If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (2011) - full transcript

[ Helicopter Blades Whirring ]

[Male Newscaster]
In Vail, Colorado,

the nation's busiest ski resort
was hit today by a fire.

Arson is suspected.

[ Male Newscaster #2 ]
You may have heard
of the Earth Liberation Front.

The attorney general himself says
it's a domestic terrorist organization.

The FBI says it is one of the most
dangerous groups in the country..

[ Male Newscaster #3 ]
The E.L.F. has claimed responsibility...

for more than two dozen major acts
of ecoterrorism since 1996...

[ Male Newscaster #4 ]
The fire bombings include
attacks on lumber mills,

wild horse corrals
and two meatpacking plants.



[ Male Newscaster #5 ]
So far, not one of the cases
has ever been solved,

and authorities acknowledge
they know next to nothing...

about the membership
or the leadership of the organization.

[ Man Narrating ]
On December 7, 2005,

four federal agents
entered my wife’s office...

and arrested one of her employees-
Daniel McGowan.

It was part of a nationwide roundup...

that eventually netted 14 members...

of the radical environmental group,
the Earth Liberation Front.

[ Camera Shutters Clicking ]

In all, their trail of
destruction resulted...

in millions of dollars of property damage.

Today's indictment is a significant step...

in bringing these terrorists to justice.



[Narrator]
Weeks after his arrest,

Daniel's sister put up
everything she owned for bail,

and he was placed on house arrest
in her apartment...

to wait for trial.

[ Water Running ]

[ Daniel ]
In 2001, I was involved
with the Earth Liberation Front.

And I was involved
in two separate arsons in one year.

I think, like,
people look at my case,

and they think, "What if that motherfucker
burned down my house?"

I think people think it's just
a bunch of young crazies...

walking around with gas cans
lighting shit on fire
that pisses them off.

And then they think,
"What if I burned things
that pissed me off?

That's kinda crazy."
You know?

Which it is kinda crazy.

But I think people just need
to understand that...

this thing is complex
and it's not that simple.

It's hideous to be called a terrorist.

There was no one
in any of these facilities.

No one got hurt.
No one was injured.

And yet I'm facing
life plus 335 years.

I split my time between
talking to my lawyers.

I do a lot of research on my case.

You know,
all my legal documents-

DVDs and CDs
and video and photos.
Audiotapes.

Hi. This is Daniel McGowan.

I know that my lawyer
sent you the brief...

that is being filed
with the court today,
but it's basically about-

[Narrator]
As Daniel is preparing for trial,

the government is putting
pressure on him and his
codefendants to take a deal.

Either they plead guilty
and testify against each other...

or go to trial and risk
life in prison.

I told my lawyers at our first meeting,
" Don't ever bring up cooperation
as a tactic.

We're never gonna cooperate.
You don't have that card
in your back pocket.

Don't bring it up."

All the people in this group had
conversations back in the day about this.

Like, you know, "You get arrested,
just don't say a word.

Just get a lawyer and, like,
we'll, you know, join up
and we'll see what happens."

Okay. Thanks, Andrea.
I'll talk to you soon. Bye.

[ Phone Slams On Cradle ]

My family has done a tremendous
amount of stuff for me.

I mean, letting me live here.

But we choose to live
our lives very differently.

Like, I compost.

I had never used a dishwasher
in my life until I moved in here.

And I try not to impose my way
of doing things on anyone here,

but, yeah, we have
different ways of doing things.

[ Phone Ringing ]

No, I don't think I need that,
because we paint every edge.

All right.

All right. Bye.

[ Lisa ]
I'd be a liar if called myself
an environmentalist.

I mean, I care about the environment.
I think about the environment.

Um-

I recycle.

But I don't recycle
every single piece of paper
like Danny does.

When he came home from college,
he lived with me in Rockland.

One day I came home,
and he took the label...

off every single canned good I had...

because he was, like,
so obsessed with recycling.

He was like, "If we recycle,
we have to take the labels off the cans."

I said, "But you took the labels
off every can. I don't even know
what I have in the cans now.

I don't know if they’re soup.
I don't know what kind of soup.

I don't know if they’re peas
or they're corn."

And he's like,
"I never thought of that."

It was, like, I opened my cupboard,
and there was just all tin cans.

I got a call from Jenny,

uh, totally hysterical, upset,

saying that some men came in
and took Daniel from his job.

My dad's first reaction was like,
"Oh, I don't know my son anymore."

And I think he was just in shock.

It's funny. Growing up,
he wasn't the political kid
that was fighting for anything.

No, he was just a regular kid.

Played with his friends, rode his bike.

It wasn't like he, you know,
had this whole history.

But, you know, you don't know what's
inside someone until they get older...

and they start to think
about who they are.

[ Daniel ]
I was born in 1974 in Brooklyn.

I moved to Rockaway
when I was around three-
Rockaway Beach in Queens.

It's like mostly,
you know, working class people.

My dad was a cop
in the New York Police Department.

I went to high school
at a place called Christ the King.

Catholic high school.

And I was a track runner,
and, you know,

I got scholarships
and stuff like that.

And then when I got to college,
I was like,

"Oh, I guess I'll major in Business,
because that's practical."

When I graduated, I got a job...

at a massive public relations company
called Burson-Marsteller.

During this time period,
at some point along the way,

I ran into a woman collecting
signatures at Union Square.

She kept telling me
about Wetlands-

the Wetlands Environmental Center.

And that kinda was where it changed.

♪ [ Rock, Indistinct ]

It was basically-
The idea was it was a bar
that had live shows,

but the profits would go to
running an environmental center.

So I went to this meeting,

and they played these films
that blew my mind.

I had never seen with my own eyes...

what kind of world we lived in.

I feel like I'm in perpetual mourning,

and I have been from
the moment that, like-

I don't know- I kind of
took the blinders off and was, like,

"Holy crap.
What the hell are we doing?"

And I got involved
pretty much instantly.

I protested constantly.

I did letter writing a lot.

I did letter writing
every week at Wetlands.

I wrote hundreds of protest letters
to all sorts of different agencies.

And at the time they announced
that there was gonna be...

a national gathering
in Crandon, Wisconsin.

So I went.

You know, I mean, I was shy.
A city kid. I didn't-

I mean, I liked nature
as a concept,

but I was, like,
never had slept outside
before in my whole life.

I was like 22.

It was, like, different
than anything I have ever seen.

We went swimming
in, like, a creek.

We were, like, going out
on logs and jumping off.

We were skinny-dipping.
I mean, all this stuff was new.

You know, traditionally at the end
of the rendezvous, they have a big action.

We went to town and had
a protest at the mine office.

And I actually ended up
being arrested.

And it was really eye opening,
you know,

to kinda learn about
this different world...

and this, like, environmental
resistance movement.

[ Man ]
I'm a fourth-generation Oregonian.

Um, grew up in Eugene.

My brother works in a mill.
My uncles own mills.

It's something that,
if you’re from the Northwest,

it's something you do.

I think I met Daniel
here in Eugene.

They called him, uh,

"the disgruntled one,"

just because he had sort of
this nasty sort of attitude...

and he was always sort of bitter.

And he was always sort of pissed off...

and he'd always challenge people
for their "stupid ideas."

And so, uh, you know, they sort
of coined this nickname for him,
"the disgruntled one."

I think Daniel arrived out here
about '99- 1999.

