheriff is an example and the Chief of Police in Eureka, they don't have an idea of the magnitude of what goes on, how these people work. So what they rely on is Federal agencies. Until just recently, the Federal agencies have done very, very little. There have been a few arrests.
There was, in 1989, the leader of Earth First! Dave Foreman and four others, the four were arrested for attempting to sabotage a nuclear power plant, a line belonging to them, a power line. The leader of the organization was arrested on conspiracy charges, and they were convicted.
Mr. HUTCHINSON. What kind of sentence did they get?
Mr. CLAUSEN. I think it was 2 or 3 years.
Mr. HUTCHINSON. Was this on State charges?
Mr. CLAUSEN. No, on Federal charges.
Dave Foreman got a suspended sentence and he ended up getting a $250 fine after 6 years of probation.
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I am not here to be critical, but we do—I have been interviewed for over 15 hours on the information we have by Federal authorities, primarily the FBI; and the FBI and other Federal agencies have not shared this information with local law enforcement agencies; and we do get an awful lot of calls from them for the information we have.
Mr. HUTCHINSON. Mr. Arnold, do you want to comment on your experience with local law enforcement and the obstacles they encountered?
Mr. ARNOLD. Yes, Congressman Hutchinson. I think the problem has largely been the fragmentation of events. These are hit-and-run kinds of things. They are as unpredictable as a bank robbery. You don't know where they are or who the perpetrators are. Local law enforcement has no idea there is a pattern to be seen, which is one of the reasons I would recommend the federalization of some of these property crimes, because the Federal database would then have those pieces of information in there that could readily be accessed by any sheriff sitting anywhere, which you can't do now.
Mr. HUTCHINSON. I yield back. Thank you.
Mr. MCCOLLUM. Thank you.
Mr. Buyer, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. BUYER. Have any of you been members of some of the so-called mainstream environmental groups, ever been members of any of them? Can you describe how they advocate for their goals, as opposed to some of the extremist groups? What are the differences?
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Mr. ARNOLD. Well, as the Executive Vice President of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, one of our functions is as a watchdog of the watchdogs, who will guard the guards while we try, and of course they return the favor. We generally find there is a spectrum.
And one of the reasons that we published this book, Ecoterror, published by the Free Enterprise Press, was to make very, very strict distinctions between noncriminal acts that we just might not like-pressures on lobbying, lawsuits, other things of that nature-and not bunch those in with ecoterrorism. Because we have heard a lot of people, particularly victims of being put out of a job by environmentalist lawsuits, for example, say that is economic terrorism. We don't want to corrupt the meaning of the word, so we are talking only about things that have arrests, convictions, prison sentences and such things as that.
So we have generally found that even though a few organizations, including the Sierra Club, have even joined in trying to track down some perpetrators of ecoterrorist crimes, even volunteering to offer reward money, such things as that, generally there are another bunch of groups who either ignore it or don't denounce it publicly.
We have asked all environmental groups to issue denouncements of this kind of crime. We have not been very successful. We don't really know what that means, but we certainly would not lump them in there unless we can show somebody has an arrest record and a conviction.
Ms. PETERSON. You asked if any of us had been a member. While I was an 18-year-old college student taking my forestry courses, I was a member of the Wilderness Society, but I quickly learned that what they were advocating, in so much as preservationism, is not good resource stewardship, and I quit my membership at 20.
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Mr. BUYER. I think we have to be very clear here. There are two very distinct visions of environmental protection, even as evidenced here by who is here and who is not here in this panel today, which is unfortunate.
There are many Democrats, and there are some Republicans, who have a very strict preservationist view on environmental policies; and if you disagree with their view on the environment, then they try to label you as anti-environment. But, in fact, some of us also espouse environmental policies of a balance that people are part of the environmental equation; and we have a very strong sense of environmental awareness and a conservation conscience.
