Senators clash over terrorist priorities.

The article reports on a clash between U.S. senators during the May 18, 2005 hearing of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works over the potential terrorist threat of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Environmental Liberation Front (ELF). Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) noted that the activities of these organized groups, which are conducted by autonomous individuals or cells, have been designated the number one domestic terrorist threat by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Senators James Jeffords (I-Vt.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) joined in a statement for the record, objecting to designating ALF/ELF as terrorist groups. John Lewis and Carson Carroll, deputy assistant directors of the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, respectively, disagreed. They testified that threats from right-wing militias and hate crimes are less serious than those posed by ALF/ELF in terms of coordination, planning, and geographic range. David Skorton, president of the University of Iowa, provided a perspective on the impact that these activists have had. He testified that in a November 2004 attack at his university, 18 individuals claiming responsibility on behalf of ALF destroyed and poured acid on equipment and papers and released more than 300 animals.