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$20 million fire tied to eco-terrorists
Dozens of investigators on Monday were probing a $20 million arson that appears to be the work of the Earth Liberation Front. If front activists are responsible, it would be the costliest attack ever by environmental extremists. The fire early Friday leveled a 200-unit condominium complex that was under construction in what had been a scenic canyon with nearby wetlands. A 12-foot hand-painted banner found on the scene read: “If you build it — we will burn it — the ELF’s are mad.”
The San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper reported it had received an e-mail from the ELF claiming responsibility. “It does look as we progress on that the ELF has taken responsibility,” said FBI special agent Jan Caldwell. “That does put it in the arena of domestic terrorism.”
Yup.
San Diego’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, an interagency operation of federal and local authorities, was being briefed, Caldwell said. About 100 investigators, including an FBI Evidence Response Team, have been put on the case, she said, and that number could grow.
Now that the FBI is on the case I feel much better. I mean, they solved that anthrax case, right? Hello?
Stop Eco-Violence, a group that tracks eco-terrorism, said that if ELF activists are behind the arson “the attack would register as the largest eco-terror crime to date. The 1998 ELF-claimed firebombing of the Vail, Colo., ski resort comes in at a distant second with an estimated $12 million in losses”. ELF activists have claimed responsibility for dozens of fires and other acts in recent years, causing $50 million in damages to the Vail resort, luxury homes, sport utility vehicles and biotech companies testing genetically modified crops.
Capt. Jeff Carle of the San Diego Fire Department said three construction workers who were sleeping on the site managed to escape unharmed.
It’s only a matter of time before someone dies.
Several hundred residents of a building next to the construction site were evacuated as heat from the blaze broke windows and melted plastic blinds in their homes. Carle said if environmentalists were behind the fire, he didn’t understand their motivation: More trees would be cut down to rebuild the structure.
It’s the symbolisum they are after.
ELF, like its counterpart, the Animal Liberation Front, appears to be a loosely knit group with no central leadership. Instead statements encourage people to strike out on their own, claiming ELF responsibility.
Or it could be a half dozen people pretending to be a large movement. They’ve got better internal security than the KGB. One of these days, some construction site security guard is going to catch them in the act, then investigators will have some place to start. After they ID the body.
Posted by: Steve 2003-08-05
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=17307