Timber Wars

Judi Bari

Common Courage Ress Monroe, Maine The Earth First! Car Bombing

kicked in. "I won't talk to you without a lawyer," I The Earth First! mumbled, and drifted back into unconsciousness. Now, three and a half years later, even the FBI Car Bombing has given up saying that and I bombed ourselves. They slandered us all over the Earth First Journal, national press, declaring us guilty of transporting February 1994 the bomb that was used to try to kill us. But in the end, they were unable to produce any evidence against us, and the district attorney refused to Part I press charges. Still, no serious investigation of the bombing was ever conducted, and the bomber The Set-Up remains at large. I knew it was a bomb the second it exploded. I In the wake of this outrageous treatment, felt it rip through me with a force more powerful Darryl and I filed a lawsuit against the FBI and and terrible than anything I could imagine. It blew Oakland Police, charging them with false arrest and right through my car seat, shattering my pelvis, other civil rights violations. Last month, in a strong- crushing my lower backbone, and leaving me ly worded 3-0 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals instantly paralyzed. I couldn't feel my legs, but des- turned down the FBI's third and last attempt to get perate pain filled my body. I didn't know such pain the case thrown out of court. We are now headed for existed. I could feel the life force draining from me, trial, and through the court procedures we have got- and I knew I was dying. I tried to think of my chil- ten access to police photos, reports, and deposi- dren's faces to find a reason to stay alive, but the tions, and gained the release of 5,000 pages of FBI pain was too great, and I couldn't picture them. I files on the case. As we peel back the layers of lies wanted to die. I begged the paramedics to put me and deception surrounding this case, we can begin out. to reconstruct what really happened. I have had I woke up in the hospital 12 hours later, groggy plenty of time now to ponder the magnitude and and confused from shock and morphine. My leg was horror of this attack. And I think it' important for all in traction, tubes trailed from my body, and I was Earth First! activists to know the story. absolutely immobile. As my eyes gradually focused, I made out two figures standing over me. They were COINTELPRO cops. Slowly I began to understand that they were trying to question me. "You are under arrest for pos- The events surrounding the 1990 bombing can session of explosives," one of them said. And even in only be explained in the context of COINTELPRO, J. this devastated condition, my survival instincts Edgar Hoover's Counterintelligence Program to, in his words. "disrupt, misdirect, isolate and neutral- TIMBER WARS The Earth First! Car Bombing

ize" radical groups in the U.S. The techniques of activists murdered and movements destroyed, broke COINTELPRO include infiltration, surveillance. into the FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, and liber- agent provocateurs, disinformation campaigns, fake ated the files. In 1975, the Senate Judiciary com- documents, and framing or assassinating political mittee conducted a congressional Investigation and leaders. find the FBI's COINTELPRO activities to be illegal, The FBI operation against Earth First! in involving massive violations of constitutional rights. Arizona was a classic example of COINTELPRO tac- The FBI claims to have discontinued COINTEL- tics (see Mark Davis's articles in the last two EF! PRO after this exposure. Yet in the bombing case I Journals). Agent provocateurs infiltrated the group find not only the resurgence of COINTELPRO, but and misdirected them into doing an action they also the privatization of COINTELPRO. Not just the would not have done on their own, then busted FBI, but now the private corporations as well, are them for it. The FBI also attempted to frame Dave using the same counter-intelligence tactics that Foreman, and certainly succeeded at neutralizing were declared illegal in the 1970's to try to discredit him a s a spokesman and inspirational figure in and destroy Earth First! in the 1990's. Earth First! The man in charge of my case at the FBI was The Uzi Photo Richard Held, director of the San Francisco FBI The effort to disrupt Ukiah Earth First! and office. Held has a 25-year history as one of the prin- paint me as a terrorist began in November of 1988, ciple operatives of COINTELPRO. He is known for one and a half years before the bombing. At that producing fake documents, including death threats time, a man named Irv Sutley came to Ukiah to and insulting letters and cartoons, and sending attend an abortion clinic defense that I had orga- them back and forth between different factions of nized with Ukiah EF! and other local groups. We the Black Panther Party in order to terrorize or were truly outrageous at that demo, singing our enrage the leaders and destabalize the group. Held newly written song, "Will the Fetus Be Aborted" to was personally involved in the framing of Black the Operation Rescue thugs. Panther Geronimo jiJaga (Pratt) and American I knew Irv, although not well, from my earlier Indian Movement leader Leonard Peltier, both of work in the Central America movement in Sonoma whom have been in jail for decades for crimes they County. Irv was traveling with a good friend of mine, did not commit. I cannot describe the cold terror of and after the demonstration we all went back to waking up in the hospital, crippled for life, and find- Darryl's house. We talked about our recent success- ing out that Richard Held was accusing me of blow- ful blockade of Cahto Wilderness, in which I had ing myself up with my own bomb. been arrested for vehicular trespass. We smoked COINTELPRO was publicly exposed in 1971 dope and fantasized about imaginary actions, when Black Panther sympathizers, tired of seeing including creating an oil spill in our pro-oil con- TIMBER WARS The Earth First! Car Bombing gressman Doug Bosco's back yard swimming pool. indeed taken out the ad. Around that time, Irv After a while, Irv opened the trunk of his car Sutley called me up and asked me to sell him some and showed us that he was carrying a modified Uzi marijuana. But, while I may have been stupid submachine gun, which he told us was legal. We enough to pose for joke photos with an Uzi, I was took turns posing for photos with the gun, laughing not stupid enough to sell marijuana. I refused to get and trying to look tough. Irv placed the gun in my him the dope, and I was not busted. hands, showed me how to hold it, and arranged it The Uzi photo did not go to waste, though. so my Earth First! shirt was clearly visible. Shortly after the bombing, the Ukiah Police released About a month later, unknown to me a t the it to the press, and it was printed in all the large time, the Ukiah Police received a copy of the photo mainstream newspapers as "proof' that I was a ter- of me holding the Uzi, along with a letter from an rorist. anonymous informant. The letter combined half- truths and outright lies to make me look like a ter- Timber Industry Violence rorist. It read: During the years leading up to the bombing, I joined Earth First to be