William C. Rodgers
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Bill Rodgers a.k.a. Avalon, co-proprietor of the Catalyst Infoshop in Prescott, Arizona, USA, was one of six environmental activists arrested December 7, 2005 as part of the FBI's Operation Backfire. He was charged with one count of arson for a June, 1998 fire set by the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) at the National Wildlife Research Center in Olympia, Washington. He was found dead in his jail cell on December 21, 2005. According to police, Rodgers committed suicide using a plastic bag.[1]
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[edit] Government claims
The FBI has claimed that Rodgers was a criminal "mastermind" and the anonymous author of Setting Fire with Electrical Timers, an Earth Liberation Front Guide [1] which explained in detail how to create an incendiary device known as a "cat's cradle". Authorities said that once the guide was published they no longer were able to tell with certainty when the ELF cell connected to Rodgers was responsible for an arson.
The FBI has said that they believe that Rodgers is one of the people responsible for a fire that destroyed a Vail, Colorado mountain top ski lodge in 1998. They also claimed that child pornography was discovered in Rodger's possessions at the time of his arrest. That allegation turned out to be baseless.[citation needed]
[edit] Death
Rodgers wrote a suicide note [2] which he mailed to a number of his friends:
To my friends and supporters to help them make sense of all these events that have happened so quickly: Certain human cultures have been waging war against the Earth for millennia. I chose to fight on the side of bears, mountain lions, skunks, bats, saguaros, cliff rose and all things wild. I am just the most recent casualty in that war. But tonight I have made a jail break — I am returning home, to the Earth, to the place of my origins. Bill, 12/21/05 (the winter solstice.)
Many activists blamed two "co-operating witnesses" for Rodgers' arrest. Both of whom are alleged to have been very close friends and members of the same ELF cell as Rodgers and agreed to become informants for the FBI. [3]
[edit] Continuing influence
Rodgers has made a continuing impact on various anarchist and radical environmentalist movements. A number of acts of civil disobedience have been dedicated to his memory. Among them: the removal of 28 beagle puppies from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the Independent University of Madrid [4], and the burning of a partially constructed development in Guelph, Ontario, Canada [5].
[edit] See also
- Green Scare
- Operation Backfire
- Federal Bureau of Investigation
- Earth Liberation Front
- Animal Liberation Front
- Rod Coronado
- Eco-Terrorism
- Earth First
- Green Anarchism
[edit] Memorials
[edit] References
- ^ Remembering Bill Rodgers: Long Live Avalon!. Slingshot. Retrieved on July 9, 2006.
