A2. Green Unionism

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By Steve Ongerth - From the book, Redwood Uprising: Book 1

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Now Judi Bari is the mother of two children,
A pipe bomb went ripping through her womb,
She cries in pain at night time,
In her Willits cabin room;
FBI is back again with COINTELPRO,
Richard Held is the man they know they trust,
With Lieutenant Sims his henchman,
It’s a world of boom and bust;
But we’ll answer with non-violence,
For seeking justice is our plan,
And we’ll avenge our wounded comrade,
As we defend the ravaged land…

—lyrics excerpted from Who Bombed Judi Bari, by Darryl Cherney, 1990.

Redwood Summer began and moved forward more or less as planned—in spite of all that happened surrounding the bombing—and Bari and Cherney were not charged and eventually freed. Yet organizers and supporters of Redwood Summer were left wondering who the bomber was, and if they were part of a well organized plot, either by right wing fanatics, Corporate Timber, the FBI, or a combination of all of them. Gary Ball admonished everyone not to jump to conclusions about who planted the bomb, stating, “We’re not getting into conspiracy theories at this point. We’re saying that the police have made an obvious mistake and that they need to do a real investigation to find the criminal who planted that bomb and who is still on the loose.” [1] Although many supporters of Redwood Summer were convinced that the bombing was a conspiracy, there were enough people in Mendocino County reactionary and crazy enough to have acted alone, and the county had a long tradition of such lunatics. As Rob Anderson described it:

“What outsiders (and many insiders, for that matter)—members of the media, politicians, FBI agents, etc.—don’t understand about Mendocino County is its peculiar hothouse political atmosphere—a combination of poor law enforcement, obtuse political leadership, cowboy capitalism, and religious extremism. In this atmosphere, all kinds of twisted and malignant creatures flourish. In fact, at various times, Jim Jones, Charles Manson, Leonard Lake, Tree Frog Johnson, and Kenneth Parnell have all lived and flourished in Mendoland.” [2]

Judi Bari herself had agreed that “Mendocino County, as we all know, is known as the largest outpatient ward in America and we who live there are completely used to this stuff…” [3]

Indeed, one week after the bombing, an anonymous letter writer, calling himself (or herself) “The Lord’s Avenger” wrote a letter to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat full of Biblical quotations claiming credit for planting the bomb. [4] On the surface, it was entirely plausible that the bombing was motivated by Christian Fundamentalist anger towards Judi Bari, because of her stances on abortion. It is unlikely, however, that this issue was the primary reason for the bombing—since Bari had been far more vocal about timber and labor issues. [5] There was a strong Christian Fundamentalist streak particularly among the most reactionary representatives of the US Forest Service as well as the least enlightened (and most rapacious) gyppos. [6] Misogyny was no doubt embedded in the bundle of reasons for targeting Bari as well, evidenced by the fact that one of her death threats described her (and her fellow women) as “whores”, “lesbians”, and “members of NOW”. [7] Yet, as will be demonstrated, the Lord’s Avenger letter was more than likely a false lead.

There was also some wild speculation that Darryl Cherney might have planted the bomb himself (unbeknownst to Bari) out of resentment because of their recent breakup as romantic couple, but this theory falls to pieces on the prima facie evidence alone. [8] According to the FBI’s own ballistics evidence, the bomb had a switch, timer, and motion sensor, which meant that it was designed to detonate while the car was in motion during a specific time. It is just as ridiculous to think that Cherney would have knowingly consented to ride in a car containing a live bomb, which he had supposedly armed and positioned, for the purposes of revenge as it is to think that Bari and Cherney would have done so for the purposes of terrorism. In any case, Cherney, who was not mechanically inclined, was not capable of constructing such a device. [9] As Bari related to Bruce Anderson:

“Darryl, first of all, has some of the least mechanical skills of anyone I’ve ever known. I once tried to hire him to hang sheet rock and found him to be unemployable, because he didn’t know how to hammer. And, secondly, whatever else I know about Darryl—Darryl and I have been broken up as a romantic couple for several months now but I love Darryl and Darryl loves me, and there is no question in my mind that Darryl would never, ever do such a thing.” [10]

Veterans of the environmental movement who also had prior involvement with organizations that had been subject to COINTELPRO and COINTELPRO-like infiltration suspected foul play. [11] Dave Foreman, who spoke from first-hand experience, was convinced that it was, and noted the similarities between the bombing of Bari and Cherney and his own legal entanglement over the Arizona 5 case. [12] Certainly, the FBI and corporate timber had several motives. These included:

“Providing police an excuse to search homes and offices associated with the environmental movement in Mendocino County and the Bay Area, removing two of the most high-profile organizers challenging corporate power in California, and contaminating the public image—not only of Redwood Summer, but also of (Forest Forever) and the environmental movement in general with the stigma of violence and lawlessness.” [13]

Four attorneys from Humboldt and Mendocino Counties, Rodney Jones, David Nelson, Steven J. Antler, and Ron Sinoway, calling themselves Northern California Lawyers for an Unbiased Investigation accused the Oakland Police and FBI of incompetence and prejudice against Bari and Cherney. [14] They issued a white paper called “A Position Statement and Legal Evaluation of the Bari-Cherney Car Bombing, which exposed the countless weaknesses in the state’s case against the two. The statement made a convincing case that the bombing was, in fact, a sophisticated plan by the opponents of Redwood Summer to undermine it, perhaps with the complicity of law enforcement agencies. [15]

* * * * *

In spite of all the accusations, the Oakland Police’s and FBI’s case against Bari and Cherney, had been nonexistent. If anything—as farfetched and disturbing as the notion might seem to “Middle America”—the bombing indeed had all the earmarks of a COINTELPRO “black operation” much like the well documented FBI sting operation against the Arizona 5.

To begin with, FBI Special Agent Richard W. Held was the man in charge of the overall investigation: Richard Held was practically the FBI’s director of COINTELPRO activity. Bari explained:

“Richard W. Held the head of the San Francisco FBI and a spokesperson for the investigation against me, is best known for his work with COINTELPRO. This program of FBI covert operations was formally suspended in 1971 after Congressional investigations and media exposes revealed the crimes the FBI engaged in to discredit and disrupt legitimate movements for social change in this country. This included a 10-year secret war against Dr. Martin Luther King and outright assassinations of members of the Black Panther Party and American Indian Movement.

Richard, W Held’s personal involvement in COINTELPRO included the orchestration of a dirty tricks campaign against the Los Angeles branch of the Black Panthers; Held also directed a campaign against Puerto Rican Independentistas involving warrantless searches and seizures of private property and the assassination of two of the leaders. He was involved with his father Richard G. Held in the reign of terror at Pine Ridge, South Dakota in 1975, in which American Indian Movement members [including Leonard Peltier] were framed and murdered.

“Although COINTELPRO was formally suspended, a former agent, Wesley Swearingen, has testified that its activities have continued without the acronym.” [16]

The more than 45 death threats, the fake press releases, the subterfuge by Candy Boak and Mothers Watch, the right wing anti-Earth First! terrorist organizations (such as the Sahara Club), and the picture of Bari with the riflescope all matched similar types of well documented disruption of the American Indian Movement, the Black Panthers, the Socialist Workers Party, CISPES, and more. [17] The now much maligned Ward Churchill who has done extensive research and written much about COINTELPRO was convinced that the bombing most certainly fit the pattern of an FBI black operation. [18]

The use of bombs by the FBI to discredit radicals was not without precedent either. At least two other cases exist. One took place in Seattle, in 1970 but failed when the agent provocateur rebelled and revealed the nature of the plot. The other eerily paralleled the Bari and Cherney bombing, except that it claimed the life of its target, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee leader Ralph Featherstone on March 9, 1970. (SNCC had been a COINTELPRO target since 1967). [19] The connections to the original Mississippi Summer evidently extended far beyond the names. FBI spokesman Duke Diedrich denounced all of the speculation that Corporate Timber, the Oakland Police, and the FBI had willingly conspired to bomb Bari and Cherney as “irresponsible and moronic,” adding, “We categorically deny that. I don’t think there’s any evidence of FBI involvement. If there is, we encourage people to bring it to us.” [20] In fact, the evidence of an FBI and Corporate Timber conspiracy is beyond plentiful.

For one thing, the timing of the FBI’s quick arrival at the bombing site, in fact their very presence there at all, was highly suspect. At the time, the FBI office was in San Francisco, too far away for their agents to have been deployed (even at 11:55 AM on a weekday) to a location fairly deep into the Oakland foothills. Indeed, they arrived a full fifteen minutes before the first Oakland Police officers, who did have jurisdiction in this case. According to one of Judi Bari’s lawyers, “The FBI was there in a thrice, almost as if they’d been standing around the corner holding their ears.” [21] Agent McKinley, the first FBI agent to show up claimed in his report that he had just happened to have been, “driving through Oakland on (his) lunch hour, looking for an apron for (his) child to use in a school play, when (he) heard on the radio (that) this explosion had taken place, and (he) went over to see what was going on.” That a radio broadcast would have been made that soon describing the scene in enough detail for McKinley to have known exactly where to go that quickly is highly suspect in and of itself. His story about searching for the apron is equally dubious. [22]

McKinley’s report is inconsistent with what the other FBI agents told the Oakland Police when they finally appeared fifteen minutes later. They reportedly told the local law enforcement (when they finally arrived) that they had received a tip from a woman “a secret informant, a woman close to the leaders Earth First!” (later identified as Linda Hall [23]) that “some heavies from up north” were headed to Santa Cruz for some sort of “action.” While this statement may have been true, if accurate, there was nothing in it that specifically mentioned a bomb or violence, and yet the Oakland Police accepted this description as if it explained the situation at hand. [24] Bari elaborated on the series of events years later (after deposing several of the officers and agents involved in the arrest):

“Normally, a car-bombing in Oakland would fall under the jurisdiction of the (BATF), not the FBI. So it was uncanny how fast the FBI arrived on the scene when the bomb went off in my car. The bomb exploded at 11:55 AM. According to his written log, Oakland Police Sgt. Sitterud, one of the first responding officers, got there at 12:20. Sitterud has testified that, by the time he got there, some FBI agents were already on the scene and more were arriving, until soon there were 12 to 15 FBI agents there. In addition, Oakland Police Sgt. Paniagua, who was assigned to the hospital where Darryl and I were taken, stated that there were 4 or 5 FBI agents there as well.

“At the scene, a discussion was held between the Oakland Police, the FBI, and the lone ATF agent who had shown up, to decide who would take the case. The discussion, according to Oakland Lt. Sims, was over whether Earth First! was listed on the FBI’s official list of domestic terrorist groups. If EF! was not a terrorist group, or if Darryl and I were not the bombers, the case should have gone to ATF. These days, the FBI claims that they did not and do not consider EF! a terrorist group, and that they had never even heard of Darryl and me before the bombing. Yet the Oakland Police have testified that the FBI briefed them on me, Darryl, and EF! as soon as they arrived on the scene, before they even looked at the car. ‘They said that these were the type of individuals who would be involved in transporting explosives,’ testified Sgt. Sitterud. ‘They said that these people, in fact, qualified as terrorists.’ Ten minutes after he arrived on the scene, based on the information he got from the FBI, Sgt. Sitterud made an entry in his police log describing Darryl and me as ‘apparent radical activists with recent arrest for illegal demonstration on Golden Gate Bridge,’ and as ‘Earth First leaders suspected of Santa Cruz power pole sabotage, linked with federal case of attempted destruction of nuclear power plant lines in Arizona.’ [25]

Recall that right around the same time that the Santa Cruz County power lines were sabotaged, the Oakland Police showed up on the Golden Gate Bridge—far out of their normal jurisdiction—to search Darryl Cherney’s backpack without a warrant. [26] Bari had no involvement in this action; indeed she had boycotted it, arguing that it was far too much effort for such a small potential payoff. There was no evidence linking the sabotage of the power poles to Earth First! (other than corporate media speculation and guilt by association). [27] Furthermore, the Santa Cruz County saboteur used handsaws and a cold chisel. [28] The notion that explosives had been used at all was simply an invention by the FBI and Oakland Police. However there is an all too eerie reflection of FBI infiltrator Michael Fain’s attempts to get the Arizona Earth First! activists and their supporters to use explosives and the choice of power lines as a target. The FBI would later publically declare that there was no connection between any of these incidents or the entrapment of activists in the Arizona Five case, but deeper investigations by Judi Bari and others proved otherwise:

“The FBI claimed that the Arizona EF! case had nothing to do with us. We claim that the case is key to ours, because it shows that, at the time of the bombing, Earth First! was an active target of an FBI COINTELPRO operation designed (in the classic words of J. Edgar Hoover) to misdirect, discredit, and neutralize us.

Even more important, the FBI’s plan in Arizona was to misdirect and discredit EF! by associating us with explosives. The FBI’s code name for the Arizona EF! case was ‘Thermcon,’ an acronym for Thermite Conspiracy. This name is very revealing of the FBI’s motives, since there was no thermite, or any other explosive, used in any EF! action, ever. But, as shown in the file, the two provocateurs spent years telling the EF!ers they could get them thermite, and trying to convince them to use thermite.

Eventually the FBI had to settle for getting the activists to cut down the power pole with an acetylene torch, as they were unable to convince them to use explosives. But it is important to note that Operation Thermcon did not consist of the FBI infiltrating EF! to break up a thermite conspiracy. It consisted of the FBI using provocateurs to infiltrate EF! and try to create a thermite conspiracy for them to bust. It is in the context of this ongoing COINTELPRO operation against EF!—this attempt to discredit us by linking us with explosives—that the FBI terrorist squad moved in after I was bombed in Oakland and declared Darryl and me to be the bombers. [29]

Bari and Cherney would later discover (after much foot dragging by the FBI to reveal the documents proving it) that some of the same FBI terrorist squad agents assigned to their case had also worked on the Arizona 5 case, thus demonstrating the agency’s claim that there had been no connection was a complete lie. [30]

* * * * *

Furthermore, the construction of the bomb itself ruled out its being used for anything but anti-personnel purposes, namely an assassination attempt on Bari’s (and Cherney’s) lives. According to Bari,

“David R. Williams is one of the FBI’s six top bomb experts in the country...Williams considered the bomb complex, but well-designed and assembled with good craftsmanship. The bomb itself was an 11’x 2’ pipe wrapped with finishing nails for shrapnel effect. The triggering device consisted of a wind-up pocket watch with the minute-hand broken off, with a screw drilled into the clock face connected to a wire, so that when the hour hand moved around and made contact with the screw it would complete a circuit. But the clock itself did not trigger the bomb. It was merely a delay mechanism to allow the bomber to safely get out of the way. The real trigger was a motion device, consisting of a half-inch diameter ball bearing, which had to roll to connect two looped wires and complete a circuit. In other words, the bomb was triggered by the motion of my car.

The presence of the ball bearing, according to Williams, meant that the bomb was a booby trap device. SA Frank Doyle and the other bomb technicians at the scene certainly knew this, because they found the ball bearing and one of the looped wires among the bomb debris. But you sure never heard anything about the motion device in any of the press accounts that were leaked out by police sources back then. It is also interesting to note that, on my original arrest warrant, I was first charged with violating code section 12355(b), which is possession of a booby trap device. This was crossed out, and in its place is written code 123032, possession of an explosive device. The Oakland Police have testified that this was a clerical error.

Besides the clock and motion device, the bomb also contained a light switch as an overall safety mechanism. So in order for the bomb to explode, the light switch had to be turned to on, the clock had to be wound and tick down until it made contact with the screw, and the ball bearing had to roll and connect the wires. The assumption behind the arrest of Darryl and me is that we were knowingly transporting this bomb when it accidentally exploded. But SSA Williams disagrees. ‘I believe that it functioned as designed,’ he told us. ‘I believe the ball bearing made the circuitry complete.’ [31]

Such a bomb could scarcely have been used to bring down a metal high voltage power pole, and a motion device would make no sense for such purposes. Even if it had been placed in the car by Bari and Cherney there is absolutely no reason for them to have armed it, and such a complex, three-part arming mechanism could not have been set by accident.

* * * * *

Another suspicious accusation of the FBI’s is their identification of where the bomb had been placed in Bari’s vehicle. According to Frank Doyle, the pair were presumed guilty, and must have known the bomb was in the car, because it had been reportedly placed on the floorboards of the car’s left, rear passenger compartment in plain sight. The evidence clearly shows this not to be the case. To begin with, initial reports by police officers and one fire fighter placed the location of the bomb under the driver’s seat. [32] In fact, the very first Oakland Police officer, Gribi, to arrive declared, “I am now photographing the car; I am photographing the damage under the driver’s seat.” This testimony was contradicted by Oakland Police Sergeant Sitterud who arrived ten minutes later and described the bomb’s location in his report as having been in the rear passenger compartment. However it was apparent that he made this declaration only after Frank Doyle told him where the bomb supposedly was. Sitterud testified, “I viewed the white Subaru along with an agent of the FBI, Frank Doyle. Frank Doyle told me that the bomb was on the back seat floorboards. [33] In fact several officers testified that Doyle had argued with them when they questioned the latter on the location of the bomb, declaring, “I’ve been looking at bomb scenes for 20 years and I’m looking at this one, and I’m telling you, you can rely on it. This bomb was visible to the people who loaded the back seat of this car.” [34]

The police and FBI also claimed that the bomb could not have been hidden under the driver’s seat, because such a bomb would not fit there, however Redwood Summer organizers demonstrated, at a July 5, 1990 press conference, that this assertion was false by easily placing a mockup of the bomb, in this case a section of pipe twelve inches long and two inches in diameter, under the driver’s seat of an identical vehicle. [35]

Furthermore, the nature of Bari’s wounds rule out the FBI’s claim. Her injuries resulting from the explosion—four breaks in her pelvis, a smashed sacrum, a crushed coccyx bone, and a deep puncture wound in her buttocks where she was impaled by a spring from her car seat, all the way to the bone—could not have resulted from a blast from the rear floorboard and were entirely consistent with the concealment of the bomb under her driver’s seat. [36] She also suffered injuries to her right leg and internal soft tissue damage, but not a scratch on her back in stark contradiction with what one would have expected to find had the bomb been placed on the vehicle’s left rear passenger floorboards. [37]

The effects of the bomb on the contents located in the back seat of the vehicle also rule out Doyle’s placement of the bomb. The agent had speculated that Bari had placed her guitar on top of the device, thus proving that she knew it was there, but the guitar case survived the explosion intact, lacking any blast residue or any bomb parts embedded in it. [38] Even more curiously, Bari had loaded her childhood violin near the guitar, and it suffered almost no damage at all, except for a crack in the f-holes. Sensing, perhaps, that this intact fiddle discredited their own charges, the FBI refused to return until legal forced to do so in 2017. [39]

Furthermore, the forensic evidence of the blast damage to the vehicle itself clearly shows that the bomb could not have been located where Doyle said it was. The attempts by Bari’s legal team to acquire this evidence were by no means easy. They were denied access to the vehicle by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Henry Ramsey until June 15. [40] By that time the Oakland police had dismantled the damaged Subaru, including the seats and the floorpan, and they removed all of the movable property (which they tagged as evidence). [41] Even then, the Bari’s legal team had to seek a TRO from Ramsey to prevent the Oakland Police from leaving what was left of the vehicle from being exposed to the elements. [42] Luckily the Police had taken photographs and these would eventually prove sufficiently damaging to the FBI’s case against the victims. Even still, it took several years to acquire them. The photographs confirmed what Bari and her legal team had suspected all along:

“…Frank Doyle, 20-year veteran bomb expert with the (aptly named) FBI Terrorist Squad, had taken over examining my car and directing the collection of evidence. The damage was obvious. A hole was blown in the driver’s seat Oakland Police Lt. Sims testified that he could see right through it to the street below and the car frame was buckled directly under it. The back seat, in contrast, was virtually unscathed. When they unbolted the front seat and removed it from the car, there was a 2’x4’ blast hole in the floor, with the metal curled back from an obvious epicenter under the driver’s seat. Any honest observer would have concluded that the bomb had been hidden under my seat and this was a case of attempted murder.

“But Special Agent Doyle had other ideas. In defiance of all the evidence, he claimed that the bomb was located in clear view on the back seat floorboard. [43]

In fact, Doyle had testified, “I base my statement on my observation of a large hole in the backseat floorboard.” [44] Yet this was in clear contradiction of the visual evidence.

Finally, the FBI’s own lab analysis of the hole in the floor of Bari’s car also corroborated the photographic evidence. [45] According to the forensic tests, the device had been attached to a piece of plywood, just the right size to fit under the driver’s seat, so that it wouldn’t inadvertently move while the vehicle was in motion. Furthermore, the bomb had been covered with a blue piece of cloth so that it was hidden from Bari’s and Cherney’s view. Fragments of this blue cotton fabric had been found in Bari’s back following the explosion. [46] The pipe that housed the bomb had end caps which blew off and made impact points on the right beside the gearshift, and on the left beside the front left (driver’s) door. [47] Given all of these facts, the bomb must have been located under the driver’s seat, but the FBI’s and Oakland Police’s case against Bari and Cherney depended heavily on the bomb having been located on the backseat floorboards.

* * * * *

Additionally a further unsolved mystery of a second, almost identical bomb offers further clues to what happened. An incident occurred prior to the bombing, on May 9, 1990, at the Louisiana-Pacific mill in Cloverdale—the very same facility where George Alexander was injured—that received little press coverage at the time. [48] A pipe bomb matching the exact configuration of the bomb that injured Bari and Cherney, sans motion device, partially exploded outside of the office of the mill at about 8 AM on the morning of the 9th, causing approximately $2,000 damage to the building’s exterior. [49] Nobody claimed responsibility for the bomb, nor was anybody injured. A sign was found on the mill property that read “L-P screws millworkers.” [50] No connection between the sign and the bomb was ever proven, even though the FBI and police had plenty of chances to investigate the possibility. Reportedly they even declined to trace the fingerprints found on the sign let alone match it to either Bari or Cherney. [51] The incident was largely ignored until the two were bombed, at which point this bomb was cited as evidence supporting their guilt.

As of 2013, the FBI possessed this bomb in its evidence file. The bureau attempted to destroy it in 2010, but they were prevented from doing so by Darryl Cherney’s legal team. [52] Bari’s account of the Cloverdale bomb suggested why the FBI wished to destroy it:

“This bomb turned out to have the identical construction of the bomb in my car, absent the motion device. It had the timer, it had the same kind of colors of wires, it had the same solder—the (FBI) tested the solder; it was from the same tube of solder. They tested the tape; it was from the same roll of tape. It was made from identical components, and this bomb at the Cloverdale L-P mill, instead of being attached to a motion device and placed in a car, it was attached to a can of gasoline: it was an incendiary bomb, and its supposed intention was to light the gasoline and burn down the mill. Placed nearby—and this is a strange thing for somebody who intended to burn down a mill—was a cardboard sign that said: ‘L-P Screws Millworkers’.

“The bomb partially exploded—in fact, it barely exploded: it exploded just enough to pop off the end cap…and it dented the can. But it didn’t explode the gas can and it didn’t burn down the mill. So what it left them with was an intact model of the bomb in my car. That’s what was left. This happened two weeks after the bomb school and two weeks before the bomb exploded in my car in Oakland.

“I think that this bomb was a footprint that was left in the world to be traced back to me later. And if you look at my (FBI) files, they say: Judi Bari was a labor organizer targeting L-P; therefore she is suspected of the Cloverdale bomb; therefore she is also suspected of the bomb in her car.

“The night of the bombing, within seven hours of the time the bomb explodes, the FBI held a briefing meeting for the Oakland police, and at that meeting they said that I was the chief suspect in the Cloverdale bomb. So this was already set up.

“Now I believe the Cloverdale bomb was a deliberate dud. I believe its intention was to leave an intact model that would then later be matched to the bomb in my car, in order to give an additional reason to say that it was my bomb.

“So what is the implication of that? The implication is that two weeks before I was bombed, somebody knew that not only was I going to be bombed, but I was going to be arrested for that bombing, because they planted something so that the bomb could be traced back to me.” [53]

If Bari’s theory was correct, the plot had worked, at least temporarily. Following the bombing in Oakland, L-P and WECARE spokesperson Shep Tucker made it a point to argue that it was the timber industry that was being threatened, and cited the Cloverdale bomb as evidence of this [54], never once considering that this particular bomb was constructed by the same individual or group that had planted the bomb in Bari’s car, as ballistics investigations later confirmed.

