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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: June 2007

ELF/ALF strategist sentenced as terrorist

 

EUGENE, Oregon--Stanislas Meyerhoff, 29, on May 23, 2007 drew 16 years in federal prison for his admitted participation in a string of arsons attributed to the "Earth Liberation Front" and "Animal Liberation Front." The fires, set in five western states, did more than $40 million damage, according to federal prosecutors.

Meyerhoff was the first of 10 admitted ELF and ALF arsonists to go before U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken for sentencing, and was expected to draw the longest sentence.

"According to the government," wrote Bryan Denson of the Portland Oregonian, who covered the case from the first actions onward, "Meyerhoff co-owned a pair of MAK-91 semiautomatic rifles, helped write the Earth Liberation Front's manual on how to set fires with electrical timers, coached others on how to make [explosive devices], and led arsons."

Another heavily armed defendant, Chelsea Dawn Gerlach, "showed federal agents a cache of firearms including two AK-47s and a pair of 9-millimeter Glock handguns she had buried in the Siuslaw National Forest," Denson wrote.

Meyerhoff, Gerlach, and the five other men and three other women charged in the case have all pleaded guilty to arson and conspiracy. However, despite their use of explosive materials and in some instances possession of automatic weapons, they have contested the application of federal definitions of terrorism to their sentencing.

The arsons began with a fire at the Dutch Girl Dairy in Eugene at Christmas 1995, attributed to the ALF, and concluded in May 2001 with simultaneous firebombings at the Jefferson Poplar Farm, near Clatskanie, Oregon, and the University of Washington Horticulture Center in Seattle. Both facilities were involved in genetic research.

The defendants also released 2,000 mink from a fur farm in Lebanon, Oregon in 1996.

After the al Qaida attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon of September 11, 2001, the group reportedly concluded that public opinion had turned against eco-terrorism.

While crimes attributed to the ELF virtually ceased, ALF actions in some of the areas where the group had worked continued, including vandalism at the Portland, Oregon homes of two employees of Wachovia Securities in March and April 2007.

Follow-up messages warned Wachovia to "Sell your shares in GlaxoSmithKline," a consumer chemical manufacturer which has subcontracted animal testing to Huntingdon Life Sciences, "because things are going to get much worse. We have the names and addresses of the top executives," the messages claimed, "and believe us our actions are like child's play compared to what we have in store. Sell your shares in GlaxoSmithKline or the ALF will continue to target the homes and property of your employees."