CounterActing Eco Terrorism
Although ALF and ELF are not the only Eco Terrorist groups active today, they have caused the majority of the damaging incidents. Michael B. Ward, the Deputy Assistant Director for the Counterterrorism Division in the FBI, illustrates the significance of ALF and ELF. From 1996 to 2001, a group of 20 members from ELF and ALF, called ‘The Family’, committed 25 domestic terrorist attacks throughout the Western United States causing nearly 50 million dollars in damage. Because of all the damage from these events, the FBI created an operation (operation backfire) to dismember ‘The Family’ and arrest the members responsible for the damage. Operation Backfire has been able to stop most of the Ecoterrorism throughout the USA, but it remains a domestic threat and according to ADL, “Eco Terrorism remains one of the country's most active terrorist movements.”
Despite past attacks of Eco Terrorism the number of incidents from these organizations have decreased in the past few years. According to the Global Terrorism Database, in 1975 there were around 150 incidents, but in 2012 there were only 15 incidents. This shows that after the turn of the century when operation backfire occurred the number of Eco Terrorist activities decreased significantly and it shows how successful Operation Backfire was in changing the status of Eco Terrorist related activities.
ConClusion
Even though Eco Terrorists have caused damage, they have been doing it in the name of justice. Maybe the term Eco Terrorist is not agreeable. Eco Terrorists have caused arson attacks, bombings, and millions of dollars in damage, but there have not been any direct deaths because of them. According to Smith, “as one U.S. Senator stated at an “ecoterrorism” hearing: “in our current state of fear, it is easy to get headlines by using the term ‘terrorism.’ But sometimes, a criminal is just a criminal.” This statement by this senator is more true than false. Much of time, people get blinded by fear, which can cause rash decisions. If radical environmentalists use less violence in their protest, the term terrorist will not be used as often. In that case people will not be blinded by the term terrorists, and people listen to injustice which could create change.