Recipes for Disaster: an anarchist cookbook

After the night's reconnaissance, we completed the journey we had told friends we were taking, arriving in Washington D.C. from Michigan as planned. After we'd established a local presence there among aboveground activists, one cell member and I drove back to Michigan. We rented a hotel room thirty miles from MSU, vidth outdoor access so no one would see us coming and going. Even during our earlier trip, we hadn't so much as gassed up in East Lansing, not wanting to be seen by surveillance cameras or people in the same town as the college we intended to strike.

On the day of the action, in a car rented by a local friend who wouldn't ask questions, we drove the route of our planned approach and escape to ensure there were no changes. Next, my comrade tested the police scanner, which was programmed with the frequencies of the MSU Police, while I went to work assembling a timed incendiary device out of components purchased far away while on the east coast.

All the ingredients were nationally distributed items; 1 removed all identifying serial sabotase numbers, such as the one on the kitchen timer. Once the device was completed, 1 gently 449

packed it with its battery disconnected into a small Tupperware container, and threw away all the remaining electrical wire, soldering gun, and wire cutters?all traceable items, and none as valuable as freedom.

After years of breaking into buildings, I had refined my fanny pack toolkit to include just a few items; a small pair of "Vise-Grip" locking pliers, indispensable for removing small screws such as those in the roofing material; a Leatherman-type multi-tool; a small pry bar or large screwdriver; a flashlight that could be held in the mouth; and a knife with a serrated edge for cutting screen, insulation, sheetrock, or even steel cable and sheet metal. Last but not least, I carried the official ALF key, a small pair of bolt cutters for small locks such as those on the mink bams and file cabinets.

With just two people, there is less room for mistakes. First, we would visit the Experimental Fur Farm. We had agreed on the pick-up spot, and planned only to use our reliable radios as a backup. I would have my radio on at all times with silence being the continuing signal for "all clear." If I needed more time, I would take it, and radio when 1 was ready to be picked up. My driver would be listening to the police scanner while watching for abnormal activity.

At 11:30 p.m., I was dropped on the shoulder of the state highway behind MSU's Experimental Fur Farm. In just a few minutes, I was approaching the main research barn; it was black against the moonless night. Taking a ladder from the farm, I climbed onto the roof and quickly used my small locking pliers to remove enough sheet metal screws to pry back the panel enough for me to crawl through. One last glance to ensure I hadn't been seen, and I was in. I crawled through the attic, removed a ceiling panel, and shone my flashlight into the darkened research bam. The room was filled with feed mixers, refrigerators, and other fur farm equipment. I lowered myself from the ceiling. Sabotage dropped into the room, and listened to my radio for any sign that I might have set off" a 4S0 motion-detecting alarm.

It was still silent. I moved to the small office in the comer of the research barn, and inspected the thin hoEow-core wooden door for an alarm. None was visible, so I pulled the pins from the door's hinges with my multi-tool, then removed the entire locked door without a struggle.

All the breeding records and other data necessary for the fiir farm's operation were inside the ofEice. I dumped computer discs, slides, and paperwork onto the floor. In a freezer, I discovered dozens of softball-sized balls wrapped in aluminum foil. I opened one; it contained an otter's head.

Everything inside the freezers and refrigerators went onto the floor. Lastly, I pulled a can of red spray paint from my pack and wrote, "MICHIGAN MINK MILITIA," "AULERICH TORTURES MINK," and "WE WILL BE BACK FOR THE OTTER" on the walls. The last statement referred to the lone otter I had found in a long concrete cage among the mink bams. On my way out of the barn, I poured two gallons of hydrochloric acid I had found inside into the machinery and electrical equipment and over the paperwork on the floor. Knowing now that there were no alarms, I left the building through a door.