I come from farm country. We have to be good stewards of the soil, no different than loggers have to be good stewards of the soil, and it is how we manage our natural resources. The key word there is manage the natural resources. This is about being good stewards, and I have deep respect for the individuals that I met in the Pacific Northwest, because it is one of the few places left in America where people have such a strong work ethic, whereby their word is still their honor, and they still operate on a handshake. And it was reassuring of the people I met.
I just wanted you to know there are some Members up here that have an environmental belief that is very similar. And it is distressing to me when there are other organizations, and even those in politics, that turn a blind eye; and by their turning a blind eye, they are giving implicit condonement of such actions, and that is not right.
Earlier someone mentioned the abortion issue. It is no different than someone who is pro-life turning a blind eye on the bombing of an abortion clinic. That is wrong. I am pro-life, and I can tell you that that is wrong. And it is just as wrong as Earth First! and other organizations to take actions of terror against people just because they have a different view toward environmental protection. So I appreciate your testimony today.
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Mr. MCCOLLUM. Thank you, Mr. Buyer.
Mr. Chabot, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. CHABOT. I thank the Chairman.
In this country, we certainly tolerate protest and free speech and dissent. In fact, we should encourage that. It is one of the things that makes this country great.
But then there are those who go beyond the bounds of the law, and there is a whole range of activities, which we are seeing, things from the one extreme, those which are not quite as offensive, maybe starting with things like John Pepper, who happens to be the CEO at Procter & Gamble, one of the biggest employers in my district of Cincinnati, who was struck in the face with a pie—it may seem like a fairly harmless thing, but that was one particular person's idea of protesting their experimentation on animals with respect to makeup and things like that—that is essentially a battery—to throwing blood on women who might choose to wear furs. That is somebody's protest against, you know, an alleged abuse of animals or animal rights.
You have people who break into laboratories because they are offended by, again, laboratory use of animals, the animal rights folks. And then you get on the other extreme, people like the Freemen, who set up their own country within this country, that is their perspective; or Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber, way out on the extreme, but a radical environmentalist, somebody who went way beyond the norm; and somebody like Timothy McVeigh.
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Again, we should tolerate protests, but there are those that go way beyond the bounds, and we really do have to find a way to put a stop to some of this more bizarre activity.
I was particularly moved by Mr. Vincent's testimony and what his family went through, particularly his kids. And when you have these people that allegedly are supposed to be people who have the planet and our environment in mind and then they are threatening your kids with all kinds of outrageous activities, I mean, it is something that really we do need to do something in this country. And I think we are found struggling with exactly what that is and exactly what the Federal role should be in all of this, but some folks have just gone way beyond the bounds.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. MCCOLLUM. Thank you, Mr. Chabot.
Mr. Riggs, I cannot recognize you under the procedures of the committee since you are not a committee member, but any member of the committee may yield you time, and what I am going to do is go to a second round of questions. I have the right to question for 5 minutes, and I yield you my 5 minutes.
Mr. Riggs, you are recognized.
Mr. RIGGS. Mr. Chairman, thank you.
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I really do appreciate you holding this hearing, and I really appreciate the interest and involvement and participation of my colleagues. Maybe it's just the ex-cop in me, but it is nice to be an ex officio member of the Subcommittee on Crime, at least for the day.
Let me say something I should have said at the outset of my testimony. The episode that took place at my congressional office last October is quite different than the dozens and dozens of protests and demonstration that have been conducted at my office in the 6 years that I have represented the First Congressional District, a labor of love.
It is the old saying, you know, that you and I can disagree, we can have conflicting political opinions and views; and you are absolutely free, as Mr. Chabot was just alluding, to express that disagreement. But your freedom of speech ends at the bridge of my nose, and when you punch me in my nose or if you have the intent to punch me in my nose, even if you are unsuccessful or I duck or you never throw the punch, you have committed a crime. There is an important distinction there, because the people that entered my office, that accosted Julie and Ronnie in October of last year, were bent on committing a crime. They were bent on resisting arrest. And under California law, the intent to break the law is considered to be conspiracy, and it is punishable as a felony.
