How Environmentalists Became the FBI's #1 Threat

In the offices of Women's Law, Daniel McGowan sits in his cubicle. Today, he's making holiday cards for donors, diligently working like any other day. Outside, the cold wind whips through the skyscrapers of Manhattan. It's December 7th, 2005. Daniel McGowan's life is about to change forever. — I'm getting ready to go. I have the holiday cards in my hand and I stand up and there's these two guys in the entrance to my cubicle. — His past is about to catch up with him. Four federal agents enter the offices of the domestic violence nonprofit. Two of them approach McGowan, cuff him, and shove him out of the building. — And they say my name and they're like They literally close the gap in like a second and I'm handcuffed and they literally say to me, "You're going back to Oregon. " — The long arm of the law had finally tracked down its white whale. But McGowan wasn't the first, nor was he the last person to be detained on that cold December day. Daniel McGowan, after all, was part of an especially effective cell of eco-saboteurs that had wreaked havoc on the Pacific Northwest for years. The Earth Liberation Front. But the story doesn't end with McGowan's arrest. The search for the Earth Liberation Front would come to reveal incompetence of law enforcement, state overreach, and industrial scheming. The pursuit would cross multiple states and end in betrayal and death. It would paint a group that killed no one as the number one domestic terrorist threat in the United States. — Terrorism is terrorism, no matter what the motive. Including acts of domestic terrorism in the name of animal rights or the environment. — This is the hunt for the Earth Liberation Front. — Ecological terrorism. — America's most serious domestic terrorist threat. — Radical eco-terrorist group Earth Liberation Front. — The ELF. — Our changing climate's finances aren't looking amazing. So, I want to make a quick ask for your support as I transition this channel to become a viewer-supported endeavor. If you don't have the financial means right now, no worries, click ahead to this timecode to watch the rest of the video. But if you do have the means, I'll give it to you straight. As of this month, I've chosen to forego sponsorships, and my ad revenue for YouTube is declining pretty rapidly. The channel is on a financial downturn. Nothing dramatic will happen just yet, but up until now, the majority of the channel's revenue, some 2/3, comes from in-video sponsorships and YouTube ad revenue. And those have pretty much disappeared. And as I dive into more controversial and leftist topics like this one, the threat of demonetization only makes things worse. This is where you come in. The last third of my revenue has come from the backbone of this channel, Our Changing Climate's Patreon supporters. Over 750 of you all pledge to back OCC month in and month out. And that support is the sole reason I'm able to take big risks like making this three-part series on the Earth Liberation Front. Sadly, Patreon support hasn't been enough to sustain this channel completely. To pull back the curtain a bit, it is just me, Charlie, working to bring you all this eco-socialist content for free every month. This series alone took six months of work, and I did that work with no prospect of getting paid or even the video doing well. I just want to put out high-quality and engaging stories that examine the climate crisis, capitalist destruction, and what we can do about it. And I want those videos that I make to be free and accessible to everyone. Unfortunately though, I do live in a capitalist system, and I have to pay my rent, healthcare costs, and the remarkably extreme prices of 3D models and assets. Looking towards the future, I'm hoping to continue making big, high-quality series like this one. But if I'm not able to make the finances work, I might need to reassess. So this year, I want to double down on Patreon and make this channel entirely viewer supported. So if you have the means to keep this channel afloat, which is literally just a quarter of the cost of one movie ticket, I humbly ask that you support Our Changing Climate on Patreon. And I want to make becoming a Patreon supporter a mutually beneficial relationship. So, when you become a member on Patreon, you get access to all of my videos, including the next episode of this series, 1 month early and ad-free. We also have a lovely little Discord community for talking climate and leftist politics, and there's also a trove of bonus videos and extended content, as well. If you have stuck around for this plea, thank you so much for watching and understanding. And if you become a Patreon supporter to keep these videos high-quality and free for everyone, you have my endless gratitude. I love you so much, and you're amazing.

Anyways, back to the video. The hunt began in 1996. Two fires, two nights apart. One at Oakridge Ranger Station, the second at the Detroit Ranger Station, both in Oregon. In the rubble, a ranger found the words Earth Liberation Front scrawled in spray paint Detroit Ranger Station, "Fire and property destruction on federal lands. " The Earth Liberation Front had just declared war against the state. These two arsons were no longer just under the jurisdiction of local police. Sabotage on federal property meant federal agents. The FBI was immediately involved. The case was open, and the Earth Liberation Front was now on their radar. It was time for them to get to work. Except for one small problem. The ELF had lit their fires well. The federal agents couldn't find much evidence to work off of other than the burnt remains of incendiary devices at the two fires. So, they pressured the only people they knew who were connected to the Earth Liberation Front, the messengers.

