Take a look at Rodney Coronado's résumé.
- Member of SHAC
- Founder of Animal Liberation Front (ALF)
- An active member of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
- As a member of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, he was instrumental in sinking two whaling ships at Reykjavik, Iceland (1986).
- The Animal Liberation Front is one of America's most dangerous domestic terrorism threats.
- He fire bombed a Michigan State University research laboratory (1992). He justified the firebombing Michigan State University as taking the gun out of the hands of someone ready to use it.
- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA) gave him more than $70,000 in grants and here are the PeTA tax records that show this financial support.
- He fled an arrest warrant in Vancouver (1987).
- As an FBI fugitive, he hid out on an Indian reservation (1993). He is a vegetarian, but as a fugitive, he admits that he was unable to live the vegetarian lifestyle and had to dine on animal flesh.
- He considers fire is a cleansing agent and if people get hurt that it is the same as people hurting animals.
- Prior to sentencing for the arson charge at Michigan State, he stated: "I have gone from the most vocal proponent to now an open opponent of the ALF. My actions were illegal, radical and extreme and caused great pain to others." In jail he retracted that statement (1995).
- He boasted in a speech to at least half a dozen acts of arson in what he labeled "Operation Bite Back" (November 30, 2002).
- He lectures college students on terrorist tactics.
- He described his philosophy that "It's based on one that sees all other living beings and aspects of nature, including plants, animals and rocks, as just as important as all others. My family raised me to believe that not only humans but all living beings and natural things deserve respect."
- He told Earth First! that the ALF or ELF will never be hailed as heroes in our time, but that their roles will be seen more clearly in 100 years.
- He advises activists to "Never use your own vehicle or those of other activists."
- He calls for "Maximum destruction! Not minimum damage."
- He uses the excuse of being an environmentalist to set fires and destroy property.
Rodney Coronado demonstrating how to construct a firebomb
Here are some quotes from various speeches in the past.
"I disagree with the FBI's declaration that ELF is a terrorist organization. I consider a terrorist to be somebody who kills people."
The Government Sentencing Memorandum states "A terrorist combines violence and threats so that those that disagree with him are silenced, either because they have been victimized by violence or because they fear being victimized."
"What I'm continuing to do is cutting out the equation that wastes the most amount of time - and that is working within the system."
A very typical Liberal attitude. Everyone else is expected to work within the system, yet, he should be exempt. He expects the law enforcement community to "work within the system." He would probably complain (probably to the proper authorities) if someone burned down the house where he lives (he doesn't own the residence, he just leeches off them), but he has no problem burning down someone else's property. This is a good example of someone that has had pretty much everything given to him. He never really had to work for anything to provide for himself.
"The fire was a message. The first intent is obviously to cause economic hardship to companies, individuals responsible for destroying the environment."
Setting an apartment fire in what Coronado called "an environmentally sensitive canyon" in order to save the canyon brings to mind the Communist policy joke of the 1980's, "We had to destroy village in order to save it."
"I would rather see an apartment complex burn to the ground than developers making money off the environment."
The intense anti-corporate, anti-capitalist hatred among ELF supporters is infinite.
"Regardless of how people feel about these actions, they do help bring the issue to the public's attention and maybe when it's enough in the public's attention that's when governments will be called upon to do something about it."
The use of violence to change government policy is a key element of legal definitions of terrorism.
"ELF is in business because groups like the Sierra Club have not been able to get the job done. There's a whole new generation of environmentalists out there who don't have the patience that older people did and who have to work within the system."
"...work within the system." You mean work within the law. What you really mean is that there are a whole new generation that never had to work for much. It was all handed to you. And now this "New Generation" is trying to destroy those that did.
"Terrorists target cities full of people. We just target property."
So I guess that there is really no harm, is that what we are supposed to believe?
"You know, those people - I think they should appreciate that we're only targeting their property. Because frankly I think it's time to start targeting them."
Now we can see his true intentions. He wants to start targeting people, which was what he wanted to do from the beginning. He wants it done on a large scale with all these eco-terrorist groups participating. This is the revolution that these groups are always talking about.
What part of these actions is not considered Criminal?
What part of these actions is not considered Violent?
What part of these actions is not considered Terrorism?
