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It might not seem much is left to say about the Earth Liberation Front. The Eugene-based eco-saboteurs burned down car dealerships and ski resorts in the 1990s, becoming a primary target for the FBI. The results of Operation Backfire are now showing up in federal courtrooms, leading to reporters revisiting material that was covered in a decade-old documentary.
But Bryan Denson, a former courts reporter for The Oregonian, found a new angle this week in The New York Times. He profiles Craig Rosebraugh, the Portland-based spokesman for the ELF who published the group’s communiqués claiming responsibility for various arsons.
The story recounts how Rosebraugh’s unusual vantage—he knew what ELF had done but not who they were—drew the interest of a book agent, Robert Eringer, who told Rosebraugh he smelled a bestseller.
We won’t spoil what happened next, but the story contains a number of delightful twists. It also has a detail that will warm any editor’s heart: Rosebraugh amended ELF’s claims of responsibility to make them more philosophically coherent, only to have members threaten to hunt him down for ruining their work.
