Was Discovery Channel Hostage-Taker James Lee Pursuing Eco-Terrorism?

(Sept. 1) -- James J. Lee, the man who police say held the Discovery Communications headquarters building hostage today, reportedly wrote a rambling manifesto that calls for the end of human procreation as a means to solving the world's environmental woes. In a press conference after the incident, police said that the demands Lee made during their negotiations with him were similar to those raised in that document.

Gunmen running rampant in public spaces are, unfortunately, nothing new. But by allegedly holding people hostage in apparent pursuit of his warped vision of environmental justice, Lee may have added a new twist on eco-terrorism.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation defines "eco-terrorism" as "the use or threatened use of violence of a criminal nature against innocent victims or property by an environmentally-oriented, subnational group for environmental-political reasons, or aimed at an audience beyond the target, often of a symbolic nature."

Eco-terrorism was popularized in the 1970s by a splinter group of Greenpeace called the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, according to FBI congressional testimony in 2002. Early in its existence, the group gained notoriety by cutting fishing nets and made headlines more recently in January when its Batmobile-inspired ship, the Ady Gil, was rammed by a Japanese whaler in a high-seas game of chicken.

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Other eco-terrorist groups have followed suit. The Animal Liberation Front (or ALF, not to be mistaken with the lovable television alien) illegally "liberates" animals from slaughterhouses, fur farms and laboratories and destroys property to cause economic damage, according to its website.

The Earth Liberation Front (or ELF, not to be confused with ALF) uses arson to inflict economic damage. In 1998, the group lit fires at a Vail, Colo., resort to protest a planned expansion. The fires burned down a mountain ski lodge and caused $12 million in damage.

Today's new extreme breed of eco-terrorism has reportedly ended in the death of the gunman. Lee's hostages are said to be safe.