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TACOMA - A key participant in the 2001 arson that destroyed the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture was sentenced Friday to five years in federal prison. Jennifer L. Kolar, 33, of Seattle also was ordered to pay more than $7.1 million in restitution in connection with the fire, which also destroyed priceless research projects and endangered plants. The sentencing, by U.S. District Judge Franklin D. Burgess, came after Kolar pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit arson, two counts of arson, one count of attempted arson and using a destructive device during a crime of violence. Kolar was part...

Software engineer Jennifer Kolar is to be sentenced this week in federal court for her role in Earth Liberation Front arsons, including one at the University of Washington. Her time in prison will be reduced because she turned state's witness, but that doesn't mitigate the fact she is now regarded as a snitch by peers and could be labeled a terrorist by the government.By Kim McDonald "Don't hang up," FBI Special Agent Jane Quimby told Jennifer Kolar on Dec. 10, 2006. "There were arrests and there is a target letter for you." She gave Kolar the name and number...

A Ketchikan jury correctly convicted a Greenpeace ship's captain of criminal negligence for sailing in Alaska waters without the proper oil spill response plan, the state appeals court ruled Thursday. The opinion partly cancels a 2005 decision by a Ketchikan judge to overturn guilty verdicts against Greenpeace Inc. and Arctic Sunrise Capt. Arne Sorensen of misdemeanor charges. At the time of its anti-logging campaign, the ship was carrying more than 70,000 gallons of "petroleum products," according to district court documents. In Alaska, non-tank vessels larger than 400 gross tons must file an oil spill response plan application five days before...

TACOMA -- The 32-year-old violin teacher convicted of taking part in the firebombing of the University of Washington' Center for Urban Horticulture seven years ago was sentenced to 6 years in federal prison Wednesday. Briana Waters was one of five people accused of setting the devastating May 2001 fire, but the only suspect to go to trial. She was found guilty in March of two counts of arson. Two others pleaded guilty and testified against her for reduced sentences. Her former boyfriend, Justin Solondz, is a fugitive. And the fourth killed himself in jail.

Self righteousness can be a disease afflicting the true believers in any cause. But the animal rights movement seems to be home to more than its share of people who believe their cause is so right that they are excused from normal human constraints. They have no more consideration of others than the beasts they whose interests they place above humanity's. More than two decades ago, a childhood friend who grew up to become a world-renowned medical researcher, whose work has improved the lives of countless people suffering a horrible affliction (and who has had the extraordinary honor among medical...

The activist pleads guilty in two arsons and will serve at the Sheridan federal prisonTre Arrow, a radical environmentalist who was once one of the FBI's most-wanted fugitives, pleaded guilty Tuesday to two counts of arson. Appearing before U.S. District Judge James Redden, Arrow agreed to serve to 78 months in federal prison, with credit for time served since March 2004 in jails in Canada and the United States. Arrow, who will be formally sentenced Aug. 12, will serve about two years and four months at the Sheridan Federal Correctional Institution. His sentence could be further reduced by 54 days...

The Hunt for American al Qaeda The United States is turning up the heat in the hunt for the California boy turned al Qaeda operative, Adam Gadahn, who has been charged with treason and is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan. If caught and convicted, Gadahn could face the death penalty. The State Department along with the Department of Diplomatic Security announced the beginning of a publicity campaign in Afghanistan urging locals to provide any information on Gadahn's whereabouts, with a reward if the information leads to his capture. Radio advertisements with information concerning the $1 million reward have...

PORTLAND, Ore. – Radical environmentalist Tre Arrow on Tuesday pleaded guilty to arson charges as part of a deal with prosecutors that will keep him behind bars for more than two years. Arrow, who legally changed his name from Michael Scarpitti, was charged with firebombing three cement trucks at Ross Island Sand & Gravel in Portland and setting fire to logging trucks and a tractor near Estacada. On his Web site, the 34-year-old said recently he did not want to risk receiving a life prison sentence and called the plea deal an offer he "couldn't refuse." On Tuesday, he entered...

