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Ashland, Oregon HOME Valley & State Sports Nation & World Opinion/Editorial Classifieds Business Columnists Local Issues Obituaries Weather Archive Revels Etcetera Backpage Hot Topics Most Viewed Forum Photo Galleries Video Readers Polls O-Zone Online Games Movie Preview Special Sections Real Estate Guide Menu Guide Shakespeare Subscribe Contact Us Rate Card Place an Ad January 19, 2006 Eco-terror sweep nabs Valley man Judge will consider merit of the case today By Robert Plain Ashland Daily Tidings A nationwide FBI round-up of environmental activists purported to be linked to acts of eco-sabotage in Oregon and Washington reached the Rogue Valley this week, as federal agents arrested a man from the Greensprings and are looking for a woman from the Applegate. Jonathan Paul, 39, who lives on Soda Mountain Road, was arrested Tuesday afternoon at his home in connection with an arson that occurred at the Cavel West horse meatpacking plant in Redmond, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Medford on Tuesday. FBI Agent Paul Caldwell said in the court affidavit that an informant told the FBI that the suspect cut soap into small pieces to be used in a bomb and then drove to the horse-meat plant and acted as a lookout. Suzanne “India” Savoie, 28, of Williams, has been accused of aiding an arson of the Superior Lumber Company in Glendale. According to Caldwell’s affidavit, she told an FBI informant that she was involved in a conspiracy to set fire to the lumber mill. As of press time, Savoie was still at large. But a source told the Tidings that the woman had turned herself in this morning. FBI sources were not available for comment. Paul was scheduled to appear in federal court in Medford this afternoon at 3. If Judge John Cooney decides there is enough evidence to bring formal charges against him, U.S. marshals will bring him to Eugene to appear before a grand jury, a court clerk said. Both Paul and Savoie, if convicted, could be sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined up to $250,000. Lauren Regan, an attorney with the Civil Liberties Defense Center in Eugene who has been acting in a supporting role to some of the cases being brought against the environmental activists, said the government’s case is based primarily on the testimony of Jake Ferguson, who has admitted his role in the actions and has agreed to cooperate with the FBI. Ferguson “has admitted to being a serial arsonist and igniting those fires and he’s walking the streets right now,” she said. “Apparently he’s looking at a life sentence. He is highly motivated to cooperate right now. If the government’s case is relying solely on his testimony, they don’t have much of a case.” One Ashland environmental activist, speaking anonymously due to the fear of government retribution, said, “The common thread in all the arrests is the FBI’s reliance on the testimony of a known heroin addict. This is part of the ‘Green Scare,’ a term describing the contemporary government persecution of environmentalists and animal rights activist. The Earth and Animal Liberation Fronts have committed thousands of direct actions, including sabotage, and have never harmed a person since their inception in 1976.” Paul’s wife, Tamara Drake, was reached on Wednesday but declined to comment. Paul’s attorney, Stu Sugarman of Portland, could not be reached for comment. On the Web site fbiwitchhunt.com, Drake wrote that her husband was first subpoenaed in the investigation on Dec. 7. A Bureau of Land Management enforcement vehicle and an unmarked SUV followed the van her husband was traveling in while driving home from work, she said. When the van stopped, an FBI agent approached the van, opened the door and served Paul a subpoena, she wrote on the site. According to Drake, the agent asked her husband, “if he was ‘JP.’ Jonathan replied ‘Who’s asking?’ Agent [Gary] Lorin flashed his badge and served the subpoena. He started to ask Jonathan a question and Jonathan put his hand up and said, ‘No questions. You know the drill.’” On the Web site, which is registered to a Santa Cruz, Calif., entity called Extreme Vegan Hosting, Drake said, “Jonathan was subpoenaed to another grand jury in Spokane in the early 90s. He appeared, refused to testify and spent 6 months in jail. He is not unfamiliar with the process and is prepared to fight the system again.” Paul was also “charged but not prosecuted in the 1986 sabotage of a University of Oregon animal testing lab,” according to the Portland Independent Media Web site. A fireman who works as an independent contractor in Southern Oregon, Paul is being accused of “unlawfully and willfully ... destroying, by means of fire and an explosive, of a building and other real and personal property” at the Cavel West horse meat packing plant on July 21, 1997, according to the FBI affidavit. It says the informant told the FBI that Paul “prepared gasoline/diesel fuel used in the arson by adding soap, which was ground up and added ... to thicken it and thereby slow the burning process.” The fire caused an estimated $1 million in damages to the Cavel West plant. According to the affidavit, Paul carried the explosive material in five-gallon buckets and set up the “incendiary device.” A separate criminal complaint, accuses Savoie, the Applegate resident, of serving as a lookout in the Superior Lumber fire on Jan. 2, 2001. She was “equipped with radio transmitters to communicate with other arsonists involved in preparing the” explosives. The fire caused an estimated $400,000 in damages. Staff writer Robert Plain can be reached at 482-3456 x 226 or [email protected]. --> Copyright © 2006 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers. All Rights Reserved.