Terribly sorry to hear that you're feeling affected by this. That fear is part of the insidious nature of what's happening to us today. Fear to even write an email with "eco-terror" in its subject-line. Do remember that your acquaintance, like all others charged, is innocent 'til proved otherwise.

When you are ready to write on this, there are two articles in Counterpunch by Michael Donnelley that questions the role of gov't informants & agents provocateurs in this case. Let's not forget that whoever tried to bomb Judi Bari & Daryl Cherney  still remains unidentified & at large.

The first, written last month, is The Paralyzing Shadow of Accusation: "Eco-Terrorism": Cui Bono?:

Tim Hermach, head of the Native Forest Council, has seen how the fallout from such actions has impacted non-profit advocacy groups like his. He put it this way, "It's strange how easily we forget. COINTELPRO; industry's arson, insurance fraud & strategic PR campaigns to divide & conquer its opposition of responsible citizens. ELF and its alleged crimes are far more likely to be one or all of the above rather than "us." Just look at the targets. Just look at the results. Did they help us? Did they advance our cause or set us back? Even if one believed there were some willing dupes from within our ranks who played a role in "ELF" actions; were they directed, encouraged or manipulated by the FBI or industry agents?" (snip)

In summary: we have questionable actions at questionable sites; we have arrests with the aid of an unnamed "confidential informant;" we have provocateurs (informants?) who arrive, then vanish; and, after ten years, we have no arrests in the Bari bombing nor in the Detroit and Oakridge arsons or the arson of the Warner Creek forest; reminiscent of the lack of law enforcement effort on the "Anthrax letters" to the media and top Democrats.

A pattern emerges: issues that remain "unresolved' are matters where activists or their causes are harmed or silencing dissent is the motivation. Should industry or their stooges be even slightly impacted by anything, legal (remember those increasingly-present Ninja turtles appearing wherever citizens are exercising their constitutional rights) or otherwise, the FBI stages a full-court press; rights be damned.

The second is Tapes and Snitches: Feds Hand Down Eco-Sabotage Indictments from this weekend's edition:

William Rodgers, an Arizona bookstore owner, is listed as a twelfth unindicted co-conspirator on most of the counts. Unindicted; as he died mysteriously while in custody in an Arizona jail. The implausible claim is he committed suicide using a small plastic bag to suffocate himself. (snip)

In every single count of the indictment, the state notes the acts were carried out with the help of, "another person(s) known to the grand Jury." The government admits its case is based upon "confidential informants" and upon arrestee Stanislaus Meyerhoff who has turned State's Witness and has not been charged with ALL of the arsons he admits to have been involved with.

One of the government's key "confidential witnesses" is Jacob Ferguson, according to Craig Weinerman, the attorney of Chelsea Gerlach, one of those indicted. Ferguson admits to setting many of these fires, but has not himself been indicted. Others, still unnamed, are known to have "worn a wire" for the feds at various activist gatherings. (snip)

The Northwest's largest newspaper, The Oregonian, is providing extensive coverage. The paper notes, "The arsons began in October 1996, when the Earth Liberation Front torched a pickup at the Detroit ranger station in the Willamette National Forest and left a plastic jug rigged as an incendiary on the rooftop. Spray painted graffiti read, 'Leave the forests alone, and no one gets hurt'" Other graffiti read, 'Stop Raping the Forest.' "

This begs the question: who would attempt to burn down a building, yet write graffiti on the very same building that, if the "rigged jug" was successful, would be reduced to ashes? And, it should be noted that the "incendiary device" on the roof went undetected, though it was a cordoned off major crime scene, for 48 hours after the fire, which certainly suggests, at minimum, incompetence. ELF supposedly claimed responsibility. (snip)

One of my American Indian Movement contacts tells me that rumor has it that the feds are seriously engaged in a "mop-up operation" against numerous activists who have gone toe-to-toe with the Beast in the last few decades. If so, get ready for a spate of "confidential informant-based" arrests across a spectrum of movements as the crackdown on dissent accelerates.

Not receiving anywhere near the same amount of press attention are three arrests here in Sacramento, along similar lines: ELF/ALF affiliation, wiretaps & surveleillance, and a 20 year old informant & possible provocateur. The FBI also rented a house used by defendants, and one of the laptops seized as evidence is FBI property. FBI: Trio scouted targets: Nimbus Dam among sites visited by the eco-terror suspects, affidavit says:

Three people described as members of an "eco-terrorist" organization scouted Nimbus Dam, a nearby fish hatchery and a forest genetics facility as possible targets to bomb, according to an FBI affidavit filed Tuesday in federal court . . . The three are charged by criminal complaint with conspiring to use fire or explosives to damage property. (snip)

The case against the three is based on extensive electronic surveillance and an FBI "confidential source who is deeply embedded within the subjects' cell" of the Earth Liberation Front, according to the affidavit of FBI Special Agent Nasson Walker.

At a bail hearing Friday, FBI Special Agent Nasson Walker testified:

. . . the confidential source wore a hidden recorder during many of the conversations the source had with the defendants [and that] the FBI financed the source's renting of a house in Auburn where the four stayed for a short time this month. The agent said the house was rigged with hidden sound and video equipment.The source is a woman, approximately 20, who has been paid about $75,000 plus expenses over the past two years to infiltrate the ELF and gather information for the FBI . . .

[Defense attorney] Jeff Weiner tried to show on cross examination of Walker that the FBI's source was a subtle but moving force behind a lot of what the foursome were doing in the days leading up to the arrests.

Walker acknowledged that some of the money used to buy bomb-making materials came through the source from the FBI. He also acknowledged the source authored part of a book on the group's plans.

Jeff Weiner further brought out on cross examination of Walker that a laptop computer seized in conjunction with the arrests belonged to the FBI. But Walker said he doesn't know whether much of its contents were created by the source.

"Isn't it true," Weiner asked Walker, "your source had a temper tantrum the day before the arrests because 'nothing is progressing,' and stormed out of the house?"

Looking at a google list of articles yesterday, the only paper that didn't use "eco-terror" in its title was, surprisingly, the NY Times. They used eco-sabotage, I think, though of course did work the "T" word in the body of the article. While I have problems with property damage as a tactic, there is something terribly wrong with conflating this stuff with terrorism.

". . . the more educated you are, the more indoctrinated you are. After all, propaganda is largely directed towards the privileged." -Noam Chomsky