Swampies Indicted

Alledged members of ALF and ELF have been indicted.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 - A federal grand jury in Eugene, Ore., has indicted 11 people on charges

that they committed acts of domestic terrorism on behalf of two shadowy environmental groups, the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front.

Federal officials said Friday that the defendants were responsible for 17 incidents in five Western states from 1996 to late 2001.

The indictment, which was returned on Thursday and unsealed on Friday, listed 65 charges, including arson, sabotage and conspiracy in attacks against government facilities, research centers and private businesses.

This will be interesting to watch. The descriptions of ALF and ELF as cell groups.

The Earth Liberation Front, or ELF, describes itself as an anonymous, leaderless cell organization and says on its Web site, "Any individuals who committed arson or any other illegal acts under the ELF name are individuals who choose to do so under the banner of ELF and do so only driven by their personal conscience."

People identifying themselves with the Animal Liberation Front, or ALF, often convey information through a separate organization called the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, whose Web site says actions carried out in ALF's name may be "illegal under a current societal structure that fails to recognize the rights of nonhuman animals to live free of suffering."

Jerry Vlasak, a spokesman for the press operation, said that because ALF was "an underground organization" of no known members, "law enforcement is rounding up known activists."

I'd say that Vlasak is probably deceiving himself if he really thinks that the government would just round up innocent activists rather than those that they probably have actual evidence against. Seeing that the government doesn't in general get away with arresting innocents for the fun of it.