* * * * *

Further evidence of an FBI conspiracy surfaced when Bari learned of the FBI “Bomb School” which was conducted a month before the bombing, right around the time of the sabotage of the Santa Cruz power lines:

“Four weeks before I was car-bombed, according to both the testimony and the written files, the FBI sponsored a Bomb Investigators’ training course at the College of the Redwoods in Eureka, in the heart of the redwood region, on the eve of Redwood Summer. During this week-long course, which was open to law enforcement only, the FBI actually blew up cars with pipe bombs to practice responding. The place where they blew up these cars was (where else?) at a Louisiana-Pacific logging site north of Eureka.

The teacher at Bomb School was Special Agent Frank Doyle, the FBI Terrorist Squad bomb expert who showed up at the scene when I was bombed in Oakland, and directed the collection of evidence…Among the students at Bomb School were several of the responding Oakland Police officers and FBI agents who collected the evidence under Frank Doyle’s supervision at the Oakland bomb scene. The FBI claims that they have lost the roster of students in the class, even though the FBI Bomb School memo that we received from them refers to this roster and says it is attached.

But even without this roster, from the documents that we have, I have been able to place at least four 1990 Bomb School participants as being among the first responding to the Oakland bombing. They are: Special Agent (SA) Frank Doyle, Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) Patrick Webb, SA John F. Holford, and Oakland Police Sgt. Myron Hanson. In addition, SA Stockton Buck, who played a key role at the Oakland bombing scene, has testified that he attended Bomb School in Eureka, where they blew up cars with Frank Doyle, but he doesn’t recall if it was 1990 or one of the years before. Stockton Buck also testified that he found the assignment of collecting evidence at the Oakland bomb scene pleasant, because it was a nice day and they had pavement under their feet. Which makes me think he may have been contrasting it to the dust and mud of the L-P clearcut where they had blown up the cars in Bomb School.” [55]

In a badly damaged piece of video footage, obtained by Bari’s legal team some years later, the police and FBI agents who attended the Bomb School can be heard bantering while waiting to be cleared to investigate Bari’s damaged car by demolitions experts (in case of additional explosives). [56] At one point, Frank Doyle can be heard to say, “Well, this is it…this is it, go to it! This is the final exam right here!” [57] Adding to the evidence, the chief of L-P’s private Humboldt County security force, Frank Wiggington a former deputy sheriff with the county was one of the participants in the bomb school. In addition to practicing scenarios that exactly matched the events as they unfolded in Oakland. According to the testimony of one of the Oakland Police officers who attended the school, they also practiced dealing with firebombs matching the one found at the mill in Cloverdale. [58]

* * * * *

A week after the bombing, the so-called “Lord’s Avenger” letter appeared, by an anonymous still as-of-yet-unidentified individual, claiming credit for it. The unknown writer described both the bomb in Bari’s car and Cloverdale bomb in exact detail, including the arming mechanisms of both. They explained their motivation as being revenge for Bari’s defense of an abortion clinic in Ukiah in November 1988. The Lord’s Avenger did claim that he had heard Bari give a speech at that particular counterdemonstration. [59] Many took this to be proof that the bomber was a lone, right-wing nut, and if it was, one possible candidate was Bill Staley. He had been one of the anti-abortion demonstrators at the rally in question. [60] Yet, the FBI only spoke briefly with Bill Staley and then dismissed him as a suspect without following up on any further leads (which existed) that could have proven that he had at least some connection to the bombing. [61]

However, there is no evidence to support the notion that the Lord’s Avenger Letter was any less a fabrication than Frank Doyle’s claim about the bomb being placed in the back seat of Bari’s automobile, and further, the writer told an obvious lie. The Lord’s Avenger claimed that they had placed the bomb in Bari’s vehicle while it was parked in front of Dan’s Frontier Room in Willits during the meeting with the gyppos on the evening of May 22. Certainly, there was enough time for this to have occurred, because the meeting lasted almost five hours. However, the car had been in plain sight to the participants of the meeting, who could view it through the restaurant’s picture window. Not all of the gyppos at the meeting were entirely sympathetic to Bari or Redwood Summer, and they would have had every incentive to point out the presence of a bomb, if they suspected her of being guilty. However, none of them recall seeing anyone or anything suspicious near the car during the entire time. Though the meeting lasted past sundown, the car had been parked next to a functioning streetlamp. Also, the restaurant was located across the street from the Willits Police Department, and none of the Police on duty recall anyone or anything suspicious either. [62]

Furthermore, had a bomb been placed in the car as the Lord’s Avenger had claimed, it would almost assuredly have been spotted by the occupants of the vehicle following the meeting. Utah Phillips, Joanna Robinson, and Dakota Sid Clifford attended the meeting as well as Bari and all four rode back to her home in Redwood Valley afterwards. Utah Phillips had loaded Bari’s guitar into the car near the end of the meeting and he recalled seeing nothing under the driver’s seat or in the back seat. [63] He had also made repeated trips to the car during the meeting to make sure nothing had been stolen from it. Furthermore, none of Bari’s three passengers recall seeing the bomb while en route to Bari’s home, and—since her 1981 Sabaru was a small vehicle, the person seated behind Bari would almost assuredly would have felt the device with their feet, if they hadn’t spotted it had it been there. [64] Finally, the bomb could not have been placed in the car that early, because its timing device would not have allowed for that. Given its 12-hour time limit, the bomb could only have been placed in the car while it was parked outside of David Kemnitzer’s house in Oakland the night before the bombing. The Lord’s Avenger Letter itself, no matter how much detail it correctly provided about both the bomb in Bari’s car and the Cloverdale bomb, has to have been a forgery.

Indeed, as time went on, Judi Bari reasoned that the letter itself may have been part of the cover-up:

“The Lord’s Avenger letter was chilling, and at the time, it even fooled me. But in retrospect, it was clearly a fake, meant to lead us off the trail. The Lord’s Avenger claimed that he put the bomb in my car while I was in a meeting in Willits, up in the timber region, two days before the bomb went off. But the bomb in my car had a 12-hour timer, so it could not have been place anywhere but Oakland or Berkeley, where I stayed the night before it exploded. And while it’s true that the Lord’s Avenger’s detailed bomb descriptions were mostly accurate, I now realize that there were two sources who knew this information—the bomber himself and the FBI.

“The Lord’s Avenger letter had several functions. It provided a plausible lone assassin not connected to timber or FBI. It threw a veil of confusion over the motives for the bombing. And it removed the investigation from Oakland, where the bomb was actually placed, to Mendocino County, where there are many crazy people to use as suspects. And, masterfully, the FBI managed to simultaneously promote the letter as a key piece of evidence, while continuing their claim that Darryl and I bombed ourselves. Since we were the only suspects, they reasoned, Lord’s Avenger must be our accomplice. So, with great fanfare, they raided my house a second time, this time looking for ‘typewriter exemplars’ to match the Lord’s Avenger letter, and never mentioning that nothing they found even vaguely matched.” [65]

Indeed, the idea that the bomber was a lone actor is a highly unlikely possibility given the Cloverdale bomb, the FBI bomb school, the almost five-dozen death threats issued in the month leading up to the bombing, and the FBI’s (at best) mishandling of the case or (at worst) manufacturing it from the get-go. If they hadn’t all been connected to the bombing itself, they were part of an incredibly remarkable string of coincidences. In addition, the bomb itself was not a simple construct. Several FBI experts, including David R. Williams—the same expert who convicted the perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing (eight years prior to 9/11)—described both the device planted in Bari’s vehicle and the Cloverdale bomb as “very complex” bombs that were “very well made,” hardly likely to have been the product of a run-of-the-mill lone nut. [66]

Then, two days after the publication of the Lord’s Avenger Letter, a suspicious photo of Judi Bari surfaced. On June 1, Ukiah Police Chief Fred Keplinger mailed a photograph taken of Bari wearing camouflage and an Earth First! shirt, posing with an Uzi to the FBI and Oakland Police. On June 8, the Ukiah Police, Oakland Police, and the FBI released that photo to the press. [67] Bari’s detractors immediately questioned the consistency of posing with a gun and purporting to be nonviolent. [68] However, what wasn’t immediately reported in the Press, is that the photograph had been intended as a joke. [69] At least as far as Bari knew at the time of its taking, the photo had an early concept for the cover of Darryl Cherney’s album, They Sure Don’t Make Hippies Like They Used To, and entirely consistent with Earth First!’s irreverent, over-the-top hyperbolic sense of humor. FBI spokesman Duke Diedrich was unconvinced and declared, “Maybe I don’t have a sense of humor, but I don’t think it’s very funny,” but even to the layperson at the time, the picture’s context should have been obvious. [70]

Bari’s stance mimicked Patricia Heart’s infamous “Tania” pose, taken in 1974 during an armed bank robbery in San Francisco by the SLA, which was still an image that many would have easily recognized. [71] As Bari elaborated:

“They cannot understand why someone who doesn’t know which end of an Uzi to fire would pose with one. The actual purpose of that pose, how we came to take that picture, was we were trying to think of the most outrageous cover we could for Darryl’s album…That was an outtake, one that was not used. It was a joke. I’ve never fired an Uzi. I don’t know how to fire an Uzi. I don’t own an Uzi. I don’t own any fire arms. I don’t know how to use fire arms. I’ve never killed anything bigger than a potato bug.” [72]

Furthermore, the photograph, which had been taken almost two years earlier, had already been published (again as a joke) in the Anderson Valley Advertiser the previous spring. [73] Bruce Anderson revealed that Bari and Cherney had never liked the picture to begin with, but allowed him to use it to fill up space in that issue of his publication [74], which he humorously captioned “AVA Poster Gal of the Week”.

In any case, the photograph could not legally be used to prove guilt in the bombing. Bari’s Lawyer, Susan Jordan argued publically that due to its nature as a joke, the photo was not admissible as evidence in the case, and that it had been deliberately released to discredit Bari and Cherney. [75]

“To bring this photograph out now as proof positive that Judi Bari had some responsibility for the explosive device is absurd. It’s either a smear or disingenuous if they know the context of how it was taken”, added fellow attorney Richard Ingram. [76]

* * * * *

Years later, Bari discovered that while she and Cherney might have agreed to the taking of the photo as a joke, the person who originally suggested it may have done so in the first place to set Bari up for being discredited:

“The effort to disrupt Ukiah Earth First! and paint me as a terrorist began in November 1988, a year and a half before the bombing. At that time, a man named Irv Sutley came to Ukiah to attend an abortion clinic defense that I had organized in coalition with Ukiah Earth First! and other local groups. We were truly outrageous at that demo, singing our newly written song, ‘Will the Fetus Be Aborted’ to the Operation Rescue thugs.

“I knew Irv, although not well, from my earlier work in the Central America movement in Sonoma County. Irv was traveling with (Pam Davis), and after the demonstration we all went back to Darryl’s house. We talked about our recent successful blockade of Cahto Wilderness, in which I had been arrested for vehicular trespass. We smoked dope and fantasized about imaginary actions, including creating an oil spill in our pro-oil congressman Doug Bosco’s back yard swimming pool.

“After a while, Irv opened the trunk of his car and showed us that he was carrying a modified Uzi submachine gun, which he told us was legal. We took turns posing for photos with the gun, laughing and trying to look tough. Irv placed the gun in my hands, showed me how to hold it, and arranged it so my Earth First! shirt was clearly visible.

“About a month later, unknown to me at the time, the Ukiah Police received a copy of the photo of me holding the Uzi, along with a letter from an anonymous informant (“Argus”). The letter combined half-truths and outright lies to make me look like a terrorist. It read: ‘I joined Earth First to be able to report illegal activities of that organization. Now I want to establish a contact to provide information to authorities. The leader and main force of Earth First in Ukiah is Judi Bari. She is facing a trespassing charge in connection with the Earth First sabotage of a logging road in the Cahto Peak area. She did jail time in Sonoma County for blocking the federal building to support the Communist government in Nicaragua. Bari and the Ukiah Earth First are planning vandalism directed at Congressman Doug Bosco to protest offshore oil drilling. Earth First recently began automatic weapons training...’

“The letter went on to offer to set me up for a marijuana bust. The police were instructed to take out a coded ad in the local newspaper if they were interested. They were and they did. Around that time, Irv Sutley called me up and asked me to sell him some marijuana. But while I may have been stupid enough to pose for joke photos with an Uzi, I was not stupid enough to sell marijuana. I refused to get him the dope, and I was not busted.” [77]

Ukiah Police Sergeant Dan Walker had revealed that “an (unnamed) informant” had sent the photo a year before the bombing “along with a list of Earth First! activities Bari was planning.” [78] That “informant” was evidently Irv Sutley.

Sutley was and is a controversial figure having latched on to many marginal leftist organizations in Sonoma County, in particular the Peace and Freedom Party. His activity within that organization in the late 1980s seemed more intended to cause disruption within its already fractured ranks than any constructive purposes. [79] For example, he convinced a seventeen year-old belly dancer, Amanita Gardner, to run for California State Assembly in 1988, a move that many saw as self destructive to the party at best (and at worst, Sutley may have been motivated for less than appropriate personal reasons, as suggested by Bruce Anderson). [80] He also conflated a minor incident involving fellow Peace and Freedom Party member Gene Pepi (with whom Sutley had ostensible ideological disagreements) into a plot by the International Workers Party (a nominal Trotskyist sect) to “take over” the Peace and Freedom Party, an act that Bruce Anderson (also a Peace and Freedom party member) humorously argued “would resemble a banana slug sort of oozing over the top of a marshmallow, completely irrelevant to the real world.” [81] Many members of the Peace and Freedom Party, who disagree with each other vehemently on internal matters, still can attest to Sutley’s questionable activities. [82] At the very least, Irv Sutley was paranoid.

Whether or not Sutley had any connection to the FBI or simply assisted them inadvertently in their campaign to discredit Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney is not known, but if the latter is true, it’s also a remarkable coincidence. His description of himself is chock full of contradictions. He had no steady job, no steady address, claimed to be physically disabled—though appearances suggested otherwise, claimed to be incapable of physical work—and yet remodeled Pam Davis’ garage in exchange for rent (which is how he happened to meet Bari in the first place). He also possessed a substantial number of guns, including the Uzi. [83] Sutley claims innocence, and that he was himself set up, due to his own activities in CISPES, but there is no evidence to support such a conclusion. According to Judi Bari,

“Irv claims innocence, saying that a third party, probably the FBI must have been surveilling CISPES in Santa Rosa and overheard him talking on the CISPES phone. He says he probably casually mentioned taking the photos of me, and the FBI decided to sneak into (Pam Davis’) house, steal a photo, and mail it to the Ukiah Police.

This is quite a leap of logic, especially when you consider that I was a fulltime carpenter at the time, and not so active or well known yet. The FBI would have had to anticipate my future EF! stardom to be that interested in me that early. And, in order to believe Irv’s story you would have to believe that not only did the FBI steal the picture from Irv’s house, without him ever being aware of it, but then they wrote this letter that just happened to be composed of stuff Irv would know. Then this unknown agent offered to set me up for a drug bust, an offer unlikely to be made by someone who doesn’t have direct contact with me. And finally, even if you can believe all that, Irv admits that three months later, he sent the same photo to the Anderson Valley Advertiser without my permission, apparently completely unaware that the Ukiah police had the photo too. That’s quite a coincidence, isn’t it?” [84]

Still more interestingly, a typographical analysis of the “Argus Letter” and the death threat received by Bari which read, “Judi Bari, get out and go back where you came from, We know everything. You won’t get a second warning,” shows that both were composed on the same machine. [85]

* * * * *

The more that people investigated, the more the evidence pointed away from Bari and Cherney and the more the evidence suggested a conspiracy. The FBI frantically searched for something, anything on which to hang their only suspects. Desperate, they actually focused their attention on the nails that had been used as shrapnel in the bomb:

“The FBI was hard put to keep the case going against us. But they managed to find a straw to cling to for a few more weeks. Of all the 111 items seized, two nails allegedly had the same tool markings as some of the nails in the bomb. By this it could be determined that they were made on the same machine. But many hundreds of thousands of nails a day are made on each machine. The supplier, Pacific Steel, told the FBI that the nails come in 50-lb boxes from Saudi Arabia, and are distributed at over 200 outlets on the north coast. So, logically, it would be concluded that the nails were too common to compare.

“But logic never stopped the FBI. They just make up new lies. This time, according to an Oakland Police affidavit, an FBI bomb expert told them that the nails matched in a batch of 200-1000. The FBI bomb expert now claims that he never said that, and apparently they didn’t even try to make this argument in court, but they used it in the press for several weeks to counter emerging proof of our innocence [86], and they used it as part of the justification for the second raid on my house, in which they pulled finishing nails from my window trim in search of the elusive incriminating nails.” [87]

Lieutenant Mike Sims and Sergeant Michael Sitterud of the Oakland Police also pointed to an alleged FBI report linking a bag of nails that they claimed to have found in Bari’s car to the nails used in the bomb [88], but tests showed that this bag of nails didn’t match the nails in the bomb. [89] In fact, the differences were obvious even to the naked eye. [90] The nails on the bomb were finishing nails whereas the nails in the bag were roofing nails. [91] No doubt the nails were in Bari’s car because she was a carpenter [92] and nails are common equipment possessed by just about anyone who homesteads in a rural community in any case. On top of these inconsistencies, the FBI twice denied the Oakland Police report. [93] None of the law enforcement agents ever mentioned that they had also taken, from Bari’s vehicle, a folder containing a copy of the death threats and bogus Earth First! press releases in a folder labeled “Threats and Fakes”—which Bari used to demonstrate that there was a campaign of disruption against Redwood Summer. [94]

* * * * *

Despite the lack of evidence against Bari and Cherney, neither the FBI nor the Oakland Police bothered to investigate the possibility of other suspects. [95] They didn’t even offer a theory, which leads further credence to the belief that the bombing was a COINTELPRO operation from the get-go. [96] Whether it was or wasn’t, the actual bomber was still at large and could make another assassination attempt. Outraged activists believed that the FBI and OPD should expand the scope of their investigation to find the real bomber, and so they conducted a letter writing campaign to the two agencies and congress demanding as much. [97] Law enforcement agencies did respond, with great fanfare [98], by expanding their suspect pool to include 800 or so North Coast environmentalists, including all known Earth First! activists in the region. [99]

The idea that the suspect might have had some connection to anti-environmental forces, particularly corporate timber or the government itself was evidently not on the FBI’s or OPD’s radar, and the agencies refused to follow any such leads. Indeed, the FBI used the information they gathered to increase their surveillance of dissidents in the area. [100] In early August, the FBI dispatched two agents, Stuart Daley, who bore an uncanny resemblance to “a short, plumpish version of Clark Kent”, and Stockton Buck, who had been present at the “Bomb School”, to lead the effort. [101] Captain James Hahn of the Oakland Police Department indicated that they, too, were involved in the investigation, but would provide no additional details. [102]

The FBI initiated their “investigation” by sending a letter to the local newspapers—both corporate and independent—in the region, which read, in part, “As part of the [bombing] investigation, the FBI is attempting to identify the Lord’s Avenger letter. In that regard we are asking for your cooperation in making available for review letters you have received regarding the redwood timber and abortion issues.” [103] This meant that the FBI wanted to comb through unpublished letters to the editor, which vastly outnumbered the published ones that anyone could access given the time and diligence. [104] Such a search was likely fruitless, because it would be very time consuming. As Betty Ball described it, “Instead of not having any leads, there are zillions of leads. Any avenue would take you quite a ways before you’d realize you were or were not close, that you had come up with nothing. It’s a baffling thing.” [105]

For example, Del Norte County law enforcement agencies delved into the case of a Crescent City teenager whom local police had arrested in May of 1990 after he sold a homemade bomb to an undercover agent. Crescent City Police quickly dismissed any possibility of this being related to the Bari and Cherney bombing. Their reasoning was that the teenager was planting bombs to protest laws that restricted the purchases of assault rifles. “It’s not connected in any way (to the Bari and Cherney case)”, declared Crescent City detective Virginia Anthony, “I definitely would jump on it if there was any connection.” [106] Anthony’s assessment was probably on the mark, but her reasoning was suspect. The teenager in question probably would have felt at home among the members of WECARE, TEAM, Mother’s Watch, or the Sahara Club, but then again, there were hundreds of such individuals in northwestern California. [107]

Worse still, the FBI’s method was invasive, and violated basic civil liberties. The Santa Rosa Press Democrat, in a moment of rare courage told the FBI to take a hike, arguing that surrendering the unpublished letters would have a chilling effect on free speech. [108] Richard Johnson, publisher of the Mendocino Country Environmentalist, also refused. He recalled:

“When Daley and Buck’s San Francisco bureau Chief Richard Held—formerly of COINTELPRO fame—sent me a letter early last month demanding that I turn over the originals of all letters to the editor of this paper concerning abortion rights or redwood timber issues, I ignored him without further consequence. I have had no further contact with them…

“No one is obliged to speak to the FBI about anything substantial. When you tell them that you would be happy to speak to them in the presence of your attorney, they go away and don’t come back. If you tell them anything other than how to contact your attorney, they can open a file and put anything they want into it.” [109]

However, at least ten local editors, perhaps flattered by all of the sudden attention, consented to the FBI rifling through their files and picking out original copies of both published and unpublished letters. [110] Even Bruce Anderson agreed to the search, opining, “It seems to me to be a fairly serious investigation…I think (the FBI agents are) up here all the time, that they’re moving in, but a lot of my friends tell me I’m too optimistic.” [111]

Anderson’s friends were correct. Virtually every letter they confiscated was written by an environmentalist, and what little connection any of the letters, their subject, or their author had to the bombing was tenuous at best. [112] A typical example included, “On Healing the Earth”, by Forest Featherwalker, who was a supporter of Redwood Summer, and attended several demonstrations, but beyond that had no involvement in the planning or organizing of any of the events. Another, very curious example, was a poem, sent to the Redwood Record, titled, “Has anyone ever known their spirits?” signed “First Impressions in Pokhara Valley”. According to Bari, who found much of this out through various discovery efforts in the lawsuit against the FBI in subsequent years, this letter was sent to all sorts of forensics and behavioral science labs by the FBI to determine whether or not the author had the personality type of someone who would plant a bomb in Bari’s vehicle or write the Lords Avenger letter. Never mind that there were plenty of violent, right wing lunatics who did have such a personality. None of the letters from members of the Yellow Ribbon coalition, Mothers’ Watch, TEAM, or other so-called “Wise Use” advocates were collected, much less investigated, even though there were hundreds of these. [113]

The FBI did, of course, consult with the representatives of these organizations who were not at all hesitant to offer their own twisted theories on who the suspects might be, and naturally the list excluded any of their own ranks. Judi Bari recalls:

“Candy Boak of Mother’s Watch, who is well known in our region as one of the worst pro-timber hate mongers, told the FBI that of all EF!ers she knows, Larry Evans and Bill Duvall are the ones she fears the most. Larry is a nonviolent activist with an academic background in and exceptional knowledge of forest biology. Bill Duvall is a Humboldt State University professor and coauthor of Deep Ecology. The very same week that Candy talked to the FBI, she organized a “Dirty Tricks Workshop” with the anti-environmental hate group Sahara Club, to teach local timber goons new ways to terrorize us. This, of course, is not mentioned in the interview.” [114]

Boak’s cohort, Paula Langager of WECARE actually admitted to the FBI that there was a core group of their ilk who liked “to play little jokes on Earth First! members (sic) and have issued false press releases.” She then gave the FBI copies of the bogus press releases, and even named Dave Curzon as the author! Astonishingly, the FBI dropped this lead altogether. The FBI agents also took copies of environmental leaflets collected by various corporate timber apologists as well as timber management, that included headlines such as “Come to the Air Quality Hearing” and “Hemp Awareness Day: Music, Teach-in, and Festival”. P-L president John Campbell provided copies of The Country Activist, a timber industry-produced booklet of Earth First! quotations (no doubt devoid of context), and a copy of Live Wild or Die, a primitivist oriented newspaper published very sporadically by a faction within Earth First! that also includes non Earth First! fellow travelers. Campbell also submitted a list of fifty three names and addresses that he claimed were “Earth First! trespassers” despite the fact that many of them had never been formally charged with this crime. [115]

Buck and Dailey’s contact with local law enforcement agencies was no less suspect. Judi Bari elaborates:

“The FBI also interviewed the local police in the timber region. They asked them questions like who do they ‘consider to be prominent environmental activists’ in their town. Without ever questioning why, police gave out names and addresses of various ‘respectable’ environmentalists, as well as Earth First!ers. Humboldt sheriffs were asked for a list of ‘individuals capable of engaging in violent activity.’ The list consisted entirely of nonviolent Earth First! activists, none of whom engaged in any violent activity before, during, or since that time. Names of timber supporters, who had committed many well-documented assaults on environmentalists in our region, were not solicited by the FBI or included on any police lists.

