Home-Grown Evil

From Investors Business Daily:
Posted 12/15/2005

Ecoterrorism:
Islamist fanatics want us dead. Domestic radicals are focused on material and economic destruction. But that's for now. One day, someone's going to get killed by the home-grown terrorists among us.

Six suspects were arrested last week in five states in connection with a series of arsons and other crimes in Oregon and Washington that over three years destroyed about $5 million worth of property.

The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) have taken responsibility for the crimes.

For ELF, $5 million is an off day. The damage it has wreaked crossed the $100,000 threshold years ago. Among other achievements, the "if you build it, we will burn it" crowd has firebombed a Vail, Colo., ski resort that did an estimated $12 million in damage and torched a five-story, 206-unit condominium building near San Diego that cost $50 million.

It has also incinerated a number of SUVs and luxury homes and committed 3,000 other environmental crimes, according to those who've tried to keep track.

Meanwhile, those who oppose keeping animals in captivity, using them for medical tests or wearing their fur have been no less eager to make their points.

So far, thank goodness, no one's been killed by the groups, both of which claim to be nonviolent. But to believe they can continue to destroy property without destroying human life is wishful thinking. In a tragic moment, someone will be caught in a building or home to which they have set fire. That someone could be a firefighter or police officer.

Or will these groups, which think of themselves as noble defenders of nature, step up their violence to the point that killing innocents is part of their strategy? We wouldn't be surprised.
Earlier this year, John Lewis, FBI deputy assistant director for counterterrorism, told a Senate hearing of an "escalation in violent rhetoric and tactics" by ecoterrorists. The attacks, he said, "are also growing in frequency and size."

"Harassing phone calls and vandalism now coexist with improvised explosive devices and personal threats to employees."

No wonder the FBI in 2001 placed ELF at the top of the list of domestic terrorist threats, and that ALF was named in January as a terrorist threat by the Homeland Security Department.

The arsonists and vandals who belong to these groups are vicious criminals, not high-minded people simply trying to protect that which they hold dear. Treating them as anything less will only encourage them — and the consequences will be fatal.