Team 4 sent an e-mail to ELF's Web site, asking about the arson attack in Allegheny National Forest, and received the following response.

In ELF's communique following the Aug. 11, 2002, fire in Irvine, Pa., it stated the following: "While innocent life will never be harmed in any action we undertake, where it is necessary, we will no longer hesitate to pick up the gun to implement justice, and provide the needed protection for our planet that decades of legal battles, pleading, protest and economic sabotage have failed so drastically to achieve."

Team 4: What does that mean? Should the "gun" reference be taken literally? Does it mean that, in the future, non-innocent life WILL be harmed?

ELF Press Office: We simply relay communiques from individuals who carry out actions under the name ELF. We have no way of knowing exactly what the person or persons who wrote the communique meant by that.

However, please keep in mind that the ELF operates with guidelines that state that care is to be taken to ensure that no human or animal life is taken in the courswe of an action. The ELF press office (that's us) will not support actions which fall outside the guidelines of as set out on the earthliberationfront.com website, but cells may state their opinions in communiques as they wish -- we simply distribute them -- we don't write them.

Team 4: As has been reported previously, the U.S. Forest Service research facility in Irvine, Pa., is currently being reconstructed. Does elf intend to set fire to it again?

ELF Press Office: We have no way of answering that question since we are not the ELF, simply the press office for the ELF. We do not know the people who carried out this action or what their future plans might be.

Team 4: Why does elf resort to extreme acts, such as arson? Why don't they try to operate within the system (eg., lawsuits, picketing, tree-sitting, etc.)?

ELF Press Office: The ELF does not engage in more traditional tactics because they have been proven not to work, especially on their own. The popular, modern mainstream environmental movement, which began arguably in the early 1960s, has failed in its attempts to bring about the needed protection to stop the destruction of life on this planet. The quality of our air, water, and soil continues to decrease as more and more life forms on the planet suffer and die as a result.

A belief in state sanctioned legal means of social change is a sign of faith in the legal system of that same state. The ELF clearly do not have any faith in the legal system of the state when it comes to protecting life. The state has repeatedly shown itself to care far more for the protection of commerce and profits than that of its people and the natural environment.

To place faith in that same state as though it will do what is in the best interests of justice and life is utter foolishness and a grave mistake. The state is a major portion of the problem. There is also a certain intelligence and logic to the idea that with one night's work, a few individuals can accomplish what years of legal battles and millions of dollars most likely did not.

Team 4: How does elf respond to being called the domestic version of Al-Quaida?

ELF Press Office: Well, the very obvious difference is that the ELF operates under guidelines that state clearly that no human or non-human animal is to be harmed during the course of an action. It is difficult for us to see much similarity between an organization that intentionally targets human life and one which takes special care not to harm any living being.

The ELF is not an ecoterrorist organization or any sort of terrorist organization but rather one that is working to protect all life on planet earth. It is amazingly hypocritical for mainstream media and the federal government to label the ELF as a terrorist group yet at the same time ignoring the U.S. government and U.S. based corporations which every day exploit, torture, and murder people around the world.

Team 4: I understand these acts are done in part for shock value and to make their "side" known...why don't they promote more education of what they think the problem is?

ELF Press Office: Education is one of the main values of ELF actions. Without the actions, many of the issues that the ELF takes on would never get discussed in mainstream media at all. The mainstream media has long ignored environmental and social justice causes, actions are what bring the issues to the forefront in many cases.

Team 4: What is wrong with the research scientists are conducting at the USFS facility in Irvine?

ELF Press Office: We are not too sure exactly what research was being carried out in Irvine (since we didn't research the action or commit it), but generally forest research centres tend to be in place in order to support the goals of corporate forestry and tree farming specifically. There would be little need to promote research of faster growing tree species if they were not being cut down at such a rapid rate by industrial logging interests. We can only guess that this is why the ELF targeted this specific facility.

Team 4: When the buildings are rebuilt, then what? Has elf only delayed work and not stopped it?

ELF Press Office: It's possible that in an action like this, several decades of research will be destroyed which means it will take more than rebuilding to recoup losses in this type of fire. In many ELF actions, the largest tolls have not been on the physical buildings themselves, but on the years worth of research that can not be easily restored or replicated. This is largely the goal of attacks on research facilities. In addition, the more often a facility is attacked, the higher insurance costs raise and if it costs too much to maintain a facility -- it will eventually shut down, especially if that facility is being funded with taxpayer dollars.

Team 4: What message do they want to send the everyday American? What does ELF think is important for us to know? If they could impart one lesson they want America to learn, what is it?

ELF Press Office: That it is not too late to act to save the planet that we are living on, and that direct action is one of the many tactics in the arsenal of resistance.