| Ecoterrorists Blamed in $50M
Fire - Investigators Blame Ecoterrorists in $50 Million San
Diego Apartment Fire
(Note from Jim Beers: Oh, they're just children. They'll grow out of it. They only did it for a "good" purpose. People should listen to what they're trying to say. They are mostly young girls and boys from good families. Why, Sally always loved animals -- and Billy always wanted to "save" the environment and stop pollution. They didn't mean any harm. Maybe we shouldn't build any more buildings or drive SUV's or keep animals or hunt or graze or log or trap or keep unapproved plants or go to circuses or rodeos and ratfiy the Kyoto Treaty -- and do everything possible to give the central government all authority -- while giving the UN more power over us and tax ourselves ever higher so that we are economically between Mexico and Egypt; then maybe "they" will stop doing this and leave us alone. Like the goon sticking up 7-11's or the student shooting up a school; the answer is understanding, minimal sentencing, and determining just "who" or "what" made these poor victims do this. Did I miss anything?!) August 5, 2003 By Seth Hettena To submit a Letter to the Editor: stateeditor@thestate.com San Diego, California - Investigators said Tuesday that arsonists from an environmental terrorist group were to blame for a fire at an apartment complex under construction that caused $50 million in damage. The Earth Liberation Front, linked to arson incidents across the West, claimed responsibility for setting fire to the five-story apartment complex Friday in San Diego. A 12-foot banner found at the scene read: "If you build it, we will burn it," along with the initials ELF. The group, which only communicates with the news media by e-mail, issued a brief statement saying the banner "is a legitimate claim of responsibility by the Earth Liberation Front." "The intent was to burn the structure to the ground," said San Diego Fire Capt. Jeffrey A. Carle, an arson investigator who called the fire one of the costliest in city history. He declined to say what was used to start the three-alarm blaze. There were no injuries. The San Diego arson was said to be the costliest action ever by the ELF, an underground group that since 1996 has claimed responsibility for arson attacks against commercial entities that members say threaten or damage the environment. "This one fire did more dollar damage than all of the other vandalism they've done put together," said Ron Arnold, executive vice president of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise in Bellevue, Wash., which tracks ecoterrorism and vandalism. Arnold said that the ELF's costliest crime had been a 1998 fire that caused $12 million damage at the Vail, Colo., ski resort. The group said it was protesting the resort's expansion into lynx habitat. The group also claimed responsibility for an arson in June that destroyed two upscale homes under construction in a Detroit suburb. No arrests have been made, but the FBI's local counterterrorism task force said several suspects were being tracked. Copyright 2003 The Associated Press http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20030805_2119.html http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/6466627.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp Contact Ron Arnold and/or learn more: |