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| $20 million fire tied to eco-terrorists |
| 2003-08-05 |
| 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: âIf you build it â we will burn it â the ELFâs are mad.â The San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper reported it had received an e-mail from the ELF claiming responsibility. âIt does look as we progress on that the ELF has taken responsibility,â said FBI special agent Jan Caldwell. âThat does put it in the arena of domestic terrorism.â Yup. San Diegoâs 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 âthe 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 lossesâ. 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. Itâs 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 didnât understand their motivation: More trees would be cut down to rebuild the structure. Itâs 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. Theyâve 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 |
| #8 Be a shame if Rod Coronado's house burns down while he's on his nationwide gospel tour. A damn shame. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-8-5 9:46:49 PM |
| #7 Like if the CIA can't put an operative in AQ [though Gentleman Johhny could make it], does it surprise anyone that the FBI has zero chance of getting anyone in ELF? Unfortunately, they're going to have to fry a good number of innocents first before the government will make an effort to get these anarchists. Then of course we'll hear the chorus of 'Oh, but everyones civil liberties are in jeopardy.' Our best bet is the stups fire something which sets someone on a vigilante path. Sorry, that resort site was funded by the Mob(tm). |
| Posted by: Don 2003-8-5 4:28:59 PM |
| #6 No doubt the FBI will be all over him. Maybe they'll even run over his foot. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2003-8-5 3:03:22 PM |
| #5 Rodney Adam Coronado is a long-time ringleader of the Animal Liberation Front, a criminal enterprise that the FBI classifies as Americaâs most dangerous domestic terrorism threat. He was sentenced in 1995 to 57 months in federal prison, for the 1992 arson of a Michigan State University research laboratory. In a November 30, 2002 speech, Coronado openly confessed to at least six other arsons, all of them part of a crime spree known as âOperation Bite Back.â While the FBI was most intensely investigating Coronado, PETA gave him over $70,000 in âgrantsâ from its tax-exempt coffers sometimes a profile fits ;-) |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-8-5 2:34:26 PM |
| #4 "Rod Coronado is a convicted arsonist." There you go profiling again, David. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-8-5 1:48:12 PM |
| #3 Even more interesting: Rod Coronado is a convicted arsonist. |
| Posted by: David Hines 2003-8-5 12:38:46 PM |
| #2 Interestingly enough, a Rodney Coronado, spokesman for Animal Liberation Front, and frequent apologist for ELF, was in San Diego hours before the fire started, giving a talk in Hillcrest to other small-minded haters of humans. Coincidence? Perhaps they can pull some FBI in - at least of better competence than the Jewell and Hatfill probes - and take a long look at Mr. Coronado and his compatriots? This isn't news here - it's been on local talk radio, but they're sifting thru the ashes for evidence. |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-8-5 12:18:33 PM |
| #1 For the FBI, this is the kind of crime they can wrap their beaucratic little minds around and drop the full weight of their labs and gizmoes on. I am optimistic they will do the job with this. When it comes to being proactive on the prevention or unconventional weapons side, their thinking is too DEDUCTIVE to work well. The culture of the FBI is not an INDUCTIVE one. As for these bambi and thumper types, they have done more damage to the environment with this fire than a week's rush hour traffic in San Diego. Cars don't emit arsenic, chromium, nitrates, sulfides and soot like a fire does. I think that you would find an underground network in every university with an environmental sciences department and/or a chapter of PETA, supporting these clowns. The Earth Liberation Front is a bunch of anarchists. They have really no interest in protecting the environment. They are ultimately and foremost interested in the destruction of the US economy and the installation of an ultra communal agrarian state similar to the summer camps that Pol Pot put into place in Cambodia. The fact that environmental activist groups are not interested in solutions or understanding economic limitations and refuse to negotiate on compromises that will be mutually beneficial is the real veil lifting. We need to consider that these kinds of groups, the eco-terrorists, are far more dangerous and far more virulent than we have given them credit. I am profoundly worried about what these groups are capable of. At an Earth First Rally several years ago, the keynote speaker, who said the solution to the environmental damage that man was doing to earth was population control, was asked "What is the ideal human population of Earth?" His response was "Zero" and the audience stood up and CHEERED....... And that is why the same people that are pro-environment are are pro abortion, they really don't want any people on this planet. And the real extremists could be considered willing to die for this, given their regard of humans as a cancer and a virus on the planet. |
| Posted by: SOG475 2003-8-5 12:02:37 PM |