Ecoterrorism Possible Motive For Maryland Fires

[qanda]

Fire Marshals: 12 Homes Destroyed, 29 Others Damaged

INDIAN HEAD, Md. -- An FBI agent said arson fires at an affluent Maryland development in suburban Washington, D.C., may have been set by ecoterrorists.

FBI investigators said they are checking into all possible motives for the early morning arson fires, which caused an estimated $10 million in damage to the homes, which were under construction.

Officials say the four-alarm fire in Indian Head destroyed 12 homes and damaged 29 others, despite the fact that the buildings were relatively spread out and had been soaked by rain recently.

Investigators say the houses were on lots of about ¼ acre each -- and overall, the fire spread across 10 acres.

(more) http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/3974282/detail.html

[WillJP]

1. Well,

one mans "eco-terrorist" is another mans eco-freedom fighter.

[private_ryan]

2. and that eco-freedom fighter should be shot dead

if you owned the business and your entire life was in there you'd feel different.

[doreme]

5. Property is more valuable than life.

No wonder the homeowners in Fallujah want to kill us.:eyes:

[private_ryan]

8. oh no

just keep burning other people's houses and ruining livelyhoods. It's all OK and the that life is very valuable. We need him alive to burmn more houses. Not even jail time.

[Rose Siding]

11. Jail sounds right

Shooting him sounds barbaric.

[private_ryan]

12. not if it's your house

and you wake up as he is lighting the place up.

[RPM]

15. ummm - methinks the houses were under construction...

... no one waking up to a burning house....

Not that it makes it condonable - just a nuanced fact.

[Mandate My Ass]

16. if I wake up as he is "lighting the place up"

then I'm none the worse for wear. How on earth does that justify vigilante lynching when no life has been taken in the first place? :crazy:

[AliciaKeyedUp]

21. Many lives were endangered

Police and fire fighters race to the scenes of fires. Every one of their lives and many others were put at risk by the dangerous idiots who did this.

I don't know if it's eco-terrorists or racists (the new people were mostly black moving into an existing neighborhood), but I'd love to be on the jury of someone who shot the arsonists while they were burning the homes.

[w4rma]

17. "sooner forget the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony"

But, above all, he must abstain from the property of others. For men will sooner forget the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony.
http://www.bartleby.com/36/1/17.html

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

39. Two things:

(1) The FBI person pulled that out of his ass, with no evidence whatsoever;

(2) If I was a RW nut trying to make liberals/environmentalists look bad, I'd masquerade as a DUer and post a message just like yours.

[Wabbajack]

49. Reichstag fire?

[ornotna]

79. Ding ding ding

You are correct on both counts

[TX-RAT]

40. Horse Shit!

If somebody burned down those houses their Felons and should be prosecuted.

[yardwork]

3. I'm in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's non-violent corner myself

but I have a question for the eco-terrorists, if they are eco-terrorists - Why Maryland??? Maryland is a Blue State!!!!

Personally, I don't believe that this is the work of ELF or any other organized group. Sounds like a fire bug to me. Probably a white male who lives nearby. May be one of the people who called in one or more of these fires. The police should check their files for previous offenders.

[nashville_brook]

81. could also be a rival contractor

or someone didn't get paid

or insurance

[bemildred]

4. More horseshit.

Not saying this might not be arson, but blaming it on the
tree-huggers is lies and disinformation. A plain old
firebug will do the job, and no self-respecting tree-hugger
would do something so pointless as this.

[tinanator]

6. theyre quick to point at "eco-terrorists"

how many times out of ten is it a deranged "heroic" firefighter at the root? Never too soon to demonize.

[AliciaKeyedUp]

22. Clearly, you are front and center

with demonizing. Right now, we don't know who has done this.

[screembloodymurder]

53. Who started the demonizing?

What proof does the FBI have that points to ecoterrorists? Why are they bad mouthing environmentalist? The FBI should keep it's mouth shut until charges are filed.

[AliciaKeyedUp]

54. It fits the MO

This is an environmental battle over that development. The ecoterrorists use arson as a common tactic and these buildings were destroyed by arson. And the ecoterrorists also tend to choose unoccupied locations, again like this one.

That doesn't mean they did it. They have done other insanely stupid and criminal acts like this, so they are likely suspects. As are the neighbors and the developer.

And you can't slander a terrorist, eco or otherwise.

[tinanator]

56. EXCUSE ME?

Who did I demonize? I pointed out historical facts not hysterical ones.
Thanks anyway.