able to report illegal Earth First! in Northern had grown activities of that organization. Now I want to steadily in both size and prestige. We were every- establish a contact to provide information to where, blocking log trucks, sitting in trees, protest- authorities. The leader and main force of earth ing at the mills, or taking over the Board of Forestry First in Ukiah is . She is facing a tres- dressed as animals. We saved Cahto Wilderness. We passing charge in connection with the Earth saved Trout Creek. By 1989, during EF! National First sabotage of a logging road in the Cahto Tree-Sit Week, we were able to pull off six strong Peak area. She did jail time in Sonoma County for blocking the federal building to support the actions in one week in the Redwood Region, with Communist government in Nicaragua. Bari and local watershed groups providing support, and the Ukiah Earth First are planning vandalism EF!ers showing up to block logging in a new location directed at congressman Doug Bosco to protest each day. offshore oil drilling. Earth First recently began Meanwhile, side by side with the Earth First! automatic weapons training.. . work, we were building alliances with progressive timber workers to oppose the corporations. We The letter went on to offer to set me up for a formed IWW Local # 1, affiliated with the radical marijuana bust. The police were instructed to take Wobblies union, and started signing u p timber out a coded ad in the local newspaper if they were workers and representing them in workplace issues. interested. We checked the archives of the local We publicly denounced the timber corporations, not paper years later when we were investigating all this, and sure enough, we found that the police had only for their treatment of the forest, but also for their treatment of their employees. We were getting TIMBER WARS The Earth First! Car Bombing too popular, and the timber industry had to put a later, front page metro headlines screamed, stop to it. "Slashed Tire Leads to Attempted Murder Probe." A Increasingly, violence was being used a s a log truck had gone off the road when it blew a tire, means to repress us on the front lines. We were and the owner claimed that the inside of the tire punched, shot at, and run off the road with log had been slashed. In contrast to the incident where trucks, while the local police turned their heads and I was rammed by the log truck, the sheriff decided refused to intervene, arrest, or prosecute our to treat this case as an attempted murder, with EF! attackers. The timber industry thought this was saboteurs as the implied suspects. The investigation hilarious. When EF!er Greg King was knocked to the of course went nowhere, but the headline certainly ground by a chainsaw-wielding logger at a demon- served its purpose. stration in June of 1989, Maxxam executive Dave Galitz sent the following memo to CEO Charles Fake Documents and Disinformation Hunvitz: "Enclosed is an article on Cherney and But by the spring of 1990, it was getting harder King's latest stunt. As soon as we find the home of and harder to discredit us. We had put out a the fine fellow who decked Greg King, he has a din- national appeal for people to come to Redwood ner invitation at the Galitz residence." Summer, calling for nonviolent demonstrations in The problem for big timber was to be able to response to timber's repeated violence. The Student continue the attacks on us without gaining public Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC) had publi- sympathy for Earth First! This was done, with the cized our appeal to students all help of the highly cooperative press and local police, over the country, and we had formed a coalition by creating the myth that both sides were violent. with Seeds of Peace and other peace activists to For example, in August 1989, my car was rammed handle base camp logistics and nonviolence train- from behind, at 45 mph by a log truck that we had ings. I t was becoming clear that we had both the blockaded less than 24 hours earlier. My car was support and the infrastructure to actually pull off totaled, sending three of us EF! activists and four of our grandiose plans, and big timber was getting ner- our children to the hospital with minor injuries. The vous. police refused to investigate it a s anything but a To make matters even worse for them, in early traffic accident, and the press refused to print the April we publicly renounced as being proven fact that the truck driver was the same one dangerous to loggers and millworkers, who, we stat- we had just blockaded. ed, are not to blame for the corporations' logging Finally, months later, we were able to get this practices. 'Their livelihood is being destroyed along charge included in a n article called "Logging with the forest," said our written proclamation. "The Protesters claim Pattern of Violence," buried on page real conflict is not between us and the timber work- B-3 of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. Two days ers, it is between the timber corporations and the TIMBER WARS The Earth First! Car Bombing

entire community." Paper Workers Union Local 49, plant manager Fred Meanwhile, L-P closed yet another mill in Martin encouraged employees to intimidate environ- Mendo County and laid off another 200 workers, the mentalists by going to meetings and sitting down same day they announced record profits for the next to u s "with rolled up sleeves, wearing work quarter. We responded by appearing at the county boots and hard hats." Board of Supervisors meeting for the first time in Maxxam also distributed at least one of these public with our timber worker coalition. Only a few false press releases to out-of-town newspapers after loggers and mill-workers had the nerve to actually they had privately acknowledged that it was a fake. show up with the EF!ers, but our demands were so In an internal company memo dated April 18, 1990, radical that we had a n immediate impact. We executive Dave Galitz wrote, "Enclosed is a flyer demanded that the Board of Supervisors use their with the Earth First! logo, however, a s Darryl's power of eminent domain to seize all of L-P's corpo- name is misspelled, we are not sure who put it out." rate holdings and operate them in the public inter- One week later, on April 25, columnist Robert Morse est, as the only way to save both the trees and the wrote in the San Francisco Examiner that he had jobs. just received this obviously false press release in the Shortly after this meeting, things started to get mail from Maxxam. "Things are getting pretty weird crazy. Fake press releases containing the Earth up there," wrote Morse. "Not only are trees being First! logo but definitely not written by us, appeared clearcut, but dirty tricksters are turning them into in our community, distributed by the big timber fake press releases." companies. "We are in a 'war' with the north coast But for all his city sophistication, Morse was timber companies," read one of them. "We intend to right on the bandwagon with the others when I got spike trees, monkeywrench, and even resort to vio- bombed one month later. He wrote a column ridicul- lence if necessary." Another, called "Some Thoughts ing our claim of nonviolence and supporting the on