Federal investigators in Oregon and across the country deserve credit for their persistence in running to ground the so-called ecoterrorists of "The Family."

Their efforts were crowned with success when several members of the cell were arrested over the last several months, and again last week, in federal court in Eugene, with the guilty pleas of some of those charged. They will now be available to testify in the trials of the rest.

The press has called these people ecoterrorists because they supposedly had the motive of saving the earth, which sounds kind of lofty. But actually, they destroyed property without rhyme or reason. None of their actions saved any part of the earth. Nothing they did resulted in any easing of the plight of animals in our society.

They bombed installations such as wild-horse corrals in Burns, a federal plant inspection station in Washington state, and a lumber company office in Monmouth. They also torched a lumber mill office in Glendale and a truck dealer in Eugene. In all, they launched 16 firebombings or other attacks between 1997 and 2001.

Predictably, their actions proved pointless. Meat eating was not reduced. The fate of domestic animals was not improved. In attacking research laboratories, they destroyed material intended to improve the environment by better farming practices.

If they had wanted to make a difference, they would have had to do the heavy lifting that people in the traditional activist groups do, to a sometimes aggravating degree: arguing, writing, campaigning, picketing and even filing the occasional suit.

The Northwest firebombers may claim that their attacks were planned to destroy property, not hurt people. Even if true, that would be no excuse. They could never have been certain that an unexpected visitor would not be trapped by one of their arson attacks, or that firefighters would not be be injured or killed doing their duty in fires the arsonists had caused.

These raiders, in other words, were just plain criminals and deserve no more respect than that.

Like other dangerous criminals, they also deserve prison terms when they appear for sentencing later this year. (hh)