On Friday, 21 July 2006, Rodney Coronado was cited on two misdemeanor counts of possessing golden eagle feathers and migratory bird feathers. In addition to the eagle feathers, agents found feathers of a Great Horned Owl, Barn Owl, Great Blue Heron, Redtail Hawk, Cooper's Hawk and Harris Hawk.
An agent for the Fish and Wildlife Service says the feathers were found at Coronado's Tucson home in February when the FBI arrested him on unrelated charges. This is just another perfect example showing how Rodney Coronado believes that he should be exempt from the laws that govern everyone else's lives.
The following is from an article written by Rodney Coronado which appeared in a direct action magazine:
Purify Yourselves
by Rod Coronado
"Yes, I suppose I too am also a terrorist. But no American has the right to stand on a pedestal of privilege won through war, attrition and genocide and tell me or courageous people like the Earth and Animal Liberation Front that actions to defend the homeland, family and Earth which sustains us all is terrorism. I may have been born into the privilege I enjoy as an American, but it is my duty first as a human being, second as a Yoeme and thirdly as an American to fight tyranny wherever and whenever it is waged upon us. I have chosen to do that in a variety of ways, including but not limited to the use of fire."
"Fire like the ones set by my fellow Yoemem in 1885, when in response to Mexican attempts to mine silver deposits in our sacred homeland, warriors captured 21 commercial ships on the Yaqui River and torched them. Fires like those lit by Lakota chief Red Cloud and his warriors, who after winning the only unconditional surrender from the United States in the 1860s burned invading soldier forts to the ground. Fires like those which were lit by the Vandals who burned Rome, ending yet another tyrannical reign by humans who believed they could create a democracy through war and terror."
"I am an arsonist. I was convicted of being one in 1992 when I set fire to 32 years of research accumulated by the mink farm industry at Michigan State University and I also admitted playing an integral part in burning down an experimental fur farm at Oregon State University and the empty Malecky Mink Farm in Oregon. One week later, I started another fire at the Northwest Fur-Breeders Co-op which caused half a million dollars in damage to the facility which supplies fur farms across the Northwest. I also admitted to breaking into the offices of a researcher designing state-of-the-art traps and poisons meant to kill tens of thousands of coyotes on public lands every year. Once inside, I set one incendiary device under his desk and another in his separate Predator Research Facility. Both of those fires resulted in significant damages."
In February 2006, Rodney Coronado was charged with a single count of distributing information on explosives, destructive devices and weapons of mass destruction with the intent for his listeners to commit illegal acts of violence.
On 14 December 2007, Rodney Coronado, the self-proclaimed leader of the Earth Liberation Front, pleaded guilty to charges he demonstrated the use of a destructive device . As part of his plea, Rodney Coronado admitted that on 01 August 2003, he advocated the use of arson to effect political change. Earlier that same day, fire consumed a condominium complex under construction in La Jolla. A banner was found at the scene that read "you build it - we'll burn it." The banner was signed ELF.
Rodney Adam Coronado, 41, faces a year and a day in federal prison when he is sentenced March 27 by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller.
How much lumber was wasted by these arsonists? How many trees had to be cut down to replace what they destroyed? All they are doing is making sure that the lumber companies sell twice as much lumber. They have not stopped any building. They have not stopped anything. These people with the ELF do not seem to really care much for conservation as they claim. Maybe saving the environment is not their main objective and the accumulation of power is...
It is funny how you never see these people planting trees. You always see these people destroying things that other people have built. That is what you call a "Radical Environmentalist". They do not really care about the environment, they just care about destroying other people's property. They do this under the guise of helping the environment. Take a look at the picture to the right. What is the carbon footprint of the destruction that these people cause? Additional trees have to be cut down to replace what they destroyed. Chain saws, saw mills, trucks to move the lumber and trees to and from the lumber company, the actually burning and the CO2 release into the atmosphere. This is equivalent of 1000 SUVs use over a year. These people do not care about the environment at all, at least based on their actions.
Rodney Coronado is a selfish individual that has no consideration for other people. Short prison terms do not work. He will continue to commit the crimes that have made him famous and this is part of the problem because he sees himself as a hero. Activists like Rodney Coronado cannot be rehabilitated because they do not want to be rehabilitated.
--TOP--