Documentary (2011) 85 minutes ~ Color
A rare behind-the-curtain look at the Earth Liberation Front, the radical environmental group that the FBI calls America's 'number one domestic terrorist threat.'
Directors: Marshall Curry, Sam Cullman
Writers: Marshall Curry, Matthew Hamachek
Stars: Daniel McGowan, Lisa McGowan, Tim Lewis
Awards and Festivals
Academy Award ® Nominee, Best Documentary Feature
Documentary Editing Award, Sundance Film Festival
National PBS Broadcast, "POV"
Best Documentary, Nashville Film Festival
Environmental Visions Award, Dallas Film Festival
EarthVision Environmental Jury Prize, Santa Cruz Film Festival
Founders Award, Best Documentary, Traverse City Film Festival
Best Feature, Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival
Best in Festival, Princeton Environmental Film Festival
One World Interntaional Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Prague
Ecofalante Environmenta Film Festival, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Reviews
"One of the best documentaries of the year." Critic's Choice.
- Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
"An extraordinary documentary...[a] fearless exploration of complexity in a world drawn to oversimplified depictions of events and problems, heroes and villains."
- Andrew Revkin, The New York Times
"A true life outlaw tale, as stirring as it is tragic, the story of the Earth Liberation Front offers a DeLillo-flavored draught of high-proof righteous excitement."
- Michael Atkinson, The Village Voice
"A compelling doc about radical environmentalism... informative, compelling."
- Justin Lowe, Hollywood Reporter
"It's a wildly successful and engaging documentary."
- Jon Reiss, NY Press
"This summer's most urgent documentary.... The vibe alternates between an early Clash concert and a dark, dark twist on Ocean's 11."
- Abe Streep, Outside Magazine
"The film sweeps us up like a thriller... a fantastic moral ambivalence."
- Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
"This is a sterling example of journalistic documentary, clearer, fairer and more engrossing than any of the sensationalistic newspaper or magazine stories about the ELF."
- Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com
Selected as one of John Waters' Top Ten Films of the Year
- John Waters, Art Forum
"An intriguing and important film... As director Marshall Curry said at his Sundance post-screening Q&A: "The film has a point of view, but a grown-up point of view that acknowledges the complexity of the situation."
- Stewart Nusbaumer, Filmmaker Magazine
"Compelling, adroitly edited portrait of the radical group." Critics' Pick
- New York Magazine
"A gripping doc about eco-terrorism."
-- Scott Feinberg, Hollywood Reporter
"Very thoughtful and articluate... pushing past the familiar activists-vs-the-corporate-state paradigm to hear from those whose sympathies lie on both sides."
-- Steven Boone, Chicago Sun Times
"A brilliant success, evoking a wide range of emotions and provoking viewers to challenge their own assumptions."
-- Tom Jacobs, Miller-McCune
"Power mix of violent confrontation between police and activists, ultimately propels the film into a call for action and change."
-- Thomas Logoreci, Dox Magazine
"The film's sobriety and carefully balanced arguments make it an exemplary piece."
- Stephen Holden, New York Times
"What this and Curry's other films say about their subjects... yields a remarkable clarity about the perils of modern idealism."
- S.T. Vanairsdale, Movieline
"A powerful and mesmerizing documentary."
- David Seideman, Audubon Magazine
"5-stars: [The] filmmakers raise questions and stir public debate about the definition of terrorism, especially in the post 9/11 security environment...very compelling. "
- Jennifer Merin, About.com Documentaries
"By turns elegiac, tender, funny and horrifying, it is a portrait of McGowan that doubles as a complex philosophical argument about the benefits and dangers of violent social protest. "
- Matt Zoller Seitz, Salon.com
"If a Tree Falls' is nothing if not troubling, complicated and thought-provoking... [the film] provided a common text from which everybody — radical or moderate, liberal or conservative — was able to work, interpret, converse. This common ground paired with the power of narrative establishes a strong ally for the environmental community and a bridge across divided ideologies and hopes."
- Dylan Walsh, Yale Daily News
"Engrossing... A classic story of radicalization."
- Nancy DeWolf Smith, Wall Street Journal
"Curry has crafted something complex and worthy of attention, a film that asks hard questions about environmentalism, activism, and the way we define terrorism."
- Pamela Biery, Orion Magazine
A "remarkable and moving film... The environmental documentary genre can be ripe for groupthink and complacency, and occasionally I find myself refreshed to see a doc that forces viewers to challenge their own preconceptions and opinions. If a Tree Falls, currently playing in theaters is one such film."
- Keith Goetzman, Utne Reader
A rare behind-the-curtain look at the Earth Liberation Front, the radical environmental group that the FBI calls America's 'number one domestic terrorist threat.'
Directors: Marshall Curry, Sam Cullman
Writers: Marshall Curry, Matthew Hamachek
Stars: Daniel McGowan, Lisa McGowan, Tim Lewis
Awards and Festivals
Academy Award ® Nominee, Best Documentary Feature
Documentary Editing Award, Sundance Film Festival
National PBS Broadcast, "POV"
Best Documentary, Nashville Film Festival
Environmental Visions Award, Dallas Film Festival
EarthVision Environmental Jury Prize, Santa Cruz Film Festival
Founders Award, Best Documentary, Traverse City Film Festival
Best Feature, Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival
Best in Festival, Princeton Environmental Film Festival
One World Interntaional Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Prague
Ecofalante Environmenta Film Festival, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Reviews
"One of the best documentaries of the year." Critic's Choice.
- Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
"An extraordinary documentary...[a] fearless exploration of complexity in a world drawn to oversimplified depictions of events and problems, heroes and villains."
- Andrew Revkin, The New York Times
"A true life outlaw tale, as stirring as it is tragic, the story of the Earth Liberation Front offers a DeLillo-flavored draught of high-proof righteous excitement."
- Michael Atkinson, The Village Voice
"A compelling doc about radical environmentalism... informative, compelling."
- Justin Lowe, Hollywood Reporter
"It's a wildly successful and engaging documentary."
- Jon Reiss, NY Press
"This summer's most urgent documentary.... The vibe alternates between an early Clash concert and a dark, dark twist on Ocean's 11."
- Abe Streep, Outside Magazine
"The film sweeps us up like a thriller... a fantastic moral ambivalence."
- Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
"This is a sterling example of journalistic documentary, clearer, fairer and more engrossing than any of the sensationalistic newspaper or magazine stories about the ELF."
- Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com
Selected as one of John Waters' Top Ten Films of the Year
- John Waters, Art Forum
"An intriguing and important film... As director Marshall Curry said at his Sundance post-screening Q&A: "The film has a point of view, but a grown-up point of view that acknowledges the complexity of the situation."
- Stewart Nusbaumer, Filmmaker Magazine
"Compelling, adroitly edited portrait of the radical group." Critics' Pick
- New York Magazine
"A gripping doc about eco-terrorism."
-- Scott Feinberg, Hollywood Reporter
"Very thoughtful and articluate... pushing past the familiar activists-vs-the-corporate-state paradigm to hear from those whose sympathies lie on both sides."
-- Steven Boone, Chicago Sun Times
"A brilliant success, evoking a wide range of emotions and provoking viewers to challenge their own assumptions."
-- Tom Jacobs, Miller-McCune
"Power mix of violent confrontation between police and activists, ultimately propels the film into a call for action and change."
-- Thomas Logoreci, Dox Magazine
"The film's sobriety and carefully balanced arguments make it an exemplary piece."
- Stephen Holden, New York Times
"What this and Curry's other films say about their subjects... yields a remarkable clarity about the perils of modern idealism."
- S.T. Vanairsdale, Movieline
"A powerful and mesmerizing documentary."
- David Seideman, Audubon Magazine
"5-stars: [The] filmmakers raise questions and stir public debate about the definition of terrorism, especially in the post 9/11 security environment...very compelling. "
- Jennifer Merin, About.com Documentaries
"By turns elegiac, tender, funny and horrifying, it is a portrait of McGowan that doubles as a complex philosophical argument about the benefits and dangers of violent social protest. "
- Matt Zoller Seitz, Salon.com
"If a Tree Falls' is nothing if not troubling, complicated and thought-provoking... [the film] provided a common text from which everybody — radical or moderate, liberal or conservative — was able to work, interpret, converse. This common ground paired with the power of narrative establishes a strong ally for the environmental community and a bridge across divided ideologies and hopes."
