Posted on 08/10/2018 3:03:52 PM PDT by jazusamo
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 first appearance in federal court Friday.
Joseph Mahmoud Dibee , 50, was arrested as he was about to board a plane in Cuba bound for Russia.
Federal authorities had learned he was traveling through Central America on his way to Russia with the planned stop in Cuba. The FBI arranged for Cuban authorities to detain Dibee and return him to the United States.
Federal agents booked Dibee into the Multnomah County Detention Center at 4:53 p.m. Thursday.
Dibee was indicted in 2006 on charges of arson, conspiracy to commit arson and destruction of an energy facility. He also faces arson charges and possession of a destructive device in federal court in Washington and California.
Dibee, wearing blue jail garb, pleaded not guilty Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Portland. He told Magistrate Judge John V. Acosta that he understood his rights and said nothing more.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Barrow said Dibee traveled to Mexico, Lebanon, Russia, Syria, Ecuador and El Salvador after he fled. Dibee holds passports from Syria and Russia, the prosecutor said.
Assistant Federal Public Defender Brian Francesconi said Dibee has no income and no assets. He was ordered to remain in jail. A tentative trial was set for two weeks in October in federal court in Eugene.
In 2008, Dibee was believed to have been living in Syria with family members and federal officials announced a $50,000 reward for his arrest.
He's accused of helping others set a string of arson fires between 1996 and 2001 that were carried out by self-proclaimed members of the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front.
Federal investigators said Dibee was part of what they called "The Family,'' describing it as a terrorist cell of about 20 people who committed crimes in the name of the two groups.
By the time it disbanded in 2001, the cell was responsible for at least 25 criminal acts totaling about $48 million in damages, including the 1998 torching of a ski resort in Vail, Colorado. Along with arson, their crimes ranged from vandalism, property damage and animal releases, prosecutors said.
Dibee went by the nicknames "Seattle,'' "Steve'' and "God,'' according to an FBI wanted flier. He was charged with conspiracy related to 17 incidents. The alleged crimes occurred in Oregon, Washington, California, Colorado and Wyoming.
FBI agents made contact with Dibee at his home in Seattle, where he worked as a computer software tester at Microsoft, on the first day of their 2005 Operation Backfire , but they lacked evidence to arrest him then. Four days later, according to a federal indictment, Dibee vanished.
"Dibee will now, as many of his co-conspirators have before, face the consequences of his actions,'' Oregon's U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams said. "Using violent means to express one's views will never be tolerated nor forgotten. We will bring every last person responsible for these crimes to justice.''
One other woman is still being sought, Josephine Overaker, who officials said has been on the run since 2001. She's wanted in connection with the Vail resort fire. She's believed to be either 43 or 46 years old, and to have fled to Europe in late 2001, according to federal officials. The FBI continues to offer a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to her arrest.
In 2014, another member of the group, Rebecca Rubin , was sentenced to five years in prison.
Rubin, of Canada, had pleaded guilty to arson, attempted arson and conspiracy to commit arson in Oregon, Colorado and California as part of the underground Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front. She participated in four crimes, including planning the eventual $12 million fire that destroyed a ski resort under construction in Vail, Colo., in 1998.
She turned herself in to the FBI at the Washington-Canada border in late 2012, driven to the meeting by her mother.
They finally got their hands on this turkey Joseph Dibee, member of the Eco-Terror group, the family.
Eco terror? Or jihad?
Stanislas Gregory Meyerhoff - (5-23-07) - 13 years
Kevin Tubbs ----------------- (5-24-07) - 12 years, 7 months
Chelsea Dawn Gerlach ------- (5-25-07) - 9 years
Darren Todd Thurston---------(5-29-07) - 3 years, 1 month
Suzanne Nicole Savoie--------(5-31-07) - 4 years, 3 months
Sarah Kendall Tankersley-----(5-31-07) - 3 years, 10 months
Joyanna Lynn Zacher---------(6-01-07) - 7 years, 8 months
Nathan Fraser Block----------(6-01-07) - 7 years, 8 months
Daniel Gerard McGowan-----(6-04-07) - 7 years
Jonathan Paul--------------------(8-01-07) - 4 years, 3 months
Briana Waters-------------------(6-19-08) - 6 years
Jennifer Kolar-------------------(7-18-08) - 5 years
Lacey Phillabaum--------------(8-19-08) - 3 years
Justin Solondz------------------(3-16-12) – 7 years
“...animal enterprise terrorism.”
WTH is this about?
Prison, then deport with mandatory 10 more years in prison on return.
Color me suspicious.
Thanks for the heads up.
Wonder how many wild fires recently are also started by illegal aliens, Jihadists, and other lefties. ?
...
Arsonist who set fires in California an illegal alien who was deported five times… but California gave him “sanctuary.”
Homan confirmed that ICE has issued detainer requests for Jesus Fabian Gonzalez five times now in the past year alone, in relation to his most recent arrest on suspicion of arson. All of the arrests were made “by Sonoma County on various felony and misdemeanor charges,”
...
An illegal alien, Jesper Jorgensen, residing in Colorado has been arrested for arson after authorities charged him with starting a forest fire that has destroyed more than 40,000 acres of land within the state
releasing research or farmed animals from their pens or cages
Support Free Republic, Folks!
Somebody was paying for his global excursions as well as housing...........So who was it?
Most welcome.
I've been thinking exactly the same thing, I'm pretty sure more than just a few.
Yep, he was traveling and had to have income from somewhere.
Finally -- some common ground with Oregon -- to arrest those who would harm Mother Earth.
WTH is this about?
I think this is the same group that released all the minks from a mink farm. The minks killed just about every small animal in the county including a lot of pets before they were all finally killed or recaptured.
Must be training animals to open a business of terrorizing.. of course my new puppy does it naturally. Guess I should not travel to Cuba with the pup.
This topic was posted , thanks jazusamo.
One other woman is still being sought, Josephine Overaker, who officials said has been on the run since 2001. She's wanted in connection with the Vail resort fire. She's believed to be either 43 or 46 years old, and to have fled to Europe in late 2001, according to federal officials. The FBI continues to offer a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to her arrest.
But what he did was "resistance", not "insurrection"...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.