Olympia Ecosaboteurs Still Face Terrorism Charges

Yesterday we wrote a post on the four ELF arsonists who changed their pleas to guilty in an Oregon court. We indicated that they made deals with the prosecution and would receive lighter sentences in exchange for testifying against each other. Wrong. Sorry, the newspaper reports sucked yesterday and occasionally we're only as good as the source material. They did non-cooperation plea agreements which means they copped to the charges (attempted arson, conspiracy, arson; it varied with the defendants), but didn't agree to provide information against others.

The two from Olympia, Nathan Frazer Block and Joyanna L. Zacher, face 96 month sentences and their agreements don't prohibit them from trying for shorter prison terms. Enter the "terrorism enhancement." Federal prosecutors are trying to attach a terrorism enhancement to the sentences which could add 20 years to each sentence. Ouch.

If you follow this link to the Portland Indymedia site and scroll down to the comments, you'll find a sampling of the radical environmentalists' opinion of these four. They feel like these are the good guys who didn't roll over in the face of the "Green Scare."

The defense lawyers in this case claim that Zacher and Block were able to get these pleas because they insisted that warrentless NSA wiretaps were being used against them. The prosecution denies that, according to the Seattle Times today.

Image of the Eugene Federal Courthouse from flickr user kymtyr.