[johnfunk]

28. Petro-terrorism Possible Motive for Bush's Iraq Invasion

...now there's a headline I'd like to see...

[eridani]

52. Or someone who flunked the test for firefighters

That's the first place they looked to solve the North Seattle arsons a few years back, and sure enough they hit pay dirs.

[glitch]

7. You got that right - and they base this speculation on what, this?

"An FBI agent said arson fires at an affluent Maryland development in suburban Washington, D.C., may have been set by ecoterrorists."

This is supposed to back that statement up:

"Environmental groups have criticized the development for years because it sits next to a nature preserve.

A Sierra Club report had criticized the development as "quintessential sprawl" that threatens "fragile" wetlands and historical sites."

Please.

[leftchick]

20. exactly...

this is pure bullshit from our useless press.

[Judi Lynn]

27. Think of how much money is saved, profits enhanced by cutting back

on reporters? Heck, why have a full staff of busy reporters looking into things when you can cut back to a skeleton staff and publish the reports handed out by the gummint, instead?

What's not to like?

[purduejake]

43. Yea, I thought the same thing!

If I were an eco-freedom fighter, I would burn soft targets like big companies that cause a lot more environmental damage. It makes no sense, but of course when something goes wrong, BLAME THE LIBERALS!

[tonekat]

9. let's say it was "eco terrarists"...

...do they really think this is going to stop companies from building developments? We are, as a society, way past the tipping point on that...same with that idiot who burned the Hummers out in L.A....he got a long jail sentence, and those silly things keep being churned out, and bought.
Although I do have to admit, I took a course up in Vermont last winter on driving off road, and happened to end up being taught on a Hummer II....the instructor, a kid who was formerly in the Corps of Engineers, made a point of teaching us to drive in a manner that did not tear up the terrain, which I was grateful for.

[bemildred]

10. You clearly don't know shit about the Hummer incident.

The trial is just starting:

Connole may take stand in SUV case

Josh Connole will probably find himself on the witness stand in the case in which he was originally a suspect.

The 26-year-old antiwar activist was arrested in 2003 on suspicion of torching and vandalizing sport utility vehicles in West Covina and other San Gabriel Valley cities -- then later released without charges being filed against him. He said he has received a subpoena to testify on behalf of the current suspect standing trial, Billy Cottrell.

"I don't know the guy. I don't know if he's innocent or guilty," Connole said. "My investigation was full of lies and I believe the defense wants to show that."

Marvin Rudnick, attorney for Cottrell, confirmed Connole is on the list for his client, but he would not say how Connole's testimony would benefit Cottrell.

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/Stories/0,1413,206%257E31705%257E2534121,00.html?search=filter

FBI Victim Josh Connole Files Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit

PASADENA, Calif., Nov. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Peace and Environmental Activist Josh Connole has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the FBI agents who arrested him last year for acts of vandalism directed against dealers of Sport Utility Vehicles in the San Gabriel Valley. Attorneys John Burton and William Paparian are representing Connole.

Connole was arrested and the housing cooperative where he lived was searched because of his political views and activities and those of his housemates. Although they lacked probable cause, these FBI agents arrested Mr. Connole and then submitted a false and misleading affidavit to obtain a search warrant for the search of his home.

While Connole was cooperating with the FBI, explaining to them the he was not involved in the incidents and demonstrating the mistakes in their evidence, the FBI announced his arrest as an "eco-terrorist" to the media, leaking false information that he was caught on video surveillance at the scene. Connole's mug shot appeared in media throughout the world, branding him for life as a "terrorist" and "that Hummer guy."

Connole was subsequently released without any charges filed and has been completely exonerated of any involvement. The person on surveillance videotape the FBI claimed to be Connole was William Cottrell, who is presently being prosecuted on the charges for which Connole was arrested. The FBI has never issued a statement acknowledging its error or apologized for what he was put through.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/041103/law064_1.html

[InvisibleBallots]

13. Polluters caused the fire? Ecological Terrorist Corporations did it?

What was the motives? Do these people just hate trees?

[tinanator]

18. lol yeah theyre radical fundies trying to accelerate the 2nd coming

those whack job pyros.

[carolinalady]

14. Ok I'm wearing the tinfoil hat--

That Curtis guy that everyone is yaking about in the 2004 forum signed his 'affadavit' in MD--maybe we will learn that he was building a house there!

:tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat:

[Catchawave]

19. "Ecoterrorism"?

