Cascadia Forest Defenders Action Camp starts next week in Oregon

Activists are invited to to support direct action in defenseof a beloved, ancient coastal rainforest, the Elliott State Forest. Under the watchful mismanagement of the Oregon Department of Forestry,timber barons are actively razing this rare, 93,000 acre cathedral of previously untouched wilderness. It’s time for friends of Cascadia to take a stand against the dozens of clearcuts on the table for 2011-2012.

Workshops will include: climb trainings, backwoods stealth and evasion, know your rights, and anti-oppression. Campers should be self sufficient with food and water. Town will be an hour drive away from the campsite, though there will be a creek near the site for those with water filters.

The Elliott lies roughly 2 hours Southwest of Eugene. Specific directionsto the site will be posted on forestdefensenow.com the week before camp,or you can contact (530)521-4991 for directions until the 22nd. Please contact forestdefensenow@gmail.com if you would like to share a ride or if you need a ride.

Justin Solondz’s Address Released

From NYC Anarchist Black Cross

FBI mug shot of Justin Solondz

According to federal authorities, Mr. Solondz made incendiary devices that destroyed a horticulture center at the University of Washington in Seattle in May 2001. Prosecutors also accuse him of burning down buildings and vehicles in Oregon that same day, and will attempt to link him to a later arson attack in California.

On the lam, Justin was eventually arrested in China in March 2009, when the Chinese police arrested him in the mountains of Yunnan Province after he was caught with drugs and fake Canadian identification. About a month later, he was tried and sentenced to three years in prison. Within the last month or so, Justin was released from prison in China and deported to the United States, where he was immediately arrested and taken into federal custody.

Please keep in mind that Justin is pre-trial and that the crimes with which is charged are all mere allegations. Write a letter to Justin at:

Justin Solondz #98291-011

MCC Chicago

71 West Van Buren Street

Chicago, Illinois 60605

For tips on letterwriting, check out this site: prisonerlife.com

UPDATE: the above address has changed. Find a more current address by clicking here

NEW VIDEO… Earth First! Dances on Governor’s Table in Tar Sands Protest

HELENA, Montana—Check out this new short film from the Earth First! occupation of the Montana capitol against the Tar Sands and other industrial energy infrastructure in the Northern Rockies, following the 2011 Round River Rendezvous.

Five people locked down, 20 danced on the governor’s table, 70 people occupied the office, business as usual was disrupted! If you can, please consider donating a bit of money to the arrestee’s legal fund HERE

Note from the filmmaker: “Please pass this along to your friends, groups you work with, and listserves you’re a part of. Let’s build the movement and help put some money in the legal fund for people who put their bodies and freedom on the line!”

Cyberactivist Group AntiSec Hacks Defense Contractor and FBI

Hacktivist group AntiSec started the week with yet another intrusion on a government contractor, this time targeting Booz Allen Hamilton and posting what it claims are 90,000 military email addresses and passwords from the contractor online.

The group–a spinoff from the Anonymous and now-defunct LulzSec hacker teams–posted a torrent on the Pirate Bay calling the hack “Military Meltdown Monday: Mangling Booz Allen Hamilton.” It was the second on a government defense contractor in nearly as many days.

In notes about the release, AntiSec criticized the lack of security it encountered when trying to infiltrate a server on Booz Allen’s network, claiming it “basically had no security measures in place.” In its work with the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Booz Allen contractors maintain high government security clearances.

“In this line of work you’d expect them to sail the seven proxseas with a state-of-the-art battleship, right?” the group wrote. “Well you may be as surprised as we were when we found their vessel being a puny wooden barge.”

The group said it ran its own application on the network to collect data at will. AntiSec claimed it also was able to steal 4 GB of source code; however, “this was deemed insignificant and a waste of valuable space, so we merely grabbed it, and wiped it from their system.”

Additionally, the group used the credentials it lifted from the system to take various data from other servers, as well as found what it claimed are clues to infiltrating other government agencies and federal contractors that it may pass on to other hackers, it said.