But to really understand, you know,
why these arsons were set,

I think you gotta go
all the way back...

to a time when Daniel
was still living back east.

You gotta go to about 1995, which was,
uh, the Warner Creek timber sale.

Warner Creek's
about 50 miles east of Eugene,

and it's probably one of the most
beautiful places I've ever been.

And in 1995, the Forest Service
decided to open it up for logging.

People went up there
and created a blockade...

on a federal logging road
to try to prevent,

you know, the logging
of this place.

So we created
a documentary called Pickaxe,

which is the story of Warner Creek.

[ Man Over Walkie-talkie ]
There's more vehicles
on the way. Over.

[ Man #2 ]
One grader
followed by one Dudley.

We don't think you guys
have the right...

to take a protected forest
teeming with life, you know,
bid it and log it.

[ Lewis ]
For a long time, people were
fighting the Forest Service...

through, like, holding signs,
letter writing-

sort of a sort of a hippie-type
approach to protest.

But there was this new kind of protest
that was becoming popular.

People would call it sabotage,
or monkey-wrenching.

They would glue locks.
They'd pull up survey stakes.

They would maybe put sugar
in gas tanks of bulldozers.

At Warner Creek, you know,
just a simple little blockade...

turned into an all-out assault...

on the only way into that forest.

Protesters dug
a series of trenches...

to keep logging trucks
from getting to the forest.

And then they built the wall.

It looked like an old fort
from the wild, wild West...

and it had a drawbridge,

and it was really a cool blockade.

We're drawing a line
in the sand, and you can't come
in here and destroy this place.

And they stayed up there
for about a year.

[ Protestors Chattering ]

As a federal law enforcement officer,
it is my duty to inform
you that you're in violation.

You have five minutes to get out
of here, and you have actually
less than five minutes.

[ Lewis ]
Early one morning,
the Forest Service came up-

[ Female Officer Chattering ]
and arrested the protesters-

- Okay.
- and knocked down the wall.

That created a lot of bitterness
toward the Forest Service.

And soon after,
things began to escalate.

The first time I met Jacob Ferguson
was at Warner Creek.

He was sort of a cool dude.
He didn't say much.
He just did a lot of work.

But I think it's really hard
to know Jacob Ferguson...

unless you're on the in-
inside of Jacob’s life.

This is the house
I moved into right over here.

And right at that time,
Jacob Ferguson was living
right over there.

But Jacob, uh, was a pirate.

He was, uh- He was definitely,
um, an outlaw.

♪ [ Punk]

♪ [ Continues ]

Yeah!

[ Lewis ]
He tried to play a bad boy image,
and he did it well,

because I think he really was one.

After Warner Creek,

I think he really felt...

that the Forest Service
was getting away with stuff.

I think most of America feels
the U.S. Forest Service's
job is to protect the forest.

But the Forest Service is a part
of the Department of Agriculture.

And the Department of Agriculture...

looks upon these forests as crops.

The U.S. Forest Service's
real job is to provide trees
for these timber companies...

so they can cut these trees
from our national forests.

They were cutting down
these massive old-growth trees,

up to 750, even a thousand years old
that were just massive.

But I think Jake was tired of the talk.

He was tired of just,
you know, philosophizing.

"You guys," you know-
"You through talking shit now, or what?

Let's do it."

[ People Chattering ]

[ Clicks ]

[ Man ]
This investigation was...

the largest domestic terrorism case...

in the history of the United States.

And the very first
E.L.F. action that occurred
in the United States...

occurred at two ranger stations
in the district of Oregon.

Mainstream, legitimate
environmental activists...

were absolutely shocked...

and disgusted with the fire,

and they saw the burning
of the Oakridge Ranger Station...

as a public relations disaster.

[Narrator]
In the months after
the ranger station fires,

there was a split within
the environmental movement.

In Eugene, which was quickly
becoming a hotbed of activism,

a growing community
of younger environmentalists
cheered on the arsons.

But most environmentalists
argued that, in a democracy,

public protest was still
a better way of making change.

[ Chattering, Indistinct ]

In the summer of '97,

just a few months after
the ranger station fires,

an event took place
in downtown Eugene...

that for many
shook up the debate.

[ Lewis ]
There was this place downtown...

that had 40 old heritage trees-
just beautiful.

And they were gonna put in
a parking lot for Symantec,

this big corporation next door.

And they were gonna cut down
the trees to do it.

[ Narrator]
Activists began mobilizing
to save the trees,

but as they prepared
to take the issue to
the next city council meeting,

the city suddenly announced
that it would cut the trees...

one day before that public hearing.

[ Lewis ]
On Sunday morning,
about 2:30 in the morning,

about 11 people
went up into the trees...

to prevent them from being cut.

We just went and did it,

hoping that we could stave off
the cutting...

for one day until that public hearing.

Just for one day
so the citizens could talk
to the city council...

the next day about saving them.

[ Flynn ]
They came in right away
wearing riot gear...

and gas masks and stuff like that.

So, uh, bang, bang, bang
on the door at 8:00 in the morning.

Some kid says,
"Get out there! Get out there!

They're pepper-spraying them
in the trees! Get your camera.
You gotta get there!

I mean, they're pepper-spraying
them right now!!"

[ Man ]
Hang in there, Jim!

[ Flynn ]
They came up
in the fire truck bucket,

and they cut my pants leg
up to my groin...

so they could spray
my leg with pepper spray.

Cutting, you know, their pants
and pepper-spraying them in the ass...

and pepper-spraying them
in the balls...

while they were hanging
from the limbs 40 feet up.

People were on the street
looking at this and going,

"What the fuck
do you think you’re doing?"

And so people were radicalized.

They started jumping
on the fence and going,

"Quit that shit!"
[ Shouting ]

[ Flynn ]
They're tear-gassing the crowd
and pepper-spraying the crowd.

It was just a crazy,
frantic scene that day.

[ Shouting Continues ]

[ Lewis ]
And they used about
12 to 15 cans on Flynn,

and he stayed up for, I think,
about six or seven hours, man.

[ Man ]
No!

[ Flynn ]
And then they flushed me
with a bunch of water,

took me to the hospital
and then took me to jail.

So for the next,
you know, 35 hours,

I was soaking in pepper spray.

My hands were orange
for a week.

And so the argument that you need
to work within the system...

was pretty well dashed
by what the cops did
on that day in Eugene.

[ Protestors Shouting ]

And June 1 was really the day...

that pissed off a lot
of people in this town.

[ Horns Honking ]

[ Daniel ]
I remember reading about it.

People were like,
"Oh, we have this footage!"

And, you know,
it was really intense.

And that kind of stuff, like-
that's part of the story.

That was, like,
part of the backdrop.
[Shouting]

It's crazy. It's crazy.
I think a lot of moments like that...

really erode people's belief
that anything can actually change.

Next week it's four months
that I'm on house arrest.

[Man On Radio ]
There is no construction on-
[ Continues, Indistinct ]

My days here are really tedious.

[ Spraying ]
It's just really hard
to focus and do anything.

Just thinking about my future
and how uncertain it is.

I get really sad at night,
you know.

I prefer to sleep straight through
so I don't have those moments,

but I have them
almost every night, so-

I've been doing okay though,
you know, all things considered.

I mean, I feel like, on one level,

I just have to be really
thankful for what I have,

which is, like, a good family
and really good friends,

and so I try to, like,
keep things in perspective.

