Ecotage: The Elusive Earth Liberation Front Strikes the Ice Mountain Bottling Plant

When the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) claimed responsibility for leaving fire bomb devices at the Ice Mountain Spring Water bottling plant in Mecosta County on Sept. 21, investigators found few tracks to follow.
That‘s because ELF is an international underground movement with no leaders, no official membership and no organizational structure. There‘s no way to officially join the group and no one to report to (see Sidebar, ‘Meet the ELF‘). By comparison, Al Queda‘s terror cells are practically corporate.
At the incident near Big Rapids, employees at Ice Mountain arrived on a Monday morning to find plastic bottles filled with a flammable liquid and rigged to detonate. Over the weekend, someone had climbed the fence outside the plant and placed the fire bombs inside the building.
Speaking in the Grand Rapids Press, plant manager Brendan O‘Rourke said no one was hurt, but Ice Mountain‘s 150 employees were alarmed by the incident. “They‘re disturbed. This is their livelihood. Someone, or a group of people, is trying to stop them from feeding their children.“
The Ice Mountain plant has been a target of controversy for more than a year now, with environmental activists from the Sweetwater Alliance and the Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation picketing and boycotting its parent company Nestle Waters North America, Inc. for what many see as a rip-off of Michigan‘s natural resources for corporate profit. A trial seeking a temporary injunction against the plant was concluded on Sept. 10, with the court‘s decision to be forthcoming.

‘A LITTLE BIT SCARY‘
Protesters seeking legal avenues against the plant, say they too were alarmed by the potentially violent action. “It‘s a little bit scary,“ said Terry Swier, president of the Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation in the Press. “Our group certainly doesn‘t condone this kind of activity -- this is where we live. We‘re pursuing Nestle and doing this in the courts and in the legislation.“
Currently, the FBI is conducting the investigation, according to Special Agent David Brooks, a spokesman in the Detroit office. While the FBI is staying mum about releasing details on the fire bomb and the claim of ELF‘s involvement, it does include the organization on its list of domestic terrorists.
Former director Louis J. Freeh made the FBI‘s views clear in a May 10, 2001 congressional statement: “The FBI views domestic terrorism as the unlawful use, or threatened use, of violence by a group or individual that is based and operating entirely within the United States,“ Freeh said, “and which is committed against persons or property with the intent of intimidating or coercing a government or its population in furtherance of political or social objectives.“
Freeh made special mention of ELF and a closely-related group, the Animal Liberation Front, which “has become one of the most active extremist elements in the United States.“
He did note, however, that unlike other terrorist groups, both ALF and ELF have nonviolent philosophies which discourage “acts that harm any animal, human and nonhuman.“

TAKING CREDIT
Information on who placed the fire bombs surfaced on Wednesday, Sept. 24, when ELF claimed credit on its website at www.earthliberationfront.com. In a communique posted to the site, a self-proclaimed ELF activist claimed the following:

“We will no longer stand idly be while corporations profit at the expense of all others. To this end, we have taken action against one of the pumping stations that Perrier uses to steal water.
On the night of Sunday, the 21st of September, the ELF penetrated the perimeter fence of an area of land used for canned hunts. This particular location... is home to the pumping stations that supply the Perrier Bottling Plant in Mecosta County. Access to one of the pumping stations was gained and timed incendiary devices were placed. We will not allow the commodification of life to continue. Action must, and will, be taken, for it is our only chance.“

A Northern Express request for information regarding the validity of the claim and the extent of ELF‘s membership in Michigan went unanswered from the Earth Liberation Front Press Office at the site. There is abundant information on ELF at the site, however, including the claim that “elves“ have caused approximately $100 million in damages since the U.S. group got its wings in 1997.

ROOTS
ELF got its start in Brighton, England in 1992 when members of the Earth First! militant environmental group decided to go mainstream and abandon criminal tactics. Some members vowed they would carry on with ecotage and “monkey wrenching“ tactics to destroy targets ranging from luxury homes to ski resorts. This splinter group of leaderless cells became known as the Earth Liberation Front. In 1993, ELF and the equally radical Animal Liberation Front published a communique declaring their solidarity.
In 1994, Earth First! leader Judi Bari urged members in the U.S. to give up ecotage in order to gain mainstream acceptance of the group, but by then, the ELF offshoot was already gaining a foothold here. Since the mid-‘90s, ELF and ALF have conducted a number of high-profile arsons, animal release operations, and attacks on SUVs and car dealerships.
FBI records claim that there have been 600 ELF attacks in the U.S. since 1996, making it the most active domestic terror group in the country. One of the biggest attacks came on Oct. 19, 1998 when ELF destroyed seven buildings and four ski lifts in a fire at Vail ski resort in Colorado, claiming that the development threatened lynx territory in the area. The fire caused $12 million in damage. ELF also took credit for an arson attack on a five-story apartment construction site in San Diego that caused $50 million in damages on Aug. 1.
SUVs are a current target for ELF: On Sept. 2, the group claimed to have destroyed 22 SUVs at a Houston car dealership. Another 30 SUVs were damaged with graffiti messages such as “gross polluter“ and “fat, lazy Americans“ at car dealerships in Calfornia on Aug. 22.
There have also been a surprising number of attacks in Michigan over the past few years, including a 1999 arson at Michigan State University‘s Agriculture Hall, which caused $1 million in damages. Four luxury homes were burned in the Detroit suburbs in March and June of this year with ELF claiming responsibility.

Next in the Express -- Part II: The ELF mindset and its record of destruction.

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SIDEBAR:


Meet the E.L.F.

(The following is an anonymous statement from the ELF website, www.earthliberationfront.com, which describes the group‘s anarchistic organization (or lack of one). ELF is essentially an “anything goes“ banner under which ecotage is encouraged.)

“The Earth Liberation Front is an international underground movement consisting of autonomous groups of people who carry out direct action according to the E.L.F. guidelines. Since 1997, E.L.F. cells have carried out dozens of actions resulting in close to $100 million in damages.
Modeled after the Animal Liberation Front, the E.L.F. is structured in such a way as to to maximize effectiveness. By operating in cells (small groups that consist of one to several people), the security of group members is maintained. Each cell is anonymous not only to the public but also to one another. This decentralized structure helps keep activists out of jail and free to continue conducting actions.
As the E.L.F. structure is non-hierarchical, individuals involved control their own activities. There is no a centralized organization or leadership tying the anonymous cells together. Likewise, there is no official “membership.“ Individuals who choose to do actions under the banner of the E.L.F are driven only by their personal conscience or decisions taken by their cell while adhering to the stated guidelines.
Who are the people carrying out these activities? Because involved individuals are anonymous, they could be anyone from any community. Parents, teachers, church volunteers, your neighbor, or even your partner could be involved. The exploitation and destruction of the environment affects all of us - some people enough to take direct action in defense of the earth.“
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