Strategy," rambled on incoherently about sabo- judge's imposition of a $100,000 bail, without real- tage, randomness and invisibility. I t was easy to izing that he was being influenced by the very disin- prove this one was a fake, because they misspelled formation campaign he had just exposed. Darryl's name, and got my home town wrong. Another fake document making the rounds These false documents were widely distributed right before the bombing was a phony "Earth First! to timber workers and to the local press, who treat- Terrorism Manual," distributed by the anti-environ- ed them as genuine despite their inaccuracies and mental hate group, Sahara Club. In their April 1990 our repeated denials. Louisiana Pacific distributed newsletter, they printed a diagram of how to make a the fakes to millworkers at a mandatory meeting bomb, claiming it was from an Earth First! manual. held on the clock at their Somoa pulp mill. At that Of course this was false, but by saying it was from meeting, according to a grievance filed by Pulp and Earth First! the Sahara Club managed to simultane- TIMBER WARS The Earth First! Car Bombing

ously distribute information about how to make loud and clear. bombs, while inciting hatred against us and associ- Unlike the violence on the front lines, I never ating us with explosives in people's minds. believed the death threats were coming from uncon- Through this disinformation campaign, the tim- nected individuals. For one thing, they all came ber industry was doing their best to erode our credi- around the same time, and I have never received bility. But it's not as if we didn't help them along written death threats before or since. Also, they with some of our own mistakes. The worst of these were too good, often including artistic touches like was in March, 1990, when Darryl went on 60 hand drawn logger boots or a hangman's noose. But Minutes and told 10 million viewers, "If I had a fatal there is other evidence that at least one of these disease, I would definitely strap a body bomb to threats was written by a professional. myself and blow up the Glen Canyon Dam, or the "Judi Bari, get out and go back where you came Maxxam building at night after everyone had gone from," read the threat. "We know everything. You home." Darryl, who has never even pulled a survey won't get a second warning." It was typed on a man- stake or lit a fire cracker, would never really do any- ual typewriter, and when we compared it to the thing like that. He just wanted to get on TV. But informant letter that had been sent to the Ukiah that's why COINTELPRO works so well. They don't Police along with the photo of me with Irv Sutley's just make up what they say about you. They take Uzi one and a half years earlier, we discovered that your real weaknesses-in EF!'s case a tendency to they matched. The style of the typewriter, the irreg- brag about and exaggerate monkeywrenching-and ularities of the individual letters, and the format in turn it into something that will destroy you-in our which the addresses were typed all looked the same, case, an image of EF! as a domestic terrorist group. even when we enlarged the type on a document analysis machine. Death Threats and Destabalization The fact that one of the death threats matched Along with the disinformation campaign that a letter written by a police informant who had been preceded the bombing, there was also a destabaliza- conducting surveillance on me for a year and a half tion campaign, designed to terrorize us and distract is not proof in itself that the FBI was involved in the us from the organizing work that needed to be done. death threat campaign. But matching letters are The most obvious form of this was the death threats certainly a reason to investigate, and the FBI's we received starting in April of 1990. There were refusal to do so makes me even more suspicious of dozens of them, but the scariest by far was the infa- them. We publicly handed the two matching letters mous photo of me with a rifle scope and cross hairs to the FBI and declared that Irv Sutley was our drawn over my face. The photo was taken from a prime suspect for the author, since he owned the newspaper story about our Eminent Domain meet- Uzi, had easy access to the photo, and had personal ing with the Board of Supes, and I got the message knowledge of all the info in the letter. The FBI TIMBER WARS The Earth First! Car Bombing

assured us they would investigate, but in my entire cally restrained to keep from decking him. Later I 5,000 pages of FBI files, neither the matching docu- realized I was being baited into a fight which would ments nor Irv Sutley's name appears even once. have discredited our call for nonviolence. People just Not all of the threats were received in writing. don't say things like that in real life. Wise Use Movement activist Candy Boak, leader of Weirdness was everywhere. On Earth Day the Maxxam front group Mother's Watch, was a spe- 1990, an expert team of EF! tree climbers had been cialist at another type of harassment. I remember planning to climb the Golden Gate Bridge and hang her calling me on my home phone as soon as I got a huge banner in protest of the corporate green- back from a Redwood Summer organizing meeting. wash. The night before, to the climbers' surprise, She told me she had been watching us, and accu- three power lines were cut down in Santa Cruz. We rately described the people at the meeting and the all thought it was great at the time, and I, naively cars we were driving. Then she said, "Me and my thinking I was safe because I was not involved, even husband John are coming over to visit you this told the press that the people who did it were weekend. We know where you live, over there in heroes. But the communique taking credit for down- Redwood Valley." ing the power lines was signed Earth Night Action I tried to ignore the death threats, but it was Group. Darryl had recently produced his famous getting hard to concentrate. I was scared for my Earth Night poster, and I realize now that whoever children. I considered going underground. I took the chose the name Earth Night Action Group for the written death threats to the county sheriff, but Lt. Santa Cruz power lines action was either equally Sattenvhite just told me, "We don't have the man- naive, or maybe a provocateur. Because, no matter power to investigate. If you turn up dead, then we'll what you think of the action itself, the use of that investigate." I went to the County Board of name implicated Darryl, a highly public EF! organiz- Supervisors and complained about this treatment er, in a serious act of sabotage that he had nothing by the sheriffs office. But Supervisor Marilyn to do with. Butcher responded, "You brought it on yourself, When the EF!ers were arrested on the Golden Judi." Gate Bridge trying to hang the Earth Day banner, Besides the death threats, there were other Darryl, who was committing no crime making press forms of destabalization. At one of our Redwood calls from a nearby phone, got caught up in the Summer planning meetings, for example, a man sweep. And strangely, even though the arrests took who was brand new to the group and unknown to place on the Marin county side of the San Francisco any of us jumped up and got in my face