Hold on one second.

Hi.
Hey. How are you?

Great. How you doing?
Good.

[Narrator]
Daniel was living
with his girlfriend...

when he was arrested,

and she's moved
into his sister's apartment
to be with him.

You know, people are all different,

and some other people,
if they were in my position,

they might have been totally, like,

questioning everything.

But it just- It's not me.

I think that he feels
the dread every single day.

It definitely removes...

some of the life
from his personality.

[ Phone Rings ]

Hello?

Hey, what's up?
How are you?

Wait, wait, wait.

So wait, wait.
I'm sorry.

He's cooperating
to the full extent?

[Narrator]
Six of Daniel's codefendants...

have appeared in court
to accept plea deals.
[ Barking ]

In exchange
for reduced sentences,

they've agreed to testify
in the government's case against
the remaining defendants.

[ Daniel ]
I t hurts that people that
I trusted and cared about,

you know,
turned their back on me.

To be a cooperating witness,
it's something other people can do.

I'm just not gonna do it,
because I just have to live with myself,

and I'm not gonna be that person
and start spewing out crap...

just to, like, get myself
out of a situation
that's not very pleasant.

So-

[ Sighs ]

[ Synan ] I'd want him to do
whatever he needed to do
to not go to prison.

But I would never want him
to compromise...

his values or beliefs.

So if he has to choose,
he'll be facing life in prison.

I made the choice to be with him,

and after he was arrested
I made the choice to stay with him.

I mean, that's what you do
when you're-

when you're in a relationship
with someone.

Just because something
really difficult comes up...

doesn't mean you just
run away, you know?

So-

I think we should get married.
[ Chuckles ]

[ Chattering, Indistinct ]

Daniel, I've seen you with Jenny,

and you're wonderful with her.

You're good for each other,

you have great chemistry,
and- [ Voice Cracking ]
and I love you both.

Congratulations.
[ Applause ]

This kid faces 335 years
plus life in prison,

and he's getting married.

I want to kinda
grab the positive...

and think that this is
gonna work out in the end,

everything's gonna be okay,

and, you know,
there's nothing to stress about,

but... there is.

Hey.

Oh, if it isn't my sister.
How are you?

How are you?
Perfect timing.
Ah, I'm friggin' hot.

- That's why I'm out here.
- Let me see your ring.

Oh.

[ Laughs ]

And by "nicer,"
she means more money.

It's diamonds!

His ring is made out of, like,
some recycled type metal...

that doesn't hurt anything
or anybody, and mine's made
of good old diamonds.

[ Laughing ]

Come on, let's go have
a good time.

♪ [Pop ]

[ Barton ] It's easy to discount
the environmental movement...

as a bunch of wackos
and hippies and arsonists.

But it's not like that.

There are businessmen
and, you know,

moms and dads and scientists
and loggers themselves.

There are people from every walk of life
that get involved in this.

I've spent several years of my life...

doing logging in the woods.

I come with a little different
perspective than a lot of the,

you know, the environmental
crowd or the, you know,

the logging crowd.

I've got a little of both in me.

I'm okay with cutting down trees.

I just don't have an issue with it.

But I'm not okay
with cutting them all down.

The industry tends to call
environmentalists radical.

[ Chuckles ]
The reality is that 95%...

of the standing native forests
in the United States
have been cut down.

It's not radical to try
and save the last five percent.

What's radical is logging 95%.

This is radical.

This is a piece of a big old tree.

This tree probably sprouted
just about the time...

Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

It looks about 500 years old,
somewhere in there.

You know, the suckers,
if they could talk,

would probably say
it'd been pretty boring up
until about 75 years ago...

when all hell broke loose
out here on the ridge,

and they started
cutting them down.

Most of them are gone now,
so we won't be seeing
any of these...

for at least another 500 years,
and that's if we leave them alone.

These are amazing old trees.

[ Daniel ]
I moved out west
in October of '98.

I got out to Northern California.

I had never seen trees
like that before.

It had a really
profound impact on me.

I was already quite radicalized,

but I couldn't believe the fact that
people accepted what was going on.

I have memories of, like-
like, for the first time
seeing log trucks, you know,

and being like, "Whoa!"

You saw the mills.

Or you go on into the forest
and stumble upon a clear-cut.

Like, it just blew me away.

Just the arrogance of it.

I was like,
"Man, this is butchered!"

You know? It made me think, like,
"Why are we being so gentle?

Why are we so gentle
in our activism when this
is what's happening, you know?"

[Narrator]
After the ranger station fires,

Jake Ferguson and members
of the fledgling E.L.F....

set their sights
on new targets.

They came across
an Associated Press article...

about the rounding up of wild horses
from government land.

The horses were being sent
to slaughterhouses,

including the Cavel West plant...

in nearby Redmond, Oregon.

There were so many horses
being processed at the plant...

that horse blood would
sometimes overwhelm...

the town's water
treatment facility...

and shut it down.

And for 10 years,

people from the area had tried,

and failed, to stop the plant.

But on July 21, 1997,

Jake Ferguson and three others
slipped into the facility
in the middle of the night...

and burned it to the ground.

The company was never able
to rebuild,

and the arson
became a model for the group.

In one night,
they had accomplished...

what years of letter writing
and picketing
had never been able to do.

They expanded and took on
new targets.

They burned timber company
headquarters,

a Bureau of Land Management office...

and a $12 million
ski lodge at Vail, Colorado...

to protest the resort's
expansion into national forest.

An E.L.F. press office
was opened...

by activists
who did not know the identities
of the E.L.F. members.

- That's that.
- How do they contact you?

- Anonymously.
- But- I mean, what is that?

Like a package dropped
on your doorstep?
Well, it can be-

They publicized the fires
and explained the group's actions.

When a building burns down,
they have to do a news story about it.

That's why the Earth Liberation
Front burned down the building
in the first place:

to get exposure.

We were there to help explain
why that building burned down,

what it was doing
in the first place that was
angering people so much.

A lot of what the Earth
Liberation Front did...

was considered
economic sabotage.

These corporations exist
to make money.

All of a sudden
they're losing money,

so they have to reassess
their activities.

Another thing that happens
is that the building...

that was dumping toxic waste,
for example, into the river one day...

is unable dump
that waste tomorrow.

[Narrator]
The press office encouraged people
to start their own E.L.F. cells,

but mandated that
their fires not harm any life.

Take initiative,
form your own cell...

and do what needs to be done
to protect all life on this planet.

[ Narrator]
The idea spread,

and new, anonymous cells
popped up in other parts
of the country..

[ Female Newscaster]
The Earth Liberation Front
is turning up the heat again,

igniting devastating blazes
all across the country..

[ Female Reporter]
A biology lab
at the University of Minnesota.

[ Male Reporter]
BIoomington, Indiana.
New York's Long Island.

[ Female Reporter]
Now some say E.L.F.
is in New England.

[ Horns Honking ]
[ Whooping, Cheering ]

[ Lewis ]
Back in Eugene,
people were celebrating.

[ Honking Continues ]

We had no idea that it was
people from our neighborhood...

and they were friends of ours,
but we were hearing about
what was happening.

- We were celebrating.
- ? [ Drumming ]

I don't think it was just the E.L.F.
that started ratcheting things up.

I think activists all over the Northwest
were also kicking it up a notch.

[ Shouting, Chanting ]
They thought
there was a possibility...

of really making things change.