It's early in the morning on a hot June day. The year is 1997, 8 months after the Earth Liberation Front set fire to the Oakridge and Detroit Ranger stations. Just a month before the cell would strike again at the Cavallo West Horse Rendering Plant in Redmond, Oregon and send a communique to Craig Rosebraugh claiming responsibility for that action. Today, however, Rosebraugh sits in his home office in the back of his co-op in Portland known as the Cleveland House. It's quiet. His housemates are either out working or sleeping in. It's quiet that is until he hears a sharp knock at the door. Thinking it was a pesky salesperson or a church representative, Rosebraugh shuffles over to the door, pushes down the latch, and two agents immediately thrust FBI badges into his face. They asked to come in and ask him questions. Reeling from seeing two federal agents at his doorstep and assuming they just want to talk about an Animal Liberation Front communique Rosebraugh had received and announced to the public, he lets them in. An act that he would quickly regret. The two agents sit Rosebraugh down on his couch. For over half an hour, they grill him about communiques and illicit activities trying to catch him in a lie. But having now collected his wits, Rosebraugh stonewalls them. Rosebraugh sits on that couch and answers he either didn't know or he didn't remember to almost all the questions that the agents ask him. Because after all, Rosebraugh is just the messenger. Annoyed and frazzled from obtaining very little information, the two agents storm out of the house. Unfortunately, those agents were just the least of what was to come for Craig Rosebraugh. Over the next few months, agents parked outside of Rosebraugh's house, tailed him on the way to work, and harassed him while he was gardening in his backyard. Then, in early September of 1997, another knock comes at the door. Rosebraugh once again opens it. Déjà vu. The same two agents from that fateful June day are back. Except this time, they have a subpoena in hand. Rosebraugh scans through it. The court was ordering him to testify before a federal grand jury about the Cavell West fire in just a few weeks. The ramification of the subpoena chilled Rosebrough to the bone. If he didn't cooperate, he could potentially face over a year of jail time. After failing to intimidate Rosebrough through surveillance and questioning, the cops had decided to force him into answering questions, this time under oath. It seemed the choice was jail time or snitch. But as the day of the grand jury arrived, Rosebrough had some tricks up his sleeve to escape the bullying tactics of the state.

On October 17th, 1997, Craig Rosebrough walks through a crowd of 40 supporters up to the steps of the US courthouse in downtown Portland. His body is racked with nerves. In the five weeks since he received the subpoena, Rosebrough consulted with an attorney. He discovered that if he refused to answer the grand jury's questions or was perceived to be uncooperative by the judge, he could be imprisoned for up to a year and four months. To make matters worse, grand jury questioning is conducted in closed sessions and witnesses are not allowed to consult a lawyer during the process. Craig Rosebrough would be going it alone. It's 11:00 a. m. A US Marshal escorts Craig Rosebrough through the courthouse into a large room. He sits down in lone chair positioned in front of the 23 members of the grand jury. Their glares burn holes through Rosebrough. It seems that the prosecutors and federal agents had prepped the jurors. According to Rosebrough, they already considered him a guilty man. With little fanfare, the questions begin. "Are you a member of the Animal Liberation Front? " Rosebrough settles in for the fight. He answers, "No. " Then they start in on the actions, asking questions like, "What was the source of the communique? Did you have any prior knowledge of the incident? Did you tell anyone about the incident? " Three questions in and Rosebrough starts pleading the fifth. conscious that at any time the judge could deem him in contempt and throw him into jail. Question after question, Rosebraugh refuses to answer. And with each refusal, the assistant US attorney gets more and more agitated. The jurors question and argue with Rosebraugh about the morality of the ELF and ALF. Rosebraugh later recalls that they snicker and cut off many of his responses. It soon dawns on Rosebraugh that the grand jury is being used as an intimidation tactic by the state. And Rosebraugh calls their bluff. In their comprehensive book on grand juries, Marvin E. Frankel and Gary Neftalis write that the opportunity to bully, to harass, to intimidate is surely present inside the grand jury room. And it has surely been exploited on too many occasions. And that's what seemed to have occurred in the grand jury room that day. After an hour and 45 minutes of questioning, however, it's over. Rosebraugh manages to run the gauntlet unscathed. By 12:45 p. m., he exits the courthouse to cheers from support from the crowd below. Releasing a long breath of air, Rosebraugh smiles. It's done. He can now go back to his normal life. At least, that's what he thinks. In the next few months, unfortunately, the state would stalk Craig Rosebraugh again like hungry wolves. FBI and ATF agents parked across the street from Rosebraugh's home in their forest green sedan and watched his every move. Part intimidation, part surveillance, it seemed that the agents wanted Rosebraugh to know he was on thin ice. They wanted to spook him into making a wrong move. But Rosebraugh soldiered on. Together with his comrade Leslie Pickering, they created the official North American Earth Liberation Front Press Office, a place where they could field communiques from the Earth Liberation Front and liaise with press who had questions about the underground movement. Rosebraugh continued doing the work because he had, according to him, done nothing wrong except to publicly read letters from the ELF and argue for their ideological positions on TV. — The news thinks that it all helps win over the public debate in this country. — That's not the immediate goal, I don't believe. The immediate goal is to cause economic damage. — But, it seems the federal agents were getting fed up with finding nothing. So, they slapped Rosebraugh with two more subpoenas on December 17th, 1997. One to appear before a grand jury, and another to produce all evidence related to a number of Earth Liberation fires. Federal investigators were grasping at straws. Again, Rosebraugh was dragged in front of the grand jury, and again, he pleaded the fifth. He would give them nothing. He would not play their games. At this point, the investigation was failing. The state was desperate to stop the Earth Liberation Front. They needed to shield the businesses and property they'd sworn to protect. Over the next 9 years, federal agents served Rosebraugh with five more grand jury summons and raided his house two times. During the second raid, they completely trashed his house, even the rooms of his roommates who were not even connected to Rosebraugh's movement work. But, these intimidation tactics, at least in the 1990s, weren't working. Across the country, the ELF was gaining steam.

