Guilty plea in attempt to destroy campus buildings

By ED WHITE | Associated Press Writer
11:19 AM CDT, October 16, 2008

DETROIT - Nearly seven years later, a New York man has pleaded guilty to
trying to destroy two buildings at Michigan Technological University as
part of a radical environmental protest.

Ian Wallace also admits in his plea agreement to three other acts,
including the destruction of 500 research trees at a federal lab in
Rhinelander, Wis., in 2000. The value of the trees is estimated at $1
million.

Wallace, 27, of East Setauket, N.Y., appeared in federal court Wednesday
in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and pleaded guilty to attempting to firebomb
two buildings at Michigan Tech in November 2001. The maximum penalty is 10
years in prison.

Containers holding combustible liquids were placed near the buildings
between midnight and 1 a.m., but the timers didn't work.

In the plea agreement, Wallace acknowledged facts described by Assistant
U.S. Attorney Hagen Frank.

On Nov. 4, 2001, he and an acquaintance drove 370 miles to Houghton from
the Minneapolis area, where Wallace was living. They were transporting two
homemade incendiary devices to destroy a campus building that belonged to
the U.S. Forest Service.

Their other target was Michigan Tech's U.J. Noblet Forestry Building,
where federally funded research was being conducted.

"They hoped not only to destroy the research but also, through such an act
of violence, to intimidate and deter government agencies, private
organizations and the general public from conducting or supporting such
research," the plea agreement says.

Wallace was acting in the name of the Earth Liberation Front, a radical
group.

Besides the Michigan Tech incident and the destruction of research trees
in Wisconsin, Wallace also acknowledged vandalizing vehicles at a Forest
Service research station at the University of Minnesota in April 2000.

He also took responsibility for an arson at a construction site at the
university in January 2002. The loss was $630,000.

Wallace won't be charged, but a judge can consider those acts when he is
sentenced. A message seeking comment was left Thursday with his attorney,
Edward Panzer.

"A civilized society must tolerate a diversity of thought, but it can
never accept the destruction of property or endangering innocent people by
adherents to a cause," U.S. Attorney Charles Gross said in a statement.

The Wisconsin trees were mature hybrid poplars.

"They were either girdled, cutting away the bark, or cut down," said Sally
Toomey, a Minnesota-based spokeswoman for the Forest Service's Northern
Research Station. "They were part of a research program to produce
faster-growing, more disease-resistant trees. This study had been under
way for more than 20 years."

Wallace has agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors. Three people
were indicted in Madison, Wis., in July for their alleged roles in the
Rhinelander attack.

A message was left at the scene: "ELF is watching the U.S. Forest Service."