- Dylan Walsh, Yale Daily News
"Engrossing... A classic story of radicalization."
- Nancy DeWolf Smith, Wall Street Journal
"Curry has crafted something complex and worthy of attention, a film that asks hard questions about environmentalism, activism, and the way we define terrorism."
- Pamela Biery, Orion Magazine
A "remarkable and moving film... The environmental documentary genre can be ripe for groupthink and complacency, and occasionally I find myself refreshed to see a doc that forces viewers to challenge their own preconceptions and opinions. If a Tree Falls, currently playing in theaters is one such film."
- Keith Goetzman, Utne Reader
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:16:50Let's do it!
00:16:52Let's do it!
00:16:54Let's do it!
00:16:56Let's do it!
00:16:58Let's do it!
00:17:00Let's do it!
00:17:02Let's do it!
00:17:04Let's do it!
00:17:06Let's do it!
00:17:08Let's do it!
00:17:10Let's do it!
00:17:12Let's do it!
00:17:14Let's do it!
00:17:16Let's do it!
00:17:18Let's do it!
00:17:20Let's do it!
00:17:22Let's do it!
00:17:24Let's do it!
00:17:26Let's do it!
00:17:28Let's do it!
00:17:30Let's do it!
00:17:32Let's do it!
00:17:34Let's do it!
00:17:36Let's do it!
00:17:38Let's do it!
00:17:40Let's do it!
00:17:42Let's do it!
00:17:44Let's do it!
00:17:46In the months after the Ranger Station fires,
00:17:49there was a split within the environmental movement.
00:17:52In Eugene,
00:17:54which was quickly becoming a hotbed of activism,
00:17:57a growing community of younger environmentalists
00:18:00cheered on the arsons.
00:18:02But most environmentalists argued
00:18:04that in a democracy,
00:18:06public protest was still a better way of making change.
00:18:10In the summer of 97,
00:18:12just a few months after the Ranger Station fires,
00:18:15an event took place in downtown Eugene
00:18:18that, for many, shook up the debate.
00:18:21There was this place downtown
00:18:23that had 40 old heritage trees,
00:18:25this beautiful,
00:18:27and they were going to put in a parking lot
00:18:29for Symantec, this big corporation, next door.
00:18:31And they were going to cut down the trees to do it.
00:18:35Activists began mobilizing to save the trees.
00:18:38But as they prepared to take the issue
00:18:40to the next city council meeting,
00:18:42the city suddenly announced
00:18:44it would cut down the trees one day before that public hearing.
00:18:49On Sunday morning, about 2.30 in the morning,
00:18:52about 11 people went up into the trees
00:18:55to prevent them from being cut.
00:18:58We just went and did it,
00:19:00hoping that we could stave off the cutting for one day
00:19:03until that public hearing.
00:19:05Just for one day,
00:19:07so the citizens could talk to the city council
00:19:10the next day about saving them.
00:19:12They were anyway wearing riot gear
00:19:14and gas masks and stuff like that.
00:19:16So, bang, bang, bang,
00:19:18on the door at 8 in the morning,
00:19:20some kid says, get out there, get out there,
00:19:22they're pepper-spraying them in the trees.
00:19:24Get your camera, you gotta get there.
00:19:26I mean, they're pepper-spraying them right now.
00:19:28Hang in there, Jim!
00:19:32They came up in the firetruck bucket
00:19:35and they cut my pants leg up to my groin
00:19:38so they could spray my leg with pepper spray.
00:19:41They were cutting, you know, their pants
00:19:43and pepper-spraying them in the ass
00:19:45and pepper-spraying them in the balls
00:19:47and while they were hanging from the limbs 40 feet up.
00:19:50People were on the street looking at this
00:19:52and going, what the fuck do you think you're doing?
00:19:55And so, people were radicalized.
00:19:57They started jumping on the fence and going,
00:19:59quit that shit!
00:20:01They're tear-gassing the crowd and pepper-spraying the crowd.
00:20:04It was just a crazy, frantic scene that day.
00:20:12And they used about 12 to 15 cans on Flynn
00:20:17and he stayed out for, I think, about 6 or 7 hours, man.
00:20:31And then they flushed me with a bunch of water,
00:20:34took me to the hospital and then took me to jail
00:20:38and so for the next, you know, 35 hours
00:20:41I was soaking in pepper spray.
00:20:43My hands were orange for a week.
00:20:45And so the argument that you need to work within the system
00:20:48was pretty well dashed by what the cops did on that day in Eugene.
00:20:55And June 1st was really the day
00:20:58that pissed off a lot of people in this town.
00:21:08I remember reading about it.
00:21:11People were like, oh, we have this footage
00:21:13and, you know, it was really intense.
00:21:15And that kind of stuff, like, that's part of the story.
00:21:18That was, like, part of the backdrop.
00:21:23It's crazy. It's crazy.
00:21:25I think a lot of moments like that really erode people's belief
00:21:28that anything can actually change.
00:21:33Next week it's four months and I'm on house arrest.
00:21:37My days here are really tedious.
00:21:39It's just really hard to focus and do anything.
00:21:45Just thinking about my future and how uncertain it is.
00:21:49I get really sad at night, you know.
00:21:51I prefer to sleep straight through so I don't have those moments,
00:21:54but I have them almost every night, so...
00:21:57I've been doing OK, though, you know, all things considered.
00:22:00I mean, I feel like on one level
00:22:02I just have to be really thankful for what I have.
00:22:05Which is, like, a good family, really good friends.
00:22:09So I try to, like, keep things in perspective.
00:22:16Hold on one second.
00:22:17Hi.
00:22:18Hey, how are you?
00:22:19Hi, how are you doing?
00:22:20Good.
00:22:21Daniel was living with his girlfriend when he was arrested
00:22:25and she's moved into his sister's apartment to be with him.
00:22:28You know, people are all different
00:22:30and some other people, if they were in my position,
00:22:33they might have been totally, like, questioning everything.
00:22:37But I just... It's not me.
00:22:41I think that he feels the dread every single day.
00:22:47It definitely removes some of the life from his personality.
00:22:56PHONE RINGS
00:22:59Hello?
00:23:01Hey, what's up?
00:23:02How are you?
00:23:06Wait, wait, wait.
00:23:09So, wait, wait, I'm sorry.
00:23:11He's cooperating to the full extent?
00:23:21Six of Daniel's co-defendants have appeared in court
00:23:24to accept plea deals.
00:23:26In exchange for reduced sentences,
00:23:28they've agreed to testify in the government's case
00:23:31against the remaining defendants.
00:23:35It hurts that people that I trusted and cared about,
00:23:38you know, turn their back on me.
00:23:40To be a cooperating witness, it's something other people can do.
00:23:43I'm just not going to do it because I just have to live with myself
00:23:46and I'm not going to be that person and start spewing out crap
00:23:49just to, like, get myself out of a situation that's not very pleasant.
00:23:53So...
00:24:01I'd want him to do whatever he needs to do to not go to prison.
00:24:07But I would never want him to compromise his values or beliefs.
00:24:14So if he has to choose, he'll be facing life in prison.
00:24:22I made the choice to be with him.
00:24:24And after he was arrested, I made the choice to stay with him.
00:24:28I mean, that's what you do when you're...
00:24:30when you're in a relationship with someone.
00:24:32Just because something really difficult comes up
00:24:35doesn't mean you just run away.
00:24:37You know?
00:24:38So...
00:24:40I think we should get married.
00:25:01Daniel, I've seen you with Jenny
00:25:03and you're wonderful with her.
00:25:05You're good for each other, you've got great chemistry
00:25:08and I love you both.
00:25:11Congratulations.
00:25:15This kid faces 335 years plus life in prison.
00:25:19And he's getting married.
00:25:23I want to kind of grab the positive
00:25:26and think that this is going to work out in the end.
00:25:28Everything's going to be okay.
00:25:30And...
00:25:31you know, there's nothing to stress about.
00:25:33But...
00:25:34there is.
00:25:43Oh, if it isn't my sister.
