File:FBI-Ecoterrorism.pdf

Tactics Used by Eco-Terrorists to Detect and Thwart Law Enforcement Operations

FBI document marked "Unclassified/Law Enforcement Sensitive and dated 12 April 2004

Extract

(U) Environmental extremists consistently study and disseminate the methods, tactics, and legal guidelines under which law enforcement officials operate in an effort to expose law enforcement undercover agents, sources, and cooperating witnesses. Literature appearing in print form or on websites sympathetic to the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), Earth Liberation Front (ELF), Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), and anarchist groups provides detailed instructional material on a variety of topics, including ways to evade and/or thwart law enforcement methods.

(U) One of the earliest examples of this type of instructional material is David Foreman’s Eco-Defense: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching, segments of which continue to circulate on the Internet within the anarchist and radical environmentalist communities. Foreman was a founding member of Earth First in the 1980s. Despite being written in 1985, the book is still referenced by anarchists and animal rights/environmental extremists as a useful “how-to” manual.

(U) Law enforcement officials should be particularly cognizant of the sections of Eco-Defense that deal with the identification of undercover law enforcement officers, confidential informants, and cooperating witnesses. Among the admonishments listed in the book are the following:

• “Monkeywrenchers” (a term used to designate saboteurs) are urged to “study who has access to information now believed to be in the hands of the police” and “notice anyone who suddenly attempts to distance themselves [sic].”
• Foreman’s book notes, “often a confidential informant is used to introduce the infiltrator to the group so that she will be more readily accepted.” Thus, law enforcement officials should recognize that merely using an existing source to gain access for an undercover agent/officer might not be sufficient for establishing the officer’s credibility.
• Eco-Defense warns that potential undercover officers may “assume roles outside the target organization” that could increase access for the officer. The book further advises, “a favorite is to pass themselves off as writers or members of the news media, or even as someone hoping to produce a documentary for public access television.” Eco-Defense also suggests that undercover agents may pose as defense attorneys in an effort to gather information from recently arrested activists.
• The book also asserts that undercover agents frequently pose as utility workers or phone company repairmen for the purpose of gaining access to a suspect’s living quarters. The book asserts that, once access is obtained, the agent is free to plant listening devices or observe illegal activities to justify a search warrant. The book advises readers to demand identification and verify the repairman’s legitimacy.
• Finally, Eco-Defense warns incarcerated activists that “jailhouse snitches” may seek information for law enforcement authorities.