[Ppnews] Briana Waters Indicted Today

[Political Prisoner News]

fro at riseup.net wrote:
(This was just posted the the breaking news-wire on the website for 
the Olympian newspaper.)

Woman indicted in arson that destroyed UW horticulture center

The Associated Press

SEATTLE - A federal grand jury has indicted a Berkeley, Calif., woman 
in an arson that destroyed a horticulture center at the University of 
Washington five years ago.

Briana Waters, 30, is the 14th person to be charged in Oregon and 
Washington with conspiracy to commit a series of ecoterrorist attacks 
in the West in recent years.

In a two-count indictment returned March 15, Waters was charged with 
arson and using or carrying a destructive device during a violent crime.

If convicted, she would face at least 35 years in prison.

"This is just one step as we attempt to bring to justice those 
responsible for the UW Urban Horticulture fire," John McKay, U.S. 
attorney for the western district of Washington, said in a statement.

"As we move toward the five-year anniversary of that devastating 
blaze, I applaud the investigators who have worked so doggedly and 
diligently to put the pieces of the puzzle together."

Waters was to appear for arraignment Thursday afternoon in U.S. 
District Court in Seattle.

The UW fire, one of the Northwest's most notorious acts of 
ecoterrorism, was set early on May 21, 2001. The same day, about 110 
miles away in Clatskanie, Ore., fire ripped through buildings and 
vehicles at the Jefferson Poplar Farm, causing more than $1 million in damage.

The Earth Liberation Front, a shadowy collection of environmental 
activists, claimed responsibility for both fires, which caused no injuries.

The horticulture center, which was rebuilt at a cost of several 
million dollars, had done work on fast-growing hybrid poplars in 
hopes of limiting the amount of natural forests that timber companies log.

ELF said in a statement five days after the fire that the poplars 
pose "an ecological nightmare" for the diversity of native forests.

A federal grand jury in Eugene, Ore., has charged 13 other people in 
arson attacks: Stanislas Gregory Meyerhoff, 28; Daniel Gerard 
McGowan, 31; Kevin M. Tubbs, 37; Sarah Kendall Harvey, 29; Chelsea 
Dawn Gerlach, 28; Nathan Fraser Block, 25; Joyanna L. Zacher, 28; 
Joseph Dibee, 38; Jonathan Mark Christopher Paul, 40; Rebecca Rubin, 
32; Suzanne Savoie, 28; and Darren Todd Thurston, 34.

William C. Rodgers, 40, of Prescott, Ariz., was indicted in Seattle 
in connection with the case, but committed suicide Dec. 22 while 
being held in the Coconino County Jail in Prescott.



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