Federal prosecutors are seeking a 10-year prison sentence for Briana Waters, a California woman convicted in March by a federal grant jury of assisting in the 2001 Earth Liberation Front arson that destroyed the University of Washington's Urban Horticulture Center. That recommendation includes a "terrorism enhancement," according to a sentencing memorandum filed by prosecutors Wednesday in U.S. District Court. The UW arson sought to strike a blow against genetic engineering of poplar trees, and federal prosecutors say that meets the legal definition of a violent act "calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion," according...

Last month, three animal rights activists were arrested at a U researcher's home. To exhibit their dedicated effort in protesting Salt Lake City's new ordinance prohibiting demonstrations within 100 feet of a residence, one of the protesters actually asked to be arrested. Harassing scientists at their homes has become the newest way for animal activists to display their opinions. It doesn't seem to matter that the scientists are obeying the laws governing animal research. No evidence or proof of wrongdoing has been discovered, and the U wouldn't be permitted to conduct research on animals if it didn't comply with federal...

VIENNA, Austria — Austrian authorities say they are questioning 10 animal rights activists suspected of arson, sabotage and other crimes. Investigators say six of the suspects have been placed in pretrial detention for their alleged involvement in militant animal rights groups. Officials allege that the suspects are behind numerous arson fires and vandalism targeting food, clothing, pharmaceutical and agricultural companies. Prosecutors say the 10 were arrested earlier this week after a monthslong investigation into radical animal rights groups. Austrian media reported today that one of the suspects has begun a hunger strike while in custody. Investigators say the suspects used...

Strausburg, May 23, 2008 / 02:49 am (CNA).- Animal rights advocates are appealing to the European Court of Human Rights to declare a 26-year-old chimpanzee named Matthew to be a legal person. British teacher Paula Stibbe and activists with the Vienna-based Association Against Animal Factories want to declare Matthew a person so that Stibbe may be appointed his legal guardian if the bankrupt animal sanctuary where Matthew lives in Vienna shuts down, the Evening Standard says. Matthew lives with another chimpanzee and a crocodile in an animal shelter. The shelter requires about $8,000 each month in expenses. While donors have...

Taylor-area residents Dan and Margaret Byfield hope to become the Trans-Texas Corridor’s worst nightmare. The married couple head up two land rights organizations, the American Land Foundation and Stewards of the Range, that aim to keep rural communities from having land encroached upon by state and federal agencies through eminent domain. Both organizations operate across the U.S., in Wyoming, California, Colorado, South Dakota and Nebraska, but their current main goal is to challenge TxDOT in hopes of completely eliminating proposals for the quarter-mile wide superhighway. Currently they offer advice to residents of small towns and rural communities on how to...

   International Respect for Chickens Day, May 4, celebrates the devotion of hens to their chicks and deplores the suffering of motherless chickens on factory farms. In this photo, Ruby fosters Ivy, a chick rescued from a factory farm in North Carolina to live in a safe and loving home. (PRNewsFoto/United Poultry Concerns)MACHIPONGO, VA UNITED STATES May is International Respect for Chickens Month MACHIPONGO, Va., April 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- InternationalRespect for Chickens Day, May 4, celebrates the dignity, beauty and life ofchickens and protests against the bleakness of their lives in farmingoperations. Launched by United Poultry Concerns in 2005,...

The Animal Liberation Front has claimed responsibility for raiding a fur farm in Jefferson on Monday, releasing mink and destroying breeding records. The front, described by the government as one of the nation's leading domestic terrorist organizations, wrote that it freed about 40 domesticated mink from the Jefferson Fur Farm to give them a chance at survival. The note was signed ALF-Cascadia. "These animals are not capitalist commodities to be bought and sold for fashion or vanity, but unique individuals deserving of liberation from human exploitation," said the note, released today by the North American Animal Liberation Press Office in...

The captain and first officer of the anti-sealing ship the Farley Mowat were due to appear in court in Sydney, N.S., on Sunday, a day after their arrest off the west coast of Newfoundland. They have been charged with interfering with the seal hunt after a confrontation with a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker two weeks ago. Their vessel was boarded and seized Saturday in the Gulf of St. Lawrence by RCMP officers, working with officials from the federal Fisheries Department and the coast guard... Paul Watson of the international group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which owns the vessel, said its...

