ELFer Mason sentencing today (Detroit Free Press)‏

Sent: February 5, 2009 2:22:39 PM


Detroit Free Press
Eco-activist to be sentenced today for MSU arson
BY BILL McGRAW • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
February 5, 2009
http://www.freep.com/article/20090205/COL27/902050384

Marie Mason was a nonviolent environmental activist, animal lover and
single mom who grew up in Westland and Plymouth.

She became a political arsonist, though, and a member of the Earth
Liberation Front. She torched boats, McMansions under construction and
the Michigan State University Agriculture Hall to protest research
into genetically modified crops.

She got caught and admitted what she had done. Now, the U.S.
government wants to put Mason, 47, in prison for 20 years.

That's the legal summary of her case.

On a human scale, friends, supporters and observers continue to marvel
at how Mason came to be indicted: Her then-husband -- an ELF member
who lit the MSU fire -- secretly recorded Mason incriminating herself
while he worked for the FBI. He got 9 years in prison.

"They were still married," said Mason's sister, Germaine Finley.
"Isn't that creepy?"

Creepy but great method for getting leniency from the courts. What better way to exonerate oneself from just how such hypocrites operate. Even better for the law as they can really get a feel for just how guilty their targets are.

Mason's prosecution has become the talk of activists across the
country. And it is to reach a conclusion this morning in Lansing,
where Mason, who pleaded guilty to arson and conspiracy in September,
is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney.

Mason's conduct "represents a complete rejection of how America's free
society functions," Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagen Frank told Maloney
in a memo on the sentencing. Mason "remains an unrepentant and
unapologetic advocate of violence and intimidation as a means of
protest."

Her attorney, John Minock of Ann Arbor, told the judge that Mason is
indeed sorry for what she did and recognizes that she could have
injured someone. He also noted she performed her last act of
environmental sabotage in 2003, five years before the government
charged her.

"She is very sad, contemplating the unintended angst her acts caused
in others," Minock said.

Frank describes Mason as an "eco-extremist" mastermind, despite her
"demure public manner and unthreatening physical appearance."

Friends and family members say Mason is a passive, self-effacing,
volunteer-type who helped feed needy people in the Cass Corridor, took
in homeless people, named her cats after political legends Emma
Goldman and Rosa Parks and worked peacefully against the construction
of the Detroit incinerator.

"She was a small woman, intense and serious, passionate about the
sanctity of all life and burdened by her fear for the Earth and its
inhabitants," Julianne Cuneo, a longtime acquaintance, told the judge
in a letter.

Mason graduated from Plymouth Salem High School with honors and did
graduate studies in chemistry at Wayne State University. In 1999, she
married an environmental activist and wood-floor refinisher named
Frank Ambrose, now 34.

When she pleaded guilty to conspiracy and arson in September, Mason
told the judge that on New Year's Eve 1999, she and Ambrose broke into
the Agriculture Hall office of an MSU staffer who was asking countries
to use genetically modified crops on behalf of the Monsanto Co.,
rather than seeds nurtured over generations. She believed, as do many
environmentalists, that Monsanto's products can be dangerous.

Mason spray-painted anti-genetic-crop graffiti on the wall and planned
to destroy the office, but a fire Ambrose said he ignited exploded
into a fireball that grew into a blaze that caused more than $1
million in damage and burned Mason's hair. No one else was injured.

Because they were activists, authorities had their eyes on Mason and
Ambrose for years. The FBI finally nabbed Ambrose in 2007 after a
scrapper, foraging in a suburban Detroit trash bin, discovered maps,
gas masks and radical writings that Ambrose had thrown away. Agents,
as they say, flipped Ambrose, turning him into a confidential
informant who traveled the country, talking to radical
environmentalists while he wore a recording device.

He pleaded guilty in October to arson conspiracy. Ambrose and Mason
are now divorced.

Mason admitted to 12 other acts of eco-sabotage between 1999 and 2003.
She has refused to cooperate with prosecutors.

Mason discussed her life under indictment and thanked supporters in a
story for the summer issue of the Fifth Estate, the left-leaning
political journal.

She wrote: "As a strong community of resistance, we can withstand the
repression of the state and continue to fight for the Earth
everywhere."

Contact BILL McGRAW at bmcgraw@freepress.com.

Booba doesn't need to wait much longer for her petite little cell mate to arrive. Wonder how Marie will deal with having Bubba's big sister Booba, as her room mate for the next 22 years?