Hundreds of miles south in 1998, Avalon stands on the ridgeline of Vail overlooking the raging inferno he just created. While federal agents were stalking and subpoenaing Craig Rosebraugh, the ELF continued to burn down the infrastructure of extractive industries. In 1999, an ELF arson burned down the Boise Cascade Logging Company, while the offices of Michigan State University GMO researcher Katherine Ives were reduced to ashes. In 2000, luxury homes and construction equipment burst into flame in Bloomington, Indiana, while over 10 more burned to the ground across a series of ELF arsons in Long Island. In early 2001, Avalon, McGowan, and eight other ELF members destroyed the offices of the University of Washington GMO researcher and a Jefferson Poplar Research Farm on the same day. In the subsequent years, ELF cells go on to claim tens more fires and actions dealing tens of millions of dollars in property destruction. But those flames would soon be quenched.

It was in this boiling soup or protest of ELF fires and violent state repression in hotbeds like Eugene that we first meet a local Eugene cop named Greg Harvey. It's June 18th, 1999, and it's Harvey's first day on the Eugene force. It's almost 2 years to the day when his soon-to-be colleagues chemically tortured Jim Flynn with pepper spray so the city could cut down a tree to build a parking garage. Very little has changed over those 2 years. Because on the first day of his job, Greg Harvey's coworkers are tear gassing protesters taking to the streets against capitalist globalization. — Is there any reason why they targeted banks? — But Harvey wasn't brought in to pepper spray activists into submission. He was slated to be a detective for the Eugene Police Department's Special Investigations Unit. His purpose was to track down and uncover the identities of the now infamous Pacific Northwest Earth Liberation Front cell. But up until Harvey joined the force, the cops had very little useful evidence or information. So Harvey attempted to weasel out information another way. He went undercover. In what can only be described as the most undercover cop-looking disguise you can imagine, Harvey donned a wig and tried to infiltrate the eco-anarchist and environmental activist circles of Eugene. He went to student meetings, punk gatherings, and protests. He brought a digital camera and taped people he thought might be important and tried to map out the connections of the Eugene organizing community. But Harvey was coming up dry. The Earth Liberation Front was eluding him. So, he tried a different approach. In an interview with The Intercept many years later, Harvey explains that one of the things we were really trying to focus on was breaking the movement. And a key lever to destroying this movement of land defenders was getting people to snitch. While Harvey paraded around in an old Jesus wig on the streets of Eugene, his counterpart at the FBI was floundering. The leaderless resistance model of the Earth Liberation Front was proving to be an effective strategy for avoiding state backlash. With the increased media attention from national news stories like Vail or the University of Washington arsons, the FBI, the government, and industry needed a win. But authorities were stumped. Even the most promising clues, the gas cans that Avalon left behind at Vail that were found by hunters two years later had been wiped clean of fingerprints. If the state couldn't catch these environmentalists, the goal then was to paint them as despicable enemies of the state. The cops warped the ELF's messaging to turn the public against them. Because the ELF were putting issues like logging and suburban sprawl into the national spotlight. And federal agents needed to turn that light around. They wanted to avert public attention

away from capitalist destruction and towards the evil eco-terrorists. The media proved to be an amenable partner in this endeavor. — Do you smell something burning? Well, it could be houses in your neighborhood torched by radicals who also say they're saving the earth. — This is a fascist attack, which means a finger in Seattle's eye. — Some of these activists are just clueless and cruel. And then they're so smug about it. — The FBI says it is one of the most dangerous groups in the country. — You don't know anything. You're just a clueless kid who doesn't like America. — The state, alongside the media, built up this image of the ELF as terrorists. Even though not a single person was killed in the over 462 actions that took place in the United States. The Earth Liberation Front perhaps struck fear in the hearts of corporations watching their bottom line, but judging by the ELF's guidelines, its actions never sought to terrorize everyday people. The goal was to slow down extraction by