AntiSec–and hacker groups Anonymous and LulzSec before it–have embarked on an international hacking spree in the last month as part of an “Operation Anti Security” campaign which it said is targeting government corruption around the world.

On Friday AntiSec said it had successfully infiltrated the servers of FBI contractor IRC Federal, posting information it found in internal emails on both Pastebin and the Pirate Bay. Like Booz Allen, IRC Federal also works with the DOD, among other federal agencies.

While IRC confirmed the breach of its network, Booz Allen declined to confirm or deny AntiSec’s claims, tweeting that as part of the company’s security policy, “we generally do not comment on specific threats or actions taken against our systems.”

Activists Occupy Montana Capitol Building

Breaking News:   Activists Occupy Montana Capitol Building Demanding Governor Schweitzer Publicly Oppose Keystone XL Pipeline and Tar Sands Megaload Shipments

Activists from across the nation and around the world join Montana and Idaho residents in demanding that Schweitzer finally stand up to “Big Oil.”

Helena, MT – On the morning of July 12th, six activists from Earth First! and Northern Rockies Rising Tide have risked arrest by occupying Governor Schweitzer’s office in an act of non-violent civil disobedience. The activists have locked their arms in a mock oil pipeline made out of PVC plastic pipe. In the wake of the Silvertip spill, Governor Schweitzer has publicly chastised Exxon Mobil, while simultaneously continuing to promote the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, megaload shipments bound for the Alberta Tar Sands and other extreme fossil fuel projects throughout the state.

“If the Governor has his way, Montana will be transformed into what is essentially an energy extraction colony for Big Oil. The Silvertip spill is simply a short preview of what this would mean for the lives and livelihood of all Montanans,” says Great Falls native Peter Dolan, one of the eight occupying the office.

Activists inside the Capitol are also demanding that Schweitzer stand up to TransCanada and other international criminal organizations by publicly opposing Alberta Tar Sands exportation. This project is widely known as the most destructive energy process on the planet by leading environmental organizations. According to a recent report by University of Nebraska-Lincoln engineering professor John Stansbury, neither TransCanada nor the regulators evaluating the proposed Keystone XL pipeline have properly considered the risks. Stansbury said TransCanada underestimated both the frequency of spills on the pipeline and the severity of the worst-case scenario spills.

“As the recent ExxonMobil pipeline disaster has made clear, Governor Schweitzer is attempting to turn Montana into an extraction state, while at the same time publicly proclaiming his supposed support for clean energy, protecting the environment and building healthy communities. It’s one or the other. You can’t be clean and dirty at the same time,” according to Bozeman’s Erica Dossa, who also took part in the action.

Earth First! was named in 1979 in response to a lethargic, compromising and increasingly corporate environmental community. Earth First! takes a decidedly different approach towards environmental issues by using all the tools in the toolbox, ranging from grassroots organizing and involvement in the legal process to civil disobedience. Northern Rockies Rising Tide is the Missoula based chapter off the international, decentralized, grassroots movement Rising Tide. They are an all-volunteer network of groups and individuals who promote local, community-based solutions to the climate crisis and take direct actions to confront the root causes of climate change.

Northern Rockies Rising Tide –

Fighting for things in the Northern Rockies

http://www.NorthernRockiesRisingTide.org

Green Scare Defendant, Justin Solondz, in Custody

Source: Komo News

Justin Solondz, wanted in connection with the fiery 2001 destruction of the University of Washington Horticulture Building has been expelled from China, and is currently in federal custody in Chicago, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. He is set to be returned to the Western District of Washington where he has been indicted in the decade-old incident.

Solondz, a former student at The Evergreen State College in Olympia who grew up in Randolph, N.J., was indicted in California and Washington state in 2006 in connection with a series of arsons attributed to a collection of radical environmentalists aligned with the Animal and Earth Liberation Fronts, from 1996 to 2001.

