Free Republic

Convicted leftist terrorist Susan Rosenberg must be counted among the unlikeliest candidates ever to be awarded a university teaching post. Just four years ago, Rosenberg was serving out the 16th year of a 58-year sentence for the possession of more than 700 pounds of explosives and a stockpile of illicit weapons. Moreover, the onetime member of a leftist terrorist outfit called “The Family” was also a suspect in a 1981 robbery-gone-awry that left three people dead in Nyack, New York. However, next January students at Hamilton College, a small liberal arts school in upstate New York, will know Susan Rosenberg,...

BY THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE (Compiled from news accounts, court records, public notices) Last week's arrest of a long-sought accused eco-saboteur pushed the spotlight back on a tight-knit cell of radical environmentalists responsible for a $48 million run of firebombings and other crimes across the West in the 1990s and early 2000s. Six men and five women prosecuted in Oregon received sentences ranging from three years to 13 years. They were arrested starting in 2005 in what the FBI called "Operation Backfire," a task force that tracked down the suspects with the help of an informant deep within the underground group....

Joseph Mahmoud Dibee, 50, was arrested by the FBI and booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center at 4:53 p.m. Thursday. He's been wanted for 12 years, after he was indicted in 2006 on charges of arson, conspiracy and animal enterprise terrorism. In 2008, he was believed to have been living in Syria with family members, and federal officials announced a $50,000 reward for his arrest. (FBI) A fugitive sought for more than a decade and accused of taking part in a string of eco-sabotage attacks across the West is in custody in Portland and was to make his...

Years ago, members of my extended family were gangsters connected with the Genovese crime family. They had the ability, which they used, to place people in favored positions within the New York City Police Department. I know this, because my father was offered one of those slots. --SNIP-- It's the old problem of "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"—"Who watches the watchmen?"

A federal judge on Monday sentenced eco-saboteur Rebecca Rubin to five years in prison -- less than what prosecutors sought for the former fugitive from Canada. Rubin, voice shaking, apologized to her family, the court, firefighters as well as targets of the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front. "I was so convinced at the righteousness of my beliefs, that I chose to ignore my own wrongdoing," Rubin said. Chief U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken, who presided over the sentencing hearings in 2007 of Rubin's co-conspirators in Eugene, praised Rubin's statement, calling it "the most thoughtful, well-stated, honest, unvarnished apology/explanation."...

Rubin rose before Chief U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken in Portland, where she pleaded guilty to a dozen crimes – in Colorado, Oregon and California – as part of the underground Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front. ... Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen F. Peifer recounted Rubin's crimes as part of the largest group of eco-saboteurs ever taken down by the FBI. They called themselves The Family and committed an estimated $40 million in damage from 1996 to 2001. ... the terms of the highly structured plea agreement sets limits on the number of years Rubin will spend in prison....

Rebecca Rubin A 39-year-old woman accused of eco-sabotage in three Western states turned herself in to U.S. authorities at the Canadian border on Thursday morning. Rebecca Jeanette Rubin, a Canadian, had been on the run for a decade before surrendering in Blaine, Wash. She is accused of multiple counts of arson as part of a conspiracy with 12 other people from 1996 to 2001 in five Western states. The charges against Rubin include a Nov. 30, 1997, arson at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse and Burro Facility in Harney county near Burns and the Dec. 22,...

The government says a 20-year prison sentence for a woman who committed arson at Michigan State University would be the toughest punishment ever in a case of so-called eco-terrorism. Marie Mason is due in federal court at 9 a.m. today. The explosion and fire at Michigan State's Agriculture Hall in 1999 was a protest against genetically modified crops. Damage exceeded $1 million. Prosecutors want a 20-year prison sentence for the 47-year-old Cincinnati woman. Mason's lawyer says that would be extreme. Mason has admitted other acts from 1999 through 2003, including fires at homes under construction in southeastern Michigan and Indiana....

TACOMA, Wash. - The last defendant in a 2001 ecoterror arson at the University of Washington was sentenced Friday in federal court to four years in prison, as recommended by the prosecution. With credit for time served, 36-year-old Briana Waters of Oakland, Calif., will return for 11 months. The first half of the remaining sentence will be served in prison and then a halfway house. Waters will report to federal prison after Labor Day, a special request granted so she can be with her daughter the summer.

Justin Solondz, 32, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to seven years in prison for his role in the 2001 arson at the University of Washington Center for Urban Horticulture. Damage in the fire was estimated at more than $6 million. Solondz pleaded guilty in December to charges of conspiracy and arson under a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, who agreed to recommend the seven-year prison sentence. The defense also sought a seven-year term. A former student at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Solondz was arrested last July 6 in Chicago after his expulsion from China,...

