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Pipe Bombs on Forest Service Road Gates


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This message was passed on to me originally from Scott Loerts, WDFW Safety Officer. I can't vouch as to its veracity.

 

Safety reminder regarding forest road gates:

 

There have been a couple of incidents that serve as reminders to be careful when opening and closing forest road gates. Information from Weyerhaeuser, Forest Service and BLM offices confirm that there have been some incidents involving forest workers finding pipe bombs attached to gates in Oregon and SW Washington. Some of the pipe bombs are reported to have been equipped with mercury switches and are extremely unstable. There have also been instances of needles being stuffed into gate locks. Given the seriousness of the information, we're urging staff to use caution when approaching forest road gates.

 

 

 

If you find something unusual attached to a gate:

 

Do not approach the gate under any circumstances

The device should not be moved in any way

Call local law enforcement authorities and provide them with your exact location and description of the device attached to the gate

Stay back and keep others away from the gate until law enforcement officers arrive

We also want to caution staff that this kind of activity can occur anywhere and at any time.

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When the Heybrook Lookout was being rebuilt, someone cut the gate with a gas powered saw, then drove up the road and used the saw to cut into a steel shipping container and made off with $2000 in tools that were being used in the construction. This was about two years ago.

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I think, and this is just my opinion, that it's the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). I heard an article on NPR last week where there were indications that ELF was planning a nationwide ecoterrorist strike. They were supposed to be centering on SUV dealerships, was what I thought I heard though...

 

Just my opinion; it sounds like ELF's modus operandi.

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Whatever. You don't know a thing about ELF. They haven't ever injured a single person and aren't about to start now, so it doesn't sound like their work at all.

 

Shut up, Winter. WTF do you know what I think?

 

Did I say it was ELF? Fuck no!

 

Did I say it was my opinion that it was ELF? Fuck yeah!

 

Do you know what the fucking difference is between those two questions? Cogitate on that a bit, Zippy...

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Here, read this...

 

From the article...

 

...While this makes them ready to take actions that are considered by much of society to be radical, their reverence for nature and their belief — whether articulated or not — that life in any form is sacred, keeps them opposed to intentionally harming other people, even their ideological opponents.

 

"It is a laugh to me when they call us violent or terrorists," Lee Dessaux, a hunt saboteur said in a 1997 interview quoted in Taylor's article "Religion, Violence and Radical Environmentalism: from Earth First! to the Unabomber to the Earth Liberation Front" in Journal of Terrorism and Political Violence. "I say, if we were, don't you think we'd have killed people by now?"

 

They still haven't either killed or seriously hurt anyone in more than 100 incidents over five years since they burned a truck at Forestry Service office in Oregon, but law enforcement officials fear it is only a matter of time.

<emphasis added by sobo>

 

"They keep saying that we're not going to hurt anyone, and I think they're sincere, but what happens is you can't control the zealots — we saw that with [Oklahoma City bomber Timothy] McVeigh," Szady said. "Our other fear is that someone is going to be killed accidentally." ...

 

While you are correct that they haven't killed anyone yet, it's like the man said, "...it's just a matter of time." One of these days, a tree-spike, a gate pipe bomb, or arson fire is going to kill someone. Count on it. That's what I don't like about them.

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Oh yeah, that's cute. rolleyes.gif Just think for a moment that maybe their methods might not be the best way to achieve change. It seems to me that they run the risk of alienating folks instead of garnering support for their cause. What do you think will happen when someone gets seriously hurt of killed?

 

BTW, I've got all the coffee I need, and it ain't a triple-shot grande cappucino-mocha with sprinkles and orgeat, neither. wave.gif

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Sobo, on a more serious note, you're right that property destruction is dangerous. But if you look at groups like the Weather Underground (who did injure people (including themselves) but then changed their stategies), you'll see that folks like this think very carefully about how to avoid injuring people and are pretty good at it. I'm not advocating for property destruction, because I think right now its a pretty shitty political strategy, but I'm not too concerned their political opponents are trumping up fears of personal injury.

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...but I'm not too concerned their political opponents are trumping up fears of personal injury.

 

Only because that hasn't happened... yet.

 

They're just pounding on the cost of vandalism right now, somewhere upwards of $50M, because that is quantifiable.

 

Don't get me wrong, I abhor property destruction/vandalsim. Not much better than folks swiping your climbing gear, IMHO.

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I'd rather see the money that is spent repairing the damage these folks do spent in more positive ways. Just my opinion of course. Extremists on both ends of the spectrum just alienate people and make it hard to get much positive work done. Drawing negative attention to your cause doesn't make friends.

 

Thanks for posting the release though, may save someones life.

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Well, tree-spiking wasn't particularly high-profile property destruction either... I'm not saying it is ELF, just that it's not outside of their MO.

 

And I agree with MCNate. There are better ways to spend the money that's spent on the repairs of the destruction. It's the policies that allow luxury homes at Vail, mineral extraction in the wilderness (contemplated), etc. that need to change. Not burning down the houses. They'll just be rebuilt, 'cuz these folks have bucks to burn, as it were...

 

It'a all about being alienated, and not alientating your support base. I think that's where folks like ELF and their ilk have got it wrong. It's just another jihad, as it were. And we've all seen where that's led...

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Sounds like BS to me. Spiking trees and burning unoccupied vehicles and structures is one thing.

 

"unstable" explosives rigged with mercury switches is another... "Needles" shoved into locks reminds me of the old urban legend of "aids infected needles" in the coin return slots of payphones.

 

If it were true I'd bet my left nut it'd be on CNN or some other major news service....

 

Turn it into snopes.com, they'll research it.

 

-Fear

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Hey fear,

Do you subscribe to the email listserve known as This is True by Randy Cassingham? He also runs a "sister" listserve called The True Stella Awards (after the old lady who sued McD's for the hot coffee). Kinda like a snopes.com; he does the research, makes sure it's not crap, etc. I think he even links to them on his website. You might enjoy it. Check it out:

 

www.thisistrue.com

 

www.StellaAwards.com

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Whatever. You don't know a thing about ELF. They haven't ever injured a single person and aren't about to start now, so it doesn't sound like their work at all.

 

You sound as sympathetic as ever, Winter. Maybe you should be their new spokesman when that Rosebloom prick finally has his ass thrown in jail where it belongs.

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