Investigators heard little of Solondz after his indictment, and the FBI issued a $50,000 reward late last year for information leading to his arrest. At the time, the agency said he might be in Canada, Europe or Asia. Then in 2009, he was convicted of a drug charge in China after authorities found 33 pounds of marijuana leaves buried in the courtyard of a home he rented. Solondz pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to prison.

Solondz has been charged with conspiracy, arson, making an unregistered destructive device and using a destructive device during a crime of violence. He is the only one of five people still wanted for his alleged role in the destruction of the UW building…

As of yet, we do not know his address, but we’ll put it out there as soon as we can. Until then, all our best to his friends and family, and all our love and support to Justin in his time of great sacrifice.

Introducing: Coal Action Network Northwest

Source: itsgettinghotinhere.org

When some people think of solutions to the climate crisis, they picture wind turbines blowing in the breeze or solar panels on a rooftop.  But for me, the best solution is a group of passionate people coming together to directly confront the biggest challenge of our time: re-claiming our political and social power from the fossil fuel industries .  That’s just what happened this past weekend, when a group of student activists from throughout the Northwest got together to start a new chapter in our region’s journey to fossil fuel independence.

Together we formed the Coal Action Network, a grassroots organization aimed at challenging coal projects throughout the greater Northwest – and perhaps beyond.  Though the name Coal Action Network is new, student efforts to shift the Northwest away from coal are not.  Working in partnership with environmental nonprofits, students have already helped put the only existing coal plants in Oregon and Washington on the path to retirement.  When the Boardman Coal Plant and TransAlta Coal Plant are gone from the grid, our region will have eliminated its two biggest sources of carbon pollution, opening up space for clean energy to grow.

These victories never would have happened without countless individuals who took a stand, and were willing to say “No more” to the coal industry.  With two major achievements down already, we are turning to the next big challenge: protecting our rivers and bays from becoming an international coal export zone.  We are already working in solidarity with impacted front line communities who are fighting coal export infrastructure in their back yards.

Today everyone from President Obama to BP is willing to talk about technological energy “solutions.”  But what about the original democratic solution that formed the foundation of every successful social movement in history: a community of principled individuals willing to stand up for justice?  Technology will of course play a vital part in the transition away from fossil fuels, but wind turbines and solar panels will not on their own stop destructive coal infrastructure proposals.   Just as leaders of the Civil Rights Movement and the India liberation movement won by refusing to cooperate with oppression, we must do the same – and we must remember ignoring the problem is tantamount to participating in it.  That’s why I’m so excited to see this new chapter of solidarity with impacted communities beginning in the Northwest.

Fracking Fluids Poison a National Forest

A new study has found that wastewater from natural gas hydrofracturing in a West Virginia national forest quickly wiped out all ground plants, killed more than half of the trees and caused radical changes in soil chemistry.  These results argue for much tighter control over disposal of these “fracking fluids,” contends Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

The new study by Mary Beth Adams, a U.S. Forest Service researcher, appears in the July-August issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Environmental Quality.   She looked at the effects of land application of fracking fluids on a quarter-acre section of the Fernow Experimental Forest within the Monongahela National Forest.  More than 75,000 gallons of fracking fluids, which are injected deep underground to free shale gas and then return to the surface, were applied to the assigned plot over a two day period during June 2008.  The following effects were reported in the study:

• Within two days all ground plants were dead;
• Within 10 days, leaves of trees began to turn brown.  Within two years more than half of the approximately 150 trees were dead; and
• “Surface soil concentrations of sodium and chloride increased 50-fold as a result of the land application of hydrofracturing fluids…”  These elevated levels eventually declined as chemical leached off-site.  The exact chemical composition of these fluids is not known because the chemical formula is classified as confidential proprietary information.

“The explosion of shale gas drilling in the East has the potential to turn large stretches of public lands into lifeless moonscapes,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that land disposal of fracking fluids is common and in the case of the Fernow was done pursuant to a state permit.  “This study suggests that these fluids should be treated as toxic waste.”