destroying the tools causing that extraction. Regardless, the FBI used terms like the family and the book club to paint the ELF and particularly the Pacific Northwest ELF cell as mafia-like, as a cult, as evil criminals. — The family is a fictional term used by the United States Attorney's Office to talk about it talk about the defendants in this case. The idea that this group had a name and it was the family is kind of absurd. When you say the family, what will come up for many people in the United States is the Manson family or the mafia. When you call us the family, you make it sound like we're a cult. When in fact, like the reality is I'm a normal [ __ ] person that just gives a [ __ ] — Once the public's image of the Earth Liberation Front was tainted, their anti-capitalist, anti-extraction, and environmental messaging could be pushed to the side. The FBI then could use any means necessary to hunt eco-terrorists. — If you can successfully label someone a terrorist, and if you can make that label stick, you can pretty it it's not very hard to make the general public quiescent if you go out to exterminate them. — The legal definition of terrorism is clear. It is the use of illegal mechanisms, mechanisms that are criminal under under American law, uh in order to affect public policy. Uh under this definition, um Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King and many other great people, great Americans, would have been guilty of terrorism, and that's absurd. — But crafting an anti-ELF narrative was only half the battle. By the summer of 2001, Greg Harvey and federal agents were still fumbling around in the dark. They'd made very little progress in their investigation. So, instead, they decided to terrorize the Eugene activist community. They started knocking on doors, going to community gathering places and neighborhoods where the list of 30 to 40 people they suspected might be a part of the Earth Liberation Front hung out. Their goal, as one investigator told The Intercept, was to induce a little bit of paranoia, planting some seeds of doubt to start members of the ELF thinking, "Are they on to us? Are they watching me? Are they on my phone? Are they monitoring my email account? " But at first, this strategy was unsuccessful. Despite the constant surveillance and aggressive tactics across the Eugene environmental organizing community, the police and federal agents failed to shake anything loose, and the property destruction of the Earth Liberation Front was spreading. That is, until two planes hit the World Trade Center and another tore into the Pentagon on September 11th, 2001. Things would never be the same for the Earth Liberation Front. Politicians and extraction industries capitalized on the horrors of 9/11. Just a day after the attacks, while the dust was still settling in New York City, Don Young, a House Representative for Alaska at the time, speculated that there's a strong possibility the attacks were perpetrated by eco-terrorists, setting the tone for the backlash against ecological property destruction that would piggyback off of the broader war on terror that the United States would wage. — and not yield to these people. We will not yield to the terrorists. — A month after 9/11, the Patriot Act becomes law. — With my signature, this law will give intelligence and law enforcement officials important new tools to fight a present danger. — Purportedly, the Patriot Act sought to step up US national security against external threats, but in reality, it also meant copious resources to hunt down the enemy within. State repression and invasion of privacy dramatically increased. — The Patriot Act became law in October of 2001. That act has been used by the administration to justify warrantless spying on the American people. — Terrorism became front of mind for the American public. And for the captains of industry in the Pacific Northwest, this was the opportunity of a lifetime. Now that terrorism was a hot-button issue, they could finally push the state into high gear to protect their infrastructure and hunt down the eco-saboteurs they had long viewed as terrorists. The Patriot Act, especially its newly expanded definition of domestic terrorism in section 802, was just the lubricant local cops, federal agents, and corporations needed. — Because as long as section 802 of the Patriot Act remains in effect, engaging in activism or dissent, particularly pro-environmental dissent, redefines you as a terrorist. — The US government was about to bring the full weight of its power against the Earth Liberation Front. This looming government crackdown, a campaign of surveillance, prosecution, and intimidation aimed at environmental activists, would soon send shockwaves through activist groups, kicking off what's known as the Green Scare.

