THERMCON
Encyclopedia
THERMCON was the code name of a FBI operation which was launched in response to the sabotage of the Arizona Snowbowl
ski lift near Flagstaff, Arizona
in October 1987 by three people from Prescott, Arizona
, Mark Davis, Margaret Millet, and Marc Baker. In a November, 1987 letter claiming responsibility, the group called themselves the "Evan Mecham Eco-Terrorist International Conspiracy" (EMETIC). The group named themselves after Evan Mecham
, the then-Governor of Arizona. The Arizona Snowbowl spent $50,000 repairing the damage.
at the Fairfield Snow Bowl near Flagstaff
, Arizona
. During the incident an acetylene torch was used to cut bolts from several of the lift's support towers. A warning letter claiming responsibility for the damage also contained a threat to "chain the Fairfield CEO to a tree at the 10,000-foot level and feed him shrubs and roots until he understands the suicidal folly of treating the planet primarily as a tool for making money." Upon receipt of the letter the resort shut down the lift in order to repair the over US$ 50,000 in damages caused by the EMETIC.
The EMETIC made two other attacks against targets the group considered to be causing ecological damage before the FBI began arresting group members. In May 1989 three people from Prescott, Arizona
, Marc Leslie Davis, Margaret Katherine Millet, Marc Andre Baker were arrested on charges related to the sabotage against the Fairfield Sun Bowl and on conspiracy charges to damage powerlines leading from nuclear power plants in Arizona, California, and Colorado. A fourth EMETIC member, Ilse Washington Asplund, was later arrested on related charges. All four individuals pleaded guilty and were sentenced in September 1991.
Short for "Thermite Conspiracy" - thermite
being an incendiary mixture of powdered aluminium and iron oxide - Operation THERMCON employed more than 50 FBI agents and involved the infiltration of the group between 1987 and 1989 by undercover FBI agent Michael Fain, and the recruitment of Ron Fraizer, a friend of the three, as an informant. Despite the name "Thermite Conspiracy," cutting torches were the tool of choice for the group.
The operation culminated in the arrest of the three following an attempt to down a transmission tower in the Arizona desert which led from the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station
. Two additional persons were also indicted as a result. The fourth was Ilse Apslund, a friend of the three from Prescott. The fifth, Dave Foreman, at the time the leader of Earth First!
based in Tucson, Arizona
, was not involved in the group but was nonetheless charged with conspiracy, on the grounds that he had given a copy of the book Ecodefense
inscribed "happy monkeywrenching" and a $100 donation to undercover agent Michael Fain.
, the Rocky Flats Plant
, and the Diablo Canyon Power Plant
.
Earth First! claimed the operation was intended to discredit Earth First! by linking its leaders to the conspiracy, particularly Dave Foreman. During the course of the operation, undercover agent Michael Fain (who used the name Mike Tait) was recorded saying "I don't really look for them to be doing a lot of hurting people... (Foreman) isn't really the guy we need to pop -- I mean in terms of an actual perpetrator. This is the guy we need to pop to send a message. And that's all we're really doing... Uh-oh! We don't need that on tape! Hoo boy!" http://www.tkb.org/documents/Cases/89-CR-192-Motion-2.pdf According to an FBI field office file released to Earth First! activists Judi Bari
and Darryl Cherney
in 1996, FBI agents provocateurs
associated with THERMCON spent two years winning the trust of the Prescott group, actively encouraging them to sabotage powerlines and attempting - unsuccessfully - to convince the group that they should use, and even offering to buy, explosives for this purpose. FBI agents also selected the site and purchased and transported cutting equipment prior to the sabotage attempt on 30 May 1989, leading to accusations of entrapment
.
represented the defendants.
The four from Prescott entered into a plea bargain
. Davis was sentenced to 6 years in prison and restitution of $19,821 to the Arizona Snowbowl. Millet was sentenced to 3 years and restitution of $19,821. Baker was sentenced to 6 months and a $5000 fine, and Apslund to 30 days and a $2000 fine. The four were sentenced in September 1991.
Dave Foreman's case was separated from the other four and sentencing was deferred until 1996, when the charges were reduced to a single misdemeanor and he was fined $250.
Arizona Snowbowl
Arizona Snowbowl is an alpine ski resort located on the San Francisco Peaks, 7 miles north of Flagstaff, Arizona. The Snowbowl is a long-standing center of controversy regarding its effect on Native American sacred sites and religious practices...
ski lift near Flagstaff, Arizona
Flagstaff, Arizona
Flagstaff is a city located in northern Arizona, in the southwestern United States. In 2010, the city's population was 65,870. The population of the Metropolitan Statistical Area was at 134,421 in 2010. It is the county seat of Coconino County...
in October 1987 by three people from Prescott, Arizona
Prescott, Arizona
Prescott is a city in Yavapai County, Arizona, USA. It was designated "Arizona's Christmas City" by Arizona Governor Rose Mofford in the late 1980s....
