Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

EMERGENCY PROVISIONS ACT, NORTHERN IRELAND • 161Violent activism by environmentally oriented groups appears tohave been increasing in response to a decline in the environmentalmovement’s effectiveness in conventional interest-group activism.According to North American Research, which tracks crimesagainst property in the United States and Canada, there were aboutsix instances of environmentalist sabotage of private developmentin 1986 whereas by 1998 there was an average of 300 such crimes ayear, with much of the increase occurring in the period 1995–1998.While the Federal Bureau of Investigation prevented four plannedacts of sabotage by the EMETIC (Evan Mecham Eco-Terrorist InternationalConspiracy) group in Arizona in 1989, environmentalistrelatedviolence accounted for six of the 21 officially designateddomestic acts of terrorism in the period 1987–1990. In October1998 environmental activists, calling themselves the Earth LiberationFront, set fires at a Vail ski area under expansion, destroyingthree major buildings and damaging four chairlifts. Outside theUnited States the Greenpeace group attempted in July 1995 to sailthe Rainbow Warrior II into the French nuclear testing groundsat Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific in response to the renewednuclear testing planned by the French government, one instanceof environmental activists becoming more active not only in theUnited States but also in other countries.EJÉRCITO REVOLUCIONARIO DEL PUEBLO (ERP). SeeFARABUNDO MARTÍ NATIONAL LIBERATION FRONT.EMERGENCY PROVISIONS ACT (EPA), NORTHERN IRE-LAND. In 1973 Great Britain instituted special guidelines forsearch, arrest, and interrogation procedures involving suspectedmembers of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and related groups,suspected members of Protestant paramilitary groups, or otherssuspected of terrorist activities. These Northern Ireland (EmergencyProvisions) Acts, revised in 1987, 1996, and 1998, allowedarmy and police in Northern Ireland to conduct searches withoutwarrants using the standard of reasonable suspicion, which is lessthan the probable cause standard required by the Fourth Amendmentof the U.S. Constitution. Amendments in 1987 added thereasonable suspicion requirement to allow judicial review of policeactions, whereas prior to 1987 police and army units needed onlyorders from their superiors to conduct searches. Amendments in