A year before, on June 16th, 2000, the signs of what would become known as the Green Scare were already emerging. That night, Jeff Luers, known to his friends as Free, and Craig Critter Marshall sneak up to the Romania Chevrolet dealership under the light of the stars. It's 1:00 a. m. The two move quietly through the rows of trucks. Unbeknownst to either of them, Luers and Marshall were being followed. Craig Harvey and his cohorts' tactic of constant surveillance and paranoia had finally paid off. Luers and Marshall light three trucks on fire. As the cars burn, Free and Critter flee the scene, only to be caught moments later by the agents tailing them. For the Eugene Police Department, it felt as though they had finally caught a break. They had finally shackled the Earth Liberation Front, except for one small problem. Jeff Luers and Craig Marshall didn't have any connection to the ELF cell the Eugene police were hunting. They were simply eco-anarchists frustrated with inaction on global warming and overconsumption. — number one polluter in the world. I mean, we have a few rivals, but overall, the majority of pollution that comes from the United States comes from passenger trucks and vehicles. I mean, we have almost 250 million of them. Um when you take SUVs into consideration as being the number one polluter in that vehicle class, well, those are my reasons right there. — Regardless of his reasons, the cops threw Jeff Luers in jail and held him there until his trial and subsequent sentencing, which was set for June 11th, 2001. A fateful timing, as it would, unbeknownst to Luers, land just a few months after another fire that would change the tone of his case. As Luers sat in his jail cell awaiting his sentencing for setting fire to three trucks, and the Eugene Police Department celebrated the arrest, the Earth Liberation Front struck in retribution. On March 30th, 2001, five members, including Avalon and Kevin Tubbs, finished what Luers had started. The plan was simple. Avalon waited in the van, Kevin Tubbs was the lookout, while three others placed pans filled with gasoline under a number of SUVs. The three then draped fuel-soaked rags between each pan, connecting them in a daisy chain, much like Daniel McGowan would do at Jefferson Poplar Farm two months later. They strike a match, and soon 35 Chevys are on fire. The next morning, a communique lands in Craig Rosebraugh's inbox. It reads, "Sucking the land dry, gas-guzzling SUVs are at the forefront of this vile imperialistic culture's caravan towards self-destruction. And the fire that burns within Free and Critter burns within all of us and cannot be extinguished by locking them up. " This retribution, however, backfired. When 35 cars burned down at the same Chevy dealership Lures had attacked a year before, the state made an example of him. Jeff Lures' property destruction was remolded into domestic terrorism and connected to the many other ELF actions. So, while Critter managed to get off with a plea deal for a substantial 5 and 1/2 years, the judge sentenced Lures to 22 years and 8 months in prison. An unheard-of sentencing for burning down three cars, especially considering that arson, at most, would get you 5 to 8 years in prison. The sentence was so long because the judge tacked on a terrorist enhancement to Lures' sentence. — I'm not really sure that I ever stood much of a chance. — We don't necessarily agree with all of Jeff's philosophies and ideologies. Uh but it's our belief that in a democratic society, uh we have a right to those. And uh that, you know, quite frankly, we think that the majority of Jeff's punishment is being heaped upon him not for his crime, but for his ideology. — Free was no longer free. The fires at Romania Chevrolet would mark a crucial turn in the story of the Pacific Northwest Earth Liberation Front cell. Not only did they signal a marked increase in the repression of ecological saboteurs and one of the first crackdowns of the green scare, But, it was there, a year later, that Detective Greg Harvey would finally stumble into an incongruity that would break the case

wide open. As the rubble cleared from the World Trade Center attacks, and the ELF continued to strike against property and capitalist symbols, the state shifted into high gear. Cops wanted to protect the interest of capitalists. As reporting from The Intercept reveals, the FBI and Justice Department collaborated with a range of industry groups, including Americans for Medical Progress, the Fur Commission, the National Board of Fur Farm Organizations, the Foundation for Biomedical Research, and the American Feed Industry Association to repress animal rights and environmental groups. Throughout the 1990s, corporations were getting hammered by attacks by the Animal and Earth Liberation Fronts, and pushed heavily for the government to put an end to the reign of property destruction, which, again, had not killed a single person. The threat, it seemed, was to the profits of corporations. This pressure and lobbying gave rise to the 1992 Animal Enterprise Protection Act, which, as journalist Elaine Brown explains, was aimed at anyone who physically disrupted or conspired to disrupt an animal enterprise by intentionally damaging or causing the loss of its property. It created a legal pathway to imprison a broad range of saboteurs and their allies. But, as industrial sabotage continued to mount with fires at Vail, Superior Lumber, and Long Island, the barons of industry needed a more expansive approach. The Animal Enterprise Protection Act allowed the state to characterize ecological direct action as criminal. But, this was only effective if they could capture those dissidents. Corporations needed results, and 9/11 would inject new found life into this manhunt. By 2002, a new found anti-terror verb swept through the halls of Congress. Politicians like Oregon representative Greg Walden, who received campaign funding from logging companies like Georgia-Pacific and Willamette Industries, capitalized on this momentum. On February 12th, 2002, the Congressional Subcommittee on Forests and Health commenced a session