Cloaks of Secrecy Surround Activist Group Earth Liberation Who? "There's no central hierarchy, there's no membership list. [ELF] works in small groups of closely connected colleagues that they trust, literally, with their freedom." -- Katie Fedor [spacer.gif] [981022fire.jpg] ABCNEWS' Tom Foreman on the group that has claimed reponsibility for the fire. [6]RealVideo (download [7]RealPlayer) [spacer.gif] "By design [EarthFirst!] is very amorphous and we found that if we have designated spokespeople and leaders, they get picked off and targeted," -- Joe Blackburn [spacer.gif] [spacer.gif] [spacer.gif] remains of vail fire The ruins of the Two Elks Lodge on Vail Mountain lie in ashes. An environmental group, The Earth Liberation Front, has taken responsibilty for a series of fires on Vail Mountain in what may be the costliest case of eco-terrorism ever seen in the U.S. (Jack Affleck/AP Photo) By Jan Faust ABCNEWS.com Oct. 22 -- The spokesperson at the national headquarters of the Earth Liberation Front won't take any calls about the group's claim that it's behind the recent fires in Vail, Colo. No calls are being taken, because there is no spokesperson, no phone, no national headquarters. In fact, there may not even be a group called Earth Liberation Front. How's that? Didn't the group just e-mail a Denver public radio station to say that it torched five buildings and four ski lifts under the cover of darkness on Oct. 18? Yes, but in the shades of gray between zealous environmentalists, eco-terrorists and those who actively oppose them, it's hard to know who's doing what to whom and why. Who Are These Shadowy People? Early reports indicated that the Earth Liberation Front is a splinter group of Earth First!, a radical environmental activist movement whose participants endorse "front-line, direct action to get results." "We believe in using all the tools in the toolbox, ranging from grassroots organizing and involvement in the legal process to civil disobedience and monkey wrenching," says the Earth First! Web site. But Earth First! wouldn't comment on the fires, instead referring calls to the Environmental Media Services in Washington, which fields media calls on environmental issues. Its office released a statement that said, "We have never heard of this group [the Earth Liberation Front], and have no idea whether it exists or is a fabrication meant to cast a pall of suspicion over those who have worked so long within the system to protect Colorado's environment." The quote was attributed to an attorney at the Land and Water Fund, which represents the Colorado Environmental Coalition and the Wilderness Society, among others. It's a familiar line, repeated in sparer terms by Joe Blackburn, an Earth Firster in Lancaster, Calif., who chuckled at the mention of the name. "Who is the Earth Liberation Front? I smell a rat. I think that this is another attempt to discredit the environmental movement." Are They Among Us? But this isn't the first time the name Earth Liberation Front has been associated with action. Katie Fedor, a spokeswoman for the Animal Liberation Front, says the two groups collaborated twice last summer--first setting fire to a U.S. Department of Agriculture building in Olympia, Wash., and later releasing 300 mink from a private biomedical research company. "I have no reason to doubt the validity of the communiqué. I think it's genuine, it's very similar to ones they've issued before--the fact that they're stating exactly why this action was taken: They're stopping Vail Resorts from expanding." The exact reason why, according to the Earth Liberation Front's communiqué, was to defend the North American lynx from the proposed expansion. Considered a threatened animal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the lynx was expected to be reintroduced to the Vail area. "The 12 miles of roads and 885 acres...will ruin the last best habitat in the state." Again, it's a familiar line, repeated in sparer terms by Fedor. "These animals are certainly endangered. If Vail Resorts is allowed to encroach on these 885 acres, it's the last lynx habitat in the state." Are They Each Other? The explanation for all this familiarity, according to Gary R. Perlstein, chairman of the Justice Department at Portland State University and author of Perspectives of Terrorism, is that many of these groups are comprised of the same people working both above and below the system to accomplish their goals. "A lot of times these groups are splinter groups of mainstream environmental groups, so they change the name, and it seems like an unknown group. It was a similar technique in the Olympics when the Palestinians attacked the Israeli athletes--the group's name was just that name for that mission." Which makes it difficult for authorities to track, or even count, says Perlstein. "We have no idea and the FBI has no idea. We can say there are over 7,000 environmental groups out there, with close to $100 million in donations, but how many of them are radical elements we don't know." Are They Even to Blame? All of this speculation about whether it was a mainstream environmentalist group, a splinter group, a mainstream group acting as a splinter group or even a counter-movement acting to tar the name of the environmentalist groups, is getting ahead of the investigation, which is still very much under way. At FBI headquarters in Washington, a spokesman said, "We are still trying to assess what has happened here--even if it's a criminal act. It very well could be an incident of arson, we could be looking at a disgruntled employee or insurance fraud." Once more, it's a familiar line, repeated in sparer terms by Ron Arnold of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, which tracks crimes committed to save nature. Could it have been an opportunistic move by the Earth Liberation Front to claim a fire not of its own doing? "That's entirely possible, and the first thing we look at is the usual law enforcement checklist: disgruntled employee, insurance scam, love triangle," Arnold says. So while theories and condemnations swirl around like the powdery snows that fall in Vail, all that can be known for sure is that Vail Resorts is damaged to the tune of $12 million. And it's not stopping the development from going forward. Will the Earth Liberation Front, as it threatened in its e-mail, materialize again? [aquadot.gif]