Environmentalists Classified as Terrorists, Get Stiff Sentences.

Since the attacks of Sept. 11, and the passage of the U.S. Patriot Act, the definition of terrorism has widened and with it the size of the net the government can cast to catch suspects.

'People Are Scared'

But those who own the property that's been damaged said they've been terrorized and the people responsible should be treated as terrorists.

"There is no question that people are scared," said Frankie Trull, president and founder of the National Association of Biomedical Research, a nonprofit that represents companies and research institutions that use animals for research.

"There is an extreme element in the animal-rights movement that has decided they are somehow on a higher moral plane and that they can take the law into their own hands," she said. "The Internet has made it easier to find out where scientists live and where their children go to school."

Trull continued: "I think most people would define terrorism as leaving a Molotov cocktail on someone's doorstep and thinking that's OK. … Companies are concerned with trying to protect employees and employees' families."

The FBI's current Most Wanted List of domestic terrorism suspects includes the names of 11 people currently at large. Four of those 11 are affiliated with the Earth Liberation Front and are not accused of murder. The others all committed violent crimes.

Activists see the list as proof that the government is targeting radical environmentalists rather than pursuing harder-to-find criminals bent on using violence to coerce the government.

"Some believe that the government is changing the terminology from acts of civil disobedience to acts of terrorism, because they can show concrete results by arresting domestic activists," wrote the the authors of a National Lawyers Guild upcoming report.

The FBI, however, insisted that the radicals on the Most Wanted List are real terrorists.

And yet the FBI maintained, "One of the most serious domestic terror threats facing the country are special interest extremist movements that aim to use criminal direct action against people or companies," according to spokesman Bill Carter.