Radical group Earth Liberation Front releases video encouraging people to join

Associated Press/July 26, 2001
By John Enders

Portland, Ore. -- A radical environmental group known for torching and vandalizing resorts, factories, and research labs has released a promotional video explaining its views and encouraging people to join.

The video, called "Igniting the Revolution: An Introduction to the Earth Liberation Front," shows burning buildings, oil spills, hillsides stripped of trees, anti-capitalist rhetoric and logos of corporations the group opposes. A narrator encourages viewers to start their own "cells" and "do what needs to be done to protect all life on this planet."

"With one night's work, a few individuals can accomplish what years of legal battles and millions of dollars most likely did not," the narrator says. The group is selling the video on its Web site for $10. A main goal of the video is recruiting new members, said Craig Rosebraugh, who serves as the group's spokesman from his Portland home but says he is not a member.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Peifer, based in Portland, said the video advocates committing serious crimes, including arson and extortion. The U.S. Department of Justice classifies the ELF as a domestic terrorist group.

ELF and a sister organization -- the Animal Liberation Front -- have claimed responsibility for more than two dozen acts of vandalism since 1997 -- arson at three luxury homes in Mount Sinai, N.Y., sabotaged logging equipment in Indiana and a 1998 fire that caused $12 million damage at the Vail, Colo., ski resort.

More recently, the ELF has claimed responsibility for May 21 fires at an experimental tree farm in Clatskanie, Ore., and at the University of Washington Center for Urban Horticulture in Seattle. No one has been injured in the attacks.