titled "Eco-terrorism and Lawlessness on the National Forests. " The witness stand was full of industrial bigwigs, federal agents, and logging and industry sympathizers. The hearing was a sham, a piece of propaganda characterizing the Earth Liberation Front as terrorists and industrial extractivists as helpless victims. During the hearing, Greg Walden was clear with his attacks. He says, "Let us call ELF and ALF for what they truly are, terrorist organizations. Their combatants wear no uniform, they blend with the civilian population, they destroy private and government property. " And a representative from Washington argues, "How best to deal with this homegrown brand of Al-Qaeda? I propose that we use the model that has worked so well in Afghanistan. " During the hearing, the FBI was taking notes. When asked by a member of Congress whether federal agents were devoting time to catching the ELF, the Deputy Director of the FBI, Jim Jarboe, announced, "The number one priority in the domestic terrorism program, which I run, is ALF and the ELF. " That's right. Two environmental groups, which had killed zero people, were now the number one domestic terror threat in the United States. The only person requested at the hearing with any connection to this domestic terror threat to the Earth Liberation Front was Craig Rosebraugh. Rosebraugh was not invited to the hearing for his arguments. He was there to put a face to these so-called eco-terrorists. Although he refused to attend, he did submit a letter for the record. In a telling section, he writes, "A major hypocrisy exists when the US government labels an organization such as the Earth Liberation Front a terrorist group, while simultaneously failing to acknowledge its own terrorist history. If the US government is truly concerned with eradicating terrorism in the world, then that effort must begin with abolishing US imperialism. In the

aftermath of 9/11, the tide of anti-terror sentiment, and more particularly the Patriot Act, however, didn't just lead to subcommittee hearings and politicians getting on soap boxes. It also meant an influx of resources funneled towards cops and counter-terrorism divisions. — What happened is 9/11 happened. Then and joint terrorism task forces were established between Oregon State Police, Eugene Police, Portland Police, ATF, like all the different law enforcements. — Ongoing investigations on the Earth Liberation Front, like Greg Harvey's, were brought together and infused with cash. — Money essentially just buys staff time. — new show of force against eco-saboteurs across the country, but specifically the Pacific Northwest ELF cell, would soon become known as Operation Backfire. An operation that would come down hard on a group of people for burning industrial property in defense of the planet. The war on terror had turned its spotlight on the Earth Liberation Front. A movement that hadn't killed anyone and was, in the group's eyes, attempting to save the lives of animals, plants, and human beings. In doing so, the US state and its law enforcement agents revealed one of their core directives: to protect the property and profits of capitalists. From its origins patrolling for runaway enslaved people in the American South to breaking up strikes by murdering workers throughout the 19th and 20th century to the COINTELPRO program that assassinated left-wing leaders like Fred Hampton of the Black Panthers, policing is used to eliminate, sideline, and detain anyone who threatens corporate extraction. Operation Backfire was just another iteration of this history. But little did federal agents and local officers know, they would soon be chasing ghosts. By 2002, the FBI were hunting a cell that no longer existed, at least in the Pacific Northwest. In the aftermath of the double attack on Jefferson Poplar and the University of Washington, Daniel McGowan was feeling conflicted about the group. Some felt they had gone too far, some felt like it wasn't enough. Others just wanted to focus on other organizing projects. But it was ultimately ideological disagreements that drove the final wedges between those in the cell. At what would become the final meeting of the Pacific Northwest Earth Liberation Front group, some wanted to discuss the idea of assassinating barons of industry, a suggestion that would leave the cell in splinters. — The last circle meeting um basically cleaved between people that were seemingly wanted to talk about it, not even like plan it, but they were like, "We should talk about it. " And the people that were repulsed by it. And really that like ideological divide is what ended it. That was it. — The dissolution of the Pacific Northwest cell, however, did not mean the end of the Earth Liberation Front. Indeed, the largest attack under the ELF name had yet to come. It was in the midst of this falling out that a tremendous amount of resources was poured into the investigation into the Earth Liberation Front cell. Oregon law enforcement were handed money, personnel, and time, which they used to look back through old cases that had gone cold. — We will take a cold case approach on one arson. — That's Assistant US Attorney Kirk Engdahl, interviewed for the documentary If a Tree Falls. He adds they took this approach — to see if we can turn any suspects in that particular arson. And the arson we chose was one that occurred in the city of Eugene. And it was the Joe Romania Truck Center arson, where in which 35 SUVs were burned to the ground. — With just the Romania dealership fires in their sights, they worked the old case and discovered something unusual. — The night of Romania Jake Ferguson was accused of stealing a truck. — Greg Harvey Angell and the federal agents on the case thought they had cracked it. For them, the stolen truck was the getaway car and Jacob Ferguson was one of the perpetrators. Cut and dry. Except for the fact that Jacob Ferguson had nothing to do with the Romania fires. It was just a coincidence. A coincidence that would spark a chain of events leading to betrayal and death. But those working the case didn't know that. So, they tailed Ferguson, pressured