00:25:45How are you?
00:25:46How are you? Perfect timing.
00:25:47Oh, it's freaking hot.
00:25:48That's why I'm out here.
00:25:49Let me see your ring.
00:25:51Oh.
00:25:52That's nicer.
00:25:54And by nicer she means more money.
00:25:59It's like some recycled type metal.
00:26:02It doesn't hurt anything or anybody.
00:26:04Mine's made of good old diamonds.
00:26:08Come on, let's have a good time.
00:26:22It's easy to discount the environmental movement
00:26:25as a bunch of wackos and hippies and arsonists.
00:26:29But it's not like that.
00:26:33There are businessmen and, you know,
00:26:35moms and dads and scientists and loggers themselves
00:26:38are people from every walk of life
00:26:40that get involved in this.
00:26:46I've spent several years of my life
00:26:50doing logging in the woods.
00:26:52I come with a little different perspective
00:26:54than a lot of the, you know, the environmental crowd
00:26:57or the, you know, the logging crowd.
00:27:00I've got a little of both in me.
00:27:02I'm okay with cutting down trees.
00:27:04I just don't have an issue with it.
00:27:06But I'm not okay with cutting them all down.
00:27:10The industry tends to call the environmentalists radical.
00:27:15The reality is that 95% of the standing native forests
00:27:19in the United States have been cut down.
00:27:22It's not radical to try and save the last 5%.
00:27:26What's radical is logging 95%.
00:27:29This is radical.
00:27:33Well, this is a piece of a big old tree.
00:27:37This tree probably sprouted just about the time
00:27:40Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
00:27:44It looks about 500 years old, somewhere in there.
00:27:47You know, the suckers, if they could talk,
00:27:49probably say it had been pretty boring
00:27:51up until about 75 years ago
00:27:53when all hell broke loose out here on the ridge,
00:27:55and they started cutting them down.
00:27:58Most of them are gone now,
00:27:59so we won't be seeing any of these
00:28:01for at least another 500 years,
00:28:03and that's if we leave them alone.
00:28:06These are amazing old trees.
00:28:13I moved down west in October of 1935.
00:28:16I moved down west in October of 1998.
00:28:25I got off to Northern California.
00:28:27I had never seen trees like that before.
00:28:31It had a really profound impact on me.
00:28:35I was already quite radicalized,
00:28:37but I couldn't believe the fact
00:28:39that people accepted what was going on.
00:28:43I have memories of, like,
00:28:45for the first time, seeing log trucks,
00:28:47you know, and being like, whoa.
00:28:52You saw the mills,
00:28:54or you go into the forest
00:28:56and you stumble upon a clear cut.
00:28:58Like, it just blew me away.
00:29:01Just the arrogance of it.
00:29:05I was like, man, this is butchered.
00:29:08You know, it made me think,
00:29:10like, why are we being so gentle?
00:29:12Why are we so gentle in our activism
00:29:14when this is what's happening, you know?
00:29:21After the Ranger Station fires,
00:29:23Jake Ferguson and members of the fledgling ELF
00:29:26set their sights on new targets.
00:29:29They came across an Associated Press article
00:29:32about the rounding up of wild horses
00:29:34from government land.
00:29:36The horses were being sent to slaughterhouses,
00:29:39including the Cavill West plant
00:29:41in nearby Redmond, Oregon.
00:29:44There were so many horses being processed at the plant
00:29:47that horse blood would sometimes overwhelm
00:29:49the town's water treatment facility
00:29:51and shut it down.
00:29:54And for ten years, people from the area
00:29:56had tried and failed to stop the plant.
00:30:00But on July 21st, 1997,
00:30:03Jake Ferguson and three others
00:30:05slipped into the facility in the middle of the night
00:30:08and burned it to the ground.
00:30:11The company was never able to rebuild,
00:30:14and the arson became a model for the group.
00:30:17In one night, they'd accomplished
00:30:19what years of letter-writing and picketing
00:30:21had never been able to do.
00:30:26They expanded and took on new targets.
00:30:30They burned Timber Company headquarters,
00:30:33a Bureau of Land Management office,
00:30:35and a $12 million ski lodge
00:30:37at Vail, Colorado,
00:30:39to protest the resort's expansion
00:30:41into national forests.
00:30:44An ELF press office was opened
00:30:46by activists who did not know the identities
00:30:48of the ELF members.
00:30:50How did they contact you?
00:30:52Anonymously.
00:30:53What is that?
00:30:54Like a package dropped on your doorstep?
00:30:56They publicized the fires
00:30:58and explained the group's actions.
00:31:00When a building burns down,
00:31:02they have to do a news story about it.
00:31:04That's why the Earth Liberation Front
00:31:06burnt down the building in the first place,
00:31:08to get exposure.
00:31:09We were there to help explain
00:31:11why that building burnt down,
00:31:13what it was doing in the first place
00:31:15that was angering people so much.
00:31:17A lot of what the Earth Liberation Front did
00:31:19was considered economic sabotage.
00:31:22These corporations exist to make money.
00:31:24All of a sudden, they're losing money,
00:31:26so they have to reassess their activities.
00:31:29Another thing that happens is that
00:31:31the building that was dumping toxic waste,
00:31:33for example, into the river one day,
00:31:35is unable to dump that waste tomorrow.
00:31:38The press office encouraged people
00:31:40to start their own ELF cells,
00:31:42but mandated that their fires not harm any life.
00:31:45Take initiative, form your own cell,
00:31:47and do what needs to be done
00:31:49to protect all life on this planet.
00:31:51The idea spread,
00:31:53and new anonymous cells popped up
00:31:55in other parts of the country.
00:31:57The Earth Liberation Front is turning up the heat again,
00:32:00igniting devastating blazes all across the country.
00:32:04A biology lab at the University of Minnesota.
00:32:06Bloomington, Indiana.
00:32:08New York's Long Island.
00:32:10Now some say ELF is in New England.
00:32:18Back in Eugene, people were celebrating.
00:32:22We had no idea that it was people from our neighborhood,
00:32:25and they were friends of ours,
00:32:27but we were hearing about what was happening.
00:32:29We were celebrating.
00:32:35I don't think it was just the ELF
00:32:37that started ratcheting things up.
00:32:39I think activists all over the Northwest
00:32:41were also kicking it up a notch.
00:32:44They thought there was a possibility
00:32:46of really making things change.
00:32:49Just have to work at it a little harder,
00:32:51be a little more radical.
00:33:00It's not turning at all.
00:33:02You know someone's locked under.
00:33:04There's an old woman.
00:33:06She's 80 years old.
00:33:25There was a sort of progression of radicalism
00:33:28that happened in Eugene.
00:33:30And so the police were also amping up their presence
00:33:35because we were amping up our presence.
00:33:39Literally, we were having two protests a week,
00:33:42you know, major protests.
00:33:45And so you can imagine what law enforcement went like.
00:33:50I was doing undercover work around the Eugene area.
00:33:54We were looking for some of these individuals
00:33:56that were causing mayhem around Eugene.
00:34:00I think it was well known in the movement
00:34:03that they could probe and push and get us to react
00:34:07in a way that oftentimes didn't look very good.
00:34:27But we were getting rocks and bottles
00:34:30and that kind of thing, fire, thrown at us, you know.
00:34:33It just hadn't happened before.
00:34:37To say that emotions don't play into that would be folly.
00:34:41I mean, that's not true.
00:34:43It is personal to take a rock.
00:34:47And people's views got hardened and more radicalized
00:34:51from what the police were doing to them within Eugene
00:34:55or other campaigns that were going on around the Northwest.
00:35:00Are you going to release?
00:35:03Why are you doing this to us?
00:35:06Okay, are you going to release?
00:35:08Who's going to release?
00:35:10Who's going to release?
00:35:12Okay, are you going to release?
00:35:14Who's going to release?
00:35:20I only did one eye.
00:35:21I'm going to do the other eye if you don't release.
00:35:24Please don't hurt me.
00:35:27Violence is not to be used as a means to protest.
00:35:30I'm going to leave her alone.
00:35:32Stop it! Stop it!
00:35:34No!