Humboldt and Mendocino Sheriff’s ‘Intelligence Officers’ also came up with some wild stories about supposed internal jealousies and intrigues within Earth First!. One had Mickey Dulas and me pulling a coup on Darryl Cherney to squeeze him out of the picture. Another had Mickey crying ‘from being upset with Judi Bari, as Judi Bari was dictating how things should be run from her wheelchair.’ In reality, we were all working together, standing up to lethal force with principle, courage, and nonviolence in terrifying situation.

A (Mendocino) sheriff report claimed that monkeywrenching was being done by the Nomadic Action team. Led by Mike Roselle. The fact that there was no monkeywrenching going on at all didn’t seem to bother him. Another fictitious ‘intelligence’ report of an event that never happened quotes Humboldt sheriffs as saying that ‘members of the Earth First (sic) in the tri-state area, believed to mean Washington, Oregon, and California and possibly Arizona are planning to travel to the north coast and attempt to take over, as they feel the local leadership is not doing enough. These outside Earth First! members, many of whom are former (sic) followers of Dave Foreman, are planning a build-up of activities…and there is something unknown that is being planned.’” [116]

Presumably, these alleged “differences” might have been pretext for a disgruntled Earth First!er planting the bomb in Bari’s car, except that none of these accounts were true, and what acrimony did exist within Earth First! was far less serious or pronounced than this. There was growing division between Dave Foreman and Mike Roselle over the direction of the Earth First! Journal, and there were many outside of northern California who questioned the renunciation on tree spiking, but for the most part, Earth First!ers were unified in their support for Bari and Cherney as well as Redwood Summer.

The likelihood is that the leaders of the FBI and OPD investigative team knew exactly who the bomber was, but were concealing this information, and the expansion of the suspect pool in this fashion was nothing more than a distraction. The haze surrounding the bombing was thickened by the charging of Ilse Asplund, Mark Baker, Mark Davis, Dave Foreman, and Peg Millet in the Arizona power line case which had already been revealed as an FBI sting and COITNELPRO operation, a fact that the corporate media routinely ignored. [117] If anything, the entire “investigation” was simply a continuation and expansion of the initial COINTELPRO operation all along, because much of what Buck and Dailey did involved information gathering, surveillance, and even disruption. The FBI even deposed John DeWitt, director of Save the Redwoods League. DeWitt turned over a letter he had received from Greg King, written in 1987, admonishing Save the Redwoods League to stop compromising with corporate timber and selling out the forest. He also submitted a list of Earth First! activists and associates and a list of how much each had donated to his organization. Most of them had donated nothing, and those who had, had contributed paltry sums, such as Darryl Cherney, who had given them $5. [118] The revelation of this information sowed further divisions and mistrust between Earth First! and Save the Redwoods League.

Clearly, not only was the bombing of Bari and Cherney an attempt to disrupt Earth First! (and by extension the IWW, EPIC, Forests Forever, Redwood Summer, and all of those connected to them), the FBI’s subsequent investigations themselves seemed designed to do exactly the same thing. Indeed, the intentions of both dovetailed so seamlessly, one could scarcely be faulted for concluding they were part of a unified effort. The only mystery was how effective would such an endeavor be.

* * * * *

Outside of the North Coast, the bombing actually strengthened the support for Redwood Summer, because in spite of all of the propaganda, the victims were quickly (and rightfully) regarded as martyrs rather than terrorists. Indeed, calls of support for Redwood Summer and offers of financial assistance were nonstop at the Mendocino Environmental Center, and only increased after the bombing. [119] Richard Jonson described the constant hustle and bustle at the MEC thusly:

“From Thursday afternoon to Saturday evening, the organization’s office near the courthouse in Ukiah was full of people responding to the tragedy. The tone of the continuously changing congregation was one of sober concern for the victims’ health and safety, and resolute conviction that both Bari and Cherney were innocent of any involvement in their assault. In an atmosphere of calm determination, tempered sometimes by fatigue, movement workers and volunteers, channeled information, created posters and written updates, organized a support fund, and conducted vigils. Never was there a feeling of crisis at the center.” [120]

Earth First!ers from Boulder Colorado, while not in agreement with the renunciation of Tree Spiking, nevertheless pledged their support for Redwood Summer. “No, they’re not going to scare us away,” said Colorado Earth First!er Eric Kessler, who informed the MEC that at least 50 people would be coming from his region to join in the actions. “Until this, I never thought of tying myself to a tree,” said one volunteer, “now I’m ready.” [121]

Response from state and national environmental and social justice organizations to the bombing was immediate and strong. Pledges of support and solidarity were issued by Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, American Peace Test, the Christic Institute, Greenpeace, Pledge of Resistance, the Rainforest Action Network, and United Student Action. Support offices were established as far away as Boston, Detroit, and New York City. [122] They were soon joined by the Earth Island Institute and the International Indian Treaty Council. [123] Members of the Santa Rosa chapter of CISPES and Pledge For Peace called for an immediate investigation of the bombing and police conduct in dealing with the crime. [124] Howard C Hughs, a coordinator from the Sonoma County Rainbow Coalition wrote an op-ed piece for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat drawing the parallels between Judi Bari and Martin Luther King as well as Mississippi and Redwood Summers. [125] Labor unions and union militants, at least those still devoted to class struggle, also showed their support. In spite of all of this, however, at least one leader in the movement would be dropping out of Redwood Summer.

* * * * *

Greg King had been nowhere near the explosion when it had happened, but in a very real way he became its third victim. He had traveled to the Bay Area to attend several of the vigils in support of Bari and Cherney. However, he had already been fighting burnout for over a year and was not especially comfortable with the rapid expansion of the movement, preferring instead to work in small groups. He had warned Bari, Cherney, and many other Earth First!ers about infiltration, perhaps even from the FBI, and even after Arizona, none had envisioned anything as drastic as this. On top of these factors, King’s mother was fighting a losing battle with cancer. While staying with comrades in Berkeley one night shortly after the bombing, King stepped out to purchase candles for one of the solidarity vigils at a local convenience store. In an odd series of eerie coincidences, King was given a ride by Dave Kemnitzer, and on a dark street at a not particularly well lit intersection in Berkeley, they stopped behind another vehicle bearing a yellow bumper sticker with black letters produced by an obscure “noise” band from Contra Costa County known as Negativland. The sticker had just two legible words on it. They read, “Car Bomb!” on which Kemnitzer commented, “That’s not funny.” [126]

This was too much for Greg King. He was already suspicious to the point that he wasn’t entirely sure that Kemnitzer wasn’t an infiltrator. By King’s own account he was stoned on marijuana and prone to the paranoia sometimes experienced under its influence. There was very little chance that, even in Berkeley where the local community based Pacifica radio station KPFA—who regularly featured Negativland on a weekly show called “Over The Edge”, that anyone would have known that the “Car Bomb” reference had nothing to do with what had just happened to Bari and Cherney (indeed, it was the name of an nondescript track on their album, Escape from Noise, which had been released five years previously). Kemnitzer evidently hadn’t recognized it as an odd coincidence either. [127]

King quickly exited the car and returned to where he was staying. His comrades tried, unsuccessfully, to comfort him, but the straw had broken the camel’s back. King wanted out and was determined to return to Humboldt County, and so he left. That proved to be an adventure also, due to a combination of the frightened activist’s snowballing paranoia and the quirkiness of Berkeley’s side streets which are organized into a complex maze of one-way arteries, controlled by intersectional barriers, designed to reroute traffic onto main thoroughfares. After inadvertently driving in circles—or what seemed like circles, and experiencing several additional panic attacks, King gave up and left his vehicle by the side of the road and hitchhiked home to Humboldt. King was done, and would soon completely step away from activism for several years. [128]

* * * * *

King may have been driven out of the movement (for a time at least), but Judi Bari, herself, proved far more resilient. On June 22, 1990, while Redwood Summer was in full swing, in Oakland, Bari (who was still in traction and recovering slowly at Highland Hospital) and Cherney were finally arraigned, and no charges were filed against them, no doubt because the Alameda County DA had no evidence against them. Nevertheless, the same DA expressed intent to charge them anyway, “as soon as evidence could be found.” The case was continued. [129]

That day, a coalition of environmental, feminist, labor, peace, and social justice groups held a press conference outside of the hearing in Oakland “to announce its formation to work in support of the rights of all activists to carry out nonviolent protests unimpeded by police harassment, infiltration, and violence,” as well as to publically support Redwood Summer. [130] The event was attended by Bari and Cherney’s lawyer, Susan Jordan, as well as David Brower and Ted Steiner of Earth Island Institute, David Chatfield of Greenpeace, Monica Moore of the Pesticide Action Network, Randy Hayes of the Rainforest Action Network, David Nesmith of the Sierra Club, and Jane McAlevey of the Environmental Project on Central America. Speaker after speaker excoriated the government for their obvious attempts to frame Bari and Cherney. During his speech, Steiner declared:

“It’s time for the government to clear the reputations of these two environmental activists…A cloud hangs over their heads, and the harassment and misinformation campaign by the Oakland police and the FBI is a well-orchestrated attempt to destroy Redwood Summer. It is an attack on the whole environmental movement.” [131]

Jane McAlevey also spoke, saying,

“Despite illegal searches and seizures by the Oakland police and the FBI, the prosecution still has not produced a shred of evidence against the victims. This is simply an attempt by some at the federal level in and out of Corporate America to discredit these very effective and heroic environmental activists.” [132]

Monica Moore stated, “The arrest of Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney and the authorities’ presumption that they were responsible for this violent crime is unjust, unfounded, and extremely dangerous to democratic rights.” [133]

David Chatfield declared, “American history shows that when nonviolent protest begins to effect change, it invites repression from authorities committed to the status quo. As the cold war thaws, we may be entering an era in which the FBI and other agencies substitute the Green Menace for the Red Menace.” [134]

Still carrying the proverbial torch of John Muir and his fellow Sierra Club founders, David Brower—now organizing under the banner of the Earth Island Institute—spoke for nearly everyone in Redwood Summer when he stated:

We call for a thorough and impartial investigation into who was truly responsible for the murder attempt against these activists as well as a serious investigation of the numerous death threats they have received. Further, we demand that the authorities desist in their campaign to discredit the legitimacy of their struggle...We call on other environmental groups to express their support for Redwood Summer and for nonviolent direct action as a legitimate method of defending the forests and preserving American jobs. Earth Island Institute supports the goals of Redwood Summer and deplores the thinly-veiled attempts to thwart this worthy effort to preserve the last of California’s old-growth forests.” [135]

The speakers then drafted a letter calling for an independent investigation of the bombing and the police and FBI’s handling of the case. [136] The letter included the following statement:

“We are also concerned by reports that the two injured Earth First! organizers might have been deprived of due process. In particular, we are disturbed by reports that one of the victims (Cherney) was confined to a small prison cell for eight hours, questioned intensively for four hours by the FBI, given little food or water during this time, and denied access to his attorney—despite his attorney’s efforts to see him throughout this process.” [137]

This document was signed by Congressman Ron Dellums, Assemblyman Tom Bates, and representatives from various organizations, including Earth Island Institute, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Environmental Project on Central America, the National Organization of Women (NOW), the National Lawyers’ Guild, the ACLU, and many others. [138] Congressman Dellums declared:

“Neither the Oakland police or the FBI have conducted any interviews or done any investigative work with respect to this theory of the case. Instead, they continue to focus on a forensic inquiry that seeks to explain an a priori conclusion that Ms. Bari and Mr. Cherney knowingly transported the bomb that blew up their car… [139]

It strikes me as fundamentally flawed for these agencies to ignore the obvious possibility that individuals seeking to disguise their actions had planted a bomb in the car in such a fashion.” [140]

Mendocino County Supervisor Norm de Vall announced that both Dellums and Bates were seeking intervention from California Attorney General Van de Kamp against the ongoing attempts to frame Bari and Cherney.

“The media, FBI, and Oakland Police are looking upon the two victims as suspects,” charged Ying Lee Kelley, one of Ron Dellums Congressional aides. [141]

“(There is an obvious) lack of care that’s been taken with the car and the immediate evidence that should have been investigated…I think it’s also important to point out that Bari and Cherney are two people that have dedicated themselves to the Gandhian principles of nonviolence.” [142]

California state Democratic Party Executive Board member Agar Jaicks declared, “The violation of Bari and Cherney’s rights gives fair warning to lumber employees that their rights, too, can be denied.” [143] Helen Grieco, executive director of NOW’s San Francisco chapter suggested that if investigators were serious about catching the bomber, they’d consider the actual likely suspects, which included corporate timber representatives, anti-choice activists, and quite possibly the FBI itself. David Brower agreed, saying, “We’ve got to put our security agencies on trial. We deserve more than we’re getting from these agencies.” [144]

“History is full of violence against nonviolent activists…Earth First! was beginning to have an effect on the status quo”, echoed Greenpeace regional director Chet Tchozewski. [145] “I think the next phase of this investigation has to be for a clear and open investigation and not charge the victims and call that justice. We don’t know anything anyone here doesn’t know. We want someone other than the victims to be considered as suspects,” he added. [146]

* * * * *

Originally Oakland police officials stated that they would bring charges against the pair on June 18, 1990. They postponed that hearing until July 18 [147], but on July 17, 1990, Chris Carpenter announced that the County would not charge Bari and Cherney after all, despite their having corroborated with the FBI in an obvious frame up attempt of the pair. “Based on the evidence that we have, no charges will be filed. We had a bomb go off in Oakland and police are continuing their investigation,” declared Carpenter. [148] Not willing to completely concede defeat, however, he said, “We haven’t eliminated anyone as a suspect.” [149]

Lawyers Susan B. Jordan, Douglas Horngrad, and Richard Ingram, Bari and Cherney’s legal team, declared:

“From the moment the bomb went off under Judi’s seat the Oakland Police Department launched an investigation directed only at them solely because they are political activists. The Oakland Police Department has conducted an unprecedented and outrageous smear campaign in an attempt to discredit Earth First! and Redwood Summer.” [150]

Redwood Summer organizer Ed Denson issued the following addendum, on behalf of Bari and Cherney’s legal team:

“We view the District Attorney’s action today not only as an indication, but as a confirmation of Judi Bari’s and Darryl Cherney’s innocence. We resent any implication that they are not totally innocent. There is no evidence, nor has there ever been, that nails on the bomb match nails at Judi’s house. This evidence does not exist…

We intend to pursue this investigation and we are demanding the immediate release of all information gathered to date. We are evaluating today’s action with an eye toward a lawsuit for false arrest and for violation of Judi Bari’s and Darryl Cherney’s civil rights. [151]

The Oakland Police Lieutenant Mike Sims, however, indicated that his department still considered Bari and Cherney as likely suspects, stating, “We developed a lot of information, talked to a lot of people. What a lot of people lost sight of was that there was another bombing in this case involving a lumber yard. We would have been remiss if we had not followed the course we have taken.” [152] He complained about the difficulty in his investigation, because few of those close to the victims would cooperate with his department, no doubt due to the latter being wary of the Oakland Police’s possible complicity in a cover-up. [153] Sims declared:

“We will continue with the investigation and check out all leads, but it is difficult when we have people refusing to talk to us. To this point our (investigation) has been geared in their direction. We realize the political and economic situation in that area is volatile but we are not going to serve somebody’s political agenda. We are going to go with the evidence that identifies the bomber.” [154]

What Sims was ignoring, of course, was that he was already serving the political agenda of the employing class, specifically Corporate Timber, by continuing to ignore the obvious, that the bombing was an assassination attempt. [155]

The reaction among the Redwood Summer organizers was one of relief and vindication, but not elation. Mike Roselle stated, “We need a real investigation that follows up on some of the obvious leads like the death threats, but we do not have a lot of confidence that the Oakland Police will do this, although that is their responsibility.”

Betty Ball made it clear that there was still a campaign to be waged. “The forests are still falling and a bomber is still out there. We don’t have to deal with (just) one issue anymore. I have known from the outset that (Bari and Cherney) were the victims.”

Representatives of Seeds of Peace were angry at the unwarranted searches and what they felt were illegal detentions of their members on May 24, 1990 and demanded an apology from the Oakland Police. Jim Squatter, speaking for the group declared, “We felt that they were on the wrong track and they finally proved our point.” [156]

Bari and her immediate family, including her estranged sister Gina Kolata, were relieved. [157] Bari declared that she was “ecstatic” about the decision but “outraged at what the FBI and the Oakland Police (had done to her).” [158] She was also critical of the Mendocino County police agencies, unsympathetic local officials, and the corporate press for their parroting of the official line that she and Cherney were knowingly transporting explosives that accidentally detonated. Bari said that local officials and especially the Mendocino County Supervisors were, “quick to condemn us for possible violence when we announced Redwood Summer, but they were strangely silent when this unspeakable violence happened to me.” Of the corporate press, she complained about reporters falling for “selected leaks and innuendo instead of making the police try me in the courtroom where there are rules of evidence.” She was especially incensed at the reporting in one publication in particular, declaring, “The Press Democrat has done as much damage to me as the Oakland Police. I don’t call that journalism. I call that slander.” She could just as easily have singled out the Eureka Times-Standard, Oakland Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, or countless other corporate owned publications (not to mention radio and TV outlets) of the capitalist press who had been just as atrocious in their handling of the bombing.

Despite this, Bari was undaunted in her resolve. She declared, “I don’t intend to be run out of town. I don’t intend to shut up. I’m going to be there (involved in Redwood Summer), and I’m going to be saying ‘no’ to the timber industry.” [159] She added,

“We are going on the offensive now…the authorities in Oakland, the local FBI, and the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department have shown themselves to be completely incapable of conducting an investigation into finding out who did this to me. Some of these people should be fired, some of them belong in jail themselves. The killers are still out there.” [160]

She also stated, “What they did was not an investigation. It was an outrageous smear campaign…Now they’re going to pay. We’re going to sue their asses…We’re going to find out who did this and we’re going to demand that those people responsible be prosecuted.” Darryl Cherney, who had just returned from the annual Earth First! Round River Rendezvous in Montana was equally guarded, declaring, “I’m worried about some bozo out there with a bomb. My happiness with the district attorney’s decision not to prosecute is tempered by the fact that there’s a would-be assassin of environmentalists who’s still on the loose and not being looked for.” [161] Bari had recently been discharged from Highland Hospital in Oakland, but her right leg was shredded and she was undergoing physical therapy at a Santa Rosa rehabilitation clinic. [162] Though she had been severely maimed, if the bomber had hoped to silence Judi Bari, that attempt had failed miserably. Bari agreed, stating, “They blew up the wrong end of me.” [163]

While the bombing hadn’t stopped Redwood Summer—if anything the bombing and its fallout may have brought it more attention and more volunteers—it still changed the focus and reframed the debate, particularly in the eyes of the corporate media. According to Judi Bari, “In spite of (the charges being dropped), the FBI was successful in damaging my reputation and discrediting the nonviolent movement I was helping to organize.” [164] Even though Bari and Cherney were innocent, it would take time for that to be ultimately proven true. While the organizers of Redwood Summer had, thus far, succeeded in raising awareness about corporate liquidation logging, the threats to old growth forests and biodiversity, and the seemly underbelly of the corporate timber stranglehold on timber dependent communities, the bombing had halted much the progress IWW Local #1 had made at building bridges between timber workers and Earth First!. This was due partly to Bari being incapacitated, but it was no doubt also due to the fear that the bombing instilled in many workers. Worse still, the bombing served to discredit the efforts to campaign for Big Green and Forests Forever. It further muddied the debate on the Northern Spotted Owl. There was no doubt that the movements that had coalesced to form Redwood Summer had been dealt a major setback, one from which it would take years to recover. Meanwhile, Corporate Timber continued to clearcut and liquidate the last remaining unprotected redwoods on California’s North Coast at an unprecedented rate. [165]

[1] “Activists Bombed, Busted”, by Richard Johnson, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, May 29, 1990.

[2] “Who Bombed Judi and Darryl”, by Rob Anderson, Anderson Valley Advertiser, June 6, 1990.

[3] “Some People Just Don’t Get It”, Judi Bari interviewed by Bruce Anderson, Anderson Valley Advertiser, June 13, 1990.

[4] “Pipe Bomb Blast Claim Sent to Paper”, Oakland Tribune, May 31, 1990; “‘I Built Bomb,’ Letter Says; Anonymous Writer Takes Credit for Earth First! Mill Blasts”, by Chris Coursey, Randi Rossman, and Mike Geniella, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, May 31, 1990; “Letter Writer Claims Credit for Car Bomb”, AP Wire, Ukiah Daily Journal, May 31, 1990; “Note Muddies Oakland Bombing Case”, by Elliot Diringer and Sharon McCormick, San Francisco Chronicle, June 1, 1990; “Letter Widens FBI Probe; Writer Had ‘Good Knowledge’ of two Bombs”, by Chris Coursey and Mike Geniella, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, June 1, 1990; and “‘Avenger’ Throws Curve in Bombing”, by Keith Michaud, Ukiah Daily Journal, June 1, 1990. The complete text of the letter appears in the July 25, 1990 edition of the Anderson Valley Advertiser.

[5] “Judi & Darryl Still Fighting Despite Bomb Damage”, by Karen Pickett, Earth First! Journal, Litha / June 21, 1990.

[6] “Timber’s Holy War: Jerry Falwell meets Paul Bunyan”, by Darryl Cherney, Country Activist, August 1988.

[7] “The Feminization of Earth First!”, by Judi Bari, Ms. Magazine, May 1992.

[8] “Redwood Summer Bombing: Evil Police Smear”, by Richard Johnson, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, June 15, 1990.

[9] Bruce Anderson, June 13, 1990, op. cit.

[10] Bruce Anderson, June 13, 1990, op. cit.

[11] “Plot”, Johnson, May 29, 1990, op. cit.

[12] “First! Founder Warns of Plot”, by Mike Geniella, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, May 27, 1990.

[13] “Plot”, Johnson, May 29, 1990, op. cit.

[14] “Media Watch”, by Bruce Anderson, Anderson Valley Advertiser, June 6, 1990.

[15] “Call for Independent Investigation”, by Rod Jones, Country Activist, June 1990.

[16] “The COINTELPRO Plot That Failed”, by Judi Bari, Anderson Valley Advertiser, August 22, 1990; a similar, but shorter version appeared in the New York Times (“For the FBI, back to Political Sabotage”), August 23, 1990; and the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, (“The FBI Has Returned to Political Sabotage”), August 24, 1990. For Swearingen’s account, see FBI Secrets, an Agent’s Exposé, Wesley Swearingen, Woods Hole, MA., South End Press, 1995.

[17] “Stop FBI Repression!: The Historical Context to Recent Bomb Charges Against California Earth First! Activists, by Michael Robinson and Jim Vander Wall” Industrial Worker, July 1990.

[18] “Earth First! and COINTELPRO”, by Leslie Hemstreet, Z Magazine, July / August 1990.

[19] “The Judi Bari Bombing Revisited: Big Timber, Public Relations, and the FBI”, by Nicholas Wilson, Albion Monitor, May 28, 1999.

[20] “Police Hold Earth First! Pair in Blast”, by Mark A. Stein, Los Angeles Times, May 26, 1990.

[21] May 24, 1990: The Bombing”, speech given by Judi Bari at Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA., April 18, 1996, featured on the album Who Bombed Judi Bari?, edited by Darryl Cherney, 1997.

[22] “Who Bombed Judi Bari?”, Judi Bari interviewed by Beth Bosk, New Settler Interview, Issue #89, January 1995.

[23] Sweeney, Mike, https://web.archive.org/web/20140517071346/http://colemanhoax.info/, in reference to Coleman, op. cit., page 172.