Just have to work at it
a little harder
and get a little more radical.

[ Chanting ]

[ Cheering ]

He's not turning it off.
He knows someone's locked under.

There's an old woman.
She's 80 years old!

[ Horn Honking ]
[ Shouting ]

[ Lewis ]
There was a sort of
a progression of radicalism...

that happened in Eugene.

And so the police were
also amping up their presence...

because we were amping up
our presence.

Literally, we were having
two protests a week.

You know, major protests.

And so you can imagine what
law enforcement went like.

I was doing undercover work
around the Eugene area.

We were looking for some
of these individuals...

that were causing
mayhem around Eugene.

I think it was well known
in the movement...

that they could probe
and push and get us to react...

in a way that oftentimes
didn't look very good.

Get back! Get back!

[ Crowd Shouting ]
[ Air Horn Blows ]

Hey! Hey!

Hey! Hey!
[ All Shouting ]

Hey, get back!

[ Shouting Continues ]
Get back! Get back!

But we were getting
rocks and bottles...

and that kind of thing- fire-
thrown at us, you know.

It just hadn't happened before.

Out of the street!
[ Woman ]
You fucker!

To say that emotions don't
play into that would be folly.

I mean, that's not true.
It is personal to take a rock.

[ All Shouting ]

No!
[ Shouting Continues ]

[ Lewis ]
And people's views got hardened
and more radicalized...

from what the police
were doing to them within Eugene,

or other campaigns that were
going on around the Northwest.

Are you gonna release?

[ Man ]
Why are you doing this to us?

Okay. Are you going to release?

[ Woman Shouting ]
Who's gonna release?

[ Woman ]
Oh, I love you!
I love you.

[ Officer] I only did one eye.
I'm gonna do the other eye
if you don't release.

Please don't hurt me!

[ Woman #2 ]
Leave her alone!

Stop it!
Stop it! Stop!
[ Screaming ]

When those people
were getting attacked...

and stepped on
and pepper-sprayed in their face
while they were locked down,

I thought,
"Protest and civil disobedience-
What's the point?

Why bother?" You know?
It's not getting us anywhere.

We're getting victimized
by their police, you know.

I don't know. I think I,
like a lot of people I knew at the time,

experienced a massive loss of faith...

in that systemic change
could happen through, you know,

the system regulating itself
or reforming itself.

? [News Theme ]
Good evening.

When the World Trade Summit
was planned for Seattle,

the administration obviously
hoped it would be a triumph
for Bill Clinton...

in the closing months
of his presidency.

Instead, it's been a nightmare
of protests and demonstrations
in the streets.

? [ Drumming ]
[Narrator]
In 1999,

tens of thousands of people
converged on Seattle...

to protest the WTO
and its effect on
the environment and labor.

They blockaded the streets
using nonviolent civil disobedience.

Peaceful protest!
Peaceful protest!

The police responded with force
to clear the streets.

[ Man Shouting, Indistinct ]
You're shooting poison!

But while the authorities were
focused on the demonstrators,

another group appeared
that included current and future
members of the E.L.F.

I had met these people in Seattle,

and I was introduced to kind of
a larger group of individuals.

[ Man On Bullhorn ]
Back to the sidewalk!

[ Daniel ]
Here we are
in our black clothes.

You know, downtown Seattle
is just full of corporations...

that are wrecking devastation
and destruction on the planet,

and people were just like,
"Okay, let's do it!"

? [Hard Rock]

These businesses,
they're not gonna bow to people
dancing in the street.

They're not gonna bow to people
dressed as, you know,
giant sea turtles or so on.

They care about one thing.
They care about capital.

Unless we put a dent
in their pocket, what good-
How are you gonna do that?

How are you gonna put
a dent in their pocket?

Hopefully by causing
property damage.

? Yeah?

[ Cheering ]

[ Daniel ]
I'd never breathed tear gas,
pepper spray...

or saw rubber bullets
or concussion grenades
until that point.

It was, like, insane. I really felt like,
"This is like a war zone!"

Like, wow. Holy crap.

? Yeah?

[ All Shouting ]

? [Ends ]

It felt good to take out my rage
on these corporate windows...

because they had caused
so much destruction, in my mind.

Stop it! Stop it!

It created, obviously,
a huge conversation
and a dialogue and fight.

This is not what
the protest was about!

[ Alarm Ringing ]
People work hard
for their property!

Vandalism is vandalism.
Destruction is destruction,

whether it's of lives or property.

It's not acceptable.

[ Male Interviewer]
What do you think
of the Boston Tea Party?

I thought it was wonderful!
Wow. Thank you.

Thank you.

Fifty cents!
Read all about it!

I think people have a very
Pollyanna viewpoint of social change.

[ Crowd Shouting ]

No real social change
has happened without pressure,

without force, without-

some would say- intimidating
governments and corporations
into changing their behavior.

[ Shouting Continues ]

[ Laughs ]

Oh, it's so weird
to talk about this stuff.
Um-

I took part
in the black bloc at WTO

And the goal of the black bloc...

was to just send a message,
an anticapitalist message...

that consumer America is destroying
the world and destroying the planet.

And that was
the first time we met
a lot of the other people...

that ended up being
involved in the arsons.

[ Daniel ]
After the WTO,
I decided to move to Eugene...

to keep in touch
with some of these people
that I met in Seattle.

And I started becoming
a really different person.

[ Savoie ]
Daniel was very involved
in the issues...

and ideas surrounding Eugene.

He was very social.
He seemed to know everybody,

and everybody
seemed to know him,
including the cops.

Daniel was kind of known
as a leader around the area.

Um, you know,

he would show up
at protests or gatherings,

and you can always see
that he was somebody
that people looked up to.

You know, you see
who's serious and who's not...

based on how they're acting,
what they're saying.

And so somewhere along the line
it became obvious...

that, like, I was someone that was
interested in doing other stuff.

I met Jake in the neighborhood.

There was some allure
about him just being
quiet and kind of to himself.

And being there really
set some things in motion.

The more radical environmental
community have, in my opinion,

a misconception about
this industry and what we do.

[ Swanson ]
It's more than just a job.

You know, I'm a third-generation
lumberman.

My son works in the industry.

I want him to carry on,
and when he has kids,
I want them to carry on.

You can't be in the lumber industry
without having trees to cut.

So it's ridiculous for people
to think we’re gonna go out
there and cut the last tree.

[ Man ]
I think the biggest
misconception is that...

we're out there
just knocking the forest down,

we're just-we're termites.

We just rampage through
the forest and we leave it
a mess and we move on.

[ Swanson ]
Does it have an impact?
Certainly.

Nobody likes the looks
of a fresh harvest.

But we really do regrow these trees.

You know, we plant six trees
for every tree we harvest.

That's the law.
I mean, it's just flat-out the law.

And people don't break the law.
You just can't get away with it
in Oregon or anyplace else.

Being an environmentalist
is simply respecting the land...

and the atmosphere around you.

In that regard, I'm an environmentalist.

[ Daniel ]
Eugene has a commercial railroad
that goes through town.

[ Crossing Bell Dinging ]

It wasn’t uncommon to see
just, like, plywood after plywood...

and company names, you know,
stamped onto it.

That's definitely how I heard
about Superior Lumber.

Just by seeing
their half-mile-long train
full of forest go by.

They were logging old growth,
logging just massive trees,

and out of areas that had previously
been pretty inaccessible.