when I sug- bridge, the Oakland Police Intelligence Unit was on gested that we organize collective child care. "Hey, the scene, as well as the FBI. They impounded and it's not my fault your old man ditched you and left searched Darryl's car without a warrant, and confis- you with the kids!", he shouted. I had to be physi- cated his belongings. Included in the items taken TIMBER WARS The Earth First! Car Bombing from Darryl was the pasted up master copy of the Part I1 Earth Night poster. Yet no public statements were made about this find, and the police simply let Frame-Up and Cover-Up Darryl go without questioning him about it. Normally, a car bombing in Oakland would fall This lack of comment on Darryl's link to the under the jurisdiction of the Department of Alcohol, Earth Night poster was especially odd because the Tobacco and Firearms, not the FBI. So it was Golden Gate Bridge climb and the Santa Cruz power uncanny how fast the FBI showed up when the lines were blended together in the press coverage, in bomb went off in my car. The first agent arrived lit- the FBI's internal files, and in the public's mind. erally within minutes, and soon 12-15 agents from Headlines like "Eco-Terrorists Cut Power" and "Earth the FBI Terrorist Squad were on the scene. First! Militants Storm Golden Gate Bridge" equated The FBI told the Oakland Police that they were the two, and photos of the downed power lines going to "assist" in this case, and they quickly accompanied stories about the banner hanging. briefed Oakland on me, Darryl, and Earth First! The worst of these "eco-terrorist scare" stories "They said that these were the types of people who appeared in the Sun Francisco Examiner a few days would be involved in carrying a bomb," said after the bridge climb. It began with this fantasy. Oakland Police Sgt. Sitterud in his sworn deposi- "The scenario: Terrorists, whether religious fanatics tion. "They told us that these people, in fact, quali- or political zealots, attack the Bay Area. They plant fied as terrorists." Ten minutes after he arrived on explosives on the transmission towers of key electric the scene, based on information he got from the lines. They bomb telephone switching stations. They FBI, Sgt. Sitterud made an entry in his police log poison the water ..." The article went on to talk describing Darryl and me a s "apparent radical about the Golden Gate Bridge climb, the Santa Cruz activists with recent arrest for illegal demonstration power lines, Earth First!, and Redwood Summer. on Golden Gate Bridge," and "Earth First! leaders So while the real Earth First! in northern suspected of Santa Cruz power pole sabotage, California was renouncing tree spiking, building linked with federal case of attempted destruction of coalitions with workers and peace activists, and nuclear power plant lines in Arizona." responding to timber industry violence by calling for Meanwhile, Special Agent Frank Doyle, 20-year mass nonviolence, the public was being taught to veteran bomb expert with the (aptly named) FBI associate us with bombs and terrorism. By the time Terrorist Squad, had taken over examining my car. the bomb went off in my car they were well primed The damage was obvious. A hole was blown in the to accept the FBI's incredible lie: Not only are EF!ers driver's seat-you could see right through to the violent terrorists who carry bombs around in our street below-and the car frame was buckled direct- cars, but we are stupid violent terrorists who hide ly under it. When they unbolted the front seat and live anti-personnel bombs under our own car seats. removed it from the car, there was a 2.~4b' last hole

The Earth First! Car Bombing in the floor with the metal curled back from an obvi- ous epicenter under the driver's seat (see police photos). Any honest observer would have concluded that a bomb had been hidden under my seat, and this was a case of attempted murder. But Special Agent Doyle had other ideas. In defiance of all the evidence, he claimed that the bomb was located in clear view on the back seat floorboard, therefore Darryl and I knew we were car- rying it, and that it was our bomb. That was all the Oakland Police needed to hear. The Oakland Police Department has a long history, dating back at least to the Black Panthers, of fronting for the FBI in COINTELPRO operations. So, with a wink and a nod, they ignored the evidence in front of their noses and went along with the FBI's lie. Three hours after the bombing, I was placed under arrest while still in surgery, charged with transporting the bomb that nearly took my life. Darryl was arrested 12 hours later. The evening of the bombing, the FBI held a briefing meeting for the Oakland Police. They said that Earth First! was a domestic terrorist group who started a year ago downing power lines in Arizona, and were now on their way to California to do it again. They said Darryl and I were the prime sus- pects in the downing of the Santa Cruz power lines, and that I was also suspected in a recent pipe bombing in the Louisiana Pacific sawmill in Cloverdale, near where I lived. They also said that a n undercover informant who was "close to the leadership of Earth First!" had told them that "the heavies from up north" were on their way to Santa Cruz for some kind of "action." And of course.

TIMBER WARS The Earth First! Car Bombing

Darryl and I were indeed on our way to Santa Cruz. news was the search of Darryl's van. Of course the But the "action" was a concert, not a bombing. police found nothing, but they sure put on a good After the briefing, Oakland Police Sgt. Chenault show. They picked out a "suspicious" box of tapes of wrote an affidavit for the search warrant on Darryl's Darryl's incendiary music, cordoned off the block, and my houses. Chenault has testified that the FBI and blew it up in front of the TV cameras, suppos- agents literally dictated while he typed. The affidavit edly to see if it contained a bomb. "No additional says, "(I) viewed the white Subaru along with Agents explosives were found," reported the TV, as if explo- from the FBI. (I) was advised by these agents that sives had been found in the first place. the bomb device was on the floorboard behind the The standard bail for the charge against us- driver's seat when it was detonated." "(I) believe that transporting explosives-was only $12,000. Not only Bari and Cherney are members of a violent terrorist was this too easy to raise, but it was clearly not group involved in the manufacture and placing of enough for the dangerous criminals they made us explosive devices. (I) believe that Bari and Cherney out to be. So, circumventing the normal procedures, were transporting an explosive device in their vehi- the Oakland Police went straight to the judge, with- cle when it exploded." out even a lawyer there to represent us. Darryl and I were both declared a flight risk and a danger to the Press Smear public, even though I was unconscious in the hospi- tal with my leg in traction and my pelvis broken in The media had a field day with this news, as 10 places. Our bail was raised to $100,000 each, the FBI and Oakland Police provided them with the spawning a new round of headlines and giving cre- images they needed to make it look like they had busted up a ring of