[24] Harris, David, The Last Stand: The War between Wall Street and Main Street over California's Ancient Redwoods, New York, NY, Random House, 1995, Page 327.

[25] “FBI Bomb School and Other Atrocities”, by Judi Bari, Anderson Valley Advertiser, October 19, 1994. Emphasis added.

[26] “The Earth First! Car Bombing”, by Judi Bari, Earth First! Journal, Brigid / February 2, 1990.

[27] For example, see “Pipe Bomb Blast: 2 Earth First! People Injured; Car Destroyed – Injured Activists are Organizers of Summerlong Protests”, by Judy Ronnigen and Paul Grabowicz, Oakland Tribune, May 25, 1990, where the FBI repeats the lie that Earth First! was attempting to sabotage power lines in Arizona, but conveniently omits the fact that the entire operation was an FBI set up from the get-go!

[28] Bosk, January 1995, op. cit.

[29] “Bombing Case Update”, by Judi Bari, Redwood Summer Justice Project Newsletter, November 1996, also available at www.judibari.org/updateNov96.html. The emphasis is in the original. This is the last update on the bombing case written by Judi Bari before her death on March 2, 1997.

[30] “The Judi Bari Bombing Revisited: Big Timber, Public Relations, and the FBI”, by Nicholas Wilson, Albion Monitor, May 28, 1999.

[31] Bari, October 19, 1994, op. cit.

[32] “Area Activists Arrested for Blast; 2 Earth Members Suspected of Own Bomb”, Eureka Times-Standard, May 25, 1990.

[33] Who Bombed Judi Bari?, film by Darryl Cherney and Mary Liz Thompson, 2012. Emphasis added.

[34] Nicholas Wilson, May 28, 1999, op. cit.

[35] “Redwood Summer Bombing: Police Framing, Not Investigating”, by Richard Johnson, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, July 1, 1990.

[36] Richard Johnson, July 1, 1990, op. cit. and “Bombing Suspects Framed, Claim Ukiah Activists: Cite Medical Evidence”, by Keith Michaud, Ukiah Daily Journal, July 4, 1990.

[37] Richard Johnson, July 1, 1990, op. cit.

[38] Bari, October 19, 1994, op. cit.

[39] “The FBI Stole My Fiddle” speech (and song) given by Judi Bari at Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA., April 18, 1996, featured on the album Who Bombed Judi Bari?, edited by Darryl Cherney, 1997. Bari and Cherney wrote a humorous song (complete with suggestive double entendres) by the same name which at the same time exposes the FBI’s not even remotely believable reasoning for seizing and hiding the fiddle and makes light of Bari’s injuries and their location.

[40] “Tuesday Briefing: Earth First! Denied Access to Bombed Car”, Eureka Times-Standard, June 12, 1990. The Times-Standard accurately reported that the bomb had been placed under the driver’s seat.

[41] “Congress to Probe FBI”, by Richard Johnson, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, August 1, 1990.

[42] Richard Johnson, June 15, 1990, op. cit.

[43] Bari, October 19, 1994, op. cit.

[44] Cherney and Thompson, 2013, op. cit.

[45] Bari, February 2, 1994, op. cit.

[46] Harris, op. cit., page 329.

[47] Bosk, January 1995, op. cit.

[48] “Pipe Bomb Goes Off in Cloverdale”, staff report, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, May 10, 1990; and “Pipe Bombing Causes No Injury”, staff report, Willits News, May 11, 1990.

[49] “Pipe Bombing Causes No Injury”, staff report, Willits News, May 11, 1990.

[50] “Note Found Near L-P Pipe Bomb”, by Randi Rossman, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, May 10, 1990; and “Pipe Bombing Causes No Injury”, staff report, Willits News, May 11, 1990.

[51] Nicholas Wilson, May 28, 1999, op. cit.

[52] “Evidence in 1990 bombing of Earth First activists to be independently tested”, San Jose Mercury News, March 21, 2011.

[53] Bosk, January 1995, op. cit.

[54] “Pipe Bomb Blast: 2 Earth First! People Injured; Car Destroyed – Injured Activists are Organizers of Summerlong Protests”, by Judy Ronnigen and Paul Grabowicz, Oakland Tribune, May 25, 1990.

[55] Bari, October 19, 1994, op. cit.

[56] Bosk, January 1995, op. cit.

[57] Cherney and Thompson, 2012, op. cit.

[58] Nicholas Wilson, May 28, 1999, op. cit.

[59] “Earth First! Probe Hits North Coast”, by Paul Grabowics and Carolyn Newburgh, Oakland Tribune, July 20, 1990.

[60] Bosk, January 1995, op. cit.

[61] “https://web.archive.org/web/20140517071346/http://colemanhoax.info/”, in response to Coleman, op. cit., page 174.

[62] “New Facts Cast Doubt on Letter”, by Paul Grabowicz and Harry Harris, Oakland Tribune, June 1, 1990.

[63] “Bomb Charge Absurd, Says Activists’ Friend”, by Tobias Young, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, May 27, 1990.

[64] Grabowicz and H Harris, June 1, 1990, op. cit.

[65] Bari, February 2, 1994, op. cit.

[66] Bosk, January 1995, op. cit.

[67] Richard Johnson, June 15, 1990, op. cit.

[68] Mystified at Humor”, letter to the editor by Edward McShane and Gail Zettel-McShane, Ukiah Daily Journal, June 20

[69] “Armed Bari a Joke Photo, Friends Say”, by Tobias Young, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, June 9, 1990.

[70] “Earth First! Protests Photo Find”, UPI wire, Eureka Times-Standard, June 14, 1990.

[71] “Earth First! Protests Photo Find”, UPI wire, Eureka Times-Standard, June 14, 1990.

[72] Bruce Anderson, June 13, 1990, op. cit.

[73] “AVA Poster Gal of the Week”, Anderson Valley Advertiser, April 4, 1989.

[74] “Earth First! Protests Photo Find”, UPI wire, Eureka Times-Standard, June 14, 1990.

[75] Richard Johnson, June 15, 1990, op. cit.

[76] “Earth First! Protests Photo Find”, UPI wire, Eureka Times-Standard, June 14, 1990.

[77] Bari, February 2, 1994, op. cit.

[78] “Earth First! Protests Photo Find”, UPI wire, Eureka Times-Standard, June 14, 1990.

[79] “Deconstructing Irv Sutley and the FBI, by Bruce Anderson, Anderson Valley Advertiser, June 12, 1991.

[80] “The Youth Vote”, letter to the editor by Amanita Gardner (and B. Anderson’s reply), Anderson Valley Advertiser, June 26, 1991.

[81] Bruce Anderson, June 12, 1991, op. cit.

[82] Personal communications with Tom Condit, Marsha Feinland, Susan Marsh, Frank Runninghorse, Gerald Sanders, and Gene Pepi, conducted 1995-2011.

[83] Bruce Anderson, June 12, 1991, op. cit.

[84] “Exposing the FBI”, by Judi Bari, Anderson Valley Advertiser, June 12, 1991.

[85] Bari, February 2, 1994, op. cit.

[86] See for example, “Police Link Bomb Nails to Victim”, AP Wire, Ukiah Daily Journal, July 6, 1990; “Nails in Bomb May Match Those in Victim’s House”, UPI Wire, Eureka Times-Standard, July 7, 1990; “Police: Nails Key to Bomb”, by Chris Coursey, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, July 7, 1990; “Search Links Bari, Bomb; Oakland and Officials Claim Bomb Built at Activist’s Home”, by Chris Coursey and Mike Geniella, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, July 10, 1990; and “Nails Upstage Significant New Evidence”, by Daphne Wysham, San Francisco Weekly, July 11, 1990.

[87] Bari, February 2, 1994, op. cit.

[88] “Court Records: Earth First! Activists Carried Nails for Bomb”, AP Wire, Ukiah Daily Journal, June 10, 1990.

[89] Richard Johnson, June 15, 1990, op. cit.

[90] Nicholas Wilson, May 28, 1999, op. cit.

[91] Harris, op. cit., page 328.

[92] “Bari Says Nails Used for Carpentry, Not Bombs; Parody Gun Photo Taken is a Joke”, by Mike Geniella, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, June 14, 1990.

[93] Richard Johnson, August 1, 1990, op. cit.

[94] Nicholas Wilson, May 28, 1999, op. cit.

[95] “Bari and Cherney Still Suspects in Car Bombing”, by Mike Geniella, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, August 5, 1990.

[96] “The COINTELPRO Plot that Failed”, by Judi Bari, Anderson Valley Advertiser, August 22, 1990.

[97] “Bombing Probe Disagreement: Earth First! Wants Broader Suspect Base”, by Bleys W. Rose, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, July 19, 1990.

[98] “Earth First! Probe Hits North Coast”, by Paul Grabowics and Carolyn Newburgh, Oakland Tribune, July 20, 1990; “Bomb Probe Renewed by FBI”, by Mike Geniella, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, July 26, 1990; and “FBI’s Earth First! Bombing Probe Comes to Humboldt County”, by Mark Rathjen, Eureka Times-Standard, August 10, 1990.

[99] Bari, February 2, 1994, op. cit.

[100] Bari, February 2, 1994, op. cit.

[101] “Willits Police Hunt Real Bombers”, by Richard Johnson, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, September 1, 1990.

[102] Grabowics and Newburgh, July 20, 1990, op. cit.

[103] Richard Johnson, September 1, 1990, op. cit.

[104] Bari, February 2, 1994, op. cit.

[105] Grabowics and Newburgh, July 20, 1990, op. cit.

[106] Grabowics and Newburgh, July 20, 1990, op. cit.

[107] Bari, February 2, 1994, op. cit.

[108] Bari, February 2, 1994, op. cit.

[109] Richard Johnson, September 1, 1990, op. cit.

[110] Bari, February 2, 1994, op. cit.

[111] Grabowics and Newburgh, July 20, 1990, op. cit.

[112] Bari, February 2, 1994, op. cit.

[113] “Dances With FBI Agents”, speech by Judi Bari, recorded at Briceland School by Bob Seifert for KMUD FM community radio, Briceland, CA., November 1996. Featured on Who Bombed Judi Bari? spoken word album, published by Darryl Cherney, © 1997, Alternative Tentacles.

[114] Bari, February 2, 1994, op. cit.

[115] Bari, February 2, 1994, op. cit.

[116] Bari, February 2, 1994, op. cit.

[117] “Feds Accuse Arizona Activists of Plot to Sabotage Nuke Plants”, by Mike Geniella, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, August 5, 1990.

[118] Bari, February 2, 1994, op. cit.

[119] “Nonviolence is Our Answer”, by Richard Johnson, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, May 29, 1990.

[120] “Nonviolence is Our Answer”, by Richard Johnson, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, May 29, 1990.

[121] “Supporters Insist Bomb Victims Nonviolent; Timber Firms Condemn Attack”, by Chris Coursey and Steve Hart, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, May 25, 1990.

[122] “Nonviolence is Our Answer”, by Richard Johnson, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, May 29, 1990.

[123] “Redwood Summer Goes On!”, by Karen Pickett and Woody Joe, Earth First! Journal, Litha / June 21, 1990.

[124] “Human Rights in America”, letter to the editor by Mattie Rudinow, et. al, Anderson Valley Advertiser, June 20, 1990; and “Pledge for Peace”, letter to the editor by Mattie Rudinow, et. al, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, June 23, 1990.

[125] “Close to Home: Earth First! and Covert Ops”, by Howard C. Hughs, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, June 21, 1990.

[126] Harris, op. cit, page 332.

[127] Harris, op. cit, pages 332-34.

[128] Harris, op. cit, pages 332-34. Fortunately, King eventually found his way back into the environmental movement, ultimately succeeding Tim McKay as executive director of the North Coast Environmental Center.

[129] “Redwood Summer Timeline”, by Karen Pickett, Earth First! Journal, Samhain / November 1, 1990; and Richard Johnson, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, various issues from June 1, 1990 – October 1. 1990.

[130] “What Makes Us Strong”, by Karen Pickett, Redwood Summer Earth First! Extra, late July 1990.

[131] Richard Johnson, July 1, 1990, op. cit.

[132] Richard Johnson, July 1, 1990, op. cit.

[133] Richard Johnson, July 1, 1990, op. cit.

[134] Richard Johnson, July 1, 1990, op. cit.

[135] Richard Johnson, July 1, 1990, op. cit.

[136] Pickett, late July 1990, op. cit.

[137] Richard Johnson, August 1, 1990, op. cit.

[138] Pickett, late July 1990, op. cit.

[139] Richard Johnson, August 1, 1990, op. cit.

[140] “Probe Asked of Oakland Police, FBI: Handling of Car Bomb Blast Questioned”, staff and wire reports, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, July 17, 1990.

[141] “California’s ‘Timber War’ Heats Up”, by Chuck Idelson and Tara Kramer, People’s Daily World, July 21, 1990.

[142] Staff and wire reports, July 17, 1990, op. cit.

[143] Idelson and Kramer, July 12, 1990, op. cit.

[144] Staff and wire reports, July 17, 1990, op. cit.

[145] Idelson and Kramer, July 12, 1990, op. cit.

[146] Staff and wire reports, July 17, 1990, op. cit.

[147] “No Charges Against Judi and Darryl”, Industrial Worker, September 1990.

[148] “No Bombing Charges: Evidence too slim against Bari, Cherney”, by Bleys W. Rose, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, Wednesday, July 18, 1990.

[149] “DA Won’t Charge Victims; Evidence Lacking in Earth First! Case”, UPI Wire, Eureka Times-Standard, July 18, 1990.

[150] Rose, July 18, 1990, op. cit.

[151] Press release, by Ed Denson, July 17, 1990.

[152] “DA Won’t Charge Victims; Evidence Lacking in Earth First! Case”, UPI Wire, Eureka Times-Standard, July 18, 1990.

[153] Richard Johnson, July 1, 1990, op. cit.

[154] Rose, July 18, 1990, op. cit.

[155] Richard Johnson, July 1, 1990, op. cit.

[156] Rose, July 18, 1990, op. cit.

[157] “Bari Vows to Resume Fight”, by Mike Geniella, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, July 18, 1990.

[158] Idelson and Kramer, July 12, 1990, op. cit.

[159] Geniella, July 18, 1990, op. cit.

[160] “Redwood Summer Appears in Fort Bragg Saturday: Frame Up Dropped”, by Bruce Anderson, Anderson Valley Advertiser, July 18, 1990.

[161] Rose, July 18, 1990, op. cit.

[162] Geniella, July 18, 1990, op. cit.

[163] “Breaking Up or Breaking Apart”, by Karen Pickett, Earth First! Journal, Samhain / November 1, 1990.

[164] Bari, August 22, 1990, op. cit.

[165] “Earth First! in Northern California: An Interview with Judi Bari” by Douglas Bevington, reprinted in The Struggle for Ecological Democracy; Environmental Justice Movements in the United States, edited by Daniel Faber, New York, NY and London, Guilford Press, 1998, 260.

Tags: Redwood UprisingSteve OngerthJudi BariDarryl CherneyIndustrial Workers of the World (IWW)Earth First!Earth First! - IWW Local 1COINTELPROJudi Bari Bombing (May 24 1990)timber workersgreen unionismgreen syndicalismgreen industrial unionismenvironmental justicejobs versus environment

Greenwashing or Real Climate Action? How to tell the difference

 

Join former public employees and an environmental activist in a lively and informative webinar about why we must fight false climate solutions and focus on what we know works. The presenters will dig deep into existing and emerging climate programs with an eye toward identifying those that reduce greenhouse gases and protect public health.

 

Panelists

 

• Kyla Bennett, Director of Science Policy, PEER
• Senay Emmanuel, Climate Policy Analyst, Progressive Maryland
• Mer Mietzelfeld, Institutional Giving Manager, PEER
• Tim Whitehouse, Executive Director, PEER
• Laurie Williams, Environmental Consultant, PEER

 

This webinar was presented as part of Bard College’s World Wide Climate and Justice Education Week.

 

 

Click image to download slides.

  Recorded April 4, 2024

The post Webinar | Greenwashing or Real Climate Action? appeared first on PEER.org.

Rapidly rising food prices have been a major component of the cost-of-living crisis affecting Canadian households in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic. Food price inflation was significantly faster than overall inflation in 2022 and 2023. Food inflation has slowed more recently (to 2.4% year-over-year by March 2024, the slowest in 3 years), but food affordability is a major concern.

Low-income households spend a much larger share of their total income on food than higher-income families: the lowest-income quintile of households spends 12.8% of total spending on groceries, versus just 6.5% for the highest-income quintile (data from Statistics Canada Table 11-10-0223-01). High food prices thus impose a particular burden on low- and middle-income households. Similar inequalities are visible across the various regions of Canada – none more so than in Canada’s north, where limited competition and very high transportation costs contribute to shocking grocery prices.

These factors were explored recently in a powerful documentary, “Who’s Minding the Store?”, produced by CBC’s flagship investigative program, The Fifth Estate. Led by veteran correspondent Steven d’Souza, the documentary covered several dimensions of the food price crisis. Working in partnership with reporters with the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN), the program revealed shocking details of food-price-gouging in isolated northern communities. It also featured detailed discussion with Centre for Future Work Director Jim Stanford on the economic and financial forces driving food prices – including the record-high profits being captured by the large grocery chains that dominate Canadian food retailing.

The full documentary can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zuz5SgcHnrQ.

A summary of the film’s main findings is published at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/rising-food-prices-canada-north-1.7122481.

For the latest on grocery store profits (which set a new all-time record in 2023, despite weakening sales and the slowdown in inflation), see the Centre for Future Work’s recent report on the resilience of corporate profits in Canada in 2023. 

The post Documentary Shines Light on Excessive Food Prices in Canada appeared first on Centre for Future Work.

The renowned independent broadcasters at CANADALAND have launched a new series of podcasts (part of their Commons series) exploring issues in work, employment, and fairness. The pilot of the series, titled ‘The War on Workers,’ features an extended conversation with Centre for Future Work Director Jim Stanford, about the epochal changes in labour policies, power relationships, and expectations that have reshaped Canadian work and workers over the past generation.

Speaking with host Arshy Mann, Jim explains how employers came to hold the upper hand in determining the conditions and pay of work – buttressed by policies (like anti-union laws and cutbacks in Employment Insurance) from employer-favouring governments. The rise of gig work and labour-hire agencies reinforce the insecurity faced by workers.

This podcast will have lasting value as an information and educational resource on structural imbalances in Canada’s labour market. Download the full episode here: https://www.canadaland.com/podcast/work-1-the-war-on-workers/.

The post CANADALAND Podcast Explores the ‘War on Workers’ appeared first on Centre for Future Work.

B.C.’s economy has always depended on its rich forests—from First Nations communities, through the early settler economy, to modern forestry practices and technologies.

But in recent years the industry has been buffeted by a perfect storm of environmental, economic, and geopolitical challenges. Total production has declined by up to half in recent years, with devastating effects on employment, output, exports, and taxes. Dozens of remote and regional forest communities are unsure of their future, unless a viable and sustainable future for forestry can be achieved. 

The three major unions representing forestry workers in B.C. (including Unifor, the United Steelworkers, and the PPWC) recently came together to host a special Forestry Summit. The Summit aimed to bring attention to the challenges facing the industry, and demand a concerted strategy by government and all industry stakeholders to stabilize and sustain the industry on a sustainable, high-tech foundation. The Summit featured a major report, co-authored by Jim Stanford (Director of the Centre for Future Work) and Ken Delaney (from the Canadian Skills Training and Employment Coalition). The report describes the forestry crisis, and maps out the major elements of a sector strategy to preserve jobs and workplaces – consistent with both conservation objectives and First Nations stewardship of treaty and traditional lands.

The report proposes a series of key reforms to develop and implement a strong sector strategy for a modern, value-added, sustainable provincial forest industry. The strategy consists of four major elements: 

1. Creation of a Permanent Province-Wide Forestry Sector Council
2. Development of a Province-Wide Plan for Stable, Sustainable, Economic Fibre Supply
3. Forest Adjustment Bureau to Redesign and Integrate Worker and Community Adjustment Supports
4. Eight-Point Strategy to Maximize Value-Added from Stable Fibre Harvesting

Please see the full 54-page report, A Better Future for B.C. Forestry: A Sector Strategy for Sustainable, Value-Added Forest Industries.

Summary slides highlighting the major findings of the report can be downloaded here. They are also available in French.

For more information on the Fighting for our Future campaign launched by the three unions, please visit https://bcforestryworkers.ca/. 

The post Building a Sustainable, High-Value-Added Forestry Sector in B.C. appeared first on Centre for Future Work.

On any given day, children play in the dirt area at the center of Bennett Park in Washington Heights, happily digging away.

Rachel Graham Kagan’s 2-year-old daughter is often among them, though possibly not for much longer —  if the Parks Department moves forward with plans to replace part of the dirt section with a multipurpose artificial turf field.

“How can they in good conscience put this stuff down knowing there’s PFAS in it?” said Kyla Bennett, science policy director at the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and one of the researchers who discovered PFAS in turf in Massachusetts in 2019. “It boggles my mind. Children will be exposed to this PFAS. These are carcinogens. What are they thinking?”

Read the PEER Story…

The post An Actual Turf War Erupts in Washington Heights as Parents Protest Synthetic Grass appeared first on PEER.org.

An Analysis of Heat-Related Illness Content on TikTok

The National Park Service faces a lawsuit from a non-profit group. It stems from requested records of an eagle capture or killing in 2023.

The group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility filed the federal lawsuit after not receiving a response for either of its two requests.

Read the PEER Story…

The post National Park Service sued over eagle deaths in New Mexico appeared first on PEER.org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, April 1, 2024
CONTACT
Kyla Bennett (508) 230-9933 kbennett@peer.org

Maine Poised to Repeat Eco-Mistakes on Sears Island Prior Wetland Violations Haunt Plans to Develop a New Wind-Farm Port

 

Washington, DC — The State of Maine’s plan to develop Sears Island into a logistical hub for future floating offshore wind facilities faces the same legal constraints that thwarted a state effort in the 1990s to transform one of the largest undeveloped islands remaining on the Eastern Seaboard into a marine terminal, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). In fact, a 1996 federal consent decree won by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) against the Maine Department of Transportation (Maine DOT) for illegally destroying wetlands on Sears Island outlines the same environmental violations the state seems determined to commit again.

In November 1996, EPA and Maine DOT signed a federal court consent decree that “permanently enjoined” Maine DOT from destroying freshwater wetlands on Sears Island. The state paid $10,000 in civil penalties plus another $700,000 in environmental mitigation.

“Maine’s effort to develop Sears Island 30 years ago ran into a buzz saw of legal obstacles that largely remain today,” stated New England PEER Director Kyla Bennett, an attorney and scientist formerly with EPA who was part of this 1996 enforcement action. “If anything, the adverse ecological impacts facing Maine today are even worse given the incredible wetlands losses suffered over the past three decades.”

In addition, Maine’s recent emergency approval to set aside coastal sand dunes legal protections on Sears Island appears to violate federal regulations forbidding projects in the planning process for review under the National Environmental Policy Act from making any “decisions or new commitments of resources… that would either have an adverse impact on the environment or limit the choice of reasonable alternative sites.”

A feasible alternative site for a wind farm hub is Mack Point, a current logistical facility with expansion capacity and a tie-in to the existing rail system. Mack Point is just across the cove from Sears Island, and development there would avoid intact habitat destruction. Indeed, Maine DOT and its consultants concede the proposed offshore wind facility could be built at nearby Mack Point.

“Combatting climate change does not require paving over Sears Island – which appears to be Maine DOT’s obsession,” Bennett added, noting the conclusion from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest report that reducing conversion of intact ecosystems is far better at combatting climate change than building new wind farms. “Green energy projects are critically important, but they must be sited in places that don’t result in even more environmental damage.”

Currently, Sears Island is a recreation hub for Penobscot Bay as a popular destination for hiking, biking, fishing, birdwatching, and boating, as well as snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, and other seasonal activities, attracting thousands of visitors each year.

### 

See the 1996 federal consent order

See the federal resource agencies 1995 letter

Read the PEER letter

Look at the NEPA regulation

The post Maine Poised to Repeat Eco-Mistakes on Sears Island appeared first on PEER.org.

