Attorneys: four to enter arson pleas

> http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Firebombing_Pleas.html
>
> Wednesday, November 8, 2006
>
> Attorneys: four to enter arson pleas
>
> By JEFF BARNARD
> ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
>
> GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- Four people intend to plead guilty to causing
> $20 million in damages from firebombings around the Northwest,
> according to lawyers in the case.
>
> Attorneys for the defendants and the prosecution refused to comment
> on terms of plea agreements that were to be submitted Thursday to
> Judge Ann Aiken in U.S. District Court in Eugene.
>
> The Oregon indictments covered arsons from 1996 to 2001 that were
> claimed by the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation
> Front in Oregon, Washington, California, Wyoming and Colorado.
>
> Authorities said an Oregon-based group calling itself The Family
> set firebombs around the Northwest to stop logging, wild horse
> roundups, genetic engineering of plants, sport utility vehicle
> sales and the expansion of a Vail, Colo., ski resort into
> endangered lynx habitat.
>
> The firebombings stopped in 2001 after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
>
> The four were among 13 people indicted as part of an investigation
> known as Operation Backfire. Six have pleaded guilty to arson
> charges, agreeing to testify against the others, and three are
> fugitives. An unindicted coconspirator, Arizona bookstore owner
> William C. Rodgers, described as the group's leader, committed
> suicide in jail just before he was to be sent to Oregon to face
> charges.
>
> Related cases are being prosecuted in Washington and California.
>
> For years, investigators came up with little more than the remains
> of five-gallon plastic buckets that had been filled with diesel and
> ignited with homemade timing devices. A special taskforce then used
> an informant to infiltrate The Family with a hidden recording
> device.
>
> Those facing the arson charges are: Jonathan Christopher Mark Paul,
> 40, a firefighter and animal rights activist from Ashland; Daniel
> McGowan, 32, of New York City, who was working for a nonprofit law
> firm helping abused women when he was arrested; Nathan Frazer
> Block, 25, and Joyanna L. Zacher, 28, both of Olympia, Wash.