This never makes sense to me, shouldn't it be "ecovandalism" ? I mean, innocent humans lives weren't targeted, just greedy, environmental destroying corporation profits.

Or it could be an insurance scam or someone pissed at his boss.

[AliciaKeyedUp]

23. Arson always targets people

See my post above. Firefighters and police officers are put at risk by the morons who do this.

[Catchawave]

24. I agree...arson is a crime....

...but burning down an empty building is not terrorism.

[bemildred]

26. Actually, arson often targets insurance companies.

That would be one of my first suspicions here, and I expect that
is the first thing the fire investigator will consider, if he's any
good at his job.

Second to that, it's usually some guy with a beef or just the love
of a good bonfire.

[okasha]

48. Thank you bemildred.

You said it for me.

There are any number of possible motives here. An architect of my acqaintance recently had his unfinished condo project torched--not because it was eco-unfriendly, though it was, but because a drug lord mistook him for a rival of the same name.

Now that is scary.

Okasha

[AliciaKeyedUp]

55. I agree that it might be an insurance fire

But that still doesn't deflect the reality that humans are jeopardized by each and every arson.

[bemildred]

63. Yep, sure would not want to deflect any reality.

No question, that arson is a bad thing, a crime even.
You'd have to be pretty low to start an insurance fire
just for money or something like that.

[InvisibleBallots]

33. Ecological Terrorism = Pollution

and polluters are ecological terrorists.

[struggle4progress]

62. "Somebody pissed at his boss" is actually very likely. eom

[colonel odis]

25. sounds to me like a good excuse to cast environmentaliists in a bad light.

can't have people upset about corporate rape of the earth now, can we?

[blindpig]

29. pre-emptive propaganda?

bu$h has made it clear that he intends to wage full scale war against Nature for his swine song. Perhaps the Mighty Wurlitzer is being tuned-up for the anticipated reaction to his evil madness.

[colonel odis]

30. wouldn't surprise me one bit. n/t

[rodeodance]

31. yesterday Wolfe Blitzer led the story with 'terrorists-yes terrorists: may

be to blame. Then there was a break. It was only later when he got to the story that he said Egoterriots may be to blame!!!!!!!

[rodeodance]

32. some radical enviromentalists cast themselves in a bad light!!

[hatrack]

34. And it could nevernevernever be something like, say, INSURANCE FRAUD

No, no builder or developer would ever engage in fraudulent behavior. There would be no financial motivation for someone in that position to ever, EVER destroy property to collect insurance settlements.

Yup, gotta be eco-terrorists, no doubt about it!!! :eyes:

[rolleitreks]

35. We don't know who

did it, but if it proves to be some group of eco-terrorists they need to be prosecuted and punished. These tactics are unacceptable whether at home or abroad. Political frustration is not an excuse for violence.

[Zorra]

36. Elvis "may have" set those fires, there have been reports of sightings

in the area. (sarcasm off)

The RW corporate push is on - use fear to discredit environmentalists and justify the surveillance of environmental activists.

[doubleplusgood]

37. how many have been killed by "eco-terrorism" ?

I can't think of a SINGLE case of someone dying as a result of so-called "eco-terrorism". There have been, however, numerous cases over the years of environmental activists who have been threatened, physically attacked, raped and murdered, mostly by rabid, pro-development/pro-resource-exploitation people. Why has the media not reported on THESE incidents by "agro-terrorists" ?

2 years ago when the Klamath basin in Oregon was running short of water (due to overuse and the inevitable droughts), the "agro-terrorists" there were physically threatening anyone who went against them, to the point that a uniformed, on-duty sheriff's officer said at a pro-farmer rally, that there might be a "homicide" if any outside environmentalists came to the area to argue against the farmers. Now THAT'S terrorism.

[MaroonVette]

44. Too many. There have been recent piano wire killings against off-roaders

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22piano+wire%22+%2Btrail+%2B%22booby+trap

I would hope the culprits were caught and hanged by the neck until dead for their deeds.

[prolesunited]

45. Hmm...

I followed your link and didn't see any actual stories recent killings. You do realize TV shows and books aren't real, right?

[MaroonVette]

60. There are people out there with the desire to murder for eco-reasons

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_5_53/ai_72007013

My first deep encounter with this subspecies took place in Colorado, specifically the Pike National Forest, an immense spread of public land where the eagles fly, the elk saunter, and the trout convert insects into entrees. It is also a place where, in some sections at least, one can be run down by dirt-bikers-many of whom no doubt have a jet ski and a snowmobile back in the garage. Thanks to their efforts, this beautiful stretch of forest sounds like downtown Los Angeles on the Fifth of May. On many days, I found myself wishing for a few long strands of piano wire to stretch between trees at roughly Adam's apple level. It is a hard thing to admit, but these intruders do turn the mind toward homicide.