By Steve Ongerth - From the book, Redwood Uprising: Book 1

Download a free PDF version of this chapter.

“I knew it was a bomb the second it exploded. I felt it rip through me with a force more powerful and terrible than anything I could imagine. It blew right through my car seat, shattering my pelvis, crushing my lower backbone, and leaving me instantly paralyzed. Slumped over in my seat, unable to move, I couldn’t feel my legs, but desperate pain filled my body. I didn’t know such pain existed. I could feel the life force draining from me, and I knew I was dying. I tried to think of my children’s faces to find a reason to stay alive, but the pain was too great, and I couldn’t picture them.”[1]

—Judi Bari’s recollection of the bombing, February 2, 1990.

“I heard a ‘crack’, and my head began to ring like a sitar…like ‘nnnnnnnnnrrrrrrrrrrrrrr’, and the car came to a screeching halt. The first thought in my mind was, ‘Oh no, not again!’ because last August we had been rear-ended by a logging truck without ever seeing it coming, and here we are again, me and Judi in a car. But this time, my head was bleeding and I knew I had a seat belt on, and I couldn’t figure out how come my head was bleeding if I hadn’t hit the windshield. Then I heard somebody scream out. ‘It’s a bomb, there was a bomb!’ And then it all made sense; somebody had tried to kill us.”[2]

—Darryl Cherney’s account of the bombing, May 24, 1990.

At this point, Cherney looked over at Bari where, “she was slumped in her seat, screaming in pain, but as far as I could tell, her body was in one peace.”[3] Bari recalls only being able to make guttural sounds in an attempt to say “help” and vaguely recalls that Cherney kept repeating “I love you,” to her, and that she was going to live, in spite of what had happened.[4]

The blast distorted Bari’s white 1981 Sabaru GL car’s unibody frame, tore out its left side and sent debris and heavy blue-grey smoke flying into the air. It blew out some of the windows and left a trail of fragments on Park Boulevard.[5] The shattered, smoking car veered 100 feet down the road, clipping parked cars and light poles along the way, and hit another vehicle—a delivery truck driven by 40-year-old Ken Rich from Castro Valley—before coming to a stop against a curb in front of Oakland High School, where students were jogging as part of their physical education class.[6] Had the explosion occurred just forty minutes later, it might have injured the students crossing the road to patronize the local shops for lunch. The nearby public school’s officials would keep the students inside campus buildings for several hours until the blast area was declared safe.[7] Rich’s vehicle then hit a woman pedestrian who had a heart attack.[8] He had happened to have been driving the other way, and noticed the smoke billowing from Bari’s vehicle just before it hit his own.[9]

The explosion startled the workers and owners at nearby businesses. “It sounded like they dropped a bomb from a jet or something,” recalled the manager of a nearby Oil Changers, “the whole street just shook.”[10] One of the garage mechanics, who identified himself as “Charles”, added, “It sounded like a cherry bomb in a tin can. It was pretty loud. I kind of felt it in my body, and I was inside.”[11] Sokhi Dosanjli, the clerk at a local convenience store reported that the smoke was so thick that, “You couldn’t see anything for awhile”, including the nearby MacArthur Freeway.[12]

Shannon Mar was immediately aware that something had gone horribly wrong. Since she was leading the way, she did not immediately see the blast, but she quickly heard it and smelled the residue of explosives. She recalled, “The car shook, heat rushed through the windows, and I smelled sulfur. I looked in the rear-view mirror, and (all I could see was) smoke.” Bari’s car rolled past her own just before hitting Ken Rich’s vehicle and then hitting the curb. Marr immediately came to a stop, exited her car, and ran to Bari’s bombed-out vehicle (where Ken Rich was already standing) to determine the condition of her friends. Marr said, “Judi was stuck in her seat. She kept saying, ‘It hurts. It hurts. I can’t breathe.’ Darryl had a gash over one eye and it was gushing blood.”[13]

Meanwhile, Dave Kemnitzer had fallen slightly behind, but by now he had arrived near the intersection of MacArthur and Park Boulevards. He emerged from his vehicle screaming, “It’s the loggers! The loggers are trying to kill us!” At that moment, Ken Rich ran to Bari’s car and saw Cherney emerge. He recalled, “I’ve been in Vietnam and I’ve seen bombed out cars before. This one took a heavy hit. I’m amazed the people are still alive.”[14] Rich had been trained in first aid, but he described Bari’s car as “so mangled” that he felt it would be more effective, “to let the paramedics treat the victims.” He then recalled Marr running up to him, exclaiming, “They’re my friends!”[15]

Bob Vandemeer, the president of a San Rafael demolitions company, just happened to have been driving behind Bari on his way to an Oakland A’s baseball game.[16] The force of the explosion made him bounce up in the seat of his pickup truck. He then noticed, “a big blue cloud of smoke (which) smelled like gunpowder. (Then) things started falling from the air—parts of (Bari’s) car.”[17] After the explosion, he immediately summoned police from his mobile telephone.[18] He then approached the vehicle where Rich, Marr, and Kemnitzer were congregating. He, like Rich, reported, “(Bari) was unconscious, and sort of smashed up against the door on the driver’s side…As I approached, (Cherney) popped up, bleeding pretty bad all over. He started yelling, “Help! Get me out of here!”[19]

* * * * *

Vandemeer needn’t have bothered contacting the law; agents had already been dispatched to the scene. Within ten minutes, an FBI agent by the name of McKinley[20] arrived, almost as if he had anticipated the events that occurred.[21] He was quickly followed by about 15 others, as well as agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF), all of whose offices were located across the Bay in San Francisco.[22] The Oakland Police, whose base of operations at the time was much closer, arrived a good fifteen minutes later, and with the police arrived the media to photograph the carnage.”[23] Even though Park Boulevard was merely a local through street rather than a main thoroughfare (such as MacArthur), the blast still caused a major traffic jam, which forced the rerouting of public transit buses from the area.[24]

After a few minutes of discussion and arguing by the various law enforcement agencies, the FBI assumed jurisdiction, and (without any credible evidence) immediately decided that Bari and Cherney had been knowingly transporting the bomb in order to engage in an action of sabotage in Santa Cruz, much like the incident that had occurred the previous month. Paramedics then arrived. First they attended to Cherney, who kept shouting out his name to passersby, lest he be “disappeared” like the victims of the right wing government in El Salvador, until the paramedics finally ordered him to keep quiet.[25] At least one police officer later (falsely) reported that Cherney told them that he thought that somebody had thrown a bomb at them through one of the car’s windows.[26] After the paramedics had finished with Cherney, then removed Bari from her car using the Jaws of Life.[27]

Bari and Cherney were soon dispatched to nearby Highland Hospital by ambulance, not yet cognizant that they were about to be placed under arrest. Meanwhile Kemnitzer and Mar were detained at the Oakland police station and questioned for at least six hours before being released.[28] The two cooperated with the investigation because they were initially led to believe that law enforcement officials were attempting to protect Bari and Cherney from their would-be assassins, but they soon learned otherwise. Kemnitzer’s apartment was searched by the Oakland Police, the FBI, and the BATF without a warrant.[29] The damaged Subaru was towed to a parking lot under the Nimitz Freeway by the main Oakland Police station in downtown Oakland.[30] Kemnitzer’s car was also impounded, and he had to pay $173.58 for its release despite the fact he had committed no crime.[31]

Bari recalled little of the next twelve hours other than vague recollections of being loaded onto a gurney and into an ambulance, and then taken to the hospital in excruciating pain.[32] She recounted being hugged by a nurse upon her arrival at the hospital. She also remembered:

“I woke up in the hospital 12 hours later, groggy and confused from shock and morphine. My leg was in traction, tubes trailed from my body, and I was absolutely immobile. As my eyes gradually focused, I made out two figures standing over me. They were cops. Slowly I began to understand that they were trying to question me. ‘You are under arrest for possession of explosives,’ one of them said. And even in this devastated condition, my survival instincts kicked in. ‘I won’t talk to you without a lawyer,’ I mumbled, and drifted back into unconsciousness.”[33]

At one point, Bari was removed from critical care by the Oakland Police, and transferred to the hospital’s jail ward, a move Bari’s attending doctors protested vehemently.[34] Bari later discovered, through legal depositions, that the Oakland Police had met her at the hospital and questioned her as she was wheeled into surgery, because, according to questioning officer, Bari’s statements were considered “death bed confessions” which carry a special legal status, and are not considered “hear-say” evidence. However, when asked “who did this?” Bari simply replied over and over again, “Timber…Fort Bragg…Nazis…Death Threats.”[35] At one point Bari did manage to provide the phone number to the Mendocino Environment Center, and the police officer who heard it contacted the MEC and informed Betty Ball of what had occurred.[36]

It was a miracle that the blast hadn’t claimed Bari’s life, but somehow, over the weekend, her medical condition, while serious, remained stable. She had no damage to vital organs, but did suffer facial cuts, a shattered pelvis, and internal bleeding that was stopped by surgery at Highland Hospital in Oakland.” [37] Bari recalled:

“It hurt so bad, that I just begged them to put me out, and they told me they were going to operate and cut out my colon and give me a bag that my shit would come out of, and I told them to let me die instead. And they went in there (surgery) and apparently they didn’t have to do it. And they told me I wouldn’t walk and I wouldn’t be able to control my body functions, but to their great surprise and my great relief—I was wondering who was going to change my diapers for the next 50 years—but it turns out that was an incorrect diagnosis and I’m already regaining control. I don’t know if I’m going to walk, but I’m definitely going to be able to control my body functions.”[38]

Darryl Cherney, meanwhile, suffered perforated ear drums (which resulted in a temporary partial hearing loss) and a scratched right cornea.[39] He was treated for lacerations and then immediately taken into custody and was interrogated at the Oakland Police station by Oakland Police and the FBI for seven hours (until 3:00 AM) without an attorney present.[40] He was denied food and water as well as bathroom privileges.[41] During the questioning, the FBI agents were initially friendly, until they had convinced Cherney to waive his Fifth Amendment rights, which he did, because he was concerned that perhaps the same bomber had placed a similar device in his own vehicle.[42] After that their questioning turned hostile, at which point they told Cherney, “Now we can find out if that was your bomb or not, so why don’t you just tell us.” The shell shocked activist replied, “Hey man, it never even occurred to me you would even remotely consider that we would be carrying a bomb in our car!”[43] While this was taking place, FBI agents sealed off Cherney’s residence near Garberville. According to FBI spokesman Duke Diedrich, the agency’s conducted an investigation all through the night of May 24, 1990 all over northern California.[44]

While Bari and Cherney were detained, their fellow activists tried desperately to piece what had happened together and act. For twenty-four hours following the bombing, Bari and Cherney were isolated from their supporters while they were grilled by police and FBI agents who told the press that that the couple were suspected their own bombing.[45] The authorities argued that the bomb had been in the back seat of Bari’s vehicle, on the left read floorboards, behind the driver’s seat in plain sight. Oakland Police Lieutenant Clyde “Mike” Sims declared, “The evidence is strong that they were (knowingly) transporting this device, and that’s why they were arrested. Based on our determination of the placement of the device in the car, we believe they should have known it was there. We believe it went off accidentally.”[46] Earth First!er Karen Pickett attempted to see both Cherney and Bari—even claiming to be one of Bari’s sisters in a failed attempt to gain access to Bari’s hospital room. She was arrested, then taken to the Oakland Police station where she, too, was detained for further questioning.[47] Kemnitzer reported that the Police, “were questioning me on the assumption that I was (a) member of some terrorist gang. Neither I or Judi or anyone involved with Earth First! (has) anything to do with explosives.”[48]

* * * * *

Meanwhile, in Santa Cruz, Lisa Henry and Zack Stenz had been working diligently and busily to organize the concert at which Bari and Cherney were to perform. Henry in particular had concentrated her efforts on promoting the event, distributing posters and press releases, making public service announcements, and numerous phone calls. Lisa Henry recalled:

“I walked in the door (of my home) and my housemate put her hands on my shoulders and she said, ‘You have to sit down.’

“I replied, ‘They’re dead, aren’t they.’

“And she said, ‘No, they’re not dead. But Judi is in intensive care and she might not live.’ Then she told me Darryl had a broken wrist and had concussions.         

“I was just in shock, but I grabbed a piece of paper, and as I went into shock, I started writing everything I had to do.”[49]

Henry, Stenz, Karen DeBraal (who had also received death threats postmarked from Los Angeles and San Diego locations the previous month), and one other activist were visited and questioned by investigators from the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s office.[50] At this point, Henry’s housemates, already wary from the discovery that the FBI had tapped their phone due to the infamous but unconnected-to-Earth First! “Earth Night Action” the previous month, escorted her out of the house, led her to a car, and drove her to a friend’s house. “We can’t deal with this. Do your work somewhere else,” they told her, and began the process of having Henry expelled from the residence permanently.[51]

* * * * *

The Police and FBI weren’t making it easy for Bari and Cherney to be freed by their comrades either. Bail was initially set at $3,000. When supporters who had raised that amount came to pay it, they found that it had been raised to $12,000 by Oakland-Piedmont Municipal Court Judge Horace Wheatley.[52] The activists gathered the remainder only to discover it had been raised again to $100,000, again by the judge, which was an unheard of amount.[53] Oakland Police Sergeant Ramon Paniagua had requested the increase, declaring, “We’re talking about a very dangerous device here, and I don’t want (Bari and Cherney) outside (of custody).[54] Wheatley explained that he had taken Paniagua, who had declared the pair a “flight risk”, at his word without so much as a question, and misidentified them both as hailing from Guerneville (in Sonoma County).[55] Bari soon received legal counsel, but Cherney was denied the same until well into the next day.[56] Bari’s lawyer, Susan Jordan, was initially denied, but eventually granted, permission to talk with her client. The lawyer reported that Bari was so heavily sedated she could not carry on a sustained conversation. Bari expressed fear for her life, but was able to deny responsibility for the blast. Other than Jordan, only law enforcement and medical personal were allowed contact with Bari during the first few days.[57]

The FBI and Oakland Police had no evidence on which to charge Bari and Cherney, but they went to desperate lengths to find some. They searched and ransacked both Bari’s and Cherney’s houses, without a warrant, starting on the day after the bombing[58], and seized 111 common household items that they claimed could have been used to construct the bomb.[59] These included a red marker, duct tape, glue, and several bags of nails, all of which were diligently bagged and tagged, described to the press by the FBI (with great fanfare) as proof of Bari’s and Cherney’s guilt, and then sent to the FBI crime lab for analysis.[60] They took thirty grocery bags full of documents as well as window frames and sections of walls from Bari’s dwelling, and three from Cherney’s.[61] Among the first item listed found among Cherney’s possessions was reported to be a monkeywrench, and even if that had been what they’d found, it was not particularly damning evidence (as it turned out, the implement actually seized was a common pipe wrench).[62] Most of the items seized could be found among the possessions of just about any rural homesteader, but the FBI never conducted any investigations of anyone else, except for Bari’s and Cherney’s fellow organizers.[63]

* * * * *

For days after the bombing, Bay Area law enforcement agencies interrogated local activists and tried to get them to admit that Bari and Cherney were knowingly transporting a bomb.[64] Oakland Police and agents from the BATF with guns drawn and without a search warrant raided and ransacked the Seeds of Peace House on California Street in Berkeley.[65] Eight members of Seeds and one man who simply happened to be passing by were arrested and handcuffed.[66] One Seeds activist, a man, recalls asking the police what was going on, to which they responded, “We can’t tell you.”[67] According to Sarah Seeds, a self-described “middle aged, middle class, middle management” activist from “middle America”, when Seeds member Jim Squatter inquired too persistently about the reasons for their being detained, law enforcement pulled him aside and isolated him out of sight of the other detainees.[68] “When people come in with guns drawn, that sounds like a police state,” he later recalled.[69]

Following the ordeal, Sarah Seeds declared that she would “never scoff at the clichéd ‘bad cop’ movie ever again; that’s really how they behaved.” This group, like Kemnitzer cooperated with law enforcement, because they initially assumed that the latter were attempting to protect Bari and Cherney, but when they were taken into custody, the men were put in isolation while the women were placed into a holding tank. When they finally returned to their house on California Street, they found the house unlocked and unattended.[70] Seeds of Peace wasn’t the only group targeted besides Earth First!. FBI and Police agents also raided the Rainforest Action Network office.[71] The Oakland Police Homicide division and the FBI also sent agents Nevada City to depose IWW members Utah Philips and Joanna Robinson.[72]

On Friday, May 25, while police were still searching Cherney’s residence in Piercy, Oakland Police deliberately delayed a press conference, because no evidence linking Bari and Cherney to the bomb had been found. When they finally spoke, they would only state that the two were under arrest for suspicion of possession and transport of explosives.[73] The media reported that the FBI was attempting to link Bari and Cherney to environmental bombings throughout the state. Even though Bari and Cherney were under arrest, Alameda County assistant District Attorney Chris Carpenter filed no formal charges against them.[74] Despite months of fake press releases, timber industry violence, and death threats, the FBI decided that Bari and Cherney were the only suspects.[75] Law enforcement agents even searched Cherney’s van, located a box of tapes, and then blew these up and sent the videos to the mainstream press.[76] The media framed this event as if the police were detonating explosives or bombs, however in addition to failing to identify the exploded material as music albums, exploded with the police’s own ordinance, they also neglected to reveal that Cherney had requested that the police search his van in order to protect fellow Earth First! musician, George Shook, in case the real bomber had planted another device targeting him.[77] After the police had exploded the “suspicious” box of tapes, hundreds of feet of cassette tape could be seen dangling from nearby utility poles.[78]

When Darryl Cherney heard of these developments, he was incensed. He repeatedly insisted that neither he nor Bari had any foreknowledge of the bomb. “Judi has an alibi for every minute of her day on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday,” he declared.[79] He added, “By arresting me, the police and the district attorney are hiding the fact that they are incapable of going after the would-be assassin. What’s particularly frightening is that the killer didn’t finish the job. This whole thing reeks of an FBI operation.”[80]

* * * * *

The bomb that exploded in Bari’s car, and the very rapid (but utterly false) determination by the Oakland Police and FBI that the activists had been knowingly transporting the device when it had accidentally detonated, immediately made national news headlines.[81] As they had following the Arizona FBI sting operation, the Corporate Media essentially parroted the official FBI and Police line that Bari and Cherney were guilty of knowingly transporting explosives. As Judi Bari recollects:

“The media had a field day with this news, as the FBI and Oakland Police provided them with the images they needed to make it look like they had busted up a ring of terrorists. They raided Seeds of Peace House without a warrant, turned the place upside down in a fruitless search, and led the occupants away in handcuffs, only to release them a few hours later, after the reporters and cameras had gone home. TV news that night included not only the raid, but an interview with a neighbor who said there were strange goings on in that house, with lights on at all hours. When Seeds of Peace responded that they were a non-violent collective who cooks food for mass nonviolent actions, the neighbor replied, ‘I don’t know that they’re cooking over there. It doesn’t smell like food. Maybe PCP.’

“Another image shown over and over on the TV news was the search of Darryl’s van. Of course the police found nothing, but they sure put on a good show. They picked out a ‘suspicious’ box of tapes of Darryl’s incendiary music, cordoned off the block, and blew it up in front of the TV cameras, supposedly to see if it contained a bomb. ‘No additional explosives were found,’ reported the TV, as if explosives had been found in the first place.

“The standard bail for the charges against us was $12,000. Not only was this too easy to raise, but it was clearly not enough for the dangerous criminals they made us out to be. So, circumventing the normal procedures, the Oakland Police went straight to the judge, without even a lawyer there to represent us. Darryl and I were both declared a flight risk and a danger to the public, even though I was unconscious in the hospital with my leg in traction and my pelvis broken in 10 places. And our bail was raised to $100,000 each, spawning a new round of headlines and giving credence to the charge of terrorism.

“The news quickly went national, with newspapers across the country screaming about Earth First!ers carrying bombs. It was the only time we ever made the front page of the New York Times. The press ate up the police lies with a big spoon, instantly convicting us in their stories. ‘Two members of the radical environmental group Earth First! were injured Thursday by their own pipe bomb,’ began the lead article in the San Jose Mercury News. ‘Earth First! leaders hurt in a pipe bomb explosion yesterday have no one but themselves to blame for their injuries,’ smirked the blow-dried talking heads on the TV news. And I don’t know how many of us are really aware of how much this hurt Earth First!’s image on a national scale.”[82]

The San Francisco Bay Area corporate media’s handling of the entire affair was for the most part especially atrocious, accepting the police account without question or hesitation. The worst offender was the Oakland Tribune, which ran an article on May 26, full of inaccuracies, half truths, and outright lies about Earth First!, reporting that authorities were speculating that Bari and Cherney were transporting a bomb in order for the device to appear to accidentally detonate to drum up sympathy for their martyrdom. It also quoted John Ross, executive vice president of the California Cattleman’s Association (who opposed Big Green which was on the ballot along with Forests Forever), accusing Earth First! of vandalizing his group’s Sacramento office one night in January 1989 and firebombing an auction warehouse in the Central Valley town of Dixon. Ross of course, offered no proof to back up these damning accusations (Earth First! didn’t yet have a Sacramento chapter at the time), but the Tribune reported them as fact without question.[83] Again, it was if the organizers of Redwood Summer were somehow to blame for exposing the violence and corruption that had already existed for decades simply by challenging business as usual, which is often the spineless accusation made by those along for the ride.[84]

As he had at the Mendocino Board of Supervisors’ meeting three weeks previously, Jerry Philbrick accused Earth First! of instigating violence:

“Since we’ve been talking to them over the last 3 or 4 weeks in public and secret meetings (secret to keep the press out) they’ve been preaching to us nonviolence and they want to be peaceful and we were just starting to believe them a little bit. In fact, you know I sat next to Judi Bari for two-and-a-half hours (two days) ago at a meeting where she was trying to convince us that there’s absolutely no violence included in these symbolic demonstrations that they want to have…I was mad because I thought the basic thing we had been talking about, the trust at these meetings, had been violated by packing around a bomb.”[85]

It’s entirely possible that some of the gyppos and workers perspectives had been colored by still more fake Earth First! look-alike pamphlets that had been distributed by Georgia Pacific in Fort Bragg on or around May 25, 1990 which seemed deliberately intended to stir up even further lynch mob hysteria.[86] Already, Pacific Lumber and Louisiana Pacific had done so through the auspices of Hill and Knowlton prior to the bombing.

The three principle Corporate Timber targets of Redwood Summer each issued statements condemning the bombing which—while they ostensibly wished Bari and Cherney a speedy recovery—were at best ambiguous in assigning blame for the bombing, even implying (as the FBI and Oakland Police had asserted) that the victims were the perpetrators.