The man accused of building the firebomb used by Earth Liberation Front radicals to torch the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture in 2001 pleaded not guilty Wednesday to several federal charges. Justin Solondz, 31, was arrested July 6 in Chicago after his expulsion from China, where he had been serving a prison term for selling drugs. A former student at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Solondz is charged with conspiracy, arson, making an unregistered destructive device and using a destructive device during a violent crime, a charge that could result in a life sentence. ... Solondz was...

  Video: If A Tree Falls trailer 2:10 minutesIf a Tree Falls wants audiences to rally behind Daniel McGowan, a soft-spoken fellow facing life in prison for crimes committed with the Earth Liberation Front.What director Marshall Curry can’t do is make McGowan worth our sympathy. The eco-terrorist is immature, arrogant, and unable to take full responsibility for his actions.If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front is gripping all the same, a fascinating peek into what passes for the soul of the eco-terrorist movement.McGowan is as extreme an environmentalist as one could imagine even if he doesn‘t...

EUGENE — An arsonist who avoided federal prison five years ago by helping lock up Earth Liberation Front activists is headed to state prison for selling heroin. ... He was on probation under a 2007 plea deal for his role in arsons by an ELF band known as The Family. Targets included a meat-packing company, car dealership, ranger station and lumber company. Ferguson is depicted as the leader of the group in the documentary "If A Tree Falls." He faces a probation revocation hearing July 14 in federal court.

TACOMA — Briana Waters, the California violin teacher who was facing retrial for her role in the 2001 arson at the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture, pleaded guilty Tuesday to several charges related to the attack. Waters, 35, pleaded guilty to four counts, including arson, conspiracy to use a destructive device, possessing a destructive device and use of a destructive device. The last count carries a penalty of up to 30 years to life. She also agreed to pay the UW and the state nearly $7 million in restitution. Waters had maintained her innocence even after a federal...

He is accused of violating the terms of his plea deal, and his attorney expects he will face drug charges. An arsonist-informant who helped convict 10 former associates on eco-terrorism charges in the 2004-07 federal “Operation Backfire” case apparently violated his federal probation by allegedly violating undisclosed state drug laws. Jacob Jeremiah Ferguson, 38, appeared briefly before U.S. District Magistrate Judge Thomas Coffin on Monday. During that status conference, Ferguson’s attorney asked that his client’s probation violation hearing not be scheduled for “at least three weeks” because of the state charges also before Ferguson. ... Ferguson acknowledged taking part in...

The North American Animal Liberation press office says Briana Waters was released from prison Saturday. The 34-year-old Waters was connected to a cell of radical environmentalists based in Olympia and in Oregon who carried out attacks throughout the West from 1996-2001, causing more than $80 million in damage. Last month, an appeals court overturned Water's conviction of being guilty of helping an ecoterror attack that destroyed a University of Washington research center, concluding the judge made mistakes that cast doubt on the fairness of her trial.

DALI, China — Justin Franchi Solondz, an environmental activist from New Jersey who spent four years evading charges of ecoterrorism in the United States by hiding out in this backpacker haven, was convicted by a Chinese court on Friday of manufacturing drugs. After serving a three-year sentence, Mr. Solondz, 30, who is on the F.B.I.’s most wanted list, will be deported to the United States, where he faces charges stemming from what the authorities say was his role in an arson rampage that destroyed buildings in three western states as a member of a group related to the environmental extremist...

Entitlements, Social Problems and the FamilyINDEPENDENT AMERICAN MOVEMENT FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RESTORATION This essay is by Steven Thayn, a 2nd term legislator in the Idaho State Legislature from the 11th District. It is a thesis about how current government entitlement programs do not encourage independent living or the formation of stable families, but instead increase social problems, add to our tax burden, and decrease our standard of living. It documents the truth of that statement and introduces a solution through the family and establishing it as the primary delivery mechanism of social relief within society. I urge all citizens and...

By Kim Wilhelm (WICHITA, Kan.) It's known as C Street - a three story building two blocks from the Capitol in Washington D.C. Until recently, most people had never heard of it. But C Street and the politicians associated with it are now in the spotlight because of recent political sex scandals. In June, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford admitted to having an affair and referred to C Street during a press conference. Sanford said he had received counseling there. He described it as "believe it or not - a Christian bible study." Nevada Senator John Ensign revealed he also...

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – A cartel engaged in Mexico's deadly drug wars has told its members to avoid heavy drinking and using narcotics and live a clean family life as it tries to build a well-run criminal organization, police say. Rafael Cedeno, a leader of "The Family" cartel based in the western state of Michoacan, told police after he was arrested at the weekend he had trained several thousand cartel members with courses in ethics and personal improvement. "The indoctrination of this group consisted of courses they considered to be for personal improvement, values, ethical and moral principles of the...