Saboteurs may be sentenced as terrorists

Trial - A judge rules "terrorism enhancement" could be applied for stiffer penalties on eco-saboteurs

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

BRYAN DENSON Oregonian

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled Monday that federal sentencing guidelines allow her to consider imposing a "terrorism enhancement" on 10 convicted eco-saboteurs, a designation that could make them eligible for longer prison terms.

Aiken published a 46-page opinion on the eve of the first sentencing in the government's Operation Backfire case, the largest prosecution of eco-sabotage in U.S. history.

The judge is scheduled to hear arguments this morning in Eugene on the sentencing of Stanislas G. Meyerhoff, the first of 10 to be sentenced in the Backfire case. Meyerhoff acknowledged responsibility for a series of arsons and other sabotage, much on behalf of two underground groups, the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front.

Aiken ruled that the increased penalties spelled out by the terrorism enhancement may apply to those who took part in a conspiracy that left a $40 million trail of damage in Western states between 1995 and 2001.

But the government, she wrote, must first establish that the defendants' participation in that conspiracy was intended to promote a "federal crime of terrorism," regardless of whether they posed a substantial risk of injury to humans.

"The issue the court must decide," Aiken wrote, "is not whether the defendants are 'terrorists' as the word commonly is used and understood in today's political and cultural climate. Nor is it appropriate for the court to speculate whether the government seeks to promote a particular political agenda or to punish a particular form of activism in requesting the terrorism enhancement.

"Those are questions beyond the jurisdiction or purview of this court. The only issue before the court is whether defendants' admitted conduct and offenses of conviction render the terrorism enhancement applicable when imposing sentence."

Aiken noted that she would listen to arguments at each sentencing before deciding whether a terrorism enhancement may be applied to a particular defendant. A designation as a terrorist could land defendants longer terms in more restrictive prisons.

Federal prosecutors squared off against defense lawyers last Tuesday in a hearing on the terrorism enhancement. The government likened the nighttime arsons committed by the ELF and ALF on such enterprises as an empty logging company office to the fire bombings of empty African American churches by the Ku Klux Klan.

Defense lawyers argued that their clients were nothing like the violent members of the Klan; those acting on behalf of the ELF and ALF took extraordinary precautions to ensure that their arsons did no physical harm to humans.

Bryan Denson: 503-294-7614; bryandenson@news.oregonian.com