, Mark Davis, Margaret Millet, and Marc Baker. In a November, 1987 letter claiming responsibility, the group called themselves the "Evan Mecham Eco-Terrorist International Conspiracy" (EMETIC). The group named themselves after Evan Mecham
Evan Mecham
Evan Mecham was the 17th Governor of Arizona. A decorated veteran of World War II, Mecham earned his living as an automotive dealership owner and occasional newspaper publisher...
, the then-Governor of Arizona. The Arizona Snowbowl spent $50,000 repairing the damage.
EMETIC
EMETIC's first act was to damage a chairliftChairlift
An elevated passenger ropeway, or chairlift, is a type of aerial lift, which consists of a continuously circulating steel cable loop strung between two end terminals and usually over intermediate towers, carrying a series of chairs...
at the Fairfield Snow Bowl near Flagstaff
Flagstaff, Arizona
Flagstaff is a city located in northern Arizona, in the southwestern United States. In 2010, the city's population was 65,870. The population of the Metropolitan Statistical Area was at 134,421 in 2010. It is the county seat of Coconino County...
, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
. During the incident an acetylene torch was used to cut bolts from several of the lift's support towers. A warning letter claiming responsibility for the damage also contained a threat to "chain the Fairfield CEO to a tree at the 10,000-foot level and feed him shrubs and roots until he understands the suicidal folly of treating the planet primarily as a tool for making money." Upon receipt of the letter the resort shut down the lift in order to repair the over US$ 50,000 in damages caused by the EMETIC.
The EMETIC made two other attacks against targets the group considered to be causing ecological damage before the FBI began arresting group members. In May 1989 three people from Prescott, Arizona
Prescott, Arizona
Prescott is a city in Yavapai County, Arizona, USA. It was designated "Arizona's Christmas City" by Arizona Governor Rose Mofford in the late 1980s....
, Marc Leslie Davis, Margaret Katherine Millet, Marc Andre Baker were arrested on charges related to the sabotage against the Fairfield Sun Bowl and on conspiracy charges to damage powerlines leading from nuclear power plants in Arizona, California, and Colorado. A fourth EMETIC member, Ilse Washington Asplund, was later arrested on related charges. All four individuals pleaded guilty and were sentenced in September 1991.
Short for "Thermite Conspiracy" - thermite
Thermite
Thermite is a pyrotechnic composition of a metal powder and a metal oxide that produces an exothermic oxidation-reduction reaction known as a thermite reaction. If aluminium is the reducing agent it is called an aluminothermic reaction...
being an incendiary mixture of powdered aluminium and iron oxide - Operation THERMCON employed more than 50 FBI agents and involved the infiltration of the group between 1987 and 1989 by undercover FBI agent Michael Fain, and the recruitment of Ron Fraizer, a friend of the three, as an informant. Despite the name "Thermite Conspiracy," cutting torches were the tool of choice for the group.
The operation culminated in the arrest of the three following an attempt to down a transmission tower in the Arizona desert which led from the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station
Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station
The Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station is a nuclear power plant located in Wintersburg, Arizona, about 45 miles west of central Phoenix. It is the largest nuclear generation facility in the United States, averaging over 3.3 gigawatts of electrical power production in 2008 to serve...
. Two additional persons were also indicted as a result. The fourth was Ilse Apslund, a friend of the three from Prescott. The fifth, Dave Foreman, at the time the leader of Earth First!
Earth First!
Earth First! is a radical environmental advocacy group that emerged in the Southwestern United States in 1979. It was co-founded on April 4th, 1980 by Dave Foreman, Mike Roselle, Howie Wolke, and less directly, Bart Koehler and Ron Kezar....
based in Tucson, Arizona
Tucson, Arizona
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
, was not involved in the group but was nonetheless charged with conspiracy, on the grounds that he had given a copy of the book Ecodefense
Ecodefense
Ecodefense: A Field Guide To Monkeywrenching is a book edited by Dave Foreman, with a foreword by Edward Abbey.- Background :Ned Ludd Books published the first two editions, with Abbzug Press publishing a third edition...
inscribed "happy monkeywrenching" and a $100 donation to undercover agent Michael Fain.
Trial
The FBI claimed the group was planning similar attacks on other powerlines in Arizona, Colorado, and California. FBI testimony during and after the trial characterized the group's future plans as targeting powerlines to or from the Central Arizona Project AqueductCentral Arizona Project Aqueduct
The Central Arizona Project is a 336 mi diversion canal in Arizona in the United States. The aqueduct diverts water from the Colorado River from Lake Havasu City near Parker into central and southern Arizona. The CAP is the largest and most expensive aqueduct system ever constructed in the...
