Notice this "environmentalist" was NOT charged with terrorism.

[b]ELF saboteur pleads guilty

The Associated Press
12/4/02 3:28 AM


PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- An Earth Liberation Front saboteur who faced 40 years in prison for torching three logging trucks pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court Tuesday in exchange for a reduced sentence.

Jacob D.B. Sherman, a 20-year-old Portlander, signed a plea agreement that would allow him to serve 41 months in federal custody. Formal sentencing was set for Feb. 20.

Sherman is one of four people charged with taking part in the June 2001 arson of logging trucks near Estacada to protest the contested Eagle Creek timber sale. He and fellow activist Michael J. Scarpitti -- a radical environmentalist better known as Tre Arrow -- also stand accused of the April 2001 arson of three cement trucks at Portland's Ross Island Sand & Gravel. Scarpitti remains a fugitive.

Andrew Bates, Sherman's lawyer, declined comment on behalf of his client and family. But he issued a statement saying Sherman deeply regretted his actions.

"He never intended to place anyone in harm's way and was only trying to protect our old growth forests and the earth," Bates wrote. "He realizes that, while the protection of our environment is a just cause, his participation in setting these fires was an unacceptable and counterproductive means of protests. The end cannot justify the means."

While Bates declined comment about the case, he acknowledged in court that his client had given substantial help to the authorities as part of a "long and drawn-out process."

Sherman began cooperating with federal agents about one month after his August arrest, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Noonan. The cooperation, along with his young age and lack of prior crimes, accounted for the relatively light sentence, Noonan said.

Sherman's mother wept quietly in the courtroom as U.S. District Judge James A. Redden explained her son's rights to him.

A group of students from Milwaukie's LaSalle High School, Sherman's alma mater, happened to be in court as part of a class trip to the courthouse. There they witnessed Sherman, Class of 2000, plead guilty to two counts of the Hobbs Act, a federal statute that makes it illegal to interfere with interstate commerce by extortion.

The government agreed to drop six other arson-related charges against Sherman.

The underground Earth Liberation Front, described by the FBI as a domestic terrorist group, has been linked to dozens of serious acts of sabotage across the nation since 1996, including 10 arsons in Oregon and Washington.

The front claimed responsibility for the Easter 2001 arson at Ross Island Sand & Gravel.

"In their Easter baskets we decided to leave four containers with gasoline and a time delayed fuse placed under two of their cement trucks," the front wrote in a claim of responsibility eight days after the Ross Island fire. "Let this be a warning to all the greedy corporations who exploit our Earth's natural resources, especially those who plan on doing it under . . . the title of 'free trade.' "

It remains unclear who wrote the claim of responsibility, which traveled to the Earth Liberation Front press office and was then passed to news media, Noonan said.

Also unclear is what impact Sherman's plea will have on his co-defendants.
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[url]http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/newsflash/get_story.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?o0001_BC_OR--ELF-Guilty&&news&newsflash-oregon[/url]

Set him on fire.

yes, but 3 times.

Treat him as a combatant. No rights or legal counsel.

enemy combatant.  execute the fuck, with extreme prejudice!