G-P public relations manager Don Perry stated, “We were shocked to hear this had occurred. We were just shocked. (The company) deplores this action…We hope that whoever is responsible for this act is apprehended or prosecuted…and quickly.”[87]

L-P’s Shep Tucker proclaimed:

“I think what we’ve decided to say about the whole thing is it’s unfortunate. We’re just going to let the authorities do their thing and see what they have to say…It scares the heck out of a lot of people. There are radicals on both ends. How do you control these elements? There’s a feeling of what not knowing what to do.”[88]

Tucker, of course, failed to disclose his role as a WECARE spokesman and that WECARE members and their close associates in Mothers’ Watch had drafted fake Earth First! press releases and had connections to the violent and reactionary Sahara Club.[89] He did say, “(L-P) does not condone violence of any form against people or property…(this bombing is) an unfortunate and tragic event.”[90]

John Campbell issued a statement wishing, “(That) Ms. Bari and Mr. Cherney fully recover from the injuries they received in this appalling accident.”[91] However, he also declared, “Pacific Lumber does not in any way, shape, or form condone or promote violence whether it be spiking trees, blowing up power lines, or bombing cars. Pacific Lumber is unequivocal in its denunciation of violence, be it directed towards humans or equipment,” which all but implied that Bari and Cherney had been responsible for their own assassination attempt, the mysterious Earth Night Action in Santa Cruz, or the near decapitation of George Alexander, none of which were true.[92] P-L evidently neglected to mention Dave Galitz’s private praise of Dick Abshire’s having decked Greg King the previous year.[93]

As could be expected, the same people that had accused Judi Bari of “provoking violence” and “polarizing the community” in the beginning of May were equally quick to either say “I told you so” or worse still, swallow the FBI’s and Oakland Police’s line that Bari and Cherney were suspects in their own bombing. Barry Keene declared that the incident was “tragic evidence that extreme confrontation from whatever source leads to violence,” and blamed the organizers of Redwood Summer for “romanticizing violence” which was something akin to accusing an assault victim of provoking their assailant.[94]

Don Nelson uncritically accepted the FBI and Oakland Police contention that they had enough evidence on which to hold Bari and Cherney and called it “a sad comment on the whole situation.” He again appealed to organizers to cancel Redwood Summer,[95] and he quickly dismissed the notion that a logger might have planted the bomb (a suggestion that neither Bari nor Cherney had made), declaring,

“Nobody who works for a living would have that on their minds. A logger might be guilty of punching somebody when provoked in anger, but they would not put together a premeditated act like that…The environmental community ought to be very careful about casting blame on loggers or the Oakland Police, as I’ve heard them doing already.”[96]

Nelson evidently didn’t consider the attack on Bari and Cherney by Donald Blake or the firing off of a shotgun by David Lancaster or the latter’s younger brother as “premeditated” acts of violence. He then went on to make the absurd accusation that Earth First! had been “adversarial and confrontational in their meetings with (his) union,” all the while omitting the rank and file opposition within IWA Local #3-469 to Nelson’s collaboration with G-P.[97]

Mendocino County Supervisor Marilyn Butcher declared, “I think it’s absolutely terrible that this has escalated to this…This is what I’ve worried about all along…I’m concerned about the crazies from outside coming to the area.”[98]

Nelson Redding denounced Earth First!, on National Public Radio, as being “Worse than the People’s Temple”.[99]

Jim Eddie said, “I’m nervous about this Judi Bari-Darryl Cherney thing. It may create violence the county really doesn’t need…We don’t have the money to go to the more remote areas of the county to protect people.”[100]

Mendocino County Sheriff Tim Shea stated, “It’s terrible. I hate to see things like that happen. The only thing I’m trying to do is help prevent anybody from being seriously injured, whether they be law enforcement, protesters, or other people. Our goal is to keep everything as peaceful as we possibly can.” We went on to blame the Corporate Media for giving Redwood Summer too much attention, which he implied was the cause of the bombing to begin with.[101]

Marilyn Butcher’s virtual political twin in Humboldt County, Anna Sparks, declared “There’s a lot of mixed reactions up here. The ones that support (Cherney) are real sympathetic, and the ones that don’t support him, I guess, are kind of elated that he has brought a mishap upon himself.”[102]

Maribelle Anderson opined, “We’ve asked before, and we’re asking again that (Redwood Summer) be called off…I believe law enforcement when they say the evidence shows the people involved were carrying explosives.”[103]

Although Art Harwood had been meeting with Bari, he also urged organizers to call off Redwood Summer.[104]

Joanne Wilson, manager of the Garberville Chamber of Commerce stated, “at this point we just hope nobody gets hurt, and inferred that Redwood Summer had split the community into “Green” and “Yellow” camps, with a tiny handful seeking “middle ground” representing neutral “Blue” faction.[105] The splits were real of course, but Wilson was blaming the victims, because the real divisions had been sown by Corporate Timber.

North Coast News columnist Nancy Barth questioned Bari and Cherney’s commitment to nonviolence, as if the victims were somehow to blame for their own attack.[106]

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat stopped short of accusing Bari and Cherney of guilt, but nevertheless suggested that the attack on them had been incited by their militancy, opining:

“The violence that has simmered below the surface of the battle over California’s Redwoods exploded at noon Thursday on an Oakland Street…Earth First!’s critics must strongly, publically denounce any use of violence. Some timber leaders have accused Bari and Cherney of ‘inciting’ rough-tough logger-types. Tempers may be high, fuses may be short, but political; disputes cannot be resolved by silencing the voices of the opposition.”[107]

Nowhere in the editorial did the editor mention the misinformation and violent rhetoric spread by Corporate Timber’s front groups and the gyppos. Not once did they allude to the death threats received by the Redwood Summer organizers. They issued not so much as one peep about Donnie Blake, the Lancasters, or Dick Abshire.

James Tuso and Rich Wiseman, both candidates running for the position of Mendocino County Sheriff (to replace the soon to be retiring Tim Shea) believed that there was evidence to support the charges against Bari and Cherney by the FBI, because they had read it in the mainstream newspapers, heard it on mainstream radio news, or watched it on TV. When pressed for what the evidence was by New Settler interviewer Lynne Dahl, Tuso admitted, “I don’t know,” and further opined, “We don’t live in a society today where we give people bum raps. We just can’t tolerate that sort of thing.” When queried by Dahl if the bombing could have been a setup by the FBI and/or the Oakland Police, Tuso could only meekly respond, “God, I don’t want to believe that at all. That’s not what this country is built on.”[108] Rich Wiseman was no better, stating,

“According to what I’ve read in the newspapers, the authorities feel that they clearly have the evidence were transporting the bomb otherwise they wouldn’t have made the arrest. Keep in mind that this is Oakland; I know that the FBI’s also involved in the investigation. I don’t think they just go out and arrest people unless they have clear evidence.”[109]

Evidently Tuso and Wiseman had neglected to follow the news about the “Arizona Five” very closely, because arresting people without evidence against them was precisely what occurred there.

As for the died-in-the-wool reactionaries, there was no ambiguity. Bari and Cherney were responsible for their own bombing (even if someone else had placed the bomb in their car), the lack of evidence be damned. Willits News columnist Ed Burton who commonly parroted right wing talking points on environmental issues—much like Glenn Simmons—doubted that Earth First! had any more than “a handful” of supporters and dismissed Earth First!’s commitment to nonviolence stating, “The truth is they appear to be violent folks who enjoy the publicity.”[110]

The Sahara Club waxed gleeful, even celebratory towards the bombing. One member in particular wrote:

“I am truly sorry to hear of you (sic) accident involving an exploding pipe bomb in your car. I am a military police officer who would be glad to offer my assistance in future demolitions, I am only sorry you were not blown up in the explosion. Perhaps you should use more C-4 next time. Catch a clue; your people are injuring good law-abiding citizens, and preventing them from earning a living by doing honest work. I hope you go to jail.”[111]

Yet, that statement wasn’t the worst. The ultimate example of, salt-in-the-wounds, in-your-face hatred came from the leadership itself who issued a statement which read:

“BOMB THAT CROTCH! Judi Bari, the Earth First! bat slug…blew herself halfway to hell and back while transporting a bomb in her Subaru…Bari, who had her crotch blown off, will never be able to reproduce again. We’re just trying to figure out what (sic) would volunteer to inseminate her if she had all her parts. The last we heard, Judi and her friends were pouting and licking their wounds.”[112]

This vile statement was as misogynistic as it was violent, and it was seen by many as highly symbolic of the attack on a powerful woman such as Bari as well as the ongoing rape of the Earth.

 

* * * * *

For the activists involved in Redwood Summer as well as the broader forestry reform movement, there was no question that the bombing was an attempt at discrediting and disrupting Redwood Summer and everything connected to it. Naomi Wagner summed up the feeling of many of the people involved by recounting:

“My first feeling, was one of many, it was one of total shock and numbness and the inability to grasp just how serious this was. And then in addition to the shock of the actual bombing and injuries, the insult added to injury of their being accused of being the agents of their own destruction.

“At first, I just wanted to shut out the reality, and I wanted to believe that Judi is a strong woman and she’ll get over it, she’ll be okay, she’ll be fine. I didn’t allow it to enter my consciousness that she could be permanently crippled. I wanted very much to believe this was a temporary setback, because all the momentum and euphoria of the Movement and something being done about these problems was shattered when the bomb went off.”[113]

From jail, Darryl Cherney urged supporters of Redwood Summer not to let the threat of repression deter them from their cause:

“At the beginning of Freedom Summer in Mississippi in 1964, some of the key organizers were jailed for the entire summer. And of course there was the three murders of (James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner) that came early on. And yet that did not deter the organization and the success of the voter registration drive in Mississippi, and in the same manner, we do not expect these incidents to deter or stymie the success of Redwood Summer. In the spirit of those people who fought so bravely in Mississippi, I say we shall overcome, and Redwood Summer will go on.”[114]

In spite of the negative press, the organizers and supporters of Redwood Summer were indeed steadfast in their resolve, and if anything, the bombing and subsequent arrest of Bari and Cherney increased their support. Letters to the editor almost universally in support of them came pouring in to most local and regional newspapers.[115]          

Earth First! cofounder, Dave Foreman—who still awaited trial due to the FBI’s entrapment of him and four other activists in Arizona—declared, “Our feeling is that the police are taking the easy way out…We hope they’ll start looking for the real bomber.”[116] He added, “Any rumors that they were transporting a bomb are as outrageous as suggesting that about Martin Luther King in the campaigns in the south.”[117]

Fellow founder Mike Roselle denounced the FBI’s and Oakland Police’s immediate charges that Bari and Cherney were guilty as being wrong from the get go.[118]

David Chatfield, the national director of Greenpeace at the time declared, “This is crazy.

This is a real injustice that there’s a 12-hour investigation (leading to the arrests) when these people have gotten eight weeks of threats.”[119] Over the weekend after the bombing, Greenpeace hired a private investigator to find the real bomber.[120]

Shannon Marr who had been leading the way when the bomb exploded stated unequivocally, “I know they didn’t blow themselves up. That’s a true fact.” [121]

David Kemnitzer agreed, declaring, “It’s just not conceivable (that they’d be guilty).”[122]

Karen Pickett declared that the idea that Bari and Cherney were knowingly transporting a bomb was “absolutely ludicrous.”[123] She added, “I think that they’re looking in entirely the wrong places, and I don’t think that they’re doing a thorough investigation. I think that the police tactics need to be investigated here.”[124]

Betty Ball was convinced the bombing was a deliberate attempt to disrupt Earth First!, not just assassinate Judi Bari (and Darryl Cherney), declaring, “This bombing is a vicious, brutal act perpetrated not just against Judi and Darryl but against our whole movement. The bomber wanted not only to destroy these two people, but the forest they are giving their lives to protect.”[125]

The Man Who Walks in the Woods pointed to the death threats received by Redwood Summer organizers as a clue that this bombing was an attempt to make good on them. “I can tell you for absolute certain, (Cherney) would not be involved in violence. If there was a bomb, it was planted there.”[126]

Pam Davis called the charges against Bari and Cherney “ludicrous” and added, “The bombing and police ‘investigation’ is an attempt to keep two of the most effective organizers out of commission for Redwood Summer.”[127] “I think (Corporate Timber) want to sabotage us to scare us away so they can attack our movement. I know Judi Bari. I’ve known her for years. I do not believe she would use an explosive device. It’s not the style that she operates with.”[128]

IWW folksinger Utah Phillips publically denounced the charges against Bari and Cherney as being “absurd”.[129]

Oregon Earth First!er, Kelpie Wilson, reminded everyone that Bari and Cherney had renounced tree spiking as a tactic and that this was solid evidence of their commitment to nonviolence.[130]

Karen Wood offered similar thoughts, adding, “The FBI is in the business of suppressing and oppressing political groups. I don’t know who did it, but I know Judi and Darryl did not.”[131]

Mendocino Earth First!er, Marilyn Scott-Brandon, agreed, stating, “They are vibrant minstrels who have taken a vow of nonviolence.”

Patti Lipmanson, one of Bari’s many friends described the latter as “a feisty, warm person. She’s tough, honest, and very smart. Her overwhelming quality is one of courage.”

Pam Miller, a nonviolence trainer for Redwood Summer declared, “It’s deeply upsetting to me that the police would make such an accusation when it’s false.”[132]

Darlene Comingore called the charges against the activists, “outrageous, totally wrong, (and), impossible.”[133]

Zack Stenz opined, “The real fundamental questions are remaining unasked; whose interest is this in, to have these two people bombed?”[134] He continued, “People like to slap the label eco-terrorists on Earth First! members, but Earth First! has demonstrated over and over its commitment to nonviolence. This shows very clearly which side the violence comes from.”[135]

Roanne Withers had originally intended only a peripheral involvement in the campaign, but while in San Diego for a medical procedure, she happened to see a televised CNN report on the bombing (ironically while she was reading about Bari and Cherney in the latest issue of Smithsonian). She recalls standing up, screaming in horror, and then contacting Betty and Gary Ball to inform them that she would return to Mendocino County immediately and put all of her efforts into Redwood Summer.[136]

Gene Lawhorn, now a staunch supporter of Redwood Summer, declared, “To me, Judi with a bomb is like Jesus with an M-16 or Gandhi with a (missile). She’s got two kids, a family; she’d never put them in danger.”[137]

Kevin McCoy, another Earth First!er declared, “It was not their bomb. It was planted there by somebody else, and now it’s being blamed on them, because it’s easy to blame a ‘radical’, but ‘radical’ to us just means involved, aware, informed, and willing to take chances and take risks.”[138]

George Shook agreed, stating, “It’s transparent what has happened. It’s the classic frame. They’re trying to take out two of our most effective leaders.”[139]

Brian Willson issued a statement following the bombing from New York admonishing supporters of Redwood Summer to, “carry on this struggle with escalated vigor…let us put out a call for thousands of people to join in Redwood Summer to save our earth and the old-growth forests.”[140]

Keith McHenry, speaking for the San Francisco chapter of Food Not Bombs stated, “(Bari and Cherney) are well known to be nonviolent, well known to not use explosives. Despite this, the police seem not to be considering any other possibility. What’s going on?”[141]

Mem Hill, no stranger to timber-industry violence, herself another nonviolence trainer for Redwood Summer, disputed the charges against Bari and Cherney, saying, “What the media keeps missing is that we’re totally nonviolent. Judi wouldn’t have had a bomb. She’s not that kind of person.” She added:

“This doesn’t sound like the kind of thing any logger would do—it’s too insidious. It sounds like something a paid hit man would do, but why would the industry be so stupid?” Why would they want to make a martyr out of Judi? Judi considers timber workers to be our allies because our goals are the same. We want sustained growth, and we want a good economy.”[142]

Long time Mendocino County environmentalist, Mitch Clogg, declared:

“Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney are seen by industry and the police as public enemies and trouble makers. At the same time, they are perceived by radicals and environmentalists as their front line heroes. So when the police and the establishment get their hands on people like that, they’ll use whatever means they can to punish them. Extralegal means when you use a flimsy pretext for charging somebody. When you put a $100,000 bail on someone, it winds up costing those arrested a lot of money. Judi and Darryl are being punished by an officialdom that finds them threatening. It’s an old, old story. Anyone familiar with American labor history can cite chapter and verse that it was much like this.”[143]

Rob Anderson opined:

“When we heard of the bombing of Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney’s car last Thursday, we admit to a brief moment of doubt: Perhaps, in their anger at the rape of the earth, Judi and Darryl, in contradiction of months of organizing and public statements, were actually carrying a bomb. But a moment’s reflection discounted the idea as preposterous. After months of meetings, promotion, and statements on nonviolence would Judi and Darryl risk the whole Redwood Summer—not to mention their future credibility with the environmental movement—to do a bombing? If so, what possible target could they find in the Bay Area to justify such a risk?”[144]

Anderson then satirically hypothesized the (nonexistent) conversation that took place between Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney:

“We can imagine the conversation Judi and Darryl had as they loaded up the car in Ukiah:

[Judi]: ‘Say, why don’t we do a bombing while we’re in the Bay Area?

[Darryl]: ‘Great idea! Where’s the bomb?’

[Judi]: ‘I think we left it under the bed.’

[Darryl]: ‘Here it is. I’ll just hook it up to the timer and put it in plain view—so we don’t forget it—behind the driver’s seat’

[Judi]: ‘That’s typical, Darryl. You’re too much of a wimp to put it behind your seat.’” [145]

North Coast News environmental columnist Nat Bingham, whose perspectives not only often did present a reasonable attempt at a middle ground between environmental activists and timber workers, but who was one of the few to give a voice to the often overlooked small coastal fishermen, weighed in on the bombing as well. Bingham was mildly sympathetic to, though often critical of, Redwood Summer as well as Forests Forever. He also considered the FBI’s official line to be simply untenable:

“To arm a bomb means to make it ready to go off. The police said the evidence collected at the site of the explosion indicated that the device was a pipe bomb. While it is remotely possible that static electricity could have accidentally set off the bomb if the detonator was attached to it, it seems unlikely that they would choose to drive around accompanied by a live, ready-to-go bomb.

“The more serious question is what would be the benefit to the Earth First! movement right now if they are trying to move in the direction of non-violence? The whole thing about the Summer in the Redwoods and the 5,000 students that were supposed to be coming to the North Coast was that it was going to be a nonviolent action. Even if they had successfully bombed something, where is the public relations gain? If they were in fact the perpetrators, then they definitely win the North Coast Crime Club annual ineptitude in crime award…

“Now let’s try it on me other way. It makes sense as a plot to discredit Earth First! If it was loggers trying to kill Darryl and Judi, I think the attack would have been successful. How many car bombings have you seen on TV or read about where the victims weren’t killed? Three or four sticks of dynamite near the gas tank, wired to the car ignition and there’s not much left. But a small bomb that doesn’t kill does not create martyrs, it sets up an arrest and subsequent criminal legal procedure which could discredit and financially drain the environmental movement.

“It could have just as easily come from the right wing lunatic fringe as the left. Just such tactics were used against the Black Panthers in the late 1970’s by the Oakland Police (coincidence?).”[146]

Michael Connelly, a regular reader of the Anderson Valley Advertiser, was equally skeptical pointing out:

“Judi and Darryl…were on their way to Santa Cruz (to do a concert and talk) and later on to San Luis Obispo to do the same. You don’t carry bombs around when you’re on tour. What were they going to do—blow up logging equipment on a U.C. campus? Judi was receiving so many death threats that carrying a gun in the car would seem more appropriate but since she is nonviolent we can rule that out too.”[147]

Leftist intellectual and long time Mendocino County resident Alexander Cockburn compared Judi Bari to murdered Brazilian Rainforest activist and labor organizer Chico Mendes.[148] He noted that “…if you try to build such coalitions you make dangerous enemies. No one familiar with Bari, Cherney, and the Earth First! group in Mendocino County believes for a second that the two were wittingly carrying a bomb in their car.” Cockburn then cited the now all too familiar and numerous examples of violence perpetrated against the likes of Bari, Cherney, Greg King, and other Earth First!ers in Mendocino and Humboldt Counties in recent years.[149]

Social ecologist and anarchist critic of Earth First! Murray Bookchin pledged his solidarity with Earth First! (though the New York Times quoted him out of context as describing Earth First as “eco-fascists”, a statement Bookchin denied having made).[150]    

Judi Bari’s mother, Ruth, declared that her daughter was, “too smart to put a bomb under her seat,” adding, “She just wouldn’t do a thing like that.”[151]

Although the Corporate Press had focused largely on Redwood Summer and the environmental aspects of the campaign, they said almost nothing about Judi Bari’s labor organizing efforts. Earth First! organizer Karen Pickett agreed that Bari’s labor organizing may have been one of the motivating factors behind her attempted assassination, arguing that, “The lumber industry paradigm cannot tolerate an Earth First!er and Wobbly organizing their workers. It is doubtful that anyone hated Judi Bari more than Georgia Pacific.”[152] (And the same could be said about P-L and Darryl Cherney or L-P and both activists).

Anna Marie Stenberg was convinced, “It was definitely the labor stuff that got her.”[153]

San Francisco Bay Area IWW member and Redwood Summer supporter Jess Grant declared, “(Bari and Cherney) were combining the labor issue and the environmental issue. That is why Judi and Darryl were so dangerous to the timber barons.”[154]

In fact, one of the reasons for scheduling the first major demonstration in Samoa was to draw attention to L-P’s anti-labor practices and raw log exports as much as it was a statement against their logging to infinity (although many, including Bari, would argue that both were one and the same), Likewise, the targeting of Fort Bragg was to protest G-P’s ongoing exploitation of its workers, whether through speedups, automation, or the company’s still ongoing resistance to paying restitution to the workers injured in the PCB spill.[155]

G-P spokesperson David Odgers grudgingly admitted publically the truth of this contention by stating, “(Bari) was successful in driving a wedge between the companies and the workers…she was trying to create dissatisfaction with the companies.”[156] The only inaccuracy in Odgers’ statement is that “Bari was trying to create dissatisfaction”, when, in fact, it already existed on a widespread scale.

Even gyppo owners Art Harwood, and Bill Bailey agreed that Bari was at least willing to listen to what they had to say and sent Judi Bari sympathetic get-well messages in the wake of the bombing.[157] And Jerry Philbrick conceded that it didn’t make sense that Bari and Cherney would be guilty, stating, “Oh, it makes sense that someone tried to whack her. I don’t disregard that at all.”[158]

* * * * *

Immediately following the arrests, Bari’s and Cherney’s supporters organized solidarity vigils in Arcata, Fort Bragg, Oakland, Potter Valley, Santa Rosa, and Ukiah. Over the weekend activists conducted steady vigils at the hospital and Oakland Police Station.[159] Mike Roselle declared, “We haven’t been fired up like this in the ten-year history of Earth First!…We’re not scared. We’re going to redouble our efforts.[160] About 50 activists including George Shook and Kelpie Wilson attended a rally at the latter location at which supporters held signs reading, “Trees, Not Bombs”[161], until it was dispersed by the Oakland Police ostensibly in response to complaints from local residents.[162] The Arcata vigil drew 20 attendees.[163] Over 250 attended the Santa Rosa rally. Some carried signs blaming the FBI for the bombing and urged people to recall Sacco and Vanzetti, Karen Silkwood, and the all too numerous victims of COINTELPRO.[164]

The vigil in Ukiah took place at the Ukiah County Courthouse and was attended by 100 demonstrators and supporters. Among those in attendance were Art and Becky Harwood, Jim Little, and Bill and Judith Bailey. Harwood and Bailey reiterated their sympathy for Bari and Cherney and pledged their support for sustainable forestry, even if their view of it was somewhat different than that of many Earth First!ers.[165]

Betty Ball reiterated that the charges against Bari and Cherney were “totally nonsensical,” and there was “absolutely no shred of evidence (against them).”[166]

Don Lipmanson reminded everyone that not only had the organizers of Redwood Summer (including Bari and Cherney) renounced tree spiking, they had also renounced monkeywrenching as well, further stating, “While these have been accepted Earth First! tactics in the past, explosives never have been.”[167]

Bruce Anderson, pointing to a plainclothes Mendocino County deputy videotaping the peaceful crowd, declared:

“Our side hasn’t committed a single act of violence, yet we’re under surveillance. They can bomb us, beat us, and put us in jail, but we’re not going to stop. Instead of hundreds of people we’re now going to have thousands this summer. I know Judi Bari and it’s not going to stop her.”[168]

He added, “We will have the country’s media, and they’ll see what kind of place Mendocino County is.”[169]

Walter Smith declared, “Judi’s not against the timber workers, she’s for them. She was the only one who spoke up for the timber workers at Georgia-Pacific when they were exposed to PCBs.”[170]

MEC member Richard Johnson compared the bombing to FBI COINTELPRO operations that disrupted leftist organizations in the 1960s and 1970s, declaring, “Who’s behind it will come out, I’m quite sure, like Watergate.”[171]

Norm de Vall also denied that Bari and Cherney were guilty, stating, “They’re simply too smart (to have knowingly carried a bomb).[172]

Even Republican candidate Tim Stoen, who was challenging Doug Bosco for his congressional seat expressed his support for the victims. Even though he was not allowed to speak publically, due to his opposition to Redwood Summer, the man whose child had been murdered along with many other victims at the infamous Jonestown nevertheless defended Bari and Cherney.[173]

* * * * *

Earth First! – IWW Local #1 members Anna Marie Stenberg and Tom Cahill very quickly organized a rally and candlelight vigil in Fort Bragg. Stenberg spent at least 36 straight hours on the phone, some of it being interviewed on various local radio talk shows, to drum up support. About 250 people, including Jerry Philbrick, attended despite a light rain.[174] The rally had been originally planned to occur at the main gate of the G-P mill, but after Don Nelson publically condemned the idea, the location was moved to a more neutral site.[175] The demonstrators—some of them in tears—hugged and sang songs like We Shall Overcome and Solidarity Forever.[176] They prayed and lit candles. There was an open mike to allow the crowd to share their thoughts.[177] Stenberg reported on Bari’s condition, her children, and the police activity around their house.