, the Rocky Flats Plant
Rocky Flats Plant
The Rocky Flats Plant was a United States nuclear weapons production facility near Denver, Colorado that operated from 1952 to 1992. It was under the control of the United States Atomic Energy Commission until 1977, when it was replaced by the Department of Energy .-1950s:Following World War II,...
, and the Diablo Canyon Power Plant
Diablo Canyon Power Plant
Diablo Canyon Power Plant is an electricity-generating nuclear power plant at Avila Beach in San Luis Obispo County, California. The plant has two Westinghouse-designed 4-loop pressurized-water nuclear reactors operated by Pacific Gas & Electric. The facility is located on about in Avila Beach,...
.
Earth First! claimed the operation was intended to discredit Earth First! by linking its leaders to the conspiracy, particularly Dave Foreman. During the course of the operation, undercover agent Michael Fain (who used the name Mike Tait) was recorded saying "I don't really look for them to be doing a lot of hurting people... (Foreman) isn't really the guy we need to pop -- I mean in terms of an actual perpetrator. This is the guy we need to pop to send a message. And that's all we're really doing... Uh-oh! We don't need that on tape! Hoo boy!" http://www.tkb.org/documents/Cases/89-CR-192-Motion-2.pdf According to an FBI field office file released to Earth First! activists Judi Bari
Judi Bari
Judi Bari was an American environmentalist and labor leader, a feminist, and the principal organizer of Earth First! campaigns against logging in the ancient redwood forests of Northern California in the 1980s and '90...
and Darryl Cherney
Darryl Cherney
Darryl Cherney is a musician and environmental activist. He is member of the Earth First! environmental movement. He lives in Humboldt County, California....
in 1996, FBI agents provocateurs
Agent provocateur
Traditionally, an agent provocateur is a person employed by the police or other entity to act undercover to entice or provoke another person to commit an illegal act...
associated with THERMCON spent two years winning the trust of the Prescott group, actively encouraging them to sabotage powerlines and attempting - unsuccessfully - to convince the group that they should use, and even offering to buy, explosives for this purpose. FBI agents also selected the site and purchased and transported cutting equipment prior to the sabotage attempt on 30 May 1989, leading to accusations of entrapment
Entrapment
In criminal law, entrapment is conduct by a law enforcement agent inducing a person to commit an offense that the person would otherwise have been unlikely to commit. In many jurisdictions, entrapment is a possible defense against criminal liability...
.
Sentences
Attorney Gerry SpenceGerry Spence
Gerry Spence is a trial lawyer in the United States. In 2008, he announced he would retire, at age 79, at the end of the Geoffrey Fieger trial in Detroit, MI. Spence states that he "has never lost a criminal case either as a prosecutor or a defense attorney...
represented the defendants.
The four from Prescott entered into a plea bargain
Plea bargain
A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case whereby the prosecutor offers the defendant the opportunity to plead guilty, usually to a lesser charge or to the original criminal charge with a recommendation of a lighter than the maximum sentence.A plea bargain allows criminal defendants to...
. Davis was sentenced to 6 years in prison and restitution of $19,821 to the Arizona Snowbowl. Millet was sentenced to 3 years and restitution of $19,821. Baker was sentenced to 6 months and a $5000 fine, and Apslund to 30 days and a $2000 fine. The four were sentenced in September 1991.
Dave Foreman's case was separated from the other four and sentencing was deferred until 1996, when the charges were reduced to a single misdemeanor and he was fined $250.
See also
- COINTELPROCOINTELPROCOINTELPRO was a series of covert, and often illegal, projects conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting domestic political organizations.COINTELPRO tactics included discrediting targets through psychological...
(Counter Intelligence Program), a program of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation that was aimed at investigating and disrupting dissident political organizations within the United States. - Operation Backfire (FBI)Operation Backfire (FBI)Operation Backfire is a multi-agency criminal investigation, led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation , into destructive acts in the name of animal rights and environmental causes in the United States described as eco-terrorism by the FBI....
- FBI operation launched against Eco-Terrorists and environmentalists
Further reading
- www.judibari.org
- Slingshot: Earth First! Exposes FBI Conspiracy
- The Judi Bari bombing revisited, by Nicholas Wilson
- Congressional testimony of James Jarboe of the FBI in 2002
- Evan Mecham Eco-Terrorist International Conspiracy from MIPTNational Memorial Institute for the Prevention of TerrorismThe National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism is a United States-based non-profit training and professional development center dedicated to improving the skills of police officers.-Role and focus:...
Terrorism Knowledge Base