When a luxury housing development in Washington was torched, it seemed an open and shut case. The Earth Liberation Front was to blame. But was it? Does it even exist? And why is the Bush government intent on casting 'eco-terrorists' as public enemy number one? John Vidal reportsEarly last month five large half-built houses on the "Street of Dreams", an opulent development in the quiet Washington state suburb of Woodinville near Seattle, caught fire. Three buildings were gutted and two were seriously smoke-damaged to the tune of about $7m. The fire brigades took six hours to put the fires out,...

For nearly seven years, the nation has turned its terror focus on Al Qaeda and the hunt for Usama bin Laden. But there is a domestic terror threat that federal officials still consider priority No. 1 — eco-terrorism. The torching of luxury homes in the swank Seattle suburb of Woodinville earlier this month served as a reminder that the decades-long war with militant environmentalists on American soil has not ended. "It remains what we would probably consider the No. 1 domestic terrorism threat, because they have successfully continued to conduct different types of attacks in and around the country," said...

A radical environmentalist was sentenced Thursday to one year and one day in federal prison for speaking publicly about how to make a homemade Molotov cocktail. Rodney Coronado apologized for his past use of violent tactics in the name of animal rights and the environment, and said he had cut his ties to groups, including the Earth Liberation Front. "I have done things in my past that I now regret," Coronado told U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey Miller. He said he wanted to serve his sentence and then get on with his life in Tucson, Ariz. The 41-year-old activist pleaded...

LUFKIN — Mae Smith, the 64-year-old mayor of the teeny Central Texas town of Holland, seized the civic center lectern like a dragon-slayer ascending the throne. In a fiery red pantsuit and a voice that echoed without the help of a malfunctioning microphone, she and her cohorts revealed to a crowd of about 50 souls clad in denim and plaid a little-known weapon against the foe of all in the room: Gov. Rick Perry's Trans-Texas Corridor. The weapon, Smith said, doesn't involve marching on the Texas Capitol, like more than 1,000 did last year, some on tractors and horses. It...

Plots by Communists to infiltrate America. The disintegration of borders and rural areas. Citizens mobilizing and rising up against government agencies and big business. It all sounds like the plot for a summer blockbuster, but it's something that could be happening in your own backyard. These were just a few of the topics addressed in the "How to fight the TTC" workshop, held Monday at the Pitser Garrison Civic Center in Lufkin. The conference served as an informational meeting aimed at informing citizens and local government officials how they can unite in trying to stop the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor project....

There's been a lot of talk about the new Trans-Texas Corridor — the next-generation "super-highway" — and opinions are varying. Now the debate is coming to Lufkin's doorstep. On Monday, the American Land Foundation, Stewards of the Range and TURF will hold a workshop at Lufkin's Pitser Garrison Civic Center on how to stop the Trans-Texas Corridor 69. The event runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. A portion of Texas citizens have voiced their opposition to the TTC-69 in public meetings held by the Texas Department of Transportation, but believing they are not being heard, four cities and their...

U.S. prosecutors are asking that convicted eco-arsonist Briana Waters be held in jail pending her sentencing in federal court because she was involved in another Earth Liberation Front arson at a horse ranch in California, according to court documents. The U.S. Attorney's Office says it will introduce evidence of her participation in that fire in hopes of ensuring a lengthy prison sentence for her conviction on two counts of arson stemming from a May 2001 fire at the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture. Waters was convicted by a federal jury in Tacoma last week following four days of...

Do the crime, do the time. That’s the rule in this country; there’s no mommy exception. If there were, environmental radical Briana Waters might not be looking at hard time after her conviction in Tacoma on Thursday on two counts of arson. Waters, a winsome 32-year-old mother, used to a be member of a violent Earth Liberation Front cell known as “The Family.” The Family was into torching other people’s property – including homes – it considered threats to the environment. It did a lot of this. One of its acts of ecoterror was the burning of the University of...