As was to be expected, a group of about a half dozen counter demonstrators rallied across the street. Fort Bragg logger Rex Smith held a sign reading “Save Our Jobs – Don’t Support Earth First!” (even though Earth First! had done more in the past two years to advocate for the preservation of existing timber jobs as well as advocating for additional employment than anyone else).[178] In response to this, New Settler Interview owner and publisher Beth Bosk, herself a Redwood Summer supporter urged Philbrick to speak (since the latter coached Bosk’s son in Little League ball). The gyppo owner, who was still unsure what to believe, created quite a stir when he spoke, stating:

“You’ve been telling us that we can trust these guys to be non­violent. What’s going on with this bomb?…What you’ve done is lost the trust we’ve had. But I want to tell you if somebody gets bombed up here or hurt by something, then about 150 people in your organization are going to eat it. And it’s going to be the whole community, because they are going to jump them. They are not going to wait around anymore, they are not going to give you any more chances, because now you’ve got the normal person mad besides the logger. I’m not in fear for myself—it’s my equipment I don’t want to get damaged, and I don’t want any of my employees getting hurt driving down the roads in their logging trucks either. But if any bombs go off up here, all hell’s going to break loose.”[179]

Philbrick hadn’t intended his statement to be taken as a threat, however. He was speaking from a place of genuine fear, in no small part due to the misinformation put forth by the FBI and parroted by the Corporate Press. He agreed, publically, that the corporations were as much to blame for the trial facing the timber industry as anyone. Stenberg was able to calm Philbrick down and get him to at least admit that Bari and Cherney were not likely suspects.[180] She recalled:

“I said, ‘Jerry, you sat next to that woman for two hours, the other night. She’s a mother with two kids and she was going down to see my son. Don’t tell me you believe that she put the bomb in her car and she sat on it?

“You know how smart Judi is, maybe you don’t know how nonviolent she is, but you do know how smart she is. You don’t have to believe me, but at least keep your eyes and ears open and don’t believe the crap that’s on the media!’ We went on and on like this for 45 minutes.

“It ended with Jerry and I hugging and Jerry asking how to send flowers to Judi, would she accept them? ‘Of course she would,’ I said, ‘She’s in extreme pain right now, but when she wakes up and sees them it will make her heart feel good.’

“And then we planned the next timber talks in Willits.”[181]

Philbrick reiterate that while was no fan of Earth First!, he was even less enamored with Corporate Timber:

“I tried to tell them at (the) vigil…that they’re barking around the ankles and knees of the situation instead of the head and heart and that’s the corporation. I’ve been in favor of sustained yield. I’m considering my future and my son’s future and I want there to be some logging jobs here in 15 or 20 years.”[182]

Indeed, the only violence that occurred at this rally was by a 17-year-old who threw an object at the crowd from a passing car, according to Fort Bragg Police Chief, Tom Bickell. For his part, the Chief called the bombing frightening, and added, “When I heard about it, I got a chill. Whoever put it there, the fact that there (were) explosives scares me.”[183]

* * * * *

Supporters organized rallies outside of northwestern California as well. On May 25, 1990, Los Angeles Earth First!ers, led by Peter Bralver, organized two emergency protests. The first took place at noon at the west Los Angeles Federal Building, where the local FBI offices are located. 20 demonstrators gathered at the busy east corner of the Federal Building’s lawn with banners denouncing the FBI. At least five TV stations and two radio news outlets covered the event. LA Earth First!ers showed the media a recent death threat that they had received, no doubt connected with those received by Redwood Summer organizers. After that, three Earth First!ers entered the building, passed the security guards unmolested, rode the elevator to the seventeenth floor, and entered the FBI offices, all of which the media covered. There the Earth First!ers stood their ground and told the FBI—with the media present—that they would not be deterred by intimidation by the powers that be. The Earth First!ers then marched a short distance to the local Maxxam offices and unfurled a banner that had been used to protest Maxxam’s activities in the ritzy community of Rancho Mirage, California. The rallies were well received by passersby and drivers who honked in support.[184]

In Santa Cruz, Lisa Henry and Zack Stenz hastily organized a rally in support of Bari and Cherney, and despite the difficult conditions and helter skelter of everything going on, it was well attended. Henry recounts:

“[T]here were all these news people there and everyone wanted to know what happened. People had come. The UCSC Organic Farmers’ Garden asked if they could ship their entire harvest to Redwood Summer. An undercover cop came up and started asking me stuff about myself.

“He was the first one who said to us, ‘The FBI believes that they did it themselves.’

“And I was so outraged. I hadn’t heard any news from any Earth First!ers, still, I knew they would never be carrying a bomb. It was a set up. I told him that. And it was nice to see that out in the news from the very get-go in Santa Cruz, without the AP stuff and the FBI bullshit getting into the news before we could have a say.

“The next days were just spent in a daze. I got kicked out of the house. I kept organizing vigils and my housemates just couldn’t deal with my organizing.”

In spite of that, some of Henry’s friends who had experience in other organizations, including CISPES, Lockheed Action Collective, and the Animal Liberation Front offered their support and even the use of their networks to help Lisa Henry continue her work organizing Redwood Summer.[185]

Meanwhile, the Bay Area IWW issued the following statement:

“The IWW is appalled by the attempted murder yesterday of two of its members, Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney, and the FBI’s subsequent effort to implicate them in the car bombing which left both of them hospitalized.

“We believe that Judi and Darryl were targeted for this attack because of their effectiveness in organizing against the clearcutting of old-growth redwood in the Northwest. They had begun to organize timber workers into the IWW as part of their campaign to halt clearcutting, because it was becoming clear to everyone that when the trees were all gone, there would be no more jobs either. It was this ability to link the labor and environmental issues which made Judi and Darryl so dangerous to the timber barons, whose profiteering depends on the continuing antagonism between these two movements.

“We demand a fair and thorough investigation by the police of this deplorable attack, but we realize that only intense, constant pressure from the public can assure us of one. We must not allow this tragedy to be turned against the very community of activists who are it victims.”[186]

Utah Phillips urged members of the IWW as well as former members to support and get involved in Redwood Summer, which he described as one of the most promising organizing efforts that the IWW had contributed to in years.[187] Anna Marie Stenberg echoed these sentiments, stating,

“I’d like to see the whole Union endorse the Redwood Summer actions, to make it an EF!-IWW joint project. If the IWW can’t do that, the Union should at least try to hold actions internationally (simultaneous with the major Redwood Summer demonstrations)…the other thing that local branches can do is to sponsor some of their members to come out here as organizers. We need to build a much stronger Wobbly presence here, and we need as many people as possible. We need to reinforce the labor consciousness here with more movement people who see that as their main concern, but yet also see the ecology as inseparable from their class consciousness. We need people who are serious, committed to the ideals of the IWW, and disciplined enough to work to achieve justice for the mill workers and lumber workers here.”[188]

“The responsibility for this violence is on the shoulders of corporate America and their right hand, law enforcement agencies. Timber and millworkers are victims of this violence as much as activists are.”[189]

Stenberg urged members of the IWW to send Judi Bari cards and letters of encouragement, “full of humor and fun”.[190] Following Stenberg’s lead, the IWW’s General Secretary-Treasurer, Jeff Ditz issued the following statement:

“As the IWW General Secretary Treasurer, I express my deepest anger and regret over police and FBI actions against IWW members Judi Bari and Daryl Cherney. Bari and Cherney are two of the IWW’s best organizers; their presence at our last September’s IWW convention inspired all of us and deepened my own commitment to organizing. Their work at organizing workers on the shop floor and in their communities and building a coalition between workers and environmentalists is revolutionary unionism at its best.

“The IWW holds true to the established Wobbly principle that an injury to one is an injury to all! I am enraged at the injuries sustained by Bari and Cherney as a result of a bomb placed in their car and am deeply suspicious of federal government and lumber industry involvement in this attempt on their lives. Both are deeply nonviolent people, and I ask all Wobblies to come to the support of Bari and Cherney and to either attend the Redwood Summer actions, contribute to the Judi Bari defense fund, or sponsor local support actions across the country.”[191]

Back in Northwestern California, on May 26, Pam Davis and the would-be Earth First! – IWW Local 2 quickly cobbled together a rally in Santa Rosa at Old Courthouse Square. To a cheering crowd, Davis announced that several more groups, including Greenpeace, the Christic Institute, and the IWW had pledged their solidarity with the accused activists. The loudest cheer erupted when she announced that Amnesty International had even offered to look into the bombing and investigate the possibility that Bari and Cherney had been the victims of state repression. Additionally, four Sonoma County environmental groups, Citizens for Watershed Protection, the Forestville Citizens for Sensible Growth, the Western Sonoma County Rural Alliance, and Californians Organized to Acquire Access to State Tidelands (COAAST) issued a statement endorsing Redwood Summer. Lionel Gambill also pledged his support for Bari and Cherney, adding, “I used to think there were 100 issues. I finally decided it’s one issue with 100 faces. The issue is the abuse of power, and the violence that results from it. This is a worldwide problem, whether it’s Tiananmen Square, South Africa (under Apartheid), or Oakland.”[192]

 

* * * * *

On Monday, May 28, 1990, Darryl Cherney was bailed out, early in the morning well after most of the vigil in support for him (and Bari) had dispersed.[193] For reasons unexplained to this day, Cherney’s shoes were not returned to him, forcing him to walk out of the Oakland Police station in bare feet.[194] Upon his release, he was immediately greeted by press. Without missing a beat, he declared:

“Certainly, our activism and our struggle to save ancient redwoods up north has left us with many people who are very angry with our successes at slowing down the logging…It feels terrific to be out and maybe we can move over to the hospital now and keep the vigil going for Judi Bari.”[195]

On Tuesday, May 29, the judge held the first arraignment hearing, and it was at this time Alameda County assistant District Attorney Chris Carpenter admitted that no formal changes were being filed against Bari and Cherney, at least not yet.[196] Supporters, including Seeds of Peace members wore duct-tape arm bands in the courtroom in silent protest over the lack of probable cause.[197] The attorneys arranged for a continuance of the arraignment, which allowed Cherney to go free, at least temporarily (if this had not occurred, he could have been arrested and jailed again, despite having made bail).[198]

Still the solidarity rallies continued. On Saturday, June 2, 1990, St. Louis IWW members, members of an organization called Workers Democracy, and Big River Earth First!ers held a rally for justice demanding an unbiased investigation into the bombing. Nearly forty demonstrators converged on the federal building chanting, “Things are really weird”, and “The FBI did it—don’t you forget it.” The theme of the rally was “No death squads in the USA,” a reference to COINTELPRO’s covert operations that had included assassinations and near assassinations of political dissidents (most notably 32 members of the Black Panther Party). In contrast, the rally-goers questioned the notion that two nonviolent activists would blow themselves up.[199]

In early June, in Carbondale, Illinois, a group of Shawnee Earth First!ers held a press conference at the Federal Building located there, and then proceeded to the local FBI office. There they surrendered all “weapons” in their possession, which consisted of writing paper, stress tabs, aspirin, paint brushes, a telephone and phone book, a car tire, and a water pistol. The FBI was not present and made no comment.[200] Throughout the North Coast and beyond, none of Bari’s and Cherney’s supporters were willing to swallow the notion that they were guilty.[201] However the IWW was not alone among the union movement in condemning the bombing of Bari and Cherney.

Even though Don Nelson continued to refer to Bari and Cherney, as well as Roanne Withers and Anna Marie Stenberg as “elitist agitators” after the bombing,[202] these charges were rebutted by other union militants around the country.[203] Demonstrating that Bari and Cherney were considered bonafide labor spokespeople, despite Don Nelson’s rants to the contrary, several more progressive labor union officials drafted and signed the following resolution:

“We, the undersigned unionists, condemn the bombing assassination attempt against labor and environmental activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney. This act of terrorism is not only an attack on the environmental movement but on the labor movement as well. Judi Bari is a long-time labor organizer and environmentalist who has sought to link these two movements for the protection of both the ecosystem and workers’ jobs. Bari and Cherney have fought to save the last remaining old-growth forests which the timber companies, in their quest for profits, have targeted for massive clearcutting before proposed forest protection initiatives are enacted, this Fall.”

“Timber companies have sought to pit workers and environmentalists against one another. We believe Bari and Cherney have been targeted for violence and criminal prosecution because they have successfully demonstrated that the defense of timber workers jobs is dependent on the protection of the forests.”

“We call on the entire labor movement to take a clear stand in solidarity with Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney. Their struggle is our struggle.”[204]

Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney also received support from the Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation (SAC)—the Swedish anarcho-syndicalist federation[205]; the Scottish Direct Action Movement (also a syndicalist organization)[206]; and the Anarchist Black Cross of Denmark.[207]

On June 7, while the first Redwood Summer rallies were beginning in Sacramento, the DA released Bari from legal custody, so she could receive visitors, but it also meant that she was unguarded by police, which was a problem, because someone had tried to assassinate her.[208] Also, if Bari were arrested again, she could have been transferred back to the jail ward in Highland Hospital, where only one nurse was on duty, which would have put Bari’s life in even worse danger than it already was. Redwood Summer organizers therefore made sure that she had round the clock security provided by friends and comrades.[209]

Although Judi Bari had been devastated by the bombing, both physically and emotionally, and no doubt still felt a great deal of fear and terror, her spirits were greatly bolstered by the overwhelming solidarity as well as the outpouring of support she received in the form of letters and poems as well as visitors. Karen Pickett was the first visitor able to finally gain admission to Bari’s hospital room. She described Bari’s resolve thusly:

“People ask how Judi’s doing after I visit her in the hospital and I want to say she’s doing great, but somehow that sounds strange to say about someone who has been in a great deal of pain and is immobilized in traction with a severely broken pelvis and damaged leg. But the concept of ‘doing great’ is relative, and I am so impressed with how this woman—this strong, vital and courageous woman—is coping with her injuries and with the horror of the attack on her: Judi would rather be working on a press release at base camp, out on the campaign trail, playing her fiddle at a rally, instead of lying in a hospital bed while her body’s forces mend her bones, nerves, tissues. But I think she is doing great because from her prone position she has been strategizing, philosophizing, laughing, singing and even playing music. Judi still has several weeks of traction ahead of her (8 weeks in all) and then additional recovery time, but she is getting stronger and better every day. Since being released from police custody pending the district attorney’s decision on the filing of charges, she has had private 24 hour a day security, and close friends have been able to visit her.”[210]

On June 6, 1990, in an interview conducted by KPFA FM, (in a very groggy state) Bari thanked her supporters, stating:

“Thank you to all the Earth First!ers and peace people and movement people in general for this tremendous outpouring of concern and support. It really makes me feel better knowing that you all are down there, and knowing that I’m not alone and we’re not alone. That’s something we’ve always felt in Earth First! that we are a movement. I think it’s important for us to remember where the real violence is being done. The real violence is being done to the forest, not as much as to the organizers. I hope that this will not deter people from coming this summer to save the redwood forest, because terrorism is a horrible tactic, and we know that the timber companies will use it. But terrorism cannot stand up to mass nonviolence. To be very nonviolent and very public—that’s the only way we can win. We can’t wait another year—this is our last year. So please come to the forest this summer and as soon as I’m out of here I’ll be there with you.”[211]

She had survived an assassination attempt, and yet there was little doubt that, in spite of her brush with death, Judi Bari would live to organize another day.

[1] “The Earth First! Car Bombing”, by Judi Bari, Earth First! Journal, Brigid / February 2, 1994. The bomb also impaled her backside with a 1½-inch spring.

[2] “Cherney: I Heard Someone Scream Out, ‘It’s a Bomb’”, by Tobias Young, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, May 26, 1990.

[3] “Activists Bombed, Busted”, by Richard Johnson, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, May 29, 1990.

[4] “Who Bombed Judi Bari?”, Judi Bari interviewed by Beth Bosk, New Settler Interview, Issue #89, 1995.

[5] “Pipe Bomb Blast: 2 Earth First! People Injured; Car Destroyed – Police Question Radical Group’s Members”, by Harry Harris and Paul Grabowicz, Oakland Tribune, May 25, 1990.

[6] “Area Activists Arrested for Blast; 2 Earth Members Suspected of Own Bomb”, Eureka Times-Standard, May 25, 1990.

[7] Harry Harris and Paul Grabowicz, May 25, 1990, op. cit.

[8] Richard Johnson, May 29, 1990, op. cit.

[9] Harry Harris and Paul Grabowicz, May 25, 1990, op. cit.

[10] “Bomb Hurts Timber Activists; Bari, Cherney May Be Charged, Attorney Says”, by Bleys W. Rose, Mike Geniella, and Alvaro Delgado, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, May 25, 1990.

[11] “Questions on Car Bomb; Injured Activists May be Suspects”, staff and wire reports, Santa Cruz Sentinel, May 25, 1990.

[12] “Timber Activists Arrested; Officials Claim Bomb Was Carried by Pair”, Ukiah Daily Journal, May 25, 1990.

[13] “Friends: ‘No Way’ Bari, Cherney Knew About Bomb”, by Chris Coursey, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, May 26, 1990.

[14] “Area Activists Arrested for Blast; 2 Earth Members Suspected of Own Bomb”, Eureka Times-Standard, May 25, 1990.

[15] “2 Earth First! Members Hurt By Bomb in Car; Radical Environmentalists Were Visiting Oakland”, by Michael Taylor and Elliot Diringer, San Francisco Chronicle, May 25, 1990.

[16] Harry Harris and Paul Grabowicz, May 25, 1990, op. cit.

[17] “Explosion Catapults Campaign into Limelight”, by Linda Goldston, San Jose Mercury News, May 25, 1990.

[18] Richard Johnson, May 29, 1990, op. cit.

[19] “Victim Held for Questioning in Car Bombing: Oakland Blast Injures Two Environmental Activists; Police, FBI Probes Criticized”, by Andy Furillo and Jane Kay, San Francisco Examiner, May 25, 1990.

[20] “Who Bombed Judi Bari?”, Judi Bari interviewed by Beth Bosk, New Settler Interview, Issue #89, January 1995.

[21] “IWW Members Bari and Cherney Framed”, Industrial Worker, June 1990.

[22] “The Earth First! Car Bombing”, by Judi Bari, Earth First! Journal, Brigid / February 2, 1994.

[23] Richard Johnson, May 29, 1990, op. cit.

[24] Harry Harris and Paul Grabowicz, May 25, 1990, op. cit.

[25] Harris, David, The Last Stand, New York, NY, Times Books, Random House, 1995, page 324-25.

[26] “2 Car-Bomb Victims Arrested: Police Accuse Pair After Blast Injures Them in Oakland; Allies Call them ‘Avowed Pacifists’”, by Lance Williams and Andy Furillo, San Francisco Examiner, May 25, 1990.

[27] David Harris, 1995, op. cit., page 324-25.

[28] Richard Johnson, May 29, 1990, op. cit.

[29] “Earth First! and COINTELPRO”, by Leslie Hemstreet, Z Magazine, July / August 1990.

[30] Harry Harris and Paul Grabowicz, May 25, 1990, op. cit.

[31] Hemstreet, op. cit.

[32] Bosk, January 1995, op. cit.

[33] Bari, February 2, 1994, op. cit.

[34] “Some People Just Don’t Get It”, Judi Bari interviewed by Bruce Anderson, Anderson Valley Advertiser, June 13, 1990.

[35] Bosk, January 1995, op. cit.

[36] https://web.archive.org/web/20140517071346/http://colemanhoax.info/, in response to Coleman, op. cit., page 13.

[37] Richard Johnson, May 29, 1990, op. cit.

[38] Bruce Anderson, June 13, 1990, op. cit.

[39] “Judi & Darryl Still Fighting Despite Bomb Damage”, by Karen Pickett, Earth First! Journal, Litha / June 21, 1990.

[40] Hemstreet, op. cit.

[41] Hemstreet, op. cit.

[42] “Cherney: I Heard Someone Scream Out, ‘It’s a Bomb’”, by Tobias Young, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, May 26, 1990.

[43] “Activists Deny Carrying Bomb; Cherney Still in Jail with High Bail”, UPI Wire, Eureka Times-Standard, May 26, 1990.

[44] “Area Activists Arrested for Blast; 2 Earth Members Suspected of Own Bomb”, Eureka Times-Standard, May 25, 1990.

[45] Richard Johnson, May 29, 1990, op. cit.

[46] “2 in Blast Arrested; Earth First! Activists Hauling Bomb in Car, Police Suspect”, by Linda Goldston and Barry Witt, San Jose Mercury News, May 25, 1990.

[47] “IWW Members Bari and Cherney Framed”, Industrial Worker, June 1990.

[48] Harry Harris and Paul Grabowicz, May 25, 1990, op. cit.

[49] “Lisa Henry on her 22nd Birthday”, Lisa Henry interviewed by Beth Bosk, New Settler Interview, January 1991.

[50] “Earth First! Pair Were on Way to Santa Cruz”, by Steve Perez, Santa Cruz Sentinel, May 25, 1990.

[51] Bosk, January 1991, op. cit.

[52] “Earth First! Leaders Arrested in Bomb Probe”, by Michael Taylor and Sharon McCormick, Fresno Bee, May 26, 1990 (recopied and abridged from the San Francisco Chronicle).

[53] Hemstreet, op. cit.

[54] “Oakland Police Arrest the Victims in Car Explosion; Cops Believe Bomb Knowingly Carried by Environmentalists”, by Michael Taylor and Sharon McCormick, San Francisco Chronicle, May 26, 1990.

[55] “Bail Raised to $100,000 for Earth First! Bomb Suspects; Fellow Activists Decry Judge’s Move, Vow to Raise Cash”, by Andy Furillo and Lance Williams, San Francisco Examiner, May 26, 1990.

[56] “Legal Update”, unpublished letter, by Kevin Trombold, June 18, 1990.

[57] Richard Johnson, May 29, 1990, op. cit.

[58] “Questions for Congress to Ask the FBI”, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, August 1, 1990.

[59] Bari, February 2, 1994, op. cit.

[60] “Too Clever to Catch”, speech given by Judi Bari at Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA., April 18, 1996, featured on the album Who Bombed Judi Bari?, edited by Darryl Cherney, 1997.

[61] “Questions for Congress to Ask the FBI”, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, August 1, 1990.

[62] Pickett, June 21, 1990, op. cit.

[63] “Redwood Summer Explodes in Violence”, by Sidney Dominitz, EcoNews, June 1990.

[64] “Redwood Summer Bombing: Evil Police Smear”, by Richard Johnson, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, June 15, 1990.

[65] Richard Johnson, May 29, 1990, op. cit.

[66] Hemstreet, op. cit.

[67] Harry Harris and Paul Grabowicz, May 25, 1990, op. cit.

[68] Hemstreet, op. cit.

[69] “Peace Group Angered by Gun-Point Search; Non-violence Credo of Activist Collective”, by Alvaro Delgado, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, May 26, 1990.

[70] Hemstreet, op. cit.

[71] Richard Johnson, May 29, 1990, op. cit.

[72] Letter to the IWW, by Utah Phillips, unpublished, courtesy of Allan Anger’s personal archives, June 6, 1990.

[73] Richard Johnson, May 29, 1990, op. cit.

[74] “Redwood Summer Bombing: Evil Police Smear”, by Richard Johnson, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, June 15, 1990.

[75] Bari, February 2, 1994, op. cit.

[76] Richard Johnson, May 29, 1990, op. cit.

[77] Hemstreet, op. cit.

[78] Taylor and McCormick, May 26, 1990, op. cit.

[79] “Pair in Bombed Car Arrested: Earth First! Denies Plot; Judge Sets $100,000 Bail”, by Barry Witt, San Jose Mercury News, May 26, 1990.

[80] “Bomb Was Murder Plot, Activist Says”, by Robert J. Lopez, Oakland Tribune, May 26, 1990.

