On March 17, 2003, Craig Rosebraugh, former spokesman for the Earth Liberation Front, one of the most active ecoterrorist groups in the United States, issued a statement calling for more aggressive protests on the part of activists demonstrating against the war in Iraq.

According to Rosebraugh's message, "the only possibility of stopping this current military action is to engage in strategies and tactics which severely disrupt the war machine, the U.S. economy, and the overall functioning of U.S. society."

In his message, which was posted on a number of left-wing Web sites, Rosebraugh recommends that activists attack American financial and media centers and the U.S. military establishment, and that they incite large-scale urban riots. He also recommends that people executing these attacks evade authorities and resist arrest.

Rosebraugh stepped down as ELF spokesman in September 2001, but is still an influential figure among radical environmentalists, animal rights activists, and anarchists. During his tenure as ELF spokesman, ELF took credit for numerous acts of sabotage and arson that caused millions of dollars in damage and destruction. Most of those crimes remain unsolved, including ELF's most famous terrorist act, the destruction by fire of a Vail, Colorado, ski resort in 1998.

Several anarchist and anti-authoritarian groups, who link resistance to war with opposition to the structure of global capitalism generally, have already organized "breakaway marches" at anti-war rallies, vandalizing stores and buildings that "represent" capitalism.

Rosebraugh has expressed extreme anti-American views in the past. Responding to a subpoena to appear before the House Resources Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health in February 2002, Rosebraugh pleaded the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination on all but a few questions. In a written explanation, Rosebraugh said that "in light of the events on September 11, my country has told me that I should not cooperate with terrorists. I therefore am refusing to cooperate with members of Congress who are some of the most extreme terrorists in history."

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