LONG ISLAND, N.Y. -- Jared McIntyre, a 17-year-old son of a New York City police sergeant, devoted many afternoons to researching global warming at the Brookhaven National Laboratory and writing impassioned essays for his high school newspaper that depicted prisons as "dungeons" and farms as "ecologically devastating."
But when McIntyre started burning down newly built homes in the name of environmental preservation, federal prosecutors said his youthful social activism took a leap into domestic terrorism.
McIntyre pleaded guilty in mid-February as an adult in federal court here to arson and conspiracy for burning new homes and planning to torch a fast-food restaurant and a duck farm. He carried out these crimes under the name of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), which the FBI has labeled as one of the country's greatest domestic terrorism threats.
Within days of McIntyre's plea, two other Long Island teenagers entered pleas. Matthew Rammelkamp, 16, a high school junior who masters a heavy course load of Advanced Placement and honors courses, pleaded guilty to burning down four partially built homes. McIntyre's classmate, George Mashkow, 17, a junior whom neighbors describe as bright but needy for acceptance, pleaded guilty to burning down another new home.
A fourth person, Conor Cash, 19, has been charged with leading the three young men in the destruction. But Cash's neighbors bristle at accusations that the teenager they know for capricious hairstyles and idealism is a terrorist.
"This is no mastermind. ... This is no 007," said Tom Grecco, Cash's former neighbor. "He's just the kid across the street."
The FBI disagrees. The charges mark the first time federal agents have caught members of ELF. The group and its partner, the Animal Liberation Front, ALF, are the most active domestic terrorists, according to the FBI.
ELF has said members have destroyed $37 million worth of property in its attacks, mostly in the West. When ELF moved east to Long Island, the FBI assigned the Joint Terrorist Task Force, which handled the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Africa and the World Trade Center, to investigate.
"Are they terrorists? Yes they are," said Harvey Kushner, an expert witness for federal prosecutors in the New York City trial of four people charged in the embassy bombings. He calls ELF "the new face of terrorism."
Modeled after ALF, ELF is organized in small, decentralized groups of members, or cells, that communicate anonymously through e-mails and their Web site. When a cell decides to take a "direct action" such as burning newly built homes, members announce their actions through ELF spokesman Craig Rosebraugh. Rosebraugh, who runs a vegan bakery in Portland, Ore., says he's not an ELF member but supports their acts.
All four youths -- who face prison terms of up to 20 years, 40 for the alleged ringleader if he is convicted -- declined to be interviewed for this story.
McIntyre grew up in the Long Island suburb of Coram in a neat ranch house with a wooden swing set and above-ground swimming pool. Classmates at Longwood High School describe him as a popular, honors-level student who uses a quick wit to defuse tension at the school's newspaper.
"He's concerned about the world he lives in," said Bradley Bing, the newspaper adviser. "He's just into social issues much like the '60s."
At Longwood High, which McIntyre and Mashkow attend, encroaching development is a hot topic among students who point to the half-constructed homes edging school property. They talk about the school's expansion projects to make space for the ninth-grade class. But McIntyre, they say, took these changes more seriously.
When McIntyre met Rammelkamp at an environmental rally last fall, he found a peer who was just as serious about the environment. In addition to his demanding course work, Rammelkamp plays electric guitar, skateboards and reads extensively about the environment, said his mother, Debra Rammelkamp. For a boy whose life experiences include driving a car only four times, his mother said, Rammelkamp argues with his parents authoritatively about the environment and nags them to eat more vegetables and to avoid soda.
"He only sees the one side environmentally," she said.
By the December arson, Mashkow had joined their plans, according to prosecutors. This effusive son of a retired corrections officer shared not so much an interest in the environment as a need to fit in, friends and neighbors say. One neighbor says he trusts Mashkow so much that he's given him keys to his home to watch his dogs when he vacations.
"He is not an activist or terrorist," said Mashkow's attorney, Charlie Russo. "He simply was a 17-year-old who was misguided."
According to court documents filed by prosecutors, the four youths started the burnings in the name of ELF in December. Household items such as sponges and birthday candles became their weapons, and ALF and ELF Web sites became their guides, prosecutors said.
In their guilty pleas, McIntyre and Mashkow admitted to setting fire to a partially constructed house; McIntyre and Rammelkamp admitted to torching four other partially built homes.