Sometimes when you see things
you love being destroyed,

you just want to destroy
those things.

So I felt like the action was justified.

We were quite surprised
that we had been targeted.

I believe I was invited
to participate in Superior Lumber...

by Meyerhoff to be a lookout,
along with Suzanne.

But I met Jacob and Kevin
right before the action- Kevin Tubbs.

They got together some weeks before,
did a surveillance of it.

It was in an isolated area.

There was no viable security there.

They figured out where...

they should place the devices.

They came back
and prepared the devices.

Put them in plastic
Tupperware containers.

Made sure that the containers
were fingerprint-free,
D.N.A. clean.

They always wore gloves.

I felt nervous from the get-go.
For one, we were-

I was staying in this house
where everything was stored.

And it was someone else's house
that didn't know about the action.

On the night of the arson,

they drove to the staging area.

They put on their masks.

They did radio checks.
They had a police scanner.

It's positively nerve-racking.

I used to get really sick
before actions and, like, throw up...

and just get, like, nervous
and, like, just in a zone, you know.

I mean, I think
that you have to get-

When you're doing something
that intense, even as a lookout,
you're just, like, freaked out,

'cause you just don't know
how anything's gonna go.

[ Savoie ]
I was in the back of the van,

and I was actually kind of by myself
in the back of the van,

so I was just
kind of thinking to myself,

and I think Kevin and Jake
were in the front of the van.

They were just listening
to music, and so it was
fairly relaxed.

People weren’t really talking
a whole lot, but, you know,
your adrenaline's going.

Miss Savoie and Mr. McGowan
were the lookouts,

and they staged north
and south of the building.

[ Savoie ]
I was stationed at a pay phone.

You know, everybody else
was dressed in all black...

because everyone wanted
to blend into the night.

However, I dressed
in somewhat darker clothing,
but I looked fairly normal.

I just had a scarf that
I could wrap around my face
in case somebody passed by.

And then I got dropped off
kind of on the side of the road,

and I just kinda crawled
into this, like, space,

this, like, shoulder, you know,
with a bunch of ivy.

Mr. Meyerhoff and Mr. Ferguson
then placed...

the five-gallon fuel containers...

and activated the timing devices.

It was done within,
you know, 15 minutes,

and I got picked up,
and away we went.

It was somewhere between
2:00 and 3:00 a.m...

when I was home, sound asleep,
and I got a phone call.

And, of course, anytime
you get a phone call...

at 2:00 a.m. in the morning,
it's not good news.

It turned the office
into just a fiery oven.

I mean, I don't know
how hot it got in here,

but we had keyboards that were-

I mean, you couldn't tell
one key from the other.
They were just melted together.

[ Daniel ]
I went up to Portland and wrote
the communiqué and sent it in.

Even then, it wasn't real.
It was just still kind of
this cartoonish thing.

And it wasn’t real until
I really saw the newspapers-

seeing the man from the company-
I think Steve Swanson-

just walking through these,
like, charred remains,
and I was just like, "Holy crap!"

That was a major blow
to our mental psyche,

at least in the short run.

Just felt like, you know,
a big hole in my heart.

[ Lewis ]
In Eugene, people were jazzed.

When the big, bad bully gets,
you know, hit in the stomach...

and feels a little something...

and maybe a little fear or whatever,
that felt good.

It was exciting.
The next day, I felt,
you know, like,

"Wow. I've actually done
something where it stopped!"

I didn't have a problem
with what I was doing.
I thought it was effective.

It was a million dollars
or something like that.

You know,

it's like, when you're involved with it
and you're in the thick of it,

it's hard to look at, like,
all the consequences...

and, like, the real
repercussions of that.

Like, you know, did this action
push them in a better direction?

Did it scare them?

Did it help the movement
in any capacity on old-growth logging?

There's lots of questions,
but I don't think at the time...

I was asking those questions too much.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Totally.

All right.
Well, um, that's great.

I guess I'll see you in a little bit.
Okay. Bye.

Yes!
[ Whooshes, Imitates Fanfare ]

Awesome!

All right, that's great.
I'm off the system.

I am off house arrest
technically right now.

Hey. I'm off.

Sweet!

Seven months and two days.

[ Narrator]
With seven months
of good behavior,

Daniel's lawyers have convinced
the government that he's not
a flight risk.

What do you think
about that?

I think I 'm gonna
stay in tonight.

[ Laughing ]
No, I'm joking.
Are you kidding me?

I don't care how tired I am.
We're doing something.

[ Daniel ]
Of course I'm gonna get off
house arrest on this day.

Like, of all days, like,
it'll be today, you know.

It's really sad for me to, like,

have all these feelings about
my home being attacked,

my city being attacked.

I mean, when I tell people
that, like, I'm accused
of being a terrorist, like,

whether it's "eco" or
"domestic" in front of it,

or if it's just straight "terrorist,"
it's ludicrous to me.

It's, like, surreal.
And most people that know me
are like, "What?"

No one's accused
in my case of flying planes,

bombing things,
trying to hurt people.

None of these things.
No one's accused of that.

It's property destruction.
Like, that's what it is.
Call it what it is, you know.

It's gone! Yay!

I look naked, right?
You did it!

How you doing?
Okay. How you doing?

Look at
my freak-ass ankle.

I actually ran a little bit
'cause I wanted to feel
what it was like to run.

I'm so tired.
[ Laughing ]

My feet hurt, my legs hurt.

I just had a knee pain.
It was horrible.

As time went on,
the cell members...

had to become better
and better and better at their craft.

And their craft was destruction.

And so they started
what was called the "book club."

They would train one another
on how to build incendiary devices.

And they would go out
and test all these things.

So they knew
how long it would take-

You know, at this time of night
and this kind of weather,

how long will it take
for this thing to ignite?

What type of fuel
would work the best?

They wouldn’t buy
all the ingredients
from the same store.

Even if the same store had the two
or three items that they'd need,

they would go to a completely
different store, you know,

30, 40 miles away
so it wouldn't ever be tracked.

It was called the book club because
they also utilized certain codes.

At the meeting they were told,
"This is the book we’ll be using!"

And then you'd have
to use your book...

that would associate
what page number,

what line number,
what word number,

and that's how you would
decode the message
to tell you where to go.

And some of the members
of the book club then...

were well versed in computer sciences,

and they brought in P.G.P.
encryption and showed the other
members how to do that.

There was a lot of, like,
having good covers
for why you're leaving town.

Why you’re not-
You know, where you're going.

Having really good stories
that made sense,
that were consistent,

that you told everyone-
your job, your family, everything.

Not dressing
like activists per se.

We didn't really look like what
you'd think we would look like.

I mean, if you saw people
walking down the street,

you would never think,
"That's the E.L.F."

It made a lot of sense of why
there wasn't any evidence,

why they weren’t caught sooner.

They were really good
at what they did.

[Narrator]
In May of 2001,

members of the E.L.F.
launched an attack
against two sites at once,

a first for the organization.

The first target was an office
at the University of Washington,

where a scientist
was doing genetic research on trees...

with a grant from
the timber industry..

The second target was the
Jefferson Poplar Tree Farm,

where the group believed
that genetically engineered trees...

were being developed
for paper production.

In the previous arson,

Daniel had been a lookout.

But this time
he took a much more active role.

They rented a motel room.

They set up a tent
inside the motel room.

