ELVES UNDER FIRE Craig Rosebraugh has been ordered to testify before the Congressional Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health tomorrow. Who is Craig Rosebraugh? Is he an Enron executive who ran off with millions? Is he a police official who will be asked about racial profiling? Perhaps he is someone from the FBI who is being questioned about irregularities in the case of Leonard Peltier? Well, no, Craig is none of the above. Craig is rather a spokesperson for the North American Earth Liberation Front (ELF) from 1997-2001. This latest subpoena is part of a long history of harassment that Craig has endured simply for passing on anonymous information and for expressing his opinion. During the four years Rosebraugh acted as spokesperson, he received seven subpoenas to testify before federal grand juries investigating the actions of ELF. In addition, federal authorities conducted two raids on his home, work, and vehicles. Hundreds of items were seized in the raids, yet Rosebraugh has yet to ever be charged with one crime related to the ELF. Having done nothing but exercise his constitutional right of free speech, Craig will be forced to appear in D.C. and to incur thousands of dollars in legal fees just to be represented at the hearing. Way back on October 3, 2001, Rep. Scott McInnis of Colorado (who was once named an " Environmental Zero" by Republicans for Environmental America) decided he wanted Craig in DC to provide information about ELF. When one of the committee members made the reasonable objection that subpoenaing Craig would be a waste of time, he was accused of being "soft on terrorism". The upcoming hearing has been described by McInnis as a probe into the threat of eco-terrorism. ELF has been identified by the FBI as "as one of America's primary domestic terrorism threats." McInnis stated, "In identifying terrorism, we must look under every stone to see if it's there." McInnis is not looking under stones for big logging companies or major environmental polluters or other "corporate-terrorists." Controversy over militant tactics is nothing new for environmental activists, but the long-standing debate over property destruction and its validity as a form of non-violent protest has only grown more acute since Sept. 11. Beth Anne Steele, an FBI spokeswoman in Portland, said not long ago that it is "pretty unbelievable" that such groups continued to wage their war for the environment while the country is waging its war against terrorism. David Barbarash, a spokesperson for ELF and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) answered, "The Sept. 11 attacks were horrific acts, but we also have to remember that the atrocities against the earth continue unabated." Barbarash himself served four months in jail for taking part in an ALF action — the release of cats used in medical research at a Canadian university in 1992. No doubt Rep. McInnis would liken this also to the attacks on the WTC which killed 3,000. Elaine Close, a Portland activist and partner of Craig Rosebraugh, however, points out the difference between acts of terror like those of Sept. 11th and the actions of ALF or ELF. "This is a battle," she says. "The targets are doing something egregious. It's not like [activists] are going to come into your home and attack you for not recycling. There's something evil going on, and these groups are trying to stop it." No one has been killed or injured in any of these groups actions. Still there are environmental activists who will not condone ELF or ALF. For example, Greenpeace executive director John Passacatando wrote: "If we define eco-terrorism as violence, violence to people or to property, we disavow it. The peaceful tactics of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. are the models for our work." The director of the Ruckus Society, a national group that trains activists in non-violent civil disobedience, doesn't oppose property destruction on principle. But he does see it as a double-edged sword that can easily be turned against those who employ it. "The debate has definitely heated up around tactics and what's appropriate," he says. "But there's no room in the strategic toolbox to be scary. We already take so much heat that when we use tactics that can be perceived as violent, it makes it really easy for law enforcement, the corporate media, or whoever to portray us in a light that can really hurt us." ELF and ALF, however, remain unrepentant. Rosebraugh himself states he will not cooperate with the "attempts by Congress to stop the work of the brave, heroic individuals in the E.L.F. who are trying to end the destruction of life." Rosebraugh says he thinks the work of ELF is important and crucial in trying to demonstrate that life is more important than profits. "The legal forms of objection and attempts at changes in environmental policy since the 1960s have not worked. Our environment is more polluted and destroyed now than ever before. More actions, like those of the E.L.F., are needed to stop the destruction of life caused by greedy, corrupt corporations and politicians." Sources: Mobilization for the Protection of Civil Liberties, Congressman Scott McInnis Web Site, Republicans for Environmental America, Fox News, AP, Motherjones.com., IMC/SF, Vail Daily ==================================================================== Supporters of ELF and ALF are calling for nationwide protests and other actions on the day of the hearings. NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION AGAINST STATE REPRESSION February 12, 2002 in Washington D.C. 2:00pm @ Longworth House Office Building. Rallies are also planned in Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Olympia, and Portland. For information: skisp@tao.ca - www.protectcivilliberties.com ==================================================================== The Oread Daily provides daily (Monday-Friday) progressive, left, anti-racist, anarchist, commie, activist, environmental, Marxist, revolutionary, etc. news and information from around the US and around the world. The Oread Daily was a mimeographed sheet that came out first in the summer of 1970 in Lawrence, Kansas. It was irreverent, radical, spicy, revolutionary et. al. Now, three decades later it returns. To view the entire Oread Daily, please visit: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OreadDaily