Could the F.B.I. use the "War on Terror" to serve corporate interests and shut down legitimate protests/activism? Could it happen in democratic America? What does history tell us?
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From Defender of Nature to Eco-Terrorist?
by Kelly Hearn
AlterNet
Tre Arrow's unwitting trajectory from candidate for Congress to the FBI's most wanted "eco-terrorist" began on Easter Sunday in 2001, when a firebomb equipped with a fuse destroyed $200,000 worth of gravel trucks belonging to Ross Island Sand & Gravel, a company operating near a national forest in Oregon.
Two months later, on June 1, another arson attack destroyed a logging truck and damaged two others belonging to Schoppert Logging, a company involved in watershed logging operations near Eagle Creek, Oregon. The damage was estimated at $50,000.
Soon the FBI was looking for Tre Arrow, a local green activist who'd made a name for himself as an in-your-face eco-defender, a man the feds said was linked to the Earth Liberation Front (something Arrow denies). Born Michael Scarpitti, Arrow had a reputation to match his passion. He'd once spent eleven days perched on a nine-inch ledge atop of the U.S. Forest Service building in Portland, Ore., protesting the proposed sale of timber rights in Eagle Creek. He was the consummate non-stop activist, a barking dog who in 2000 ran for Congress as a Pacific Green Party candidate, managing to win some 15,000 votes in a bid for Oregon's Third Congressional District.
For his straight talk and ballsy belligerence, Rolling Stone would call him an "environmental rock star." The feds had a different name.
By December 2002, Arrow was an "eco-terrorist" on the FBI's ten most wanted list. Facing a minimum of 40 years to life for his alleged role in the bombings, Arrow had already slipped into Canada earlier that year. He assumed the name Josh Murray (sometimes Josh Rivers) and spent nearly a year traveling, playing music and volunteering until he was arrested by Canadian police during what Arrow says was an activist mission.
Now a cause celebre among many environmentalist, he's fighting extradition and has applied for political refugee status in Canada. But a Canadian judge last month ruled that enough evidence existed to send the thirty-something, yoga-practicing musician back home to stand trail. His lawyer is appealing the decision.
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Also:
Free Tre Arrow
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