Washington, DC – While the FBI investigates a wave of recent crimes by the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), notorious ringleaders from these violent fringe groups have been given a friendly academic platform to espouse their tactics of arson, property destruction, and death threats. California State University Fresno will host an event next week dedicated to the topic of “Revolutionary Environmentalism.” Today’s Los Angeles Times reports on the February 13-14 conference, which showcases radical speakers who not only advocate arson and violence, but have actually been convicted of such crimes.
Confirmed participants will include:
- Rodney Coronado — a convicted multiple arsonist who spent 57 months in prison for torching a Michigan State University laboratory, received over $70,000 from PETA’s tax-exempt coffers, and now fronts for the violent animal rights group SHAC (for current info on this group, visit ActivistCash.com)
- Paul Watson — an animal rights terrorist on the high seas who is an international fugitive, has sunk at least 10 ships, and told the Animal Rights 2002 conference: “There’s nothing wrong with being a terrorist, as long as you win”
- Craig Rosebraugh — a former ELF “spokesperson” who invoked the 5th Amendment more than 50 times in a congressional hearing in 2002 about his organization’s lengthy crime spree
- Gary Yourofsky — an employee of PETA who proudly sports an Animal Liberation Front tattoo on his arm, has been arrested over 10 times for animal rights crimes, and has told fellow activists: “Do not be afraid to condone arsons”
- Kim Marks — a “spokesperson” for Earth First! (the radical green group that spawned ELF in 1992), at a time when ELF claimed responsibility for setting fire to logging equipment, fire engines, and bulldozers
- Rik Scarce — a Michigan State University professor who let Rodney Coronado use his home as a base of operations during a string of arsons in 1991, and was jailed for 5 months for refusing to tell a Grand Jury what he knew about Coronado’s ALF crimes. Scarce argued in his book “Eco-Warriors” that wholesale human extermination would be “an environmental cure-all.”
Since the Center for Consumer Freedom first broke this story on December 20, intense public scrutiny has been drawn to the Cal State Fresno seminar. Despite the increased pressure, a wide list of academic departments have still agreed to sponsor the event, most of which is still closed to the taxpaying public that funds the University.