For the past twenty-five years, the Forest Service has not applied any environmental restrictions on private extraction efforts, even in wilderness areas.  As a result, forests, like the Monongahela, which sits astride the huge Marcellus Shale gas formation, have struggled with many adverse impacts of widespread drilling.  By contrast, the nearby George Washington National Forest (NF) has recently proposed to ban horizontal drilling, a practice associated with hydrofracking, due to concern about both the ecosystem damage and also the huge amount of water required for the fracking process.  Two subcommittees of the House of Representatives will hold a joint hearing this Friday to examine the George Washington NF’s singular pro-conservation stance.

“Unfortunately, the Forest Service has drilled its head deeply into the sand on oil and gas operations harming forest assets,” Ruch added, noting the National Wildlife Refuges also lack regulations to minimize drilling impacts.  “The Forest Service needs to develop a broader approach than asking each forest supervisor to cast a lone profile in courage or cowardice.”

Agent Orange Being Used to Clear the Amazon

Photo: Wikipedia Commons

Agent Orange is one of the most devastating weapons of modern warfare, a chemical which killed or injured an estimated 400,000 people during the Vietnam War — and now it’s being used against the Amazon rainforest. According to officials, ranchers in Brazil have begun spraying the highly toxic herbicide over patches of forest as a covert method to illegally clear foliage, more difficult to detect that chainsaws and tractors. In recent weeks, an aerial survey detected some 440 acres of rainforest that had been sprayed with the compound — poisoning thousands of trees and an untold number of animals, potentially for generations.

Last week, in another part of the Amazon, an investigation conducted by the agency uncovered approximately four tons of the highly toxic herbal pesticides hidden in the forest awaiting dispension. If released, the chemicals could have potentially decimated some 7,500 acres of rainforest, killing all the wildlife that resides there and contaminating groundwater. In this case, the individual responsible was identified and now faces fines nearing $1.3 million.

“They [deforesters] have changed their strategy because, in a short time, more areas of forest can be destroyed with herbicides. Thus, they don’t need to mobilize tree-cutting teams and can therefore bypass the supervision of IBAMA,” says Jerfferson Lobato of IBAMA.

Last month, over three decades after Agent Orange was last used in Vietnam, the US began funding a $38 million decontamination operation there. Meanwhile, in the Brazilian Amazon, the highly toxic chemical was being discovered anew and sprayed over the rainforest.

To read more, see the full write-up at Treehugger

Earth First! Rendezvous begins amidst Exxon’s Yellowstone oil spill

Local buzz has already begun about Earth First! being in town. And people are paying attention, including the Port of Lewiston, local a pro-industry agency, who is re-posting Earth First! news reports.

This weekend also saw a serious oil spill in the nearby Yellowstone River. The spill has already spread 15 miles passed the original leak and continues to spread.

An excerpt from a re-posted article on the Port’s website, which ran originally in the local Tribune, states:

The largest annual event of the national environmental group is set to run July 5 through July 12 in the Lolo National Forest near, but not within sight of, U.S. Highway 12 between the Idaho border and Lolo, Mont., said Greg Mack, of Moscow, an organizer.

“The day after every rendezvous we do a direct action,” Mack said. “I have to tell you we don’t like to tell people exactly what we’re going to do so we have some element of surprise. If the megaloads during that time … aren’t moving, we may choose a completely different subject.”

ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil wants to send more than 100 oversized loads on U.S. 12. The loads, consisting of pieces of a processing plant bound for the Kearl Oil Sands in Alberta, Canada, are so large they will take up both lanes of U.S. 12.

The Idaho Transportation Department hasn’t granted permission for the supersized cargo. The agency is waiting on a recommendation from a hearing officer who listened to representatives of opponents, Imperial Oil, Imperial Oil’s hired hauler and the Idaho Transportation Department in a proceeding that ended in May.

The possibility oversized loads might become common on the scenic corridor was a reason Earth First! selected western Montana as the site for the rendezvous, Mack said.”

More about Yellowstone oil spill

More about the Earth First! Rendezvous