They put on painter suits,
triple-thick gloves.

They made the devices.

One team went to
University of Washington,

and the other team traveled
down to Clatskanie in Oregon,

to Jefferson Poplar Farms.

[ Daniel ]
Clatskanie is a really small town.

We were desperately trying
to avoid a traffic stop,

because it's just, like,
we're pretty much screwed
if we got stopped.

There's way too many
people in the car
dressed in all black.

The driver of the vehicle
was Miss Savoie.

Miss Zacher served as a lookout.

And then the three men,

which was Mr. Meyerhoff,
Mr. McGowan and Mr. Block,

took the fuel loads
and the timers to the targets.

We checked that no one's there.
Like, climb around, look around.
No one's in there.

We'd been there previous.
No one's there.

The cleaning ladies were there,
like, much earlier.

We set up all the devices
and all the buckets.

They put little tubs full of fuel...

underneath the vehicles,
and they put soaked rags,

and they'd run the rags
from vehicle to vehicle to vehicle.

And the towel just goes and goes
and it goes and it goes.

And it's tied together- sheets-
and it's just an absolute mess.

They were careful to take
the trucks with the fuel tanks,

fill the beds of the vehicles with fuel.

[ Daniel ]
I'm standing there.
I'm drenched in gasoline.

We're about to burn
13 huge S.U.V.'s,

and I was just, like,
"What am I doing?"

But we take spray paint.

Myself and another person
go out to the shed,

and I write "E.L.F." on one side
in pretty huge letters,

and the other person writes
"You cannot control what is wild!"

There's the "E,"
"L," and "F."

Everything was basically
fully engulfed when I got here.

With all the vehicles
and the fuel tanks...

and so forth, there was lots
of propellant in the area...

to make things burn,
and things went up
fast and hot.

[Siren Wailing]

[Female Operator]
911. What is your emergency?

[ Man ] Ma'am, we've got
a big fire over here-
[ Continues, Indistinct ]

[ Operator]
Okay.

Investigators
in the Pacific Northwest...

strongly suspect that
two nearly simultaneous fires...

were acts of ecological terror.

Monday morning, May 24,

I got back to Eugene,
and I was just, like,

"Wow, I really need to think
about what I just did!"

Just seeing, you know,
absolute ruins...

and realizing that, like,
all people were gonna focus on...

was the fact that things
were destroyed,

and that the issues
are being lost...

and all they care about is
catching the people that did it.

They were talking about
Jefferson Poplar,

and then they were talking
about University of Washington.

So finding out
what eventually happened
at University of Washington-

the massive
destruction to a library.

Not just the professor's office
that was involved in this
sort of research,

but the Center
for Urban Horticulture.

I was like, "This is too much, too fast,
too big. What am I doing?"

[Narrator]
Not only had the fire...

at the University of Washington
gotten out of control,

they also discovered that
the Jefferson Poplar arson...

was based on faulty information.

It turned out that while the previous
owners of the property...

had been involved
with genetic engineering,

the new owners
only had hybrid trees,

developed using farming methods
that have been around
for hundreds of years.

It's hard to really
justify it in hindsight.

Nobody would have targeted
that facility had we known...

that there was no genetic engineering
going on there at the time.

So it left me with
a really bad taste in my mouth.

Kind of like, "Wow.
Look at this huge, intense action.

And look what happened
in Washington!"

And like, "Am I really ready for this?"

Like, this is super serious
and super big.

We went to the meeting
a few weeks afterwards,

and I was like,
"This is too much."

[Narrator]
Some members of the group were
questioning the actions,

but there were others who felt
they hadn't gone far enough.

Some of them decided
that they wanted to target
basically captains of industry.

Target people now,
not just property.

The last circle meeting...

basically cleaved between
people that seemingly...

wanted to talk about it-
not even, like, plan it-

But they were like,
"We should talk about it!"

And the people
that were repulsed by it.

And really that, like,
ideological divide is what
ended it.

That was-That was it.

What people were discussing,
with my experiences of the arson-

it made my mind
kind of like... spin.

It's things like this that led me
to think this is futile.

There's gotta be better ways
of addressing what's
going on in the world...

than just burning things down.

[Narrator]
As the E.L.F. cell was dissolving,

the larger activist community
in Eugene was splintering as well.

I think people
were self-righteous.

I think people thought
they knew they had the answer.

Weren't willing to listen
to other points of view...

because their view
is more radical
than that point of view.

All those things
came into play, I think,

to help narrow
the amount of people...

that were connected
within the movement...

to the point where
it just went- poof!.

Doesn't exist anymore.

That's one really
sad thing about-

you know, about a lot
of social movements,

but, you know, I think
ours especially,

because we all
are so critical...

of the world
and of the way people
live in the world...

and how they interact
with the natural world,

that we sometimes
are extremely critical
on each other.

And that is definitely
part of our downfall
as- as a movement.

[ Daniel ]
The scene was really
imploding there at the time.

And I, um- I took a small trip
to New York for my sister's
35th birthday.

And, um, I hung out
with my family, and I was like,
"Wow, I really love my family!"

I forgot that I-
Like, I just grew so
disconnected from them.

And I met Jenny.

And I was like,
"All right, I think I'm gonna
move back to New York!"

[Narrator]
After moving home,

Daniel began working at
the Rainforest Foundation.

He organized protests against
the Republican Convention,

and finally he took a job
at a domestic violence organization,

where he was working
when he was arrested.

[ Train Bells Ringing ]

The E.L.F. fires
in the Northwest had stopped,

but the government continued
to work on the case.

We had a war room basically.
It was a situation room.

We worked it
and worked it and worked it.

We had diagrams
all over the walls,

we had our flowcharts,
and we had pictures of all
our target suspects up there.

What's different on TV
that's not realistic...

is that everything is
solved in 50 minutes, you know?

And that's not
what happens here.

[Narrator]
Three years after Daniel
moved back to New York,

the government had still
turned up no viable suspects.

We came together
and decided that we would take
a cold-case approach...

on one arson to see if
we can turn any suspects
in that particular arson.

And the arson we chose
was one that occurred
in the city of Eugene,

and it was the
Joe Romania Truck Center arson,

wherein which 35 S.U.V.'s
were burned to the ground.

[Narrator]
The new investigation yielded
a number of clues,

which pointed the government
toward one local activist.

The night of Romania,
Jake Ferguson was accused
of stealing a truck,

which was kind of
interesting, you know-

the truck would
be needed for something
like what occurred.

We also knew
that Josephine Overaker...

was arrested in the Olympia area...

just prior to an arson
that occurred up there.

And we knew that her boyfriend
was Jacob Ferguson.

And that's when we really
turned the heat up.

[Narrator]
With Jake now on their radar,

they began
following him everywhere,

asking people about him...

and bringing his friends
in for questioning
before grand juries.

You know, you'd start seeing
cars following you, and...

cars with guys sitting outside...

where you're staying,
you know, and-

It was really scary, you know,
to think that they were kind of
on the right track, you know,

and that they're just kind of
right there behind you.

And he's also a drug user,
and so that adds to paranoia.

"They know," you know.
"They're coming for me."

And, of course,
in Jake's case,

some of it was true, where
when he did turn around,

there were law enforcement
following him.

So lightning was striking
all around him.

And with that in mind,
we gave him an out.

We called him in
to the United States Attorney's Office.

We were in
a conference room there.