TACOMA — Jurors weighing the fate of Briana Waters struggled with a charge that would have sent the 32-year-old mother and violin teacher to prison for 30 years. Their verdict, delivered Thursday in a packed federal courtroom, recognized her participation in the 2001 arson at a University of Washington research center, but also her limited role in the crime and the modest prison sentences expected to be given to others involved. The arson was committed in the name of the Earth Liberation Front. While jurors convicted the Oakland, Calif., woman of two counts of arson, they deadlocked on three other...

Three high-end houses in a Seattle suburb went up in smoke Monday and two others were damaged in the latest domestic terrorism by the Earth Liberation Front, a group of animal-rights and environmental wackos responsible for hundreds of arsons and other acts of sabotage in the Northwest over the past two decades. ELF and other anarchists opposed the development of environmentally friendly homes in Woodinville, Wash., because they were near the headwaters of Bear Creek, home to the endangered chinook salmon. No doubt the creek and adjoining wetlands and aquifer benefited greatly from the ash, soot and runoff from Monday's...

Petraeus: Al Qaida Trying to 'Come Back In' U.S. military officials said there will be no significant reduction in coalition troops in the Baghdad area as part of an effort to stop the Al Qaida offensive in northern Iraq. They said Al Qaida was trying to reenter Baghdad and reverse its losses in 2007. "Al Qaida is trying to come back in," U.S. military commander Gen. David Petraeus said. "We can feel it and see it, and what we're trying to do is rip out any roots before they can get deeply into the ground." Read More Militants Assert...

TACOMA — A 32-year-old violin teacher from California was found guilty this morning of two counts of arson for the 2001 fire at the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture. A federal jury found that Briana Waters, a former Olympia resident, was among a group of ecosaboteurs who torched the center in the predawn hours of May 21, 2001, causing about $1.5 million in damage. The center was later rebuilt at a cost of about $7 million. Waters faces up to five years in prison for each count of arson. But the jury, which had been deliberating since Friday...

Santa Cruz, Calif. (AP) -- The FBI is investigating possible links between animal-rights activists in Southern California and a weekend attack on the home of a University of California, Santa Cruz researcher. Patti Hanson, an FBI spokeswoman, said the bureau was looking into possible connections to "domestic terrorism." A demonstration by six masked protesters in front of the UCSC scientist's Westside home Sunday afternoon turned violent when the group pounded on the door and were confronted by the researcher's husband, police reported. The incident invited comparison to recent attacks on UCLA researchers that were linked to animal-rights groups. No one...

Woman recalls confrontations with witnessesTACOMA -- A 32-year-old violin teacher and mother accused of conspiring with members of an Earth Liberation Front eco-terrorist cell took the stand in her own defense Wednesday and flatly denied any involvement in the 2001 firebombing of a University of Washington research center. Briana Waters and her attorneys sought to portray the main witnesses against her -- convicted eco-terrorists -- as liars, motivated by a desire to cut decades off their sentences and by sexually triggered anger. Waters, of Oakland, Calif., wore a white blouse with long blond hair tumbling down to her shoulders. "Did...

SANTA CRUZ - A UC Santa Cruz faculty member whose biomedical research using animals sheds light on the causes of breast cancer and neurological diseases was the target of an attack Sunday afternoon, reportedly by animal rights activists. UCSC Chancellor George Blumenthal confirmed late Monday that an off-campus home invasion by six masked intruders occurred at a faculty member's home. In a statement, Blumenthal called the incident "very disturbing." Santa Cruz police reported that six people wearing bandanas tried to break into a Westside home just before 1 p.m., and that one of the family members, not the faculty member,...

Briana Waters is on trial in Tacoma for her alleged role in the 2001 arson at the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture. It was one of a number of incidents of vandalism in the Northwest attributed to Earth Liberation Front's campaign to rid the world of things that aren't "wild." So what is wild?On the afternoon of May 21, 2001, investigator Cheryl Glenn of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) walked through the charred remains of several buildings at the Jefferson Poplar Farm in Clatskanie, Ore. Periodically she would stop, adjust her gloves, get down...

