Operation Backfire
Operation Backfire was a significant investigation initiated by the FBI in 2004, which consolidated seven related cases concerning ecoterrorism linked to the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). Centered in Eugene, Oregon, the operation targeted a group known as the Family, which was accused of involvement in a series of arson attacks and other crimes across several states, with damages estimated at approximately $48 million. High-profile incidents included an arson attack on a ski resort in Vail, Colorado, intended to protect an endangered lynx habitat. The investigation led to the indictment of seventeen individuals, with many ultimately pleading guilty and receiving substantial prison sentences due to "terrorism enhancement" penalties.
While proponents of Operation Backfire, including FBI officials, framed it as a necessary response to domestic terrorism, critics contended that the designation of ecoterrorism was exaggerated and that the responses were disproportionate to the crimes committed. Some lawmakers expressed concerns that such a focus detracted from more severe threats and that Operation Backfire might represent a broader effort to suppress animal rights and environmental activism. The case raises complex discussions about the boundaries of activism, law enforcement, and the definition of terrorism in contemporary society.
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Operation Backfire
Identification: Criminal investigation led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation into a series of destructive actions carried out in the western United States in the 1990’s in the name of environmental and animal rights causes
Dates: 2004-2006
Operation Backfire is the largest and most highly publicized federal investigation of “ecoterrorism” thus far undertaken in the United States. The operation and subsequent trials fueled national debate over the definition of “terrorism” and the appropriate use of domestic surveillance. Some critics regard Operation Backfire as an attempt to disrupt environmental and animal rights activism.
In 2004 the Portland, Oregon, field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) consolidated seven independent yet related investigations into a single major case that it code-named Operation Backfire. Counting the precursor investigations, Operation Backfire lasted nine years and was assisted by local, state, and federal law-enforcement agencies, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. As a result of Operation Backfire’s findings, eleven people were initially indicted; by 2010 that number had risen to seventeen.
Those indicted were purported to belong to a Eugene, Oregon-based cell of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF)—decentralized “direct action” animal rights and environmentalist groups considered to be terrorist organizations by the FBI—known as the Family. The charges included arson, conspiracy, use of destructive devices, and destruction of an energy facility. The crimes, which occurred between 1996 and 2001 in California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming, resulted in approximately $48 million in property damages. Notably included was a highly publicized arson attack on a ski resort in Vail, Colorado, that was carried out to protest a planned expansion that would encroach on habitat of the endangered lynx and resulted in $12 million in damages.
While the indicted parties initially claimed innocence, fifteen of seventeen eventually pled guilty in federal courts. They were sentenced to prison in 2007 for periods ranging from 37 to 188 months; U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken imposed extended sentences owing to “terrorism enhancement” penalties. The alleged “mastermind” of the Family, Bill “Avalon” Rodgers, committed suicide in a Flagstaff, Arizona, jail in late 2005 before he could be transferred to Oregon.
Operation Backfire is not without its critics. While John Lewis, a top FBI official, declared in 2005 that “the No. 1 domestic terrorism threat is the ecoterrorism, animal-rights movement,” some question the merit and the motive of this designation. In a May, 2005, congressional committee hearing, Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey argued that Americans should not allow themselves to be blinded to more serious terrorist threats that take innocent lives by focusing on the illegal actions of ALF and ELF, because “not a single incident of so-called environmental terrorism has killed anyone.” Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont expressed similar skepticism. In a press release on Operation Backfire, the National Lawyers Guild said that the imposition of “draconian sentences” for property damage offenses without intent to harm is an unconstitutional and disproportionate punishment. Some have argued that Operation Backfire is part of a broader “Green Scare” (alluding to the twentieth century anticommunist Red Scare), which they allege is an attempt to suppress animal rights and environmental activism by exploiting public fears of terrorism, with the aim of maintaining the political and corporate status quo.
Defending Operation Backfire in 2006, FBI director Robert Mueller stated that “terrorism is terrorism—no matter what the motive.” Mueller added that Operation Backfire dealt “a substantial blow” to domestic ecoterrorism and should have a “dramatic impact on persons who contemplate these crimes.”
Bibliography
Bishop, Bill. “Operation Backfire.” Register Guard, April 15, 2006, A1.
Potter, Will. “The Green Scare.” Vermont Law Review 33, no. 679 (2009): 671-687.
Scarce, Rik. Eco-Warriors: Understanding the Radical Environmental Movement. Updated ed. Walnut Creek, Calif.: Left Coast Press, 2006.