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SUVs Torched in Pa. Eco-Terrorism Stunt Claimed by Radical Environmental Group
by AP
Saturday, Jan. 04, 2003 at 7:33 PM
In the latest in a string of vandalism carried out in the name of the Earth Liberation Front, members of the radical environmental group are claiming responsibility for a fire at a Pennsylvania auto dealership.
SUVs Torched in Pa. Eco-Terrorism Stunt
The Associated Press
PITTSBURGH Jan. 4 �
In the latest in a string of vandalism carried out in the name of the Earth Liberation Front, members of the radical environmental group are claiming responsibility for a fire at a Pennsylvania auto dealership.
A posting on the group's Web site said the "attack" targeted SUVs in a fight "to remove the profit motive from the killing of the natural environment."
Jugs of gasoline were set ablaze under three vehicles, engulfing them and a nearby car in flames Wednesday at a dealership in Girard, about 110 miles north of Pittsburgh, FBI Special Agent Bob Rudge said. Three other vehicles also had jugs of gasoline set under them but failed to ignite.
"I have no reason to doubt that it's an individual who committed the acts on behalf of the Earth Liberation Front," Rudge said.
The FBI considers the Earth Liberation Front one of the nation's most prolific domestic terrorist organizations. It is thought to be responsible for the 1998 torching of a ski resort in Vail, Colo., an arson that caused $12 million in damage and is considered the most destructive act of eco-terrorism in U.S. history.
ELF is loosely organized. Anyone who carries out an action under the group's guidelines and claims responsibility as part of the organization is considered a member. Over the past year, its name has been attached to a string of vandalism in Pennsylvania.
Last month, the group's Web site said ELF members and cells from the Animal Liberation Front set a Nov. 26 fire at a mink farm in Erie. The fire destroyed a barn, but no animals or people were harmed.
The group also claimed responsibility for an Aug. 11 fire at an unoccupied forest research station near Warren and the torching in March of a construction crane at a bridge work site in Erie, Rudge said.
ELF's claims of responsibility typically come through its Web site, where managers say they serve only as a media conduit for the group. A manager who did not provide an identity said in an e-mail that the communique about Wednesday's fire came in anonymously, as do all reports of ELF attacks.
Rudge said that communique, posted on the Web site, appeared to be authentic because it included information that hadn't been made public.
The Press Release
by teamsterturtle
Sunday, Jan. 05, 2003 at 5:44 AM
January 02, 2003
Press Release: ELF TORCHES SUVS IN ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA
For Immediate Release
ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA - The Earth Liberation Front has taken credit for its first action of 2003 with the destruction of several SUVS at a Pennsylvania auto dealership. A communique, received by the ELF Press Office, Thursday, claimed an attack on SUVs at the Bob Ferrando Ford Lincoln Mercury Dealership in Erie, Pennsylvania.
The Earth Liberation Front is an international underground organization that uses direct action in the form of economic sabotage to stop the destruction of the natural environment. In North America alone since 1997, the ELF has caused over $45 million in damages to entities who profit from the destruction of life.
Communique follows:
At 5:30AM on January 1, 2003, the Earth Liberation Front attacked several SUV's at Bob Ferrando Ford Lincoln Mercury in Erie, Pennsylvania. At least four vehicles were entirely destroyed and several others sustained heavy damage, costing an estimated $90,000.
Despite decades of popular environmental activism, the mainstream environmental movement, which began arguably in the early 1960s, has failed in its attempts to bring about the protection needed to stop the destruction of life on this planet. In many ways, it has served only to accelerate this destruction. It's occasional "victories", reforms or small concessions, have fostered hope in a means of social change that has proven unable to produce tangible protection of life, time after time.
By focusing it's energy on temporary "solutions", they have altogether ignored the roots of the problem at hand. Western civilization, with it's throw away conveniences, it's status symbols, and it's unfathomable hoards of financial wealth, is unsustainable, and comes at a price. It's pathological decadence, fueled by brutality and oceans of bloodshed, is quickly devouring all life and undermining the very life support systems we all need to survive. The quality of our air, water, and soil continues to decrease as more and more life forms on the planet suffer and die as a result. we are in the midst of a global environmental crisis that adversely effects and directly threatens every human, every animal, every plant, and every other life form on the face of the Earth.
There is absolutely no excuse for any one of us, out of greed, to knowingly allow this to continue. There is a direct relationship between our irresponsible over-consumption and lust for luxury products, and the poverty and destruction of other people and the Natural world. By refusing to acknowledge this simple fact, supporting this paradigm with our excessive lifestyles, and failing to offer direct resistance, we make ourselves accomplices in the greatest crime ever committed.
Time is running out - change must come, or eventually all will be lost. A belief in state sanctioned legal means of social change is a sign of faith in the legal system of that same state. We have absolutely no faith in the legal system of the state when it comes to protecting life, as it has repeatedly shown itself to care far more for the protection of commerce and profits than for its people and the natural environment. Clearly, the state itself causes and profits from many of the various atrocities against life that we must struggle against. To place faith in that same state as though it will act in the interests of justice and life is utter foolishness and a grave mistake.
Therefore, the E.L.F. will continue to fight to remove the profit motive from the killing of the natural environment, and to draw public attention to that which is deliberately concealed from them by the forces that control our lives and destroy our home.
We urge our sisters and brothers - let us strive to become the revolutionary force we've always spoken of being, and begin to take the control of our lives out of the hands of those who would destroy us. NO COMPROMISE.
Happy New Year Bob Ferrando!
E.L.F.
The North American Earth Liberation Front Press Office is a legal, above-ground news service dedicated to exposing the political and social motives behind the covert direct actions of the underground Earth Liberation Front. The North American Earth Liberation Front Press Office receives anonymous communiques from the ELF and distributes the message to the media and public.
-30-
Contact:
North American Earth Liberation Front Press Office
elfpress@resist.ca
http://www.earthliberationfront.com
Other actions
by an editor
Friday, Jan. 10, 2003 at 7:28 PM
For other actions the ELF and ALF have claimed in recent months, please see the article on our "Global" newswire.
http://indypgh.org/news/2003/01/589.php
More on these groups
by Mark
Thursday, Mar. 06, 2003 at 4:29 PM
See this .pdf file for more information on these nuts: http://www.animalliberation.net/library/2001DirectActions.pdf
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