America's homegrown terrorists. (Terror Watch).(terrorist activities of the Earth Liberation Front)

Enron CEO Kenneth Lay wasn't the only one pleading the Fifth Amendment on Capitol Hill in February. Testifying on February 13 before a House committee investigating terrorism committed in the U.S. in the name of environmentalism, former Earth Liberation Front (ELF) spokesman Craig Rosebraugh invoked the right against self-incrimination over 50 times. He even took the Fifth when asked if he was a U.S. citizen. At one point Representative George Nethercutt (RWA) jokingly asked if Mr. Rosebraugh was "in any way related" to Mr. Lay. As you might have guessed, Rosebraugh took the Fifth on that one, too.

Craig Rosebraugh hasn't always been so hesitant to speak his mind. A scrawny, bespectacled 28-year-old with a shaved head, he first became involved with ELF and its sister group the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) in 1997. He claims the organizations contacted him anonymously with assorted statements and communiques, which he then prepared as press releases. These releases were sent to the media, and Mr. Rosebraugh made himself available for interviews and speeches.

Who exactly were these shadowy people Mr. Rosebraugh was representing? ELF first reared its ugly head in England in 1992. By 1997 it had begun to operate in America. There are no formal headquarters or known internal structure, and most of its members seem to be high school or college students. But over the years, both ELF and ALF have been responsible for many serious acts of ecoterrorism. According to James Jarboe, the FBI's top domestic terrorism officer, they are "the most active" and "cause the most damage" of any U.S. terrorist organization. He estimates that ELF and ALF have caused $43 million in damage over the years. One of the most costly acts was the 1998 torching of a ski resort in Vail, Colorado that caused $12 million in damages. In 1999, ELF members set fire to Michigan State University's Agriculture Hall to destroy academic research they found offensive. A million dollars of damage was done to a Eugene, Oregon car dealership when enviro-terrorists destroyed 36 trucks and SUVs. Last year, ALF firebombed the Coulston Foundation biomedical facility in New Mexico, causing another $1 million in damages.

There's more. In his testimony to Congress, Richard Berman, executive director of the Center for Consumer Freedom, explained that "during the past three years, ELF and ALF have claimed responsibility for smashing bank windows, torching a chicken feed truck, burning a horse corral at a Bureau of Land Management facility ... even setting bombs under meat delivery trucks." He noted that ELF and ALF took joint credit for the firebombing of a Tucson, Arizona McDonald's that occurred, ironically, on September 11, 2001. Mr. Berman estimates these groups are responsible for "well over 1,000 documented criminal acts in the U.S." ELF and ALF themselves admit to committing 137 illegal acts in North America in 2001 (25 since September 11), causing millions of dollars in damages.

Throughout their terror campaign, ELF and ALF could always count on the support of Craig Rosebraugh. He shrugs off the idea that he represented vandals, saying "if we are vandals, so were those who destroyed forever the gas chambers of Buchenwald and Auschwitz." Mr. Rosebraugh defends the burning of a luxury home in Boulder, Colorado on the grounds that "there is no reason ... for someone to have ... a multimillion-dollar home when there are people living in the same city who can't afford proper shelter." Do ELF and ALF expect to win new converts through terrorism? "That's not the immediate goal" according to Craig Rosebraugh. "The immediate goal is to cause economic damage."

As for the possibility of "physical harm that may come to the public," Mr. Rosebraugh says ELF and ALF "pose no threat, and they never have posed any threat." He claims "no one has ever been injured by the group's many actions." But he has encouraged others "to find a local Earth raper and make them ...