his friends jury subpoenas much like they did with Craig Rosebraugh and surveilled him ceaselessly. They let his paranoia build. — They know, you know, they're coming for me. And of course, in Jake's case, you know, some of it was true where when he did turn around there were law enforcement following him. — Once the cops were satisfied Ferguson was sufficiently stewed, they hauled him into the United States Attorney's Office. Jacob Ferguson, the man who dug trenches shoulder to shoulder with Avalon at Warner Creek, who helped plan the Vail fires, who was an active member of the ELF cell in the Pacific Northwest, was questioned for crime he did not commit. Prosecutors in the FBI at that point suspected he had a hand in just a few arsons, but didn't have the evidence to connect him to them. — Could we have really put him away for a long time at this that point? Probably not. — So, the FBI and the US attorneys lied. They told him that he could get a life sentence for the arsons and that they could connect him to the ELF cell, which at that point they really couldn't. And finally, they drove the knife in deeper. They preyed on Ferguson's connection with his son, which Assistant US Attorney Kirk Angell describes in the documentary If a Tree Falls. — I described to him try to paint an image of him walking through the forest on road some sunny summer afternoon hand in hand with his son instead of looking at his son through bulletproof glass. — After hearing all of this, Ferguson was rattled. He and his attorney excused themselves from the room and within minutes came to a decision that would denounce all he had stood for over the last decade. Ferguson was about to betray the Earth Liberation Front. He walked back into that conference room and started talking. To save himself from prison time, Ferguson told the federal agents all about the ranger stations he set on fire in Oak Ridge and Detroit, the planning of the Vail Inferno, Cavell West, and more. The cops sat stunned. Ferguson was their smoking gun and he was way more connected than they had assumed. Operation Backfire blew wide open. And it wasn't because of the hard work of the FBI or the genius of a cop. But instead, it was because of the betrayal of a single man. In the eyes of the courts, however, Ferguson's testimony would be questionable. His checkered past and his struggles with heroin addiction would, the agents of the state believed, put a bitter taste in the mouth of judges and juries. So, Ferguson would have to go one step further than his snitching betrayal. He was going to wear a wire.

Meanwhile, down the west coast of the US in San Diego's upscale University Town Center neighborhood, a massive construction project was underway. Covering 34 acres, a private developer was in the midst of building 1,500 luxury apartment condos. Suburban sprawl had come to San Diego. At least according to a newly emerged California Earth Liberation Front cell, this could not stand. So, in the middle of the night on August 1st, 2003, the ELF set fire to a 206 unit built. — This is the biggest act of eco-terrorism in US history. Fire deliberately set on the night of August 1st, 2003 just outside San Diego. — As the blaze rose higher and higher, 400 people needed to evacuate the surrounding buildings. The flames eventually reached as high as 200 ft into the air, showering the sky in flames, denouncing the reach of urban sprawl in a cloud of sparks. Sparks that threatened to start a wildfire in the dry San Diego climate. Luckily, no brambles caught, but the flames took their toll on the condo complex. The total damages were estimated to be $50 million. The most expensive act of property destruction the ALF ever claimed. Over the sprawling inferno, the saboteurs hung a banner with a simple message, "You build it, we burn it. ELF. " But they weren't done. Seemingly, the group would attack again 3 weeks later. This time, they set fire to 125 SUVs in Los Angeles. A month after that, three more luxury condos would burn to the ground in the area.

As this San Diego cell burst onto the scene with a massive inferno, by 2003, the cell in the Pacific Northwest had all but gone quiet. Daniel McGowan moved back to New York, closer to where he grew up in Queens, and was still active in the animal and eco-activist community. Chelsea Gerlach, who went by Country Girl, traveled to Portland, where she made a living DJing at nightclubs. Seattle, whose real name was Joseph Dibee, put his engineering knowledge to work at Microsoft, while Bill Rogers shed the name of Avalon and settled in Prescott, Arizona, where he opened up Catalyst Info Shop, a community space and bookshop for activist, anarchists, and organizers. Many from the cell put their ELF past behind them, de-escalating their tactics, engaging with their community, or just fully unplugging from lives of activism. For over 2 years, McGowan, Rogers, and others from the cell lived with this massive secret hanging over their head. — I was living a normal life with this [ __ ] huge secret. — Then, one day in 2005, Daniel McGowan attended an animal rights conference in Manhattan. All was normal until he bumped into Jacob Ferguson. — He showed up at a conference that I was at in the northern tip of Manhattan, uh an animal rights conference in 2005. And it was weird, and he was weird, and I felt something was weird, and it gnawed on me and gnawed at me. — Little did McGowan know, but Ferguson had already visited a number of other former ELF members to reminisce about the good old days. To assure that he never saw the inside of a federal prison, Ferguson entrapped and sold out his friends. McGowan and Ferguson went on a walk. Underneath his clothes, Ferguson wore a recording device, and over the course of their chat, he nudged McGowan to talk about the actions they'd taken 4 years ago. — Let's go left. We can kick it at a park bench. I'm pretty firmly convinced that if there were ever any hair or fingerprints, they all would have been hit. — Right. As long as you never talk to anybody about the rock, then it'll be fine. — And just like that, Ferguson had sealed McGowan's fate.