terrorists. They raided Seeds of dence to the charge of terrorism. Peace House without a warrant, turned the place The news quickly went national, with newspa- upside down in a fruitless search, and led the occu- pers across the country screaming about Earth pants away in handcuffs, only to release them a few Firstlers carrying bombs. It was the only time we hours later, after the reporters and cameras had ever made the front page of the Times. gone home. TV news that night included not only The press ate up the police lies with a big spoon, the raid, but an interview with a neighbor who said instantly convicting us in their stories. "Two mem- there were strange goings on in the house, with bers of the radical environmental group Earth First! lights on a t all hours. When Seeds of Peace were injured Thursday by their own pipe bomb," responded that they were a nonviolent collective began the lead article in the San Jose Mercury who cooks food for mass nonviolent actions, the News. "Earth First! leaders hurt in a pipe bomb neighbor replied, "I don't know what they're cooking explosion have no one but themselves to blame for over there. It doesn't smell like food. Maybe PCP." their injuries," smirked the blow-dried talking heads Another image shown over and over on the TV on the TV news. TIMBER WARS The Earth First! Car Bombing

This really hurt Earth first!'^ image on a built with these hands the bomb that I placed in the national scale. Even today, particularly in places car of Judi Bari," it began. "Doubt me not, for I will where there is no active EF! movement, bombs and tell you the design and materials such as only I will tree spikes are the only things many people know know." In flowery, biblical language, the letter went about us. on to describe my participation in the Ukiah abor- tion clinic defense several years earlier ("I saw Satan's flames shoot forth from her mouth, her eyes The Lord's Avenger and ears..."), and cite my pro-abortion stance, as Despite the image they were able to project in well as my "paganism" and defense of the forest, as the press, the FBI must have known they would reasons to kill me. The letter writer then described have a hard time pinning anything on us. The in exact detail not only the bomb in my car, but also searches of our houses turned up no explosives, no the bomb at the Cloverdale sawmill, that the FBI weapons, and no incriminating items. And, as the had already tried to pin on me, taking credit for FBI knew perfectly well, the damage to my car both. The letter was signed 'The Lord's Avenger." proved that the bomb had been hidden from our The Lord's Avenger letter was chilling, and at sight, discrediting their claim that we were knowing- the time, it even fooled me. But in retrospect, its ly carrying it. authenticity is not so clear. For one thing, the letter Also, the Earth Firstlers were just not acting gave false information about the bombing, that led like terrorists. Rather than hiding out, 200 of them us off the trail. The Lord's Avenger claimed he put gathered in the lobby of the FBI building, singing, the bomb in my car while I was in a meeting in chanting, hugging and crying, and refusing to leave Willits, up in the timber region, two days before the until Darryl was released from jail. Karen Pickett, bomb went off. But the bomb in my car had a 12- Pam Davis, Kelpie Wilson and others came across hour timer, so it couldn't have been placed any- a s strong and credible spokespeople, citing our where but Oakland, where I stayed the night before commitment to nonviolence, holding up the death it exploded. And, while it is true that the Lord's threats for the cameras, and calling for a nonviolent Avenger's detailed bomb descriptions were mostly response to the act of terror that had been done to accurate, I now realize that there were two sources us. These views were getting some press attention, who knew this information-the bomber himself, and if we managed to convince the public of our and the FBI. innocence, the FBI would need a good back-up The Lord's Avenger letter had several effects. It story. Because if we didn't bomb ourselves, there provided a plausible lone assassin not connected to were only two obvious suspects-timber and FBI. timber or the FBI. It threw a veil of confusion over One week after the bombing, a strange anony- the motives for the bombing. And it removed the mous letter arrived a t the Press Democrat, investigation from Oakland, where the bomb was addressed to top timber reporter Mike Geniella. "I TIMBER WARS The Earth First! Car Bombing actually placed, to Mendocino County, where there shrapnel effect. And they determined that, in addi- are many crazy people to use a s suspects. And, tion to the 12-hour timer (which was used a s a masterfully, the FBI managed to simultaneously delay mechanism), the bomb also included a motion promote the letter as a key piece of evidence, while device, consisting of a ball-bearing that had to roll continuing their claim that Darryl and I bombed to connect two contact points. In other words, the ourselves. Since we were the bombers, they rea- bomb was a booby trap device, triggered by the soned, the Lord's Avenger must be our accomplice. motion of my car, and quite unlikely to have been So, with great fanfare, they raided my house a sec- knowingly carried under anyone's car seat. ond time, this time looking for "typewriter exem- The lab analysis of the hole in the floor of my plars" to match the Lord's Avenger letter, and never car also showed that the epicenter of the blast was mentioning that nothing they found even vaguely under the driver's seat, not behind it. And, to top it matched. all off, they found that a blue towel had been placed over the bomb, making it even more unlikely that No Evidence, No Charges we would have seen it. The blue towel did not match the other blue towels seized from my house. Not only did the FBI and Oakland Police say we The FBI was hard put to keep the case going were suspects in the bombing, they said we were against us. But they managed to find a straw to the only suspects. Therefore they did not even cling to for a few more weeks. Of all the 1 1 1 items attempt to investigate the death threats, fake press seized, two nails allegedly had the same tool mark- releases, or any other evidence of timber industry ings a s some of the nails in the bomb. By this it violence. Their entire investigation for the first eight could be determined that they were made on the weeks consisted of sending the bomb in my car, the same machine. The supplier, Pacific Steel, told the Cloverdale bomb, and the Lord's Avenger letter to FBI that the nails come in 50-LB. boxes from Saudi the FBI crime lab for analysis. They also sent in 1 1 1 Arabia, and are distributed at over 200 outlets on items seized from our houses, including tools, sol- the north coast. So, logically, it would be concluded der, nails, glue, etc., to try and match them to the that the nails were too common to compare. bomb. But logic never stops the FBI. They just make But when the lab analysis came back, the FBI up new lies. This time, instead of saying that the had a problem. The solder, tape, glue, etc. from the nails came from the same machine and therefore Cloverdale bomb and the bomb in my