And then we explained to him
quite simply...

that we knew what his situation was.

[Narrator]
They told him they knew
he was a heroin addict...

and that he'd lied to an investigator,
which was a felony.

And then, they bluffed.

Despite a lack
of hard evidence,

they led him to believe
that they could tie him
to the E.L.F. arsons.

We never told Jake Ferguson
or his lawyer what we knew
or didn't know.

That's- You never do that.

Could we have really
put him away for a long time?

At this- that point,
probably not.

[Narrator]
They told him that the arsons
carried a life sentence,

but if he became an informant,
they'd let him walk away
from his crimes.

I described to him,
tried to paint an image of him...

walking through the forest
on a road...

some sunny summer afternoon
hand-in-hand with his son,

instead of looking at his son
through bulletproof glass.

And he thought about it.

And at that particular
point in time, then...

he and his lawyer excused
themselves and left and said,

"Well, we'll get back
to you in a day or so."

You know, he grew up
with his dad in prison...

and he saw how bad
that life was.

He didn't want to spend
the rest of his life in prison,

uh, and have his son,
you know, never see his dad.

Twenty minutes later,
I get a call from downstairs,

and Mr. Ferguson and his lawyer
want to come up and talk to us.

And so they came up and they said,

"We would like to consider cooperation.
What do we need to do?"

So, that was-
when we found out that he was
willing to cooperate,

that was one of
the best days I've ever had.

So he started listing off...

all the things that
he had information about,

and that basically was every arson
in the district of Oregon,

arsons in Washington state,

arsons in Wyoming,
arsons in Colorado, California.

We did not know the scope, um,
of what he had knowledge of.

So that's when the investigation
really kind of broke open.

The team immediately grew
from 12 or 13, to 40, to 300 agents.

[Narrator]
After debriefing Jake about the
14 fires he'd been involved in,

the government had a problem.

They knew that a heroin addict
with a pentagram tattoo on his head...

would not make
a persuasive witness in court.

And so they needed
corroborating evidence.

We talked to him and his lawyer,
and we said,

"Okay. This is what
we want you to do.
We want you to wear a wire!"

[ Narrator]
They hid a recording device in
the liner of his baseball cap.

And over the course of a year,
they flew him all over the country....

where they arranged for him
to accidentally bump into
his old friends...

and get them to reminisce
about the old days.

He walked into an animal rights
conference I was at...

in Washington Heights
at Holyrood Church.

It was bizarre to see him.

I mean, he was bloated
and kind of fat,

and just looked really different.

Uh, he was talkative,
which was weird,

'cause I always remembered him
as a really quiet guy,
but he was talkative.

I went to go get a coffee with him.
And we just talked a bunch.

Yeah, it was unfortunate.

I mean, thinking about it,
I- I can't help but be annoyed at myself...

for being like,
"How did you not know something
was really wrong here?"

It feels rather foolish,
you know, to have done that,

but I'm trying to get over the shame...

associated with making dumb mistakes.

Jake was extremely conflicted.
We'd have to pump him up.

It was like before a big fight...

where we sat there with him
for probably half an hour
to an hour...

just to get him
kind of tuned up...

and ready to, uh, do it.

It wasn't something
I felt good about, you know,

getting people to confess
by wearing a wire, you know.

But what can you do when
you've already taken the deal,

and then you've admitted
to doing all these felonies?

They've got you, you know.
If you do anything to
disagree with the deal,

the deal's off,
and you've just confessed...

to, like, you know,
life in prison.

So once we had
those recordings in place,

we decided on
a particular takedown date.

[ Narrator]
The takedown presented an
enormous logistical challenge.

The government believed
that the suspects
had to be arrested...

at exactly the same moment,
or word would get out
and they would go into hiding.

So teams of federal agents
fanned out across the country..

[ Harvey ]
I went to New York,

and we stayed out on
Daniel McGowan's house until-

God, I think
it was 10:00 or 11:00-

making sure that he was
gonna be there first thing
in the morning.

And then we got-Yeah,
it was not very good sleep.

[Narrator]
The next morning,

Detective Harvey
and three federal agents
followed Daniel to work.

[ Daniel ]
I look up, and around the corner
comes these kind of big dudes.

I just kept feeling wave
after wave of dread and fear,
just kept, you know-

And I was like-
I could barely talk.
I completely lost my voice.

Like, I was just-
I could barely move, you know.
It was really horrible.

And they were like,
"You're being extradited to Oregon
for, you know, E.L.F. charges.

You should consider pleading.
Don't ruin your family."

Like all this stuff.

We would have them have an attorney.

We would present the evidence
that we have against them and say,

"Here's your opportunity
to become a cooperator,
or remain a defendant. Your choice."

You know, when you-
when you sit down
with them...

and you show them
and let them listen
to themselves on tape,

uh, you can see them
really sink.

"Uh, okay, I'm done."

It was a very successful
approach because,

you know, the dominoes began to fall.

I was in bed.
My, uh, husband was up for work.

It was, uh,
5:00 in the morning.
He gets up early for work.

And he came into the bedroom
and told me that the FBI...

and the Oregon State Police
were there to talk to me.

And right away I pretty much
knew what they were there
to talk to me about.

From there it was
just, um, you know,

the hardest decision
I ever made in my life-

whether or not
I should take a plea bargain
and cooperate,

or risk going to prison
for the rest of my life.

And I think that probably
will be the hardest decision
I've ever made in my life.

And, um, I chose to-

to cooperate
and take the plea bargain...

so that I could someday,
once again, you know,
be with my loved ones.

I would have been fully prepared
to have gone away for
five to 10 years, you know.

I was really looking at
dying alone in prison...

and knowing that
every single loved one
would have moved on...

and done something else
in their life.

It felt like a death sentence,
you know, more than
a life sentence.

People can judge me
for the decisions I've made.

But until you've been in
that position it's, you know-

it's really hard to know
what you would do.

I never in my life
thought I would be
cooperating with the FBI.

I always thought
that I would be able
to stay strong...

and stay true to
my values and my beliefs.

And, you know,
I guess sometimes you aren't
as strong as you think.

So, um, I don't know
if you’re on,

but can we talk
off camera for a sec?

[Narrator]
Daniel's lawyers have
negotiated a plea bargain.

While most of
his codefendants have agreed
to testify against each other,

Daniel and three others have
held out for different terms.

They'll have to take
responsibility for the arsons,

but will not be forced to
give information about others,
if they accept the deal.

[ Chattering ]

Wow. You are a big girl.
Happy birthday.
Right.

[ Lisa ] Everything has
this overshadowing,
"This is the last of holidays!"

"This is the last birthday party!"
"This is the last everything!"

It's funny. He's not really
a big materialistic person,

but he bought her
a lot of gifts this year.

I said to him,
"You didn't have to go through
all this trouble!"

And he said, "This might be
the last time I can really ever
give her gifts and be here!"

So that was kind of sad.

I don't know. He's got some
serious decisions to make.

And they suck.
No matter what you choose,
they suck.

[ Chattering ]

[ Shouts, Laughs ]

Wow!

I just feel bad that, uh,

this came up in this part of his life.

I'm hoping for him
to make an agreement,

because going to trial, I think-

I think with the charges
against him,

that's two life sentences.

I don't believe in his philosophies,

but, uh, he's my son
and I- and I love him.

Come here, Lily.
Mmm.

