Earth Liberation Front

Earth Liberation Front, elf, environmental liberation front, e.l.f., e.l.f, animal liberation front


About the ELF

The ELF is an underground movement with no leadership, membership or official spokesperson. The intention of this web site is to inform and chronicle issues related to E.L.F.

This web site's management, webmasters, affiliates, or otherparticipants are not to be considered spokespersons, members, or affiliates of The Earth Liberation Front.

In its effort to engage in "economic sabotage and guerrilla warfare to stop the exploitation and destruction of the natural environment," the Earth Liberation Front has allegedly launched a new attack in the suburbs of Seattle, according to the Associated Press.

A sign with the E.L.F. initials was reportedly left at the scene of a blaze that burned four multi-million dollar homes north of Woodinville, according to the AP. The Street of Dreams development was reportedly advertised as being green, though the company's trademark is luxury to the nth degree.

The Earth Liberation Front has been accused of this kind of arson in the past. It has been described as a group of largely autonomous, but like-minded individuals who believe radical terrorist-style acts are more effective than negotiation, politics and public demonstrations in effecting better environmental conditions. According to some accounts, adherents believe causing damage will counteract the profit motive that drives companies to undertake environmentally destructive activity.

While all environmental groups agree that sprawl is a problem because it carves up pristine lands, leads to more roads and driving, and consumes more energy in a variety of ways, mainstream environmental groups condemn the actions of the Earth Liberation Front.
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Earth Liberation Front (ELF), also known as "Elves" or "The Elves", is the collective name for anonymous and autonomous individuals or terrorist groups that, according to the now defunct Earth Liberation Front Press Office, use "economic sabotage and guerrilla warfare to stop the exploitation and destruction of the natural environment.", commonly known as ecotage.

The ELF was founded in the United Kingdom in 1992 and spread to Europe by 1994. It is now an international movement with actions reported in over a dozen countries and is widely regarded as the Animal Liberation Front's younger sister, because of the relationship and cooperation between the two movements.

Using the same leaderless resistance model, as well as similar guidlines to the ALF, sympathizers say that it is an eco-defense group dedicated to taking the profit motive out of environmental destruction by causing economic damage to businesses through the use of direct action.

The ELF was classified as the top domestic terror threat in the United States by the FBI in March 2001, and are categorised as "eco-terrorists". The ELF's guidelines require that individuals or groups acting on its behalf "take all necessary precautions against harming any animal — human and nonhuman.". On the lack of deaths from ELF action, the FBI's deputy assistant director for counterterrorism has said, "I think we're lucky. Once you set one of these fires they can go way out of control." The name came to public prominence when they were featured on the television show 60 Minutes in 2005.[