car matched matched millions of other nails, Oakland Police Sgt. exactly, and the two bombs matched the Lord's Sitterud claimed in an affadavit that the FBI bomb Avenger's description. But the solder, tape, glue, expert told him that the nails matched in a batch of etc., seized from our houses did not match the 200-1,000T.h e FBI bomb expert now claims that he bombs. Further, the lab determined that the bomb was an anti-personnel bomb, wrapped with nails for never said that, and apparently they didn't even try TIMBER WARS The Earth First! Car Bombing to make this argument in court. But they used it in sure began to mount on the FBI. A coalition of 50 the press for several weeks to counter emerging mainstream environmental, labor, and women's proof of our innocence, and they used it as part of groups, along with Congressman Ron Dellums, had the justification for the second raid on my house, in demanded a congressional investigation of the FBI's which they pulled finishing nails from the window handling of the case. And letters were coming in trim in search of the elusive incriminating nails. from all over the world, telling the FBI to stop blam- The Oakland Police, who were technically ing the victims and start looking for the bomber. responsible for the arrest, went to court three times It was in this context that the FBI began their in the eight weeks following the bombing to try and total farce of a bombing investigation. I did not get the district attorney to bring charges against know this part of the story back in 1990, but only Darryl and me. But each time they could produce discovered it recently when I got my FBI files on the no evidence against us, and asked for a delay. case. In response to public pressure, the FBI did Finally, after the third try, the DA declined to press indeed widen their pool of suspects beyond Darryl charges. Still, we were not exonerated. The FBI and and me. But they widened it only to include all Oakland Police, although chastened by their inabili- other EFlers and redwood region environmentalists. ty to charge us with the crime, continued to say that They refused to follow-up on legitimate leads, and we were the only suspects. Dumb enough to carry a never seriously considered any non-environmental- live anti-personnel bomb under my car seat, but, ist as a suspect. Instead, they used this case as an apparently, too clever to catch. excuse for a sweeping campaign of surveillance of activists. My files contain names and information on Part 111 nearly 800 environmental activists and our associ- Investigating Earth First! ates, both locally and nationally. By midsummer of 1990, it felt like the FBI had Newspaper Monitoring already committed every imaginable atrocity against The FBI began their "investigation" by sending a us in the bombing case. They lied and falsified the letter to the local newspapers in the redwood region. evidence. They arrested Darryl and me while we "As part of the [bombing] investigation, the FBI is were still in shock from being bombed, and refused attempting to identify the author of the Lord's to even consider any other suspects. They smeared Avenger letter," it read. "In that regard, we are ask- us as terrorists in the national press. But they were ing for your cooperation in making available for not done yet. The FBI still had one more trick up review letters you have received regarding the red- their sleeve for Earth First! wood timber and abortion issues." After the district attorney refused to bring Only the Press Democrat, the largest and most charges against us for lack of evidence, public pres- urban corporate newspaper in our area, said no, cit- TIMBER WARS The Earth First! Car Bombing ing the chilling effect it would have on free speech if the mainstream press anywhere that linked these people knew that their letters were being turned various FBI operations against Earth First! groups. over to the FBI. But in the rural areas, ten small- Richard Held states in his memo that he intends to town newspaper editors, flattered by the attention, complain to the Press Democrat's editors about Mike let the FBI go through their files and pick out origi- Geniella's reporting, and suggests that FBI chief nals of published and unpublished letters. Once out William Sessions complain to the Press Democrat's in the field, the FBI seemed to forget all about the parent newspaper, the New York Times. A few weeks abortion letters, a strange oversight given the Lord's later, Geniella was disciplined by the Press Avenger's views on abortion. Nearly every letter they Democrat, and removed from his position as timber confiscated was from an environmentalist, and none reporter, despite his award-winning coverage of the had any apparent connection to the bombing case. issue. Most of these letters were simply collected and added to the FBI's case file, with no follow up. But Information Gathering one letter writer became a full-on suspect. His let- The FBI also interviewed the local police in the ter, sent to the Humboldt L$e and Times, was a timber region. They asked them questions like who poem that began, "Has anyone ever known their do they "consider to be prominent environmental spirits?", and was signed "First Impressions, activists" in their town. Without ever questioning Pokhara Valley." why, police gave out names and addresses of vari- There was no imaginable connection between ous "respectable" environmentalists, a s well a s this letter and the bombing, neither in handwriting, Earth Firstlers. Humboldt sheriffs were asked for a typing, style or content. Yet it was fingerprinted, list of "individuals capable of engaging in violent handwriting analyzed, and sent to the FBI's activity." The list consisted entirely of nonviolent Behavioral Science Lab to determine if the person Earth First! activists, none of whom engaged in any who wrote it had the personality type that could violent activity before, during, or since that time. also have written the Lord's Avenger letter. Names of timber supporters, who had committed Besides snooping through the letters-to-the-edi- many well-documented assaults on environmental- tors files, the FBI also engaged in other scandalous ists in our region, were not solicited by the FBI or behavior involving freedom of the press. In one included on any police lists. memo to headquarters, San Francisco FBI Director Humboldt and Mendocino Sheriffs "Intelligence Richard Held complained about an article written by Officers" also came up with some wild stories about Press Democrat reporter Mike Geniella. In that arti- supposed internal jealousies and intrigues within cle, Mike Geniella documented the FBI's targeting of Earth First! One had Mickey Dulas and me pulling a Earth First! in Arizona, Montana, and California. To coup on Darryl Cherney to squeeze him out of the my knowledge, this is the only article ever printed in picture. Another had Mickey crying "from being TIMBER WARS The Earth First! Car Bombing