00:35:35When those people were getting attacked
00:35:37and stepped on and pepper-sprayed in their face
00:35:39while they were locked down,
00:35:41I thought protest and civil disobedience,
00:35:43what's the point? Why bother?
00:35:45It's not getting us anywhere.
00:35:47We're getting victimized by their police.
00:35:51I don't know.
00:35:52I think I, like a lot of people I knew at the time,
00:35:55experienced a massive loss of faith
00:35:57and that systemic change could happen
00:36:00through the system regulating itself or reforming itself.
00:36:06When the World Trade Summit was planned for Seattle,
00:36:09the administration obviously hoped it would be a triumph
00:36:12for Bill Clinton in the closing months of his presidency.
00:36:15Instead, it's been a nightmare of protests
00:36:18and demonstrations in the streets.
00:36:21In 1999, tens of thousands of people converged on Seattle
00:36:25to protest the WTO
00:36:27and its effect on the environment and labor.
00:36:31They blockaded the streets using non-violent civil disobedience.
00:36:35Please don't protest! Please don't protest!
00:36:39The police responded with force to clear the streets.
00:36:42If you do not move, you will be deserted.
00:36:53I'm so sick of you shooting poison!
00:36:56But while the authorities were focused on the demonstrators,
00:36:59another group appeared
00:37:01that included current and future members of the ELF.
00:37:05I met these people in Seattle
00:37:07and I was introduced to kind of a larger group of individuals.
00:37:11Here we are in our black clothes, you know,
00:37:14downtown Seattle is just full of corporations
00:37:16that are wrecking devastation and destruction on the planet
00:37:19and people were just like, OK, let's do it.
00:37:25These sisters, they're not going to bow to people dancing in the streets.
00:37:28They're not going to bow to people dressed as, you know,
00:37:31giant sea turtles and so on.
00:37:33They care about one thing, they care about capital
00:37:35and unless we put a dent in their pocket...
00:37:37How are we going to do that?
00:37:38How are you going to put a dent in their pocket?
00:37:40Hopefully by causing property damage.
00:37:49I never breathed tear gas, pepper spray or saw rubber bullets
00:37:52or concussion grenades until that point.
00:37:54I mean, it was like insane.
00:37:56I really felt like this is like a war zone.
00:37:58Like, wow, holy crap.
00:38:03I don't know what to say.
00:38:05I don't know what to say.
00:38:07I don't know what to say.
00:38:14It felt good to take out my rage on these corporate windows
00:38:17because they had caused so much destruction in my mind.
00:38:22It created, obviously, a huge conversation and dialogue and fight.
00:38:26This is not what the protest was about.
00:38:30People work hard for best property!
00:38:33Vandalism is vandalism, destruction is destruction.
00:38:36Whether it's of lives or property, it's not acceptable.
00:38:39What do you think of the Boston Tea Party?
00:38:41I thought it was wonderful.
00:38:43Ah, thank you.
00:38:46Fifty cents, read all about it.
00:38:49I think people have a very Pollyanna viewpoint of social change.
00:38:54No real social change has happened without pressure,
00:38:57without force, without, some would say,
00:38:59intimidating governments and corporations into changing their behavior.
00:39:09Oh, it's so weird to talk about this stuff.
00:39:13I took part in the Black Bloc at WTO,
00:39:16and the goal of the Black Bloc was to just send a message,
00:39:19an anti-capitalist message,
00:39:21that consumer America is destroying the world and destroying the planet.
00:39:28And that was the first time we met a lot of other people
00:39:30that ended up being involved in the arsons.
00:39:38After the WTO, I decided to move to Eugene
00:39:41to keep in touch with some of these people that I met in Seattle.
00:39:45And I started becoming a really different person.
00:39:48Daniel was very involved in the issues and ideas surrounding Eugene.
00:39:53He was very social.
00:39:55He seemed to know everybody, and everybody seemed to know him,
00:39:58including the cops.
00:40:01Daniel was kind of known as a leader around the area.
00:40:07You know, he would show up at protests or gatherings,
00:40:11and you can always see that he was somebody that people looked up to.
00:40:14You know, you see who's serious and who's not,
00:40:17based on how they're acting, what they're saying.
00:40:19And so somewhere along the line, it became obvious
00:40:21that, like, I was someone that was interested in doing other stuff.
00:40:24I met Jake in the neighborhood.
00:40:26There was some allure about him just being quiet and kind of to himself.
00:40:31And being there really set some things in motion.
00:40:48The more radical environmental community have, in my opinion,
00:40:51a misconception about this industry and what we do.
00:41:00It's more than just a job.
00:41:02You know, I'm a third-generation lumberman.
00:41:05My son works in the industry.
00:41:07I want him to carry on, and when he has kids, I want them to carry on.
00:41:14You can't be in the lumber industry without having trees to cut.
00:41:18So it's ridiculous for people to think
00:41:20we're going to go out there and cut the last tree.
00:41:25I think the biggest misconception is that we're out there
00:41:28just knocking the forest down.
00:41:30We're just, you know, we're termites.
00:41:33We just rampage through the forest, and we leave it a mess, and we move on.
00:41:39Does it have an impact? Certainly.
00:41:41Nobody likes the looks of a fresh harvest.
00:41:44But we really do regrow these trees.
00:41:46You know, we plant six trees for every tree we harvest.
00:41:49That's the law. I mean, it's just flat-out the law.
00:41:51People don't break the law.
00:41:52You can't get away with it in Oregon or anyplace else.
00:41:55Being an environmentalist is simply respecting the land
00:41:58and the atmosphere around you.
00:42:00In that regard, I'm an environmentalist.
00:42:06Eugene has a commercial railroad that goes through town.
00:42:12You know, it was uncommon to see just, like,
00:42:14plywood after plywood and company names, you know, stamped onto it.
00:42:20That's definitely how I heard about Superior Lumber,
00:42:23just by seeing their half-mile-long train full of forest go by.
00:42:33They were logging old grove, logging just massive trees
00:42:36out of areas that had previously been pretty inaccessible.
00:42:41Sometimes when you see things you love being destroyed,
00:42:44you just want to destroy those things.
00:42:49So I felt like the action was justified.
00:42:57We were quite surprised that we had been targeted.
00:43:01I believe I was invited to participate in Superior Lumber
00:43:04by Meyerhoff to be a lookout along with Suzanne.
00:43:08But I met Jacob and Kevin right before the action, Kevin Tubbs.
00:43:13They got together some weeks before, did a surveillance of it.
00:43:18It was in an isolated area.
00:43:20There was no viable security there.
00:43:25They figured out where they should place the devices.
00:43:29They came back and prepared the devices.
00:43:32Put them in plastic Tupperware containers.
00:43:34Made sure that the containers were fingerprint-free, DNA-clean.
00:43:38They always wore gloves.
00:43:40I felt nervous from the get-go.
00:43:42For one, I was staying in this house where everything was stored.
00:43:45And it was someone else's house that didn't know about the accident.
00:43:48On the night of the arson, they drove to the staging area.
00:43:53They put on their masks,
00:43:55and they went into the staging area.
00:43:58They put on their masks.
00:44:00They did radio checks.
00:44:02They had a police scanner.
00:44:04I was positively nerve-wracking.
00:44:06I used to get really sick before action,
00:44:08and throw up, and just get nervous,
00:44:10and just in a zone, you know?
00:44:12I mean, I think you have to get,
00:44:14when you're doing something that intense, even as a lookout,
00:44:16you're just freaked out,
00:44:18because you just don't know how anything's going to go.
00:44:21I was in the back of the van,
00:44:23and I was actually kind of by myself in the back of the van,
00:44:25so I was just kind of thinking to myself,
00:44:27and I think Kevin and Jake were in the front of the van,
00:44:30and they were just listening to music,
00:44:32and so it was fairly relaxed.
00:44:34People weren't really talking a whole lot,
00:44:36but, you know, your adrenaline's going.
00:44:38Ms. Savoy and Mr. McGowan were the lookouts,
00:44:40and they staged north and south of the building.
00:44:45I was stationed at a payphone.
00:44:49You know, everybody else was dressed in all black,
00:44:51because everybody wanted to blend into the night.
00:44:55However, I dressed, you know, in somewhat darker clothing,
00:44:58but I looked fairly normal.
