Craig Rosebraugh, the enigmatic environmental anarchist whose tenure as the public face of the terrorist Earth Liberation Front (ELF) was marked by millions of dollars in violent property destruction, a sizable financial gift from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and a penchant for hiding behind the Fifth Amendment, has declared war on America. Fresh from his appearance at Cal State Fresno's "Revolutionary Environmentalism" conference, Rosebraugh has penned a manifesto calling for anti-war protesters to carry out "direct actions" against the American government, military installations, multinational corporations, financial institutions, urban centers, and broadcast television networks.
Like the ELF, Rosebraugh has no use for peaceful protests, calling them "pointless, and perhaps even counterproductive." Instead, he prefers an activist plan that, quite literally, terrorizes America into withdrawing troops from the Persian Gulf.
"An atmosphere of severe unrest," Rosebraugh wrote on Monday, "if manufactured properly, will force the U.S. government to place military resources in the streets of the United States, will threaten the economy... and ultimately create a political atmosphere unfavorable for Bush to continue on with the war."
How to manufacture this sort of atmosphere? Rosebraugh articulates the following seven-point plan (in his own words) for would-be members of his hate-America terrorist brigade:
- "Attack the financial centers of the country... physically shut down financial centers which regulate and assist the functioning of [the] U.S. economy."
- "Large scale urban rioting [so that] the U.S. government will be forced to send U.S. troops into the domestic arena thereby taking resources and political focus away from the war... Rioting should be focused on governmental agencies and corporations."
- "Attack the media centers of the country... Using any means necessary, shut down the national networks of NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, etc. Not just occupations but actually engage in strategies and tactics which knock the networks off the air." (emphasis added)
- "Spread the battle to the... very heads of government and U.S. corporations... Hit them in their personal lives, visit their homes."
- "Make it known publicly that this movement DOES NOT support U.S. troops... Create an atmosphere lacking of support to assist U.S. troops at home and abroad in losing their morale and will to fight."
- "Actively target U.S. military establishments within the United States... use any means necessary to slow down the functioning of the [U.S. military]." (emphasis added)
- "[S]trike hard and fast and retreat in anonymity. Select another location, strike again hard and fast and quickly retreat in anonymity... Do not get caught. DO NOT GET CAUGHT. Do not get sent to jail. Stay alert, keep active, and keep fighting."
Rosebraugh implies over and over that the anti-war movement simply hasn't gone far enough. He clearly wants to take the ELF's terror tactics -- honed during attacks on logging companies, new home builders, and the Vail ski lodge -- and direct them at the federal government itself.
Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge said yesterday that intelligence on homegrown terror groups influenced his decision to raise America to the "code orange" alert level on Monday. "[R]egional extremist organizations and ad hoc groups or disgruntled individuals may use this time period to conduct terrorist attacks against the United States," he told reporters during a Tuesday press conference.
In a poignant Washington Times book review of a Unabomber biography, Fresno State University's Bruce Thorton argued on Sunday that we may one day fall prey to "a homegrown terrorism driven by debased myths and shop-worn ideas."
"The war against terrorism," Thornton added, "has more fronts than we think."