Los Angeles (AP) -- The University of California went to court Thursday to try to keep animal rights activists away from UCLA employees who say they have been threatened because of their research. Three times since June 2006, Molotov cocktail-type devices have been left near the homes of faculty members who oversee or participate in research that involves animals, according to a statement from the University of California, Los Angeles. Researchers' homes have also been vandalized and they have received threatening phone calls and e-mails, according to the university. On at least one occasion a faculty member received a package...

Monday, February 11, 2008 SEATTLE -- Briana Waters says she isn't sure where she was early on May 21, 2001, but there's one place she wasn't: crouching in the bushes near a research center at the University of Washington, serving as a lookout for her fellow Earth Liberation Front activists as they set firebombs that illuminated the night sky and caused millions of dollars in damage. Prosecutors say that's exactly where she was, and they are intent on proving it during a trial that begins today at U.S. District Court in Tacoma. Of more than a dozen environmental and animal-rights...

The home of a primate researcher was firebombed on Tuesday, marking the second attack at the same residence in the past four months, authorities said. An incendiary device charred the front door of the home of Edythe London, who is a professor of psychiatry and molecular and medical pharmacology at the University of California, Los Angeles. No one was at home when the attack occurred, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said. No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but animal rights activists are suspected of carrying out previous efforts at the homes of UCLA scientists who use animals in their research....

In May 2001, members of a Northwest group used arson to advance its agenda. They set fire to the Center for Urban Horticulture at the University of Washington because they believed one of the researchers was genetically engineering poplar trees. He wasn't. The arsonists destroyed plants and the research of several people other than the man whose work they targeted. None of their goals was served by the violence. "Misguided" is the word, I believe. I'd even call them ecoterrorists. The crime is back in the news because a woman accused of acting as a lookout for the Earth Liberation...

'They were not afraid of us,' woman says. Neither the three women nor their dogs heard the pack of wolves creeping up behind them as they jogged on Artillery Road in the frigid morning air. One minute it was peaceful. Then she glanced back and saw the pack of about eight wolves spanning the road, only a few feet behind. A melee ensued, accompanied by screaming, snarling, blood and pepper spray. "It was the most terrifying thing I've ever been through."... The increasingly emboldened Elmendorf wolf pack is blamed for killing one dog and wounding another in Eagle River this...

Fired UCSD worker tied to bomb hoax, arrested By Susan Shroder UNION-TRIBUNE BREAKING NEWS TEAM 4:32 p.m. December 8, 2007 A UCSD employee who was fired from his job as a lab technician last week was arrested Saturday in connection with a bomb hoax Wednesday that targeted a research building on the La Jolla campus where he formerly worked. Timothy Bryon Kalka, 50, of San Diego, was arrested without incident about 6 a.m. Saturday at his San Diego residence by members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, FBI Special Agent Darrell Foxworth said. Kalka is charged in a federal arrest...

Animal-rights saboteurs have claimed responsibility for vandalizing the Portland home of a research scientist who uses monkeys to study the causes of premature birth in humans. In a communique obtained by The Oregonian today, the Animal Liberation Front acknowledged striking two autos owned by Dr. Miles Novy with spray-paint graffiti and paint stripper. "Novy's reproductive research on primates has resulted in this senseless torture of one of natures most magnificant creatures," ALF saboteurs wrote in a message sent to the Animal Liberation Press Office. "This blatant disregard for the earth, animals and it's resources shall not go unseen by the...

Calculating the Risks in Pakistan A small group of U.S. military experts and intelligence officials convened in Washington for a classified war game last year, exploring strategies for securing Pakistan's nuclear arsenal if the country's political institutions and military safeguards began to fall apart. The secret exercise — conducted without official sponsorship from any government agency, apparently due to the sensitivity of its subject — was one of several such games the U.S. government has conducted in recent years examining various options and scenarios for Pakistan's nuclear weapons: How many troops might be required for a military intervention in...