Marie Mason sentenced to 22 years (L.A. Times)‏

Sent: February 5, 2009 6:14:22 PM

Los Angeles Times
Radical activist gets 22 years in prison for $1 million arson fire at
Mich. campus in 1999
By ED WHITE
Associated Press Writer
February 5, 2009
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-midwest-eco-terrorism,1,3702775.story

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A radical activist who helped set a $1 million
fire to protest research on genetically modified crops was sentenced
Thursday to nearly 22 years in prison — even more than the prosecution
recommended.

Marie Mason decided to "elevate her grievances beyond the norms of
civilized society" through fire and destruction, U.S. District Judge
Paul Maloney said. The case — which was prosecuted as domestic
terrorism — was "about an abandonment of the marketplace of ideas," he
added.

The explosion and fire caused more than $1 million in damage to
Michigan State University's Agriculture Hall on New Year's Eve 1999.

In her plea agreement, she also admitted causing another $3 million in
damage through other acts from 1999 to 2003, including destroying
homes under construction in the Detroit area and Indiana and setting
fire to two boats owned by a man who formerly raised minks.

The 47-year-old Mason, of Cincinnati, had acted on behalf of the
radical group Earth Liberation Front, or ELF, which has been
implicated in a spate of similar crimes, mostly in the West.

She had pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy and arson after
reaching a deal with prosecutors. The prosecution had been aided by
Frank Ambrose, her former husband, who cooperated with the FBI.

The investigation was cold until spring 2007, when a man looking for
scrap cardboard found gas masks, an M-80 explosive, maps and
anti-government writings in a suburban Detroit trash bin.

They belonged to Ambrose, who apparently was trying to shed remnants
of his past. The FBI searched his home, and he became an informant,
blowing the whistle on himself and Mason and going undercover to
record 178 conversations with other activists.

At MSU, Mason and Ambrose targeted a campus office that held records
on research related to moth-resistant potatoes for poor parts of
Africa. Computers, file cabinets and desks were doused with a
flammable liquid. Vapors contributed to an explosion, and the fire got
out of control.

The explosion burned Mason's hair and prevented her from finishing the
message, "No GMO," on a wall, a reference to genetically modified
organisms.

"Pure luck" prevented the couple from being killed, Assistant U.S.
Attorney Hagen Frank said. "Did that deter Ms. Mason? Not one bit. She
celebrated it. Her community celebrated it."

Prosecutors had recommended 20 years in prison for Mason — a term that
would have been "the most onerous sentence imposed in a case of this
sort," Frank said.

Speaking near the end of a three-hour hearing, Mason said she had been
"misguided" and was sorry for those who were frightened by her
actions. "I meant to inspire thought and compassion, not fear," she
told the judge.

Maloney sentenced Mason to 21 years and 10 months in prison and
described her as a "high risk" to repeat her crimes.

Defense lawyer John Minock said he would appeal the sentence. "I'm
shocked," he said outside court. "It's grossly out of proportion to
other cases."

Ambrose was sentenced in October to nine years in prison.

In an interview, U.S. Attorney Don Davis tipped his hat to Andy
Wishaw, the man who alerted authorities to the unusual things he found
in the trash bin.

"This case, like many other cases, was resolved through citizen
interaction with law enforcement," Davis said.

"Agents,
as they say, flipped Ambrose, turning him into a confidential
informant who traveled the country, talking to radical
environmentalists while he wore a recording device."

The part I really enjoy knowing peta, alf ,elf etc are compromised, ALL OVER THE COUNTRY, not sure if they can trust one another. Sold out by their own kind . They cannot be sure what they tell someone may have them locked up for quite sometime!!!
Join peta go to jail!! ha ha ha ha .
I would not want to get caught sending them money right now lest R.I.C.O. kick in.They are really paying their money and taking their chances .

"ELF" sounds a lot like "ALF" "ALF" is considered a terrorist organization. Don't know much about "ELF" but if it is classified the same then she should be treated as a terrorist and face the same punishment as the members of al qaeda.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Liberation_Front

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Liberation_Front
HTH explain the difference

A part of me says , good you bought the cell block company you deserve and your rights will buy you just what you tried to do to others who you found fault with Marie. Yet another part feels very sorry for this petite young woman who figured she could play the dark knight and get away with it. Now she is going to have force applied to her that will bring terror to her life. In the mean time Booba and her cell mates will be just as disregarding of her personal life choices as she was of those whom she attacked. I do feel sorry for her in the long run. She was a self serving dictator that destroyed most of the best years of her life and will now have her body,& mind & Soul subject to the stress of Cell Block life that although routine is never going to be pleasant.