So, cool. I-
Thanks for everyone
for coming.

Or you want to pace behind?
He wants to pace behind us.

Um, I just wanted everyone to
come so I can tell you guys...

I made my final decision
on, uh,

the plea bargain the government
offered a few weeks ago.

And so, um,
I'm gonna be...

agreeing to this plea bargain
in court on the 9th.

So-

The recommended sentence
on the part of the government
is eight years.

I won't be taken
into custody at sentencing.

I'm gonna- I qualify
for a self-report.

But it's a major,
major important thing to them...

to say that- that our crime
fit the federal crime
of terrorism.

[Narrator]
Even though Daniel has now
accepted a plea bargain,

a hurdle still remains.

A federal judge must
determine whether the fires...

qualify for something called
the terrorism enhancement.

If the judge rules that
Daniel's fires were terrorism,

Daniel could be sent to a new,
ultra-restrictive prison.

It was set up after 9/11
to house terrorists.

In the media and in the courtroom,
the question is debated.

Ecoterrorism: Terrorist acts
by radical groups-

- Ecoterrorist.
- Ecoterrorism.

Environmental terrorists.

People need to question, like,

this buzz word
and how it's being used,

and how it's, like,
just become the new "Communist."

It's become the new, you know-

It's like the bogeyman.
It's a bogeyman word.

It's like whoever
I really disagree with
is a terrorist.

Some people have a problem with,
you know, calling this terrorism,

but when you're basically
making the threat
where people go home at night...

wondering if they’re
gonna be a target,

um, that's what terrorism is.

After the fire, for- for a long time,

you really looked over your shoulder.

We put a new alarm system in
our home and things like that...

that, uh, before
we hadn't thought about.

You know, being a New Yorker,
with experiencing such
serious terrorism firsthand...

is like, "How are you gonna call
someone who sets fire
to an empty building...

a terrorist?"

It's just inappropriate in everyway,
and it's an insult.

The word "terrorism" to me
is about killing humans.

It's about ending innocent life.

And that is the antitheses
of what these people did.

Concern for life was
a very big part of the plan...

and implementation
of these actions,

and is why no one was
ever harmed or injured in them.

1,200 incidents are
being accredited to the E.L.F.
and A.L.F. in this country,

and not a single injury or death.

Those statistics
don't happen by accident.

Terrorist acts,
under the definition of the law,
can vary all over the board.

There is no requirement
for purposes of terrorism...

that you physically endanger
another person's life.

I mean, you don't have
to be Bonnie and Clyde
to be a bank robber,

and you don't have to be
Al-Qaeda to be a terrorist.

I don't think
these people are terrorists.

I think, uh, the people
and the agencies...

and the industry
that they're fighting
are the true terrorists.

When you got
big timber companies...

coming into the Northwest,
clear-cutting old-growth forests,

big oil companies
with their big oil spills...

that, uh, cost billions
and billions and billions of dollars.

You don't see the FBI
raiding these executives' homes
or anything like that.

They aren't being
threatened with life in prison.

All they really do
is just pay a fine and, uh,
move on to the next quarter.

Th-The old adage that, you know,
one man's terrorist is another
man's freedom fighter is true.

You know, if you agree
with their motives-

Wow, they're a hero.
They're not a terrorist at all.

If you disagree
with their motives,
then they're a terrorist.

That's tough. Okay.

That's why it's a whole lot
cleaner to deal with crimes.

Crimes, noncrime.

Okay, I'm good with that.
I can do that.
[ Man ] Arson?

Arson is a crime.
Good. I can do that.

You know, is it terrorism?
We'll find out.

I ordered a book about doing
time in federal prison written
by a lawyer who did time.

I'm very, you know-
Getting very prepared
for the whole idea.

But that doesn't necessarily
make it any easier, you know?
[ Lisa ] I know.

You know you’re not alone
even though you're in there
by yourself.

I know.

Just, I don't know. It sucks.

Sometimes it's hard not to just
look at the whole situation
and go like,

"What the fuck?
How did this all happen?"
You know?

I don't know.

The situation with
the environment is not getting
better. It's getting worse.

And I'm not suggesting that
the path of destruction...

and destroying everything
is the right path.

But I didn't know what to do.

It's like screaming
at the top of your lungs
and no one hears you.

Like, what the hell are you
supposed to say, you know?

What are you supposed to do?

Yes!

Going to the courthouse?

Yeah.

[ Cawing ]

[ Chattering ]

The judge has sentenced
Mr. McGowan to 84 months
in prison.

That's seven years.

The court also imposed
a terrorism enhancement.

He has been branded
as a terrorist in the media.

He will be listed as
a successful government
terror prosecution...

for the rest of his life,
and we are very disappointed.

We believe it's legally wrong,
and factually wrong.

[ Daniel ]
Oh, look at the trailhead
right there.

Oh, my God.
It fell from there.

The older I get,

um, the more circumspect I become.

And, uh, I know now that
a world is not black and white.

Um, it's not that simple.

When you f-When I first
read about these arsons...

and became, uh, involved
in the investigation of the arsons,

you see all the damage
and the harm that they've done.

And the threats they made-
They're not very likable people at all.

Once you get to know them
as a human being,

you-you start looking
at their motivations
'cause you’re curious about it.

Why did they do
such a horrible thing?

And you look at their background,
and you look at their childhood,

and you look at how they've evolved
from the days...

when they committed
all these crimes.

And then, instead of just being...

a cold mug shot
on a piece of paper,

they become human beings.

And so you begin
to understand them.

And that's not that you’re
saying you approve of their
conduct or their behavior.

But you gain an understanding,
an insight, as to how it came to pass...

that they started doing these things.

And then you're curious
about how their lives will end up,

but only time will tell.

My stomach is flipping out!

Want me to open it?
No, I got it.

You sure?
Okay.
I gotta be independent.

You're not gonna be there
to advise me on stuff.

I'm in your corner.
I know. Thanks, Pop.

I'll see you.

Thanks for everything.
[ Sniffles ]

I'll see you later.

I love you.
[ Crying ]
I love you too.

♪ [Alternative Intro ]

♪ Take us down and all apart ♪

♪ Cherry tree ♪

♪ Lay us out on the table ♪

♪ You're sharp, all right ♪

♪ But no one is asking,
so leave it alone ♪

♪ Leave it alone ♪

♪ Can we ♪

♪ Loose lips sink ships
Loose lips sink ships ♪

♪ Loose lips sink ships
Loose lips sink ships ♪

♪ Loose lips sink ships
Loose lips sink ships ♪

♪ Loose lips sink ships ♪

♪ Don't look at me
I'm only breathing ♪

♪ Don't look at me
I'm indiscreet ♪

♪ Don't look at me
I'm only breathing ♪

♪ Don't look at me
I'm indiscreet ♪

♪ Can we show ♪

♪ A little discipline ♪

♪ Can we show ♪

♪ A little discipline ♪

♪ Can we ♪

♪ Can we ♪

♪ Loose lips sink ships
Loose lips sink ships ♪

♪ Loose lips sink ships ♪

♪ Can we show ♪

♪ A little discipline ♪

♪ Can we ♪

♪ Loose lips sink ships
Loose lips sink ships ♪

♪ Loose lips sink ships
Loose lips sink ships ♪

♪ Loose lips sink ships
Loose lips sink ships ♪

♪ Loose lips sink ships ♪

♪ [ Ends ]