More endangered Mexican gray wolves have been targeted for removal from the Gila National Forest in southwestern New Mexico. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ... The wolf reintroduction program requires the permanent removal of any wolf linked to three livestock killings a year ... Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Elizabeth Slown says the Aspen Pack has killed a horse and five cows since the beginning of the year.

PETA, ELF, ALF are people who need to be taken out of society so we can enjoy life as we see fit. Legislators are next.

BERLIN (AFP) - German conservationists on Monday condemned the freeing of some 17,000 minks from a fur farm, apparently by animal rights activists, saying they would starve in the wild. "It was a political act, and it has nothing to do with protecting the environment," said Joern Ehlers from the German chapter of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). "These animals are going to die of hunger." Minks are carnivores who feed on small animals and those freed from the farm in Grabow, some 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of Berlin, risked disturbing the ecological balance in the region,...

There's this community center that I frequent that's ran by hippies. The place provides many good services in the community, including leading food drives for the less than fortunate, however, there's a problem. This community center has posted a picture of a person that's been helping the government crack down on the environmental terrorists known as the Animal Liberation Front on their wall, telling people not to talk to the FBI if they're questioned about this person. They are clearly breaking the law. Can I report these people to the FBI because they're clearly out to cause this poor man...

Snatched Hunting Dog May Have Been Slated For Death At PETA's Norfolk Headquarters. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) employee Andrea Florence Benoit will be arraigned today in Southampton County (VA) Circuit Court on a felony charge of stealing a local Animal Control officer's hunting dog. The nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom, which tracks PETA's program of killing adoptable dogs and cats at PETAkillsAnimals.com, is calling on the animal rights group to stop playing God with other people's pets. Benoit was indicted by a Grand Jury on July 16. Benoit was arrested in October 2006, shortly after allegedly...

THE HOME OF DR. ARTHUR ROSENBAUM isn’t hard to find. He lives a few blocks south of Sunset Boulevard, near the UCLA campus, in a white two-story house with a front yard jammed with aspen trees. There is a short driveway on the side of the home, and during the evening, a bright, white light illuminates the carport. If someone wants to sabotage the doctor’s car under the cover of night, a flashlight isn’t needed. On Sunday, June 24, just that kind of person struck. Rosenbaum, a highly regarded pediatric ophthalmologist who had been regularly harassed by animal-rights activists for...

11:14 AM, Wednesday, August 1, 2007 A federal judge on Wednesday reimposed a sentence of four years and three months on Jonathon Christopher Mark Paul, the last of 10 defendants indicted in Eugene for arson in environmental causes. Paul’s lawyer had challenged the sentence after a hearing June 5. Paul, a widely known environmental activists from Southern Oregon, again renounced arson as an activist tactic in a statement in court on Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Anne Aiken rebuffed four legal challenges to the sentence and required Paul to read the book “Three Cups of Tea” and to write a book...

A man who set firebombs in seven large SUVs last March pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 years in prison Wednesday. Grant Barnes... using the methods of the eco-terrorist group Earth Liberation Front... When Barnes was arrested, police found a box of seven of the devices in the back of his car. Police said they are replicas of bombs shown on ELF's Web site.

Tell the NFL to Suspend Michael Vick! NFL star Michael Vick, of the Atlanta Falcons, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on felony dogfighting charges. Vick is charged with violating federal laws against competitive dogfighting, procuring and training pit bulls for fighting, and conducting the enterprise across state lines. In a raid conducted on April 25 and 26, local and state law enforcement officials found 70 dogs—including at least 60 pit bulls and many dogs who reportedly were neglected, scarred, and malnourished—on quarterback Vick's rural Surry County, Virginia, property. Some of the animals evidently bear scars and injuries,...

A Lake Wanda bear activist was arrested early Tuesday morning for tampering with a bear trap by spreading human urine around it. It was just the latest in a series of incidents in the Highland Lakes neighborhood — not only between residents and bears, but between residents and bear activists — in what has been dubbed the county's "ground zero" for bear activity. Albert Kazemian, 50, was arrested at ten after midnight on Tuesday, after Department of Environmental Protection Fish and Wildlife officers observed trespassing on a residence and pouring a jug of human urine around the trap... Darlene Yuhas,...