Daniel McGowan is an American environmental and social justice activist who was arrested and charged in federal court on multiple counts of arson and conspiracy, relating to the arson of Superior Lumber company in Glendale, Oregon on January 2, 2001 and Jefferson Poplar Farms in Clatskanie, Oregon on May 21, 2001 claimed by the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). McGowan was facing a minimum of life in prison if convicted when he accepted a non-cooperation plea agreement, pleading guilty on November 9, 2006. His arrest is part of what the US government has dubbed Operation Backfire.
Biography: New York native McGowan has worked on many activist issues including military counter-recruitment, demonstrations against the Republican National Convention, the Really Really Free market, and the support of prisoners such as Jeff Luers and others. McGowan was a graduate student earning a Master’s degree in acupuncture and was an employee of WomensLaw.org, a nonprofit group that helps women in domestic abuse situations navigate the legal system.
Arrest and Operation Backfire: On December 7, 2005, one of the largest arrests of environmental activists in American history began. Using the code name Operation Backfire, the FBI arrested six people. Chelsea Gerlach, William Rodgers, Kendall Tankersley, Kevin Tubbs, Daniel McGowan and Stanislas Meyerhoff were arrested for allegedly taking part in a wide variety of violent crimes, including arson and domestic terrorism. Stanislas Meyerhoff agreed to be a federal cooperating witness almost immediately upon arrest and interrogation. On December 22, William “Avalon” Rodgers was found dead in his cell in Flagstaff, Arizona, from an apparent suicide.
At first, those arrested were indicted separately with certain individuals facing numerous trials for each separate alleged incident. On January 20, federal prosecutors, the head of the FBI, and US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales held a press conference announcing a sweeping 65-count indictment, including two conspiracy charges, against 11 individuals relating to 17 different incidents in Oregon, Washington and California. In addition to the six people arrested on December 7, the Oregon indictment also named Jonathan Paul, Suzanne Savoie, Joseph Dibee, Rebecca Rubin and Josephine Overaker.
The Oregon indictment charged certain defendants with arson, attempted arson, and using and carrying a destructive device. The destructive device charge, 18 USC 924(c), carries a 30-year mandatory sentence and a life sentence for a second conviction of the charge. On June 28, the government arraigned Nathan Block, Joyanna Zacher, Daniel and Jonathan Paul on a new 65-count superseding indictment. All four pled not guilty.
Criticism of prosecution: McGowan had originally been indicted separately, but his arrest comes in the context of a well-coordinated, multi-state sweep of numerous activists by the federal government, who have charged them with practically every earth and animal liberation case left unsolved in the Northwest. Many of the charges, including McGowan’s, are for cases whose statute of limitations were about to expire.
McGowan’s case has been considered to be part of the U.S. government’s ‘Green Scare’: a term alluding to the Red Scare of the 1940s-50s. The name the federal government has given to this case is Operation Backfire and to date, over 15 activists have been arrested and indicted. The Christian Science Monitor reports that the “Operation Backfire” indictments have elicited concern that authorities have “cracked the super-secrecy of ALF and ELF.” Alternative media organizations have condemned the arrests, calling them a “witch hunt,” “aimed at disrupting and discrediting political movements.” Activists, maintaining the Red Scare allusion, claim the operations are “fishing expedition[s]” carried out “in the midst of 9/11 McCarthyism.”
Plea agreement: On November 9, 2006, McGowan and co-defendants Jonathan Paul, Joyanna Zacher and Nathan Block pled guilty and signed a non-cooperation plea agreement with the government. This agreement does not require cooperation (informing on others) on the part of the defendants. Zacher and Block each pled to one count of conspiracy, attempted arson, and two separate incidents of arson. McGowan pled to conspiracy and to two separate incidents of arson. Federal prosecutors asked the court to apply a “terrorism enhancement” at sentencing, despite the fact that the crimes to which they have admitted responsibility only involve the destruction of private property; no government property was damaged in any of the incidents. This enhancement meant that the defendants faced up to 20 years in prison in addition to the terms of the plea agreement.
Sentencing: On June 4, 2007, Daniel McGowan was sentenced to 7 years in federal prison. U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken presided over the sentencing, which took place at Oregon Federal Court in Eugene, Oregon. Judge Aiken applied a “terrorism enhancement” to the sentence, and McGowan was also ordered to pay $1.9 million in restitution.
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Daniel McGowan
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USP Marion
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Marion, IL
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