00:45:00I just had a scarf that I could wrap around my face
00:45:02in case somebody passed by.
00:45:04And then I got dropped off kind of on the side of the road,
00:45:06and I just kind of crawled into this, like, space,
00:45:09this, like, shoulder, you know, with a bunch of ivy.
00:45:12Mr. Meyerhoff and Mr. Ferguson
00:45:14then placed the five-gallon fuel containers
00:45:17and activated the timing devices.
00:45:20It was done within, you know, 15 minutes,
00:45:23and I got picked up, and away we went.
00:45:25It was somewhere between 2 and 3 a.m.
00:45:27when I was home, sound asleep, and I got a phone call.
00:45:31And, of course, any time you get a phone call
00:45:33at 2 a.m. in the morning, it's not good news.
00:45:37It turned the office into just a fiery oven.
00:45:42I mean, I don't know how hot it got in here,
00:45:45but we had keyboards that were, I mean,
00:45:48you couldn't tell one key from the other.
00:45:50They were just melted together.
00:45:56It was just a fire.
00:45:58I mean, I don't know how hot it got in here,
00:46:00but we had keyboards that were, I mean,
00:46:02you couldn't tell one key from the other.
00:46:05I went up to Portland and wrote the communique and sent it in.
00:46:10Even then, it wasn't real.
00:46:12It was just, like, still, like, kind of this cartoonish thing.
00:46:15And it wasn't real until I really saw the newspapers,
00:46:18seeing the man from the company, I think Steve Swanson,
00:46:21just walking through this, like, charred remains,
00:46:23and I was just like, holy crap.
00:46:26That was a major blow to our mental psyche,
00:46:30at least in the short run.
00:46:32Just felt like, you know, a big hole in my heart.
00:46:36In Eugene, people were jazzed.
00:46:39When the big bad bully gets, you know, hit in the stomach
00:46:42and feels a little something,
00:46:44and maybe a little fear or whatever, that felt good.
00:46:48It was exciting.
00:46:50The next day, I felt, you know, like,
00:46:53wow, I've actually done something where it stopped.
00:46:56I didn't have a problem with what I was doing.
00:46:58I thought it was effective.
00:47:00It was a million dollars or something like that.
00:47:03You know, it's like when you're involved with it
00:47:07and you're in the thick of it,
00:47:09it's hard to look at, like, all the consequences
00:47:11and, like, the real repercussions of that.
00:47:13Like, you know, did this action push them in a better direction?
00:47:17Did it scare them?
00:47:19Did it help the movement in any capacity on Oak Grove Law?
00:47:22I mean, there's lots of questions,
00:47:24but I don't think at the time I was asking those questions too much.
00:47:31Awesome.
00:47:35Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally.
00:47:38All right, well, that's great.
00:47:40I guess I'll see you in a little bit.
00:47:42Okay, bye.
00:47:44Yes.
00:47:48Awesome. All right, this is great.
00:47:50I'm off the system.
00:47:52I am off House Arrest, technically, right now.
00:47:55Hey, I'm off.
00:47:59Sweet. Seven months and two days.
00:48:03With seven months of good behavior,
00:48:05Daniel's lawyers have convinced the government
00:48:07that he's not a flight risk.
00:48:09What do you think about that?
00:48:11I think I'm going to stay in tonight.
00:48:13No, I'm joking. Are you kidding me?
00:48:16I don't care how tired I am. We're doing something.
00:48:29Of course I'm going to get off House Arrest on this day,
00:48:32like, of all days, like, it'll be today, you know.
00:48:37It's really sad for me to, like, have all these films
00:48:40about my home being attacked, like, my city being attacked.
00:48:45I mean, when I tell people that, like,
00:48:47I'm accused of being a terrorist, like,
00:48:49whether it's eco or domestic in front of it
00:48:51or if it's just straight terrorist, like, it's ludicrous to me.
00:48:54It's, like, surreal.
00:48:56And most people that know me are like, what?
00:48:59No-one's accused in my case of flying planes, bombing things,
00:49:02trying to hurt people, none of these things,
00:49:04but no-one's accused of that.
00:49:06It's property destruction.
00:49:08Like, that's what it is. Call it what it is, you know.
00:49:11Yay!
00:49:12Look, naked, right?
00:49:13You did it.
00:49:14How you doing?
00:49:15How you doing?
00:49:16Look at my freak-ass ankle.
00:49:18I actually ran a little bit because I wanted to feel
00:49:20like what it was like to run.
00:49:22I'm so tired.
00:49:24I'm so tired.
00:49:26My feet hurt, my legs hurt, my...
00:49:28I just had a knee pain. It was horrible.
00:49:38As time went on,
00:49:40the cell members had to become
00:49:42better and better and better at their craft,
00:49:44and their craft was destruction.
00:49:50And so they started what was called the book club.
00:49:55They would train one another
00:49:57on how to build incendiary devices.
00:50:06And they would go out and test all these things,
00:50:09so they knew how long it would take.
00:50:11You know, at this time of night, in this kind of weather,
00:50:14how long will it take for this thing to ignite?
00:50:18What type of fuel would work the best?
00:50:21They wouldn't buy all the ingredients from the same store.
00:50:24Even if the same store had the two or three items that they'd need,
00:50:28they would go to a completely different store,
00:50:31you know, 30, 40 miles away,
00:50:33so it wouldn't ever be tracked.
00:50:35It was called the book club
00:50:37because they also utilized certain codes.
00:50:41At the meeting, they were told,
00:50:43this is the book we'll be using,
00:50:45and then you'd have to use your book
00:50:48that would associate what page number,
00:50:50what line number, what word number,
00:50:53and that's how you would decode the message
00:50:55to tell you where to go.
00:50:57Some of the members of the book club then
00:50:59were more well-versed in computer sciences,
00:51:02and they brought in PGP encryption
00:51:04and showed the other members how to do that.
00:51:06There was a lot of, like, having good covers
00:51:08for why you're leaving town, why you're not leaving,
00:51:11you know, where you're going, having really good stories
00:51:14that made sense, that were consistent,
00:51:16and you told everyone, your job, your family, everything,
00:51:19not dressing like activists, per se.
00:51:23We didn't really look like what you think we would look like.
00:51:26I mean, if you saw people walking down the street,
00:51:28you would never think, that's the ELF.
00:51:30It made a lot of sense of why there wasn't any evidence,
00:51:33why they weren't caught sooner.
00:51:35They were really good at what they did.
00:51:41In May of 2001,
00:51:43members of the ELF launched an attack
00:51:45against two sites at once,
00:51:47a first for the organization.
00:51:49The first target was an office
00:51:51at the University of Washington,
00:51:53where a scientist was doing genetic research on trees
00:51:56with a grant from the timber industry.
00:51:59The second target was the Jefferson Poplar tree farm,
00:52:02where the group believed that genetically engineered trees
00:52:05were being developed for paper production.
00:52:08In the previous arson, Daniel had been a lookout,
00:52:12but this time, he took a much more active role.
00:52:15They'd rented a motel room.
00:52:17They set up a tent inside the motel room.
00:52:20They put on painter suits, triple-thick gloves.
00:52:23They made the devices.
00:52:25One team went to University of Washington,
00:52:28and the other team traveled down to Clacksonian, Oregon,
00:52:32to Jefferson Poplar farms.
00:52:34Clacksonia is a really small town.
00:52:36We're desperately trying to avoid a traffic stop,
00:52:38because it's just like, we're pretty much screwed
00:52:41if we got stopped.
00:52:42There's way too many people in the car,
00:52:44dressed in all black.
00:52:45The driver of the vehicle was Miss Savoy.
00:52:48Miss Zacker served as a lookout.
00:52:51And then the three men, which was Mr. Meyerhoff,
00:52:54Mr. McGowan, and Mr. Block,
00:52:57took the fuel loads and the timers to the targets.
00:53:01We checked that no one's there.
00:53:03Like, climb around, look around, no one's in there.
00:53:05We'd been there previous, no one's there.
00:53:07The cleaning lady's there, like, much earlier.
00:53:09We set up all the devices and all the buckets.
00:53:13They put little tubs full of fuel underneath the vehicles,
00:53:18and they put soaked rags,
00:53:19and they'd run the rags from vehicle to vehicle to vehicle.