[81] The coverage not already referenced included (but was not limited to): “Redwood Ruckus: Loggers on One Side, Earth First! on the Other”, by Linda Goldston, Arizona Daily Star, May 26, 1990; “Police Hold Earth First! Pair in Blast”, by Mark A. Stein, Los Angeles Times, May 26, 1990 (front page); “Earth First! Activists Vow Not to Give Up; Claim Car Blast Was Assassination Attempt”, by Linda Goldston, Marin Independent Journal, May 26, 1990 (recopied and abridged from the San Jose Mercury News); “Environmentalists Hurt, Then Held, in Blast”, by Katherine Bishop, New York Times, May 26, 1990 (front page); An untitled article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 25, 1990; “Earth First! Activists Arrested After Bomb Blast”, AP Wire, Skagit Valley Herald, May 26, 1990; “Activists Hurt in Bomb Blast Arrested”, Washington Post, May 26, 1990 (page A8);

[82] Bari, February 2, 1994, op. cit.

[83] Hemstreet, op. cit.

[84] “The Stupid People Problem”, by Rob Anderson, Anderson Valley Advertiser, May 30, 1990.

[85] “The Car Bombing: Four Responses – Jerry Philbrick: Comptche Logger”, interview by Lynne Dahl, Anderson Valley Advertiser, May 30, 1990.

[86] “Workers Manipulated”, letter to the editor, by Bill Self, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, June 15, 1990.

[87] “Environmentalists Supportive of Victims”, by Lois O’Rourke and Keith Michaud, Ukiah Daily Journal, May 25, 1990.

[88] “Supporters Insist Bomb Victims Nonviolent; Timber Firms Condemn Attack”, by Chris Coursey and Steve Hart, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, May 25, 1990.

[89] Bari, February 2, 1994, op. cit.

[90] O’Rourke and Michaud, May 25, 1990, op. cit.

[91] “Earth First! Friends Insist Victims Can’t Be Suspects”, by Eric Brazil and Jane Kay, San Francisco Examiner, May 25, 1990.

[92] Coursey and Hart, May 25, 1990, op. cit.

[93] “The Palco Papers”, by Judi Bari, Anderson Valley Advertiser, March 27, 1991.

[94] “Logging Foes Claim ‘Full Head of Steam’”, by Mike Geniella, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, May 26, 1990.

[95] “Nonviolence is Our Answer”, by Richard Johnson, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, May 29, 1990.

[96] Coursey and Hart, May 25, 1990, op. cit.

[97] Brazil and Kay, May 25, 1990, op. cit.

[98] O’Rourke and Michaud, May 25, 1990, op. cit.

[99] Bruce Anderson, June 13, 1990, op. cit.

[100] O’Rourke and Michaud, May 25, 1990, op. cit.

[101] Coursey and Hart, May 25, 1990, op. cit.

[102] “Earth First! is ‘Not Scared’; Anti-logging Group Says Bomb was Planted, Won’t Deter Efforts”, by Elliot Diringer, San Francisco Chronicle, May 26, 1990.

[103] “Logging Foes Claim ‘Full Head of Steam’”, by Mike Geniella, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, May 26, 1990.

[104] “Call if Off”, an open letter by Art Harwood, published in various periodicals, including, Willits News, June 6, 1990; Mendocino Beacon, June 7, 1990; North Coast News, June 7, 1990; Santa Rosa Press Democrat, June 7, 1990; and Eureka Times-Standard, June 19, 1990.

[105] “Pipe Bomb Blast: 2 Earth First! People Injured; Car Destroyed – Injured Activists are Organizers of Summerlong Protests”, by Judy Ronnigen and Paul Grabowicz, Oakland Tribune, May 25, 1990.

[106] “Mendocino Undertow”, by Nancy Barth, North Coast News, June 6, 1990.

[107] “Worst Fears Come True in Timber Wars”, editorial, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, May 25, 1990.

[108] “The Car Bombing: Four Responses – James Tuso: Candidate for Mendocino County Sheriff-Coroner”, interview by Lynne Dahl, Anderson Valley Advertiser, May 30, 1990.

[109] “The Car Bombing: Four Responses – Rich Wiseman: Candidate for Mendocino County Sheriff-Coroner”, interview by Lynne Dahl, Anderson Valley Advertiser, May 30, 1990.

[110] “There is a Better Way: Find It – Life Goes on in Troubled Mendocino County”, by Ed Burton, Willits News, June 1, 1990.

[111] “Memo of the Week I”, reprinted in the Anderson Valley Advertiser, July 18, 1990.

[112] “The Feminization of Earth First!”, by Judi Bari, Ms. Magazine, May 1992.

[113] “The Reinhabitants Perspective”, Naomi Wagner interviewed by Beth Bosk, New Settler Interview, Issue #51, August 1990.

[114] “Nonviolence is Our Answer”, by Richard Johnson, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, May 29, 1990.

[115] For example, see, “Folly, Foolery”, by Steven Chatham, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, May 31, 1990; “Crowd Control”, by Will Bennett, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, May 31, 1990; “A Simple Check”, by Jane Rosenstein, Ukiah Daily Journal, May 31, 1990; “Earth First! Unity”, by Kristen Johnson, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, June 1, 1990; “Outraged at Arrest”, (four identical letters to the editor) by Min Collier, Kristen Johnson, Shelly McCoy, and Auturo Mesa, Ukiah Daily Journal, June 1, 1990; “Investigate All Possibilities”, by Leonard Roberts, “Arrest was Breach of Justice”, by Jay W Mead, and “Convenient Tactic”, by Dan and Carrie Hamburg, Ukiah Daily Journal, June 4, 1990; “Quit Blaming Environmentalists”, by Bill Self, Ukiah Daily Journal, June 5, 1990; “Wake Up Time for Workers”, by Greg Cox, Anderson Valley Advertiser, June 6, 1990; “History Repeating Itself”, by Mark Thysen, Anderson Valley Advertiser, June 6, 1990; “Open Letter to Attorney General Van de Kamp”, by Liz Helenchild, North Coast News, June 7, 1990; “Get Involved”, by Mary Moore and “Condemns Bombing”, by Morris Rappaport, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, June 9, 1990; “Turn the Tables”, by Dorothy Mareya Dorman, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, June 15, 1990; and untitled letter to the editor by Rouvishyana, Mendocino Commentary, June 28, 1990.

[116] “Earth First! Arrests Draw Attention to ‘Redwood Summer’”, UPI Wire, Eureka Times-Standard, May 27, 1990.

[117] “Victim Held for Questioning in Car Bombing: Oakland Blast Injures Two Environmental Activists; Police, FBI Probes Criticized”, by Andy Furillo and Jane Kay, San Francisco Examiner, May 25, 1990.

[118] “Detective to Probe Bombing: Earth First! Pair Faces Arraignment”, UPI Wire, Eureka Times-Standard, May 29, 1990.

[119] “Earth First! Duo’s Arraignment Delayed by Oakland Prosecutor”, UPI Wire, Eureka Times-Standard, May 30, 1990.

[120] Richard Johnson, May 29, 1990, op. cit.

[121] “Activists Deny Carrying Bomb; Cherney Still in Jail with High Bail”, UPI Wire, Eureka Times-Standard, May 26, 1990.

[122] “Friends: ‘No Way’ Bari, Cherney Knew About Bomb”, by Chris Coursey, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, May 26, 1990.

[123] Harry Harris and Paul Grabowicz, May 25, 1990, op. cit.

[124] Who Bombed Judi Bari?, film by Darryl Cherney and Mary Liz Thompson, 2012.

[125] Richard Johnson, May 29, 1990, op. cit.

[126] Ronnigen and Grabowicz, May 25, 1990, op. cit.

[127] “Bombed but Not Broken”, Santa Rosa Earth First! press release, reprinted in the Country Activist, June 1990.

[128] “Activists Deny Carrying Bomb; Cherney Still in Jail with High Bail”, UPI Wire, Eureka Times-Standard, May 26, 1990.

[129] “Bomb Charge Absurd Says Activists’ Friend”, by Tobias Young, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, May 27, 1990.

[130] “Nonviolence is Our Answer”, by Richard Johnson, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, May 29, 1990.

[131] “Victims of Blast Arrested: Earth First! Activists Blamed for Explosion”, by Mark Stein, Eugene Register Guard, May 26, 1990 (the article was reproduced from a longer article in the Los Angeles Times which did not include the quotes from Karen Wood).

[132] “Nonviolence is Our Answer”, by Richard Johnson, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, May 29, 1990.

[133] Rose, et. al., May 25, 1990, op. cit.

[134] This can be seen in video footage, shown in Cherney and Thompson, 2012, op. cit.

[135] “Nonviolence is Our Answer”, by Richard Johnson, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, May 29, 1990.

[136] “Editor’s Afterword”, by Beth Bosk, New Settler Interview, Issue #51, August 1990.

[137] Hemstreet, op. cit.

[138] Cherney and Thompson, 2012, op. cit.

[139] “Bari, Cherney Under Arrest; Police Say Earth First! Leaders Knew Bomb Was in Car”, by Chris Coursey and Bleys W. Rose, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, May 26, 1990.

[140] “Nonviolence is Our Answer”, by Richard Johnson, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, May 29, 1990.

[141] “Police Hold Earth First! Pair in Blast”, by Mark A. Stein, Los Angeles Times, May 26, 1990.

[142] “Nonviolence is Our Answer”, by Richard Johnson, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, May 29, 1990.

[143] “The Car Bombing: Four Responses – Mitch Clogg: Environmentalist”, interview by Lynne Dahl, Anderson Valley Advertiser, May 30, 1990.

[144] Rob Anderson, May 30, 1990, op. cit.

[145] Rob Anderson, May 30, 1990, op. cit. Judi Bari greatly appreciated these particular satirical musings of Rob Anderson’s, which she publically acknowledged in Bruce Anderson, June 13, 1990, op. cit.

[146] “Back to Bombs?”, by Nat Bingham, North Coast News, June 7, 1990.

[147] “Solidarity with Judi and Darryl”, letter to the editor by Michael Connelly, Anderson Valley Advertiser, June 6, 1990.

[148] “Chico Mendes in the First World”, by Alexander Cockburn, Anderson Valley Advertiser, June 6, 1990.

[149] “Terrorist Strikes Earth First!”, by Alexander Cockburn, Anderson Valley Advertiser, May 30, 1990.

[150] Letter to the editor by Murray Bookchin, Earth First! Journal, Lughnasadh / August 1, 1990 and Anderson Valley Advertiser, September 19, 1990.

[151] Taylor and McCormick, May 26, 1990, op. cit.

[152] Pickett, June 21, 1990, op. cit.

[153] “Possible Labor Connection to Earth First! Bombing: Incident May Have Been Effort to Disrupt Budding Logger & Environmentalist Alliance”, by Michele DeRanleau, San Francisco Weekly, June 6, 1990.

[154] “Activists Deny Carrying Bomb; Cherney Still in Jail with High Bail”, UPI Wire, Eureka Times-Standard, May 26, 1990.

[155] “Bombing Spotlights Efforts to Link Labor, Environment”, by Daphne Wysham, Labor Notes, August 1990.

[156] DeRanleau, June 6, 1990, op. cit.

[157] Bruce Anderson, June 13, 1990, op. cit.

[158] Philbrick and Dahl, May 30, 1990, op. cit.

[159] Richard Johnson, May 29, 1990, op. cit.

[160] “Earth First! is ‘Not Scared’; Anti-logging Group Says Bomb was Planted, Won’t Deter Efforts”, by Elliot Diringer, San Francisco Chronicle, May 26, 1990.

[161] “Activists Deny Carrying Bomb; Cherney Still in Jail with High Bail”, UPI Wire, Eureka Times-Standard, May 26, 1990.

[162] “Detective to Probe Bombing; Earth First! Pair Faces Arraignment”, UPI Wire, Eureka Times-Standard, May 29, 1990

[163] “Area Activists Arrested for Blast; 2 Earth Members Suspected of Own Bomb”, Eureka Times-Standard, May 25, 1990.

[164] “Nonviolence is Our Answer”, by Richard Johnson, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, May 29, 1990.

[165] “Nonviolence is Our Answer”, by Richard Johnson, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, May 29, 1990.

[166] “Timber Activists Rally in Ukiah; Protesters Point to Police, FBI”, by Clark Mason, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, May 26, 1990.

[167] “‘Redwood Summer’ Not Dead; Vigils Bring Promises of New Anti-Logging Efforts”, by Lois O’Rourke, Ukiah Daily Journal, May 27, 1990.

[168] Mason, May 26, 1990, op. cit.

[169] O’Rourke and Michaud, May 25, 1990, op. cit.

[170] O’Rourke, May 27, 1990, op. cit.

[171] Mason, May 26, 1990, op. cit.

[172] O’Rourke, May 27, 1990, op. cit.

[173] Mason, May 26, 1990, op. cit.

[174] “Hot Tubbin at Harry’s: Anna Marie Stenberg”, interview by Lynne Dahl, New Settler Interview, issue #54, December 1990.

[175] “Nonviolence is Our Answer”, by Richard Johnson, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, May 29, 1990.

[176] “G-P Mill on Redwood Summer Agenda: No Plant Blockade Planned, Activist Says”, by Judy Nichols, North Coast News, June 7, 1990.

[177] Dahl, December 1990, op. cit.

[178] Nichols, June 7, 1990, op. cit.

[179] Philbrick and Dahl, May 30, 1990, op. cit.

[180] This can be seen in video footage, shown in Cherney and Thompson, 2012, op. cit.

[181] Dahl, December 1990, op. cit.

[182] Philbrick and Dahl, May 30, 1990, op. cit.

[183] Nichols, June 7, 1990, op. cit.

[184] “L.A. Earth First! Protests FBI & Maxxam”, by Peter Bralver, Earth First! Journal, Litha / June 21, 1990.

[185] Bosk, January 1991, op. cit.

[186] “Statement by the San Francisco Bay Area IWW”, reprinted in the Industrial Worker, July 1990.

[187] Letter to the IWW, by Utah Phillips, unpublished, courtesy of Allan Anger’s personal archives, June 6, 1990.

[188] “Wobblies Needed in Northern California”, Anna Marie Stenberg interviewed by Bart Williams, Industrial Worker, July 1990.

[189] “IWW Members Bari and Cherney Framed”, Industrial Worker, June 1990.

[190] Williams, July 1990, op. cit.

[191] “Statement by IWW General Secretary-Treasurer Jeff Ditz”, reprinted in the Industrial Worker, July 1990.

[192] “Explosion Rippling Through Environmental Movement”, by Chris Smith, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, May 27, 1990.

[193] “Legal Update”, unpublished letter, by Kevin Trombold, June 18, 1990.

[194] “Questions for Congress to Ask the FBI”, Mendocino Country Environmentalist, August 1, 1990.

[195] Cherney and Thompson, 2012, op. cit.

[196] “Legal Update”, unpublished letter, by Kevin Trombold, June 18, 1990.

[197] Hemstreet, op. cit.

[198] “Legal Update”, unpublished letter, by Kevin Trombold, June 18, 1990.

[199] “Solidarity Forever: Wobs Rally to Support Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney”, by Orin Langelle and Martin St John, Industrial Worker, July 1990.

[200] Ibid and “EF! Protests FBI Smear”, uncredited, Earth First! Journal, Litha / June 21, 1990. It’s evident that Langelle and St John wrote this article as well, because it matches the paragraph describing the same incident in the Industrial Worker almost word-for-word. However this uncredited piece mentions a few additional “weapons” not listed in the first piece.

[201] Bruce Anderson, June 13, 1990, op. cit.

[202] “Earth First!ers = Elitist Agitators”, by Don Nelson, Labor Notes, September 1990.

[203] “Support for Environmentalists: a Response to Don Nelson”, by Rich Meyers, Labor Notes, September 1990.

[204] “Union Activists Support Judi and Darryl”, by Janis Borchardt, Vice President, ATU local 1225; Barbara Byrd, Labor Studies Coordinator, San Francisco City College, and member AFT local 2121; Bill Fiori, President, UFCW local 1100; Jess Grant, SF Labor Council Delegate, ATU local 1555 and Bay Area IWW Secretary-Treasurer; Archie Green, Labor Historian; Dennis Hitchcock, editor of Tradewinds, IAM local 1781; Brian Lewis, President, UTU local 1730; Millie Phillips, member of the Executive Board of CLUW, member of IBEW local 1245; Marina Secchitano, Regional Director of IBU; David Welsh, Vice President, NALC local 214; Daphne Wysham, editor of San Mateo County Labor; Steve Zeltzer, Labor Video Project and Stationary Engineers local 39; Howard Wallace, Field Representative, SEIU local 250; and Jeff Ditz, General Secretary Treasurer, IWW, reprinted in the Industrial Worker, July 1990.

[205] “Solidarity from the SAC”, letter to the editor, Industrial Worker, July 1990.

[206] “Scottish Direct Action Movement” letter to the editor, Industrial Worker, September 1990.

[207] “Anarchist Black Cross, Denmark”, letter to the editor, Industrial Worker, September 1990.

[208] “Legal Update”, unpublished letter, by Kevin Trombold, June 18, 1990.

[209] Bruce Anderson, June 13, 1990, op. cit.

[210] Pickett, June 21, 1990, op. cit.

[211] “Press Statement of Judi Bari: From an Interview Given on KPFA FM”, reprinted in the Anderson Valley Advertiser, June 6, 1990.

Tags: Judi BariRedwood UprisingSteve OngerthRedwood SummerJudi Bari Bombing (May 24 1990)Darryl CherneyGreg KingKaren WoodKaren PickettMike RoselleDave ForemanIndustrial Workers of the World (IWW)Earth First!Earth First! - IWW Local 1Don Nelsontimber workersCOINTELPROgreen unionismgreen syndicalismgreen industrial unionismenvironmental justice

The grass may be greener if it’s made of synthetic turf, but some communities are raising concerns about “forever chemicals” that may be found in many of the faux fields.

“Think about the wisdom of putting down acres of plastic in the year 2024… and then allowing athletes to go play on that for hours a week,” Dr. Kyla Bennett, director of science policy for advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), told ABC News.

Read the PEER Story…

The post Debate about safety of synthetic turf and ‘forever chemicals’ raises concerns for some appeared first on PEER.org.

EPA is collecting data on “forever chemicals” in wastewater that eventually make their way to rivers and streams across the nation, a move that could inform future limits on the substances.

While the data collection is a welcome step, EPA should have begun gathering the information “decades ago,” said Kyla Bennett, a former EPA official who now leads science policy at the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. The agency also already has the authority to regulate PFAS in biosolids, she said.

Read the PEER Story…

The post EPA to scrutinize ‘forever chemicals’ in wastewater, sewage appeared first on PEER.org.

The National Park Service has been sued over Director Chuck Sams’ decision to allow the Jemez Pueblo to kill an eagle in Valles Caldera National Preserve by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which is asking to see the decision documents Sams relied on to authorize the taking.

PEER filed Freedom of Information Act requests back in November to obtain the documents, and in the lawsuit [attached below] filed Monday in Washington, D.C. the organization said it had yet to receive any documents.

Read the PEER Story…

The post National Park Service Sued Over Eagle Killing At Valles Caldera National Preserve appeared first on PEER.org.

Trans-Alaska Pipeline Climate Cluelessness

This commentary was originally published in the Winter 2024 edition of PEEReview.

The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) is a critical component of America’s fossil fuel infrastructure, yet in the last 20 years, the federal government has not analyzed the massive system’s impact on climate change or how climate change affects or will affect its costs, reliability, or ecological footprint. In its 45 years of operation, TAPS has undergone only two environmental assessments: the pre-construction Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in 1972 and the Reauthorization EIS in 2002. A lot has changed since then.

In response to a PEER Freedom of Information Act request, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which oversees pipeline operation, was unable to identify a single planning document outlining potential steps to mitigate climate-related impacts over its projected lifetime. Nor was the agency “aware of any assessments concerning climate change” relating to increased maintenance costs or threats of spills or other breakdowns. Furthermore, BLM “has not discussed or estimated the climate impact of TAPS” either internally or “with the owner companies.”

“America’s climate planning apparently stops at the Canadian border,” remarked Rick Steiner, an ecologist, former University of Alaska-Fairbanks professor, and Chair of PEER’s Board of Directors, noting that TAPS is responsible for more than 8 billion tons of CO2 emissions. “Climate change is seriously impacting the safety and integrity of TAPS even as it significantly impacts global climate change.”

PEER is asking the White House Council on Environmental Quality to address this gaping hole in national climate planning. Meanwhile, we are collecting documents to show how the effects of climate change threaten to disrupt TAPS operation and multiply its maintenance costs.

Jeff Ruch is the former Executive Director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and now serves as its Pacific Director.

The post COMMENTARY | Trans-Alaska Pipeline Climate Cluelessness appeared first on PEER.org.

EPA used the wrong process when it ordered a plastics company, Inhance, to stop unintentionally creating “forever chemicals,” the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in a Thursday opinion.

It’s a major blow to environmental and health advocates like Kyla Bennett, director of science policy at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which first traced the PFAS contamination back to Inhance’s fluorination process in December 2020.

Read the PEER Story…

The post 5th Circuit curbs EPA authority under chemical safety law appeared first on PEER.org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, March 22, 2024
CONTACT
Kyla Bennett [PEER] kbennett@peer.org, (508) 230-9933
Bob Sussman [CEH] bobsussman1@comcast.net, (202) 716-0118

 

Flawed Fifth Circuit Decision Leaves Public Exposed to Toxic PFAS Environmental Groups Vow to Fight On

 

Washington, DC — Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and Center for Environmental Health (CEH) are deeply disappointed and alarmed by yesterday’s flawed decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals which set aside EPA’s landmark orders requiring Inhance Technologies to stop producing highly dangerous long-chain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) during the fluorination of plastic containers.

Although the Court vacated EPA’s action, it did acknowledge that EPA determined that three PFAS manufactured by Inhance present an unreasonable risk of injury to human health and the environment, and that six additional PFAS manufactured by Inhance may also do so. The Fifth Circuit did not dispute this underlying and extremely concerning finding. This decision leaves the millions of Americans who are exposed to these containers without protection from several PFAS that EPA has determined present a serious threat to public health. Among these substances is perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a recognized human carcinogen that EPA determined has no safe level of exposure.

Inhance Technologies’ fluorination process results in hundreds of millions of plastic containers leaching toxic PFAS chemicals into food, cosmetics, cleaning supplies, fuels, and other household products. This public health danger must be addressed.

Significantly, Inhance’s customers are now unquestionably on notice that their products contain several PFAS that EPA has determined are harmful to health. They should consider alternatives to fluorination that are PFAS-free.

An amicus in the Fifth Circuit case presented evidence about currently available alternatives to fluorination to effectively achieve the same barrier properties as Inhance’s PFAS-creating technology.

Along with EPA, PEER and CEH are plaintiffs in a December 2023 suit in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to enforce Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) requirements against Inhance. The District Court is not bound by the Fifth Circuit decision. PEER and CEH will now pursue that case in addition to any other remedies that are available to abate this significant and unreasonable danger to public health, and will urge the government to do so as well.

The Fifth Circuit’s decision contains misinformation, overlooks key issues and legal principles, and fails to address compelling arguments by EPA and our groups defending the legality of the challenged orders.

The Court erroneously limits EPA’s authority to issue significant new use rules (SNURs) under the TSCA, seriously weakening this important tool for managing chemical risks to health and the environment which has been a mainstay of the TSCA program since the law’s enactment in 1976.

There are several paths forward, and our groups are fully committed to taking all steps available to assure that the Inhance fluorination no longer produces dangerous PFAS which put workers, consumers, and communities at risk.

###

See the Fifth Circuit Opinion

The post Flawed Fifth Circuit Decision Leaves Public Exposed to Toxic PFAS appeared first on PEER.org.

If you have a child that plays football or soccer, chances are that they’ve probably played on synthetic turf.

A recent study with the Public Employees For Environmental Responsibility (PEER) — an independent watchdog group — took a closer look at what’s actually in synthetic turf.

Read the PEER Story…

The post Study links ‘forever chemicals’ to synthetic turf playing fields appeared first on PEER.org.

It’s never a good sign when a former Environmental Protection Agency official says the city was “bamboozled.”

But that was how Kyla Bennett reacted when she learned Philadelphia officials were told that an artificial turf playing surface — the centerpiece of a $7.5 million renovation to a recreation center — was free of PFAS, the forever chemicals linked to cancer, asthma, and other health issues.

Read the PEER Story…

The post Ban turf fields in Philadelphia parks appeared first on PEER.org.