upset with Judi Bari, a s Judi Bari was dictating Quotes," and a copy of the Live Wild or Die newspa- how things should be run from her wheelchair." In per. He also turned in a list of 53 names and reality, we were all working together, standing up to addresses that he claimed were Earth First! tres- lethal force with principle, courage, and nonviolence passers, even though the company admitted that in a terrifying situation. "not all were formally charged, and I don't know the A Mendo sheriff report claimed that monkey- disposition." wrenching was being done by the Nomadic Action Wise Use Movement anti-environmental orga- Team, led by Mike Roselle. The fact that there was nizers also submitted names and information on no monkeywrenching going on at all didn't seem to enviromentalists. Candy Boak of Mother's Watch, bother him. Another fictitious "intelligence" report of who is well known in our region as one of the worst a n event that never happened quotes Humboldt of the pro-timber hate mongers, told the FBI that of sheriffs as saying that "members of the Earth First all EF!ers she knows, Larry Evans and Bill DeVall in the tri-state area, believed to mean Washington, are the ones she fears the most. Larry is a nonvio- Oregon and California and possibly Arizona are lent activist with an academic background in and planning to travel to the north coast and attempt to exceptional knowledge of forest biology. Bill DeVall take over, as they feel the local leadership is not is a Humboldt State University professor and co- doing enough. These outside Earth First! members, author of Deep Ecology. The very same week that many of whom are former followers of Dave Candy talked to the FBI, she organized a "Dirty Foreman, are planning a build-up of activities ... and Tricks Workshop" with the anti-environmental hate there is something unknown that is being planned." group Sahara Club, to teach local timber goons new In addition to interviewing local cops, the FBI ways to terrorize us. This, of course, is not men- also interviewed management personnel from the tioned in the interview. timber companies, and anti-EF! organizers from the Paula Langager of the pro-timber group WeCare Wise Use Movement. They were asked to turn over also had some interesting things to say to the FBI. any and all information about environmentalists, as She told them there is a "core group" of Wise Use well a s any leaflets or printed material from the activists who "like to play little jokes on Earth First! environmental movement. "Come to the Air Quality members and have issued false press releases." Hearing," says one of these leaflets turned in. (These press releases, printed on EF! stationery and "Hemp Awareness Day, Music, Teach-In a n d calling for violence, were discussed in Part I of this Festival." says another. article as part of the lead-up to the bombing.) Paula John Campbell, president of Pacific Lumber gave the FBI copies of the fakes, and named a local (Maxxarn) was the most active snitch of the bunch. timber stooge, Dave Cruzan, as the author. But the He turned over Country Activist newspapers, a tim- FBI never followed up on this info, never interviewed ber industry-produced booklet of "Earth First Dave Cruzan, and continued to treat the fake press TIMBER WARS The Earth First! Car Bombing releases as if they were real, as if they were evidence expressing the FBI's concern for Charles Hurwitz's of our "terrorism." safety, a n d a n agent was sent out to teach Another surprise witness was John DeWitt, Maxxam's secretaries how to handle letter bombs, director of the Save the Redwoods League. DeWitt even though none had been received or even alluded did not have any inside info at all, but he was sure to. eager to help the FBI convict Earth First! He turned The most obvious omission in the FBI's non- over a letter he had received from EF!er Greg King in investigation of the death threats was the matching 1987, pleading with Save the Redwoods to stop sell- death threat and police informant letter (discussed ing out the forest. He also turned over a list of EF! in Part 1 of this article). Through the work of inves- activists and associates, stating how much each of tigative reporter Steve Talbott, we had discovered us had donated to Save The Redwoods League. To that one of the death threats I received before the our credit, none of us had given him a cent except bombing was apparently typed on the same type- Darryl, who only gave $5. And finally, a year later, writer and addressed in a matching style a s a n John DeWitt turned over to the FBI a well-known informant letter sent to the Ukiah Police along with Wise Use poster t h a t said "Wood And Paper the famous Uzi photo of me a year and a half earli- Products No Longer Available, Wipe Your Ass With A er. We took copies of the matching letters to the Spotted Owl." DeWitt told the FBI that this flyer had Willits Police, in my home town, and used their doc- been sent to his office by Earth First! ument analysis machine to establish the apparent match. But you cannot prove a forensic match with- Death Threats out the original documents, and we had already The FBI refused to investigate the death threats turned those over to the FBI. I had received, even when we gave them leads to fol- The Willits Police gave their copies of the low. Although my lawyer turned over the originals of matching letters to the FBI and told them that Irv eight written death threats, the FBI listed them only Sutley was the suspected author (see Part 1). The as "possible evidence," and did not even send them FBI assured the Willits Police that they would send to the lab for fingerprinting, typing, or handwriting the letters to the lab and investigate. Steve Talbott analysis. In contrast, death threats received by also handed these two matching letters to the FBI Maxxam CEO Charles Hurwitz were included in the on TV,a nd was also assured they would investigate. bombing file and listed as official "evidence" in the But in my 5,000 pages of files, the FBI never bombing case, even though the FBI could find no acknowledges receiving these letters from either the link between us, the bombing, and these threats. Willits Police or Steve Talbott. And neither the police Hurwitz's threats were immediately sent to the FBI informant letter nor Irv Sutley's name appear even lab for handwriting, fingerprinting, and behavioral once in the case file. analysis. Obsequious letters were sent to Maxxam, One final death threat that I received right in TIMBER WARS The Earth First! Car Bombing the middle of the FBI's month-long investigation in ber assassin, they hatched a new plan to expand our region was the strangest one of all. In late July, their investigation nationally. In November of 1991 , the FBI wrote a memo saying that they had "deter- Richard Held issued a memo to headquarters saying mined that Judi Bari has a cabin outside Willits" that he still considered Darryl and me to be the that has no electricity. In fact, this is my home, prime suspects in the bombing. And, he wrote, where I live with my two children, and I was just "investigation indicates a number of people who getting ready to move in after getting out of the hos- associate with one another to include, in some pital. The FBI described my cabin as my "hideout" cases, being arrested with each other." Therefore, he and "safe house," and instructed Mendocino Sheriff states, "the investigation remaining will involve the Steve Sattenvhite to "attempt to locate Judi Bari's computerization of the toll records" of these core hideout." Sattenvhite