00:53:22And the towel just goes and goes and goes and goes,
00:53:25and it's tied together in sheets,
00:53:27and it's just, it's an absolute mess.
00:53:29They were careful to take the trucks with the fuel tanks,
00:53:33fill the beds of the vehicles with fuel.
00:53:36I'm standing there, I'm drenched in gasoline.
00:53:39We're about to burn 13 huge SUVs,
00:53:42and I was just like, what am I doing?
00:53:46But we take spray paint.
00:53:47Myself and another person go out to the shed,
00:53:50and I write E.L.F. on one side,
00:53:52pretty huge letters,
00:53:53and the other person writes,
00:53:54you cannot control what is wild.
00:53:58There's the E, L, and F.
00:54:06Everything was basically fully engulfed when I got here.
00:54:10With all the vehicles and the fuel tanks and so forth,
00:54:14there was lots of propellant in the area to make things burn,
00:54:20and things went up fast and hot.
00:54:23911, what is your emergency?
00:54:26Emergency?
00:54:27Man, we got a big fire.
00:54:28We're going to need to go out and do something.
00:54:33Investigators in the Pacific Northwest strongly suspect
00:54:37that two nearly simultaneous fires
00:54:40were acts of ecological terror.
00:54:44Monday morning, May 24th, I got back to Eugene,
00:54:47and I was just like, wow,
00:54:48I really need to think about what I just did.
00:54:52Just seeing, you know, absolute ruins
00:54:55and realizing that all people were going to focus on
00:54:58was the fact that things were destroyed
00:55:00and that the issues are being lost,
00:55:02and all they care about is catching the people that did it.
00:55:06They're talking about Jefferson Poplar,
00:55:07and then they're talking about University of Washington.
00:55:09So finding out what eventually happened
00:55:11at University of Washington,
00:55:13the massive destruction to a library,
00:55:15not just the professor's office
00:55:17that was involved in this sort of research,
00:55:19but the Center for Urban Horticulture.
00:55:21I was like, this is too much, too fast, too big.
00:55:24What am I doing?
00:55:25Not only had the fire at the University of Washington
00:55:28gotten out of control,
00:55:29they also discovered that the Jefferson Poplar arson
00:55:32was based on faulty information.
00:55:35It turned out that while the previous owners of the property
00:55:38had been involved with genetic engineering,
00:55:41the new owners only had hybrid trees
00:55:43developed using farming methods
00:55:45that have been around for hundreds of years.
00:55:48It's hard to really justify it in hindsight.
00:55:52Nobody would have targeted that facility
00:55:54had we known that there was no genetic engineering
00:55:56going on there at the time.
00:55:58So it left me with a really bad taste in my mouth,
00:56:01kind of like, wow, look at this huge, intense action,
00:56:04and look what happened in Washington.
00:56:06Am I really ready for this?
00:56:08This is super serious and super big.
00:56:11We went to the meeting a few weeks afterwards,
00:56:13and I was like, this is too much.
00:56:15Some members of the group were questioning the actions,
00:56:18but there were others who felt they hadn't gone far enough.
00:56:21Some of them decided that they wanted to target
00:56:24basically captains of industry,
00:56:26target people now, not just property.
00:56:30The last circle meeting basically cleaved
00:56:33between people that were seemingly wanting to talk about it,
00:56:37not even plan it, but they were like, we should talk about it,
00:56:40and the people that were repulsed by it.
00:56:42And really, that ideological divide is what ended it.
00:56:45That was it.
00:56:47What people were discussing with my experiences of the arson,
00:56:50it made my mind kind of, like, spin.
00:56:54It's things like this that led me to think, like, this is futile.
00:56:58Like, there's got to be better ways of addressing
00:57:00what's going on in the world than just burning things down.
00:57:03As the ELF cell was dissolving,
00:57:06the larger activist community in Eugene was splintering as well.
00:57:10I think people were self-righteous.
00:57:12I think people thought they knew they had the answer,
00:57:15weren't willing to listen to other points of view
00:57:17because their view is more radical in that point of view.
00:57:20All those things came into play, I think,
00:57:23to help narrow the amount of people
00:57:26that were connected within the movement
00:57:29to the point where it just went poof, doesn't exist anymore.
00:57:33That's one really sad thing about, you know,
00:57:36about a lot of social movements, but, you know,
00:57:39I think ours especially because we all are so critical of the world
00:57:44and of the way people live in the world
00:57:47and how they interact with the natural world
00:57:50that we sometimes are extremely critical on each other,
00:57:53and that is definitely part of our downfall as a movement.
00:57:57The scene was really imploding there at the time,
00:58:01and I took a small trip to New York for my sister's 35th birthday.
00:58:06And I hung out with my family, and I was like, wow, I really love my family.
00:58:10I forgot that I, like, I just grew so disconnected from them.
00:58:15And I met Jenny.
00:58:17And I was like, all right, I think I'm going to move back to New York.
00:58:21After moving home, Daniel began working at the Rainforest Foundation.
00:58:26He organized protests against the Republican Convention.
00:58:29And finally, he took a job at a domestic violence organization
00:58:33where he was working when he was arrested.
00:58:41The ELF fires in the Northwest had stopped,
00:58:45but the government continued to work on the case.
00:58:49We had a war room, basically.
00:58:51It was a situation room, and we worked it and worked it and worked it.
00:58:54We had diagrams all over the walls.
00:58:56We had our flow charts, and we had pictures of all our target suspects up there.
00:59:00What's different on TV that's not realistic
00:59:04is that everything's solved in 50 minutes, you know.
00:59:07And that's not what happens here.
00:59:09Three years after Daniel moved back to New York,
00:59:12the government had still turned up no viable suspects.
00:59:15We came together and decided that we would take a cold case approach
00:59:20on one arson to see if we can turn any suspects in that particular arson.
00:59:26And the arson we chose was one that occurred in the city of Eugene,
00:59:30and it was the Joe Romania Truck Center arson,
00:59:33where in which 35 SUVs were burned to the ground.
00:59:44The new investigation yielded a number of clues
00:59:47which pointed the government toward one local activist.
00:59:50The night of Romania, Jake Ferguson was accused of stealing a truck,
00:59:55which was kind of interesting.
00:59:57You know, the truck would be needed for something like what occurred.
01:00:01We also knew that Josephine Overaker was arrested in the Olympia area
01:00:06just prior to an arson that occurred up there.
01:00:09And we knew that her boyfriend was Jacob Ferguson.
01:00:12And that's when we really turned the heat up.
01:00:15With Jake now on their radar, they began following him everywhere,
01:00:19asking people about him,
01:00:21and bringing his friends in for questioning before grand juries.
01:00:25You know, you start seeing cars following you,
01:00:28and cars with guys sitting outside where you're staying, you know,
01:00:33and it was really scary, you know,
01:00:36to think that they were kind of on the right track, you know,
01:00:40and that they're just kind of, like, right there behind you.
01:00:43And he's also a drug user, and so that adds paranoia.
01:00:48They know, you know, they're coming for me.
01:00:51And, of course, in Jake's case, some of it was true,
01:00:55where when he did turn around, there were law enforcement following him.
01:00:59So lightning was striking all around him,
01:01:02and with that in mind, we gave him an out.
01:01:06We called him into the United States Attorney's Office.
01:01:09We were in a conference room there,
01:01:12and then we explained to him, quite simply,
01:01:15that we knew what his situation was.
01:01:18They told him they knew he was a heroin addict,
01:01:21They told him they knew he was a heroin addict,
01:01:24and that he'd lied to an investigator, which was a felony.
01:01:27And then they bluffed.
01:01:30Despite a lack of hard evidence,
01:01:32they led him to believe that they could tie him to the ELF arsons.
01:01:35We never told Jake Ferguson or his lawyer what we knew or didn't know.
01:01:39You never do that.
01:01:41Could we have really put him away for a long time at that point?
01:01:44Probably not.
01:01:46They told him that the arsons carried a life sentence,
01:01:49and that if he became an informant, they'd let him walk away from his crimes.