From 2000 to 2015, 70 environmental activists would be arrested and sentenced in what would become known as the green scare. 18 of those arrested would be charged as terrorists. State backlash was fierce against those trying to defend their environments from the predation of capital. — What the Patriot Act has had the effect of doing is taking things like arsons that might have been punished by a few years in prison and raised them to the level of, you know, bonafide sort of international terrorism. — During the green scare, cops detained and intimidated the environmental community across the United States through grand jury subpoenas and prison time. In 2003, Christopher McIntosh was slapped with an 8-year sentence for setting a fire that dealt $5,000 in damages to a McDonald's. In 2006, long-time animal rights activist Rod Coronado was charged with a felony and thrown in jail for describing an incendiary device in a public speech. That same year, a paid FBI informant, Zoe Elizabeth Voss, taught three green anarchists how to make firebombs and encouraged them to commit acts of sabotage against a local utility and dam. This was entrapment, plain and simple. And after the FBI felt that Voss had collected enough evidence, they swooped in for the arrests. One of the defendants who was entrapped, Eric McDavid, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for an operation that Voss allegedly spearheaded and encouraged. — 29-year-old defendant Eric McDavid's role in the plot is unclear, but the defense is now arguing his romantic interest in an FBI informant is a major factor. — One by one, radical environmental activists were picked off. And as the American government took down these supposedly dangerous environmental terrorists at home, they were simultaneously flattening Iraq and Afghanistan abroad, committing acts of property destruction and terror at levels that far outstripped the Earth Liberation Front in the name of oil and profit. Soldiers with stars and stripes mowed down civilian non-combatants, while bombs from Raytheon and Lockheed Martin flattened whole cities and towns. — Paladin self-propelled guns pound Iraqi positions from the outskirts of Baghdad. — Over 600,000 dead at the hands of the US chasing after weapons of mass destruction that never existed. Meanwhile, a few people who burned down a ski resort in defense of the lynx or a logging headquarters to protect an ancient forest are deemed the number one domestic terrorist threat in the country.

country. Ultimately, the downfall of the Earth Liberation Front came from the inside. Jacob Ferguson's betrayal was the first, but it wasn't the last. Many land defenders would soon turn into informants. On December 7th, 2005, federal agents across the country raided businesses and homes. Chelsea Gerlach, Daniel McGowan, Bill Rogers, and three others were shackled and brought in for questioning. Even more arrests would follow in the subsequent months. The notorious Earth Liberation Front cell had finally been apprehended. — Today's indictment is a significant step in bringing these terrorists to justice. — But the wiretaps and Ferguson's word weren't enough. So, the federal agents did what they did best. They interrogated each of the defendants and claimed that they could put them away for years with the evidence they had. But if they cooperated and told their story, they would get off with a smaller sentence. Many caved, giving up their former comrades to escape a long life in jail. — The FBI definitely did their homework. They had everyone psychologically profiled. They found the weak people. They found the people they could push. — I was arrested on December 7th, and yet by January 26th, Chelsea was in her first proper session with the FBI turning in people. And she spent the remaining year or so in custody attempting to meet with all the co-defendants or their co-defendants lawyers to convince everybody that they need to rat. — With Jacob Ferguson as the catalyst, those who had long said they would never snitch on their comrades told everything. Chelsea Gerlach, Suzanne Savoie, who was the lookout at Superior Lumber, Kevin Tubbs, and five others told the cops everything they knew. As the dust settled, only four members of the cell, one of whom was Daniel McGowan, refused to cooperate, while four more fled the country. But the fight, and indeed the story of the ELF, didn't end with the arrests. The sentencing would come down, and the green scare would reach its peak. Eleven people faced decades in prison, and one of them would not make it out alive. — It's a political death. — A new era of state repression. — We had a little taste of what it was like to actually stop construction. — It would be the last time he would ever taste freedom. — And that was good, but it wasn't enough. — If you want to watch the third and final part of this series right now and learn about the fate of the Earth Liberation Front cell and the consequences of the green scare in today's world, it's available right now ad-free and a month early when you become a Patreon supporter. As I explained in the beginning of this video, the channel is in a financial downturn. So, not only will you be able to watch the next part of the series, but becoming an OCC Patreon supporter means you'll keep high-quality, non-AI slop videos like this one free and accessible to everyone. So, please consider supporting Our Changing Climate on Patreon if you have the means. And if you can't spare the $3 or $6 a month right now, absolutely no worries. Just liking, commenting below, or even sharing this video with a friend is more than enough to bring this video to new audiences. Finally, thank you so much for watching all the way to the end and for all of your endless support, and I'll see you next month for the final chapter of the Earth Liberation Front story.