BALTIMORE (AP) -- Ecoterrorism, suspected in the torching of a tony housing development near a sensitive wetland this week, is a growing national threat, the FBI says.
The radical campaign gets less publicity than the sister movement of animal rights activism, known for freeing animals from cages and threatening laboratory employees. But the FBI, which dubs both movements ``special interest extremism'', blames them for 1,100 criminal acts that have caused $110 million worth of damage since 1976.
Both types of extremists have emerged in recent years as a ``serious domestic threat'', the agency says.
``It is believed these trends will persist, as extremists within the environmental movement continue to fight what they perceive as greater encroachment of human society on the natural world,'' said John E. Lewis, deputy assistant director of the FBI's counterterrorism division, as he testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in May.
Even before flames in Charles County were extinguished Monday, environmentalists distanced themselves from the arsons. The Sierra Club quickly issued a statement condemning ecoterrorism, saying it ``does nothing to further the cause of promoting safe and livable communities.''
Ellie Cline, a leader of a local citizens' group that has been fighting the housing development, said she wasn't even aware of ecoterrorism as an organized movement.
``I didn't think those things went on,'' Cline said Tuesday. ``That's a whole new concept. I had no idea that was an avenue that anyone would pursue.''
Sierra Club spokesman David Willett reluctantly commented on the ecoterrorism movement, saying coverage of it gives a ``mouthpiece to people who commit these crimes and put people's lives in danger.''
Plus, Willett said, it distracts from environmentalists' larger message.
``We can't talk about the environmental merits and liabilities of these homes, because this is a story about fires and people's lives being in danger,'' Willett said, referring to the hundred firefighters who fought the blazes. No one was injured.
The FBI dates ecoterrorism back to 1977, when former members of Greenpeace attacked commercial fishing ships by cutting drift nets.
Increasingly, Lewis testified, ecoterrorists are launching attacks in populated areas, such as southern California and Michigan. They're also targeting developments like Hunters Brooke in Charles County - those under construction in previously undeveloped areas. They've set afire condos and ski lodges from California to New York.
A luxury condominium complex being built near La Jolla, Calif., torched in August 2003, sustained $50 million in damage. Weeks later, 120 sport-utility vehicles were vandalized and burned in West Covina, Calif.
The most active criminal extremists are the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and its sister group, the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), the FBI says.
The ELF has been connected to dozens of acts of vandalism and arson around the country since 1996. It may be best known for torching a ski facility in Vail, Colo., in 1998, causing $12 million in damage.
Last month, a 23-year-old man painted ``ELF'' around a lumberyard in West Jordan, Utah, after he set fire to it. Justus Ireland said he used lighted flares to ignite a pallet on the back of a delivery truck. The blaze caused $1.5 million worth of damage.
ALF and ELF claimed credit for the burning of government-run wild horse corrals in Oregon in 1997 and the 1998 burning of a federal agriculture building in Washington that caused more than $2 million worth of damage.
Groups like ALF and ELF are difficult to control, because they're less structured and have little established hierarchy, Lewis said in his testimony. He estimated that 34 field offices were investigating 190 cases of terrorism associated with the two groups.
The agency, which declined to comment beyond the congressional statements, has stepped up its fight against ecoterrorism by centralizing information gathered on the groups. A national task force coordinates the information campaign and distributes intelligence reports specifically related to ecoterrorism.
Meanwhile, the agency continues to press for federal criminal statutes to help prosecute the crimes.
Related:
- No Motive Determined at Torched Maryland Development
- 26 Homes Burned, 12 Total Loses, in Maryland Housing Development Fire
- Eco-Terrorism Suspected In Arson Fires at Maryland Housing Development
- Maryland Fire Guts 12 Expensive, Unoccupied Homes
- Fire Engulfs Maryland Homes in Development Criticized by Environmentalists