01:01:53I described to him, tried to paint an image of him
01:01:57walking through the forest on a road
01:02:00some sunny summer afternoon, hand in hand with his son,
01:02:05instead of looking at his son through bulletproof glass.
01:02:09And he thought about it.
01:02:12And at that particular point in time,
01:02:15then he and his lawyer excused themselves
01:02:18and said, well, we'll get back to you in a day or so.
01:02:21You know, he grew up with his dad in prison,
01:02:24and he saw how bad that life was.
01:02:27He didn't want to spend the rest of his life in prison
01:02:30and have his son, you know, never see his dad.
01:02:35Twenty minutes later, I get a call from downstairs,
01:02:38and Mr. Ferguson and his lawyer want to come out and talk to us.
01:02:41And so they came up and they said,
01:02:44if you would like to consider cooperation, what do we need to do?
01:02:49So that was, when we found out that he was willing to cooperate,
01:02:52that was one of the best days I've ever had.
01:02:55So he started listing off all the things that he had information about,
01:03:00and that basically was every arson in the District of Oregon,
01:03:04arsons in Washington State, arsons in Wyoming,
01:03:07arsons in Colorado, California.
01:03:10He did not know the scope of what he had knowledge of.
01:03:14So that's when the investigation really kind of broke open.
01:03:18The team immediately grew from 12 or 13 to 40 to 300 agents.
01:03:25After debriefing Jake about the 14 fires he'd been involved in,
01:03:29the government had a problem.
01:03:31They knew that a heroin addict with a pentagram tattoo on his head
01:03:35would not make a persuasive witness in court,
01:03:38and they needed corroborating evidence.
01:03:41We talked to him and his lawyer, and we said,
01:03:44OK, this is what we want you to do, we want you to wear a wire.
01:03:47They hid a recording device in the liner of his baseball cap,
01:03:51and over the course of a year, they flew him all over the country,
01:03:54where they arranged for him to accidentally bump into his old friends
01:03:58and get them to reminisce about the old days.
01:04:01He walked into an animal rights conference I was at
01:04:04in Washington Heights at Hollywood Church.
01:04:07It was bizarre to see him.
01:04:09I mean, he was bloated and kind of fat and just looked really different.
01:04:15He was talkative, which was weird,
01:04:17because I always remembered him as a really quiet guy, but he was talkative.
01:04:23Let's go, Lef. We can kick it at a park bench.
01:04:27I went to go get a coffee with him, and we just talked a bunch,
01:04:30and, yeah, it was unfortunate.
01:04:32There is a reward out for all of that.
01:04:38I'm pretty firmly convinced that if there were ever any hair or fingerprints,
01:04:43they already would have hit.
01:04:45But, I mean, it's been four years on most of this shit.
01:04:50As long as people never try to rat us in or out, then we'll be fine.
01:04:55I mean, thinking about it, I can't help but be annoyed at myself for being like,
01:04:59how did you not know something was really wrong here?
01:05:02Here's the deal. If anything ever does go wrong, it'll be a big domino.
01:05:07But frankly, the only way I think anything could go wrong
01:05:11is someone decides that they want to repent for their sins,
01:05:15or they lose their mind and they want to get money.
01:05:18Money, huh?
01:05:20But, come on, it's not worth it, man.
01:05:22That's some Judas shit, man.
01:05:26It feels rather foolish, you know, to have done that,
01:05:30but I'm trying to get over the shame associated with making dumb mistakes.
01:05:36Jake was extremely conflicted.
01:05:38We had to pump him up. It was like before a big fight,
01:05:41where we sat there with him for probably half an hour to an hour
01:05:46just to get him kind of tuned up and ready to do it.
01:05:53It wasn't something I felt good about, you know,
01:05:57getting people to confess by wearing a wire, you know.
01:06:01But what can you do when you've already taken a deal
01:06:04and then you've admitted to doing all these felonies they've gotten?
01:06:08You know, if you do anything to disagree with the deal,
01:06:11the deal's off and you've just confessed to, like, you know, life in prison.
01:06:18So once we had those recordings in place,
01:06:22we decided on a particular takedown date.
01:06:26The takedown presented an enormous logistical challenge.
01:06:30The government believed that the suspects had to be arrested
01:06:33at exactly the same moment, or word would get out and they would go into hiding.
01:06:38So teams of federal agents fanned out across the country.
01:06:42I went to New York and we stayed out on Daniel McGowan's house
01:06:46until I think it was 10 or 11,
01:06:49making sure that he was going to be there first thing in the morning.
01:06:53And then we got, yeah, it was not very good sleep.
01:06:57The next morning, Detective Harvey and three federal agents
01:07:00followed Daniel to work.
01:07:03I look up and around the corner comes these kind of big dudes.
01:07:08I just kept feeling wave after wave of dread and fear, just kept, you know,
01:07:12and I was like, I could barely talk.
01:07:14I was just, like, completely, like, lost my voice.
01:07:16Like, I just could barely move, you know, it was really horrible.
01:07:20They're like, you're being extradited to Oregon for, you know, EOF charges.
01:07:24You should consider pleading, don't ruin your family, like all this stuff.
01:07:28We would have them have an attorney.
01:07:31We would present the evidence that we have against them and say,
01:07:34here's your opportunity to become a cooperator or remain a defendant,
01:07:39your choice.
01:07:41You know, when you sit down with them and you show them
01:07:44and you let them listen to themselves on tape,
01:07:47you see them really think, okay, I'm done.
01:07:52It was a very successful approach because, you know, the dominoes began to fall.
01:07:58I was in bed.
01:08:00My husband was up for work.
01:08:04It was 5 in the morning.
01:08:08He gets up early for work, and he came into the bedroom
01:08:12and told me that the FBI and the Oregon State Police were there to talk to me.
01:08:16And right away I pretty much knew what they were there to talk to me about.
01:08:23From there it was just, you know, the hardest decision I've ever made in my life,
01:08:28whether or not I should take a plea bargain and cooperate
01:08:32or risk going to prison for the rest of my life.
01:08:35And I think that probably will be the hardest decision I've ever made in my life.
01:08:39And I chose to cooperate and take the plea bargain
01:08:45so that I could someday once again, you know, be with my loved ones.
01:08:52I would have been fully prepared to have gone away for 5 to 10 years.
01:08:58You know, it was really looking at dying alone in prison
01:09:01and knowing that every single loved one would have moved on
01:09:04and done something else in their life.
01:09:07It felt like a death sentence, you know, more than a life sentence.
01:09:14People can judge me for the decisions I've made,
01:09:17but until you've been in that position, it's, you know,
01:09:21it's really hard to know what you would do.
01:09:23I never in my life thought I would be cooperating with the FBI.
01:09:27I always thought that I would be able to stay strong
01:09:30and stay true to my values and my beliefs.
01:09:33And, you know, I guess sometimes you aren't as strong as you think.
01:09:45So, um, I don't know if you're on, but can we talk off camera for a second?
01:09:51Daniel's lawyers have negotiated a plea bargain.
01:09:55While most of his co-defendants have agreed to testify against each other,
01:09:59Daniel and three others have held out for different terms.
01:10:03They'll have to take responsibility for the arsons,
01:10:06but will not be forced to give information about others
01:10:09if they accept the deal.
01:10:13-♪♪
01:10:18-♪♪
01:10:22-♪♪
01:10:25-♪♪
01:10:30-♪♪
01:10:33-♪♪
01:10:37Everything has this overshadowing.
01:10:39This is the last of holidays.
01:10:41This is the last birthday party.
01:10:42This lasts everything.
01:10:44It's funny.
01:10:45He's not really a big materialistic person,
01:10:47but he bought her a lot of gifts this year,
01:10:49and I said to him,
01:10:50you didn't have to go through all this trouble,
01:10:51and he said, uh, this might be the last time
01:10:53I can, you know, really ever give her gifts and be here,
01:10:56so that was kind of sad.
01:10:59I don't know.
01:11:00He's got some serious decisions to make,
01:11:02and they suck.
01:11:03No matter what you choose, they suck.
01:11:06-♪♪
01:11:08-♪♪
01:11:13I just feel bad that, uh,
01:11:15this came up in this part of his life.
01:11:20Hoping for him to make an agreement
01:11:24was going to trial.