indeed investigated, according EF!ers phone calls. to FBI files, and in mid-August an anonymous tip With that, Richard Held and the FBI embarked was recorded in my file giving exact directions to my on the most outrageous wild goose chase of the house. One week later I received a death threat say- entire phony "bombing investigation." They came up ing that the "hippys" in my area had "built a hideout with a list of 634 out-of-state phone calls we had for radical terrorist Judi Bari." The threat, which was made during April-May 1990, and proceeded to found on my landlord's mailbox, gave exact directions investigate every one of them. The files that the FBI to my "hideout", using the same language a s the gave me never tell who these core activists are anonymous tip in my FBI file, and offered a "case of whose phone calls are being compiled. But we can Coors to the stud who burns her out." The original tell from the phone numbers they investigate that copy of this threat was turned over to the Mendocino many of the people arrested in the Golden Gate Sheriffs, and the Willits Police have told me it was Bridge climb in April 1990 were among this group. discussed at a meeting between local law enforce- The phone numbers were listed by area code ment and the FBI. Yet neither the threat letter nor and sent out to every FBI office in the country. And any mention of it appears in my entire FBI file. for the next year, the reports trickled back in, list- ing, at Held's request, names, addresses, places of Phone Sweep employment, physical descriptions, criminal records This totally bogus local investigation went on and political associations of the 634 people whose for about a month, and the names of about 150 only "crime" was receiving a phone call from an local environmentalists were collected. Still the FBI EF!er. found nothing to link any of us to the bombing or Our parents, grandparents, uncles and cousins any other crime. But rather than give up their were investigated. When a phone number was found ridiculous presumption that the bombing was the to be unlisted, making the info on it unobtainable work of an environmentalist rather than a pro-tim- without a search warrant, the FBI made a "pretext TIMBER WARS The Earth First! Car Bombing

call" to the number to see if they could get anything. Oakland Police that the case was closed until March One woman in Wisconsin, Louisa Hemachek, who 1993. And even though we had a lawsuit against received a call from an EF!er, was cited for having a him for his handling of the case by then, he never phone she called "the green line." For no other rea- notified us at all that he had closed it. son than this, the FBI talked to the local sheriff, In May 1993, we released the Oakland Police's who told them that Louisa was considered a "hip- damning photos of my bombed car. showing that pie", and was an environmental activist. Another the FBI had lied about the bomb being in the back phone number on the FBI list for receiving a call seat. The day after we announced our press confer- from a n EF! belonged to the Center for ence, which was held in front of the FBI office in Constitutional Rights (CCR), a nationally known San Francisco, Richard Held resigned from the FBI. public interest law firm. The FBI reported that their He was 53 years old, and at the height of his career, "indices reveal" that the CCR is associated with the with 25 years experience in counterintelligence Revolutionary Communist Party and the American operations. But he left the FBI to take a job as head Indian Movement, because they helped people from of the fraud department for VISA company. those groups file Freedom of Information Act Of course, Held claims that there is no relation- requests for their FBI files. ship between this case and his sudden early depar- All in all, the phone sweep was an absolutely ture. But the timing of us waving incriminating pho- unjustified intrusion, violating people's rights to pri- tos on his doorstep while he sits upstairs in his vacy and freedom of association, recalling the red office cleaning out his desk to leave is hard to scares of the 1950's. It is also similar to the CISPES ignore. I'm sure there are other reasons, and we spying scandal of the early 1980's, in which the FBI can't take full credit. But the man ruined my life, conducted surveillance on thousands of people who and I certainly hope I ruined his career. did nothing more than attend a meeting or demon- I don't know how far our lawsuit and congres- stration about Central America. But in the Earth sional investigation will eventually take us with this First! case, you didn't even need to go to a meeting. case. No matter how right we are, the same U.S. You were vilified just for knowing us. Dept. of Justice that is in charge of the federal court system is also in charge of the FBI, and our case Case Closed could get thrown out at any time under the court's When the FBI field offices around the country draconian rules. Still, I have to pursue this course, finished sending in their reports on our phone calls because I don't know what else to do to keep the in October 1992, Richard Held had still not found case alive and try to find justice. anything to incriminate us. So he quietly closed the I hope I can someday find out who bombed me. case, saying that he had run out of leads to follow. I hope we can expose the FBI's systematic attempt He didn't even notify the district attorney or to disrupt, discredit, and destroy Earth First!, start- TIMBER WARS

ing with the infiltration and set-up of the Arizona 5. and including the bombing and framing of Darryl Index and me, as well a s many other operations across the country. EF! has taken some heavy hits, and we book review in, 103--108 have definitely suffered from them. But, incredibly, Abbey, Ed, 58, 285 Arbit, Hal, 93 we have survived, and we're still together as a move- Abenaki tribe, 201, 206 Arcata, 30, 217 ment, still out on the front lines battling for the life abortion issues, 289, 3 18 Arcata Action Center, 99, of the planet. activism, 41, 104, 132 138 AIM. See American Indian Arizona 5, 328 We can't minimize the forces we're up against. Movement Arrive, Carlos Soto, 125 But I hope we can learn from these experiences, so Albion, 41, 237, 259, 260 we won't be so vulnerable next time. ARWPA. See Albion River Albion Nation, 227, 230, Watershed Protection 238,241, 242,243 Association Albion River Watershed assassination attempts, 45, Protection Association 52, 124, 125, 141, 193, (ARWPA),226,238, 242 202 Alcohol, Tobacco and Audubon Society, 54 Firearms, Department of, AVA. See Anderson Valley 30 1 Advertiser Alexander, George, 106, Azevedo, Jack,' 138 11 1,264-267,269-270. 277,281 B Alexander, Laurie, 264, 267 baby trees, 90, 131, 155, alliances, 14-15, 221 159, 172, 174, 219 See also coalitions See also pecker poles American Indian Movement Bacik, Frank, 239 (AIM), 46, 53, 124, 199, Bailey, Bill, 32 326 Ball, Betty, 194 Anderson, Bruce, 25--42, Ball, Gary, 129 121, 132,228, 269 Bari, Judi, 68, 150, 3 10 Anderson, Carl, 168, 170 and car bomb, 49, 223, Anderson, Rob, 12 1 286-328 passim, 302- Anderson Valley. 72, 146 304 Anderson Valley Advertiser children of, 46, 48, 50 (AVA), 9, 25, 61-42. 269 conversation with, 25--42