Let me thank the panelists, each and every one of them, for their testimony. Because I think they brought out today what we have lived with as almost, I hate to say this, but a fact of life in many western, predominantly rural communities, for many, many years; and that is, and you get some sense of it hearing the testimony, it is almost like a siege mentality. There is a great deal of resentment that this militant, fringe radical element has come into our communities and has not just disrupted life but has promoted a political agenda that would attempt or seek to portray the people who live in these communities, the people who want to be, as Mr. Buyer alluded, good stewards, as the wrongdoers. The true victims of the episode in my congressional office were my employees, but you would never know it, as least from some of the media accounts portraying what transpired.
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Mr. Chairman, I just want to speak for a moment for you and Mr. Chabot, as you continue your deliberations and as you perhaps seek to define what, if any, Federal role or involvement there should be here.
Number one, as I mentioned before, the individuals who were involved in these activities, as is so well explained and documented by Mr. Arnold and Mr. Clausen, are highly mobile. They are very transient. They operate across State lines. That is crystal clear to me.
Secondly, Mr. Arnold talks about federalization, but let me just point out, the arresting officers, the officers who made the arrest at my congressional office, charged the four women with felony conspiracy, felony violation of California law. Those charges were dropped by the local district attorney. Why did he drop them? I don't have any reason to doubt the man, even though I think he is more of a liberal Democrat in his political views, but the reality is his office is overwhelmed. He is prosecuting other people on other felony charges—violent crimes, burglary, drug offenses, auto theft and the like.
The further reality is that our jail is overcrowded, our prisons—as you well know, Mr. Chairman, because you have led the way in trying to provide Federal taxpayer assistance—our prisons are bulging at the seams, and it was easier to drop the charges than try to pursue a felony conviction under California State law.
Let me say it might have been a completely different matter if we were pursuing a felony prosecution and potential conviction under Federal law, using Federal taxpayer resources, Federal law enforcement agencies and, yes, the Federal courts. I would love to get an opinion from the judicial counsel on where they would come down on this particular issue. But at least I want to raise it for your consideration.
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These are, as Julie Rodgers described them, hate crimes. They are increasing in number. In fact, it is interesting: This Earth First! organization for my congressional district. I mean, these folks are good, giving the devil its due. They already have their press release out; in it they are saying what transpired was a ''theatrical action'' to make a political statement about deforestation, not unlike any of the hundreds of protests we have had over the years to demand the protection of the Headwaters Forest. Earth First! is certainly flamboyant, but we are not violent.
I have called upon them, Mr. Chairman, publicly, many times, to renounce violent tactics. I have asked them, as Mr. Arnold suggested, to disavow the information posted on the home page, the web site, that I cited at the beginning of the hearing. They haven't done that to date, and personally I am not holding my breath for them to do so anytime in the near future.
So, thank you, again, Mr. Chairman. I look forward to conferring with you on where we go from here.
Mr. MCCOLLUM. Well, thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. It is extremely important, and I am sure we can look at ways where Federal law might have a role to play, whether it is Mr. Arnold's suggestion of the hate crimes law, which is a Federal criminal law, or perhaps because of the answers like Mr. Clausen gave. There is an interstate role to play here, and enough evidence of that is before us to consider it. I am certainly open to it.
Mr. Chabot, I took a second round. Would you like any more questions?
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Mr. CHABOT. No.
Mr. MCCOLLUM. I would like to thank everybody for coming again. You have come long distances, and especially Mr. Riggs. You are going to retire for the second time from us, and we are going to miss you for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is your ability to bring forward issues in law enforcement like this. You have a very articulate voice, and your constituents are going to miss you, quite frankly. Thank you for doing this.
This hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 4:13 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
Material Submitted for the Hearing Record
Additional material was recieved from the following organizations and is on file with the Subcommittee on Crime.
Fur Information Council of American, Herndon, Virginia
National Trappers Association
Fur Commission USA, Coronado, California
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