01:11:26I think, I think with the charges against him,
01:11:31that's two life sentences.
01:11:35I don't believe in his philosophies,
01:11:38but, uh, he's my son, and I, and I love him.
01:11:52Come here, Lily.
01:11:54Miss.
01:12:02So, cool.
01:12:03I, thanks for everyone for coming.
01:12:05I know it's...
01:12:12Okay, um, I just wanted everyone to come
01:12:14so I can tell you guys,
01:12:15I, I made my final decision on, uh,
01:12:18the plea bargain the government offered,
01:12:20um, a few weeks ago,
01:12:22and so, um,
01:12:24I'm gonna be agreeing to this plea bargain
01:12:27in court on the 9th.
01:12:31So...
01:12:33The recommended sentence
01:12:34on the part of the government is eight years.
01:12:36I won't be taken into custody at sentencing.
01:12:38I'm gonna qualify for an, uh, a self-report,
01:12:42but it's a major, major important thing to them
01:12:45to say that, that our crime
01:12:46fit the federal crime of terrorism.
01:12:50Even though Daniel has now accepted a plea bargain,
01:12:53a hurdle still remains.
01:12:55A federal judge must determine
01:12:57whether the fires qualify for something
01:12:59called the terrorism enhancement.
01:13:02If the judge rules that Daniel's fires were terrorism,
01:13:05Daniel could be sent to a new, ultra-restrictive prison
01:13:09that was set up after 9-11 to house terrorists.
01:13:12In the media and in the courtroom,
01:13:15the question is debated.
01:13:16Eco-terrorism.
01:13:17Terrorist acts by radical groups.
01:13:19Eco-terrorists.
01:13:20Eco-terrorism.
01:13:21Environmental terrorists.
01:13:23People need to question, like, this buzzword
01:13:27and how it's being used
01:13:28and how it's, like, just become the new communist.
01:13:30It's become the new, you know, it's, like, the boogeyman.
01:13:33It's the boogeyman word.
01:13:34It's, like, whoever I really disagree with is a terrorist.
01:13:37Some people have the problem with, you know,
01:13:39calling this terrorism,
01:13:40that when you're basically making the threat
01:13:43where people go home at night
01:13:45wondering if they're gonna be a target,
01:13:48that's what terrorism is.
01:13:50After the fire, for a long time,
01:13:54you really looked over your shoulder.
01:13:56We put an alarm system in our home and things like that
01:14:00that before we hadn't thought about.
01:14:03You know, being a New Yorker
01:14:04with experiencing such serious terrorism firsthand
01:14:07is like, how are you gonna call someone
01:14:09who sets fire to an empty building
01:14:13a terrorist?
01:14:14It's just inappropriate in every way, and it's an insult.
01:14:23The word terrorism to me is about killing humans.
01:14:27It's about ending innocent life.
01:14:30And that is the antithesis of what these people did.
01:14:36Concern for life was a very big part
01:14:39of the plan and implementation of these actions
01:14:42and is why no one was ever harmed or injured in them.
01:14:471,200 incidents are being accredited
01:14:50to the ELF and ALF in this country
01:14:53and not a single injury or death.
01:14:55Those statistics don't happen by accident.
01:14:59Terrorist acts under the definition of the law
01:15:02can vary all over the board.
01:15:04There's no requirement for purposes of terrorism
01:15:07that you physically endanger another person's life.
01:15:10I mean, you don't have to be Bonnie and Clyde
01:15:13to be a bank robber,
01:15:14and you don't have to be al-Qaeda to be a terrorist.
01:15:17I don't think these people are terrorists.
01:15:20I think the people and the agencies
01:15:23and the industry that they're fighting
01:15:26are the true terrorists.
01:15:28When you've got big timber companies
01:15:30coming into the Northwest,
01:15:32clear-cutting old-growth forests,
01:15:34big oil companies with their big oil spills
01:15:37that cost billions and billions and billions of dollars,
01:15:41you don't see the FBI raiding these executives' homes
01:15:44or anything like that.
01:15:45They aren't being threatened with life in prison.
01:15:48All they really do is just pay a fine
01:15:51and move on to the next quarter.
01:15:53The old adage that, you know, one man's terrorist
01:15:55is another man's freedom fighter, it's true.
01:15:58You know, if you agree with their motives,
01:16:01wow, they're a hero.
01:16:03They're not a terrorist at all.
01:16:05If you disagree with their motives,
01:16:07then they're a terrorist.
01:16:08That's tough, okay?
01:16:09That's why it's a whole lot cleaner to deal with crimes.
01:16:13Crimes, non-crimes, okay?
01:16:15I'm good with that. I can do that.
01:16:17Arson.
01:16:18Arson is a crime.
01:16:19Good, I can do that.
01:16:21Is it terrorism?
01:16:22We'll find out.
01:16:34You know, I ordered a book about doing time
01:16:37in federal prison written by a lawyer who did time,
01:16:39and I'm very, you know, getting very prepared
01:16:41for the whole idea, but that doesn't necessarily
01:16:43make it any easier.
01:16:45No.
01:16:53I know.
01:16:56Yeah.
01:16:59Just, I don't know, it sucks.
01:17:01Sometimes it's hard now to just look at the whole situation
01:17:04and go, like, what the fuck?
01:17:06How did this all happen, you know?
01:17:12I don't know.
01:17:13The situation with the environment,
01:17:15it's not getting better, it's getting worse.
01:17:17And while I'm suggesting that the path of destruction
01:17:19and destroying everything is the right thing to do,
01:17:21and while I'm suggesting that the path of destruction
01:17:23and destroying everything is the right path,
01:17:25but I didn't know what to do.
01:17:27It's like when you're screaming at the top of your lungs
01:17:29and, like, no-one hears you, like,
01:17:31what the hell are you supposed to say, you know?
01:17:33What are you supposed to do?
01:17:41Police.
01:17:43You going to the courthouse?
01:17:51Yeah.
01:18:22The judge has sentenced Mr. McGowan
01:18:24to 84 months in prison.
01:18:26That's seven years.
01:18:28The court also imposed a terrorism enhancement.
01:18:31He's been branded as a terrorist in the media.
01:18:35He will be listed as a successful government terror prosecution
01:18:40for the rest of his life, and we are very disappointed.
01:18:44We believe it's legally wrong and factually wrong.
01:18:52Look at the trailhead right there.
01:18:54Look at the trailhead right there.
01:19:20Oh, my God, it fell from there.
01:19:25The older I get,
01:19:28the more circumspect I become,
01:19:31and I know now that a world is not black and white.
01:19:37It's not that simple.
01:19:40When I first read about these arsons
01:19:44and became involved in the investigation of the arsons,
01:19:50you see all the damage and the harm that they've done
01:19:53and the threats they've made.
01:19:55They're not very likable people at all.
01:19:58Once you get to know them as a human being,
01:20:02you start looking at their motivations
01:20:06because you're curious about it.
01:20:08Why did they do such a horrible thing?
01:20:10And you look at their background,
01:20:12and you look at their childhood,
01:20:14and you look at how they've evolved
01:20:18from the days when they committed all these crimes,
01:20:22and then instead of just being a cold mugshot or a piece of paper,
01:20:28they become human beings.
01:20:30And so you begin to understand them,
01:20:32and that's not that you're saying you approve
01:20:34of their conduct or their behavior,
01:20:36but you gain an understanding and insight
01:20:39as to how it came to pass that they started doing these things.
01:20:44And then you're curious about how their lives will end up,
01:20:48but only time will tell.
01:20:51My stomach is flipping out.
01:20:55Can we open?
01:20:57No, I got it.
01:20:58You sure?
01:20:59I got to be independent.
01:21:00Okay.
01:21:01You're not going to be there to advise me on stuff.
01:21:05I'm in your corner.
01:21:07I know.
01:21:08Thanks, Pop.
01:21:13Thanks for everything.
01:21:14You're welcome.
01:21:15Bye.
01:21:16Bye.
01:21:17Bye.
01:21:18Bye.
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01:21:29Bye.
01:21:30Bye.
01:21:31Bye.
01:21:32Bye.
01:21:33I'll see you later.
01:22:04I love you.
01:22:05I love you, too.
01:22:33Bye.
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