-----snip-----

Remember the UniBomber?

[okasha]

67. Ah yes.

The Unabomber always took care to announce his plans in National Review. I would, too, if I were plotting a murder.

Uhm, anyone who takes this is a threat is, I suspect, severely reality-challenged.

Okasha

[MaroonVette]

74. The challenge of reality

Graveyards are full of people that failed to discover the reality that some morons are reality challenged enough to kill people out of hate.

There is NOT ONE SINGLE TREE, NON-HUMAN ANIMAL, WETLAND or any other non-human artifact of nature worth defending at the cost of ONE SINGLE HUMAN LIFE. Take it to the ballot box and not the pine box.

[Milspec]

72. Remember the UniBomber?

Yes!

Remember were he is now...not a bad thing IMHO

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

46. All I see is hearsay and conspiracy theories

Point me ONE of the returned links that gives credence to your allegations. Please.

[MaroonVette]

47. There most certainly have been trail murders by piano wire

stretched across trails. Those links may not point to them but don't kid yourself that it has not happened. Just last year there were two deaths in MN on snowmobile trails.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

50. I find it hard to believe such an outlandish way of killing somebody

hasn't made it to the MSM. I repeat my request: gimme facts. You responded with more hearsay instead.

[MaroonVette]

57. Just for you I will get the information tomorrow and post it here

My brother lives in MN and sent me news clipping from the local paper last year. I'll dig them up and post them. I'm not making this shit up.

[doubleplusgood]

58. you also need proof that this was "eco-terrorism"

If this did happen, it could have been ranchers, private property rights folks (if trails went on their property), personal feuds, etc. or just some sickos with no particular axe to grind who wanted to create some mayhem. Please provide some evidence linking this specifically to so-called 'eco-terrorists".

[MaroonVette]

59. I'm just searching for information on the subject. Here is some more...

http://www.snowmobile.net/article.php?sid=26

"Wires stung 'neck high' to a bike rider can be fatal to an Enemy Soldier. A broken neck will seriously hamper a Soldiers activities. Ideal wire to use is very thin 'piano wire' lightly daubed with a dark brown or black paint to kill the shine. Since this wire has a tensile strength of something like 100,000 pounds per square inch it can be stretched between two trees very tightly. Any wire will do the job, even rusty barbed wire. Barbed wire has the advantage of gouging deep scratches even if it misses the neck area and only pulls across the chest and arms. This smarts, especially 1f the rider is thrown and gets dirt in the wounds. A variation is a loop hung down from a tree limb. This will act as a noose and as it tightens around the riders neck it will pull him off the cycle. He will probably have some difficulty in breathing."

These ideas are not real nice and were published in the recent past.

[MaroonVette]

64. Here is a real new report on the murder of a snowmobiler

Teen accepts sentence for snowmobiler's death

Published on May 31, 2001
Author: STEPHEN SEITZ Union Leader Correspondent
Publication: Union Leader, The (Manchester, NH)
Page Number: a12

KEENE -- Speaking in a soft but clear monotone, Daniel Tenters, 18, pleaded guilty to negligent homicide in Cheshire County Superior Court yesterday.

Tenters is one of four Jaffrey teens charged with causing the death of John Dupre by cutting a tree and placing it across a popular snowmobile trail. The other teens accused are Andrew Peterson and William Conway, also 18, and like Tenters, seniors at Conant High School....

[doubleplusgood]

70. sorry, but that's not "eco-terrorism"

just idiotic teens.

[MaroonVette]

73. maybe so.

I am not a judge.

[bemildred]

65. How is that "eco-terrorism"?

Sounds more like turf-wars or annoyance with off-roaders and
such. I see diddly that is "ecological" about it. Not everybody
that gets pissed off belongs to the Sierra Club or Earth First or
whatever bugaboo you are trying to bash. It could just be a
hiker with anger issues that doesn't like the trails chewed up.
Why blame people that care about ecological issues?

[MaroonVette]

66. I'm not trying to bugaboo or bash anyone

I most certainly do NOT blame people that care about ecological issues since I am one of them but if they resort to murder or maiming people I will blame, hunt down, procecute and see that these criminals are put away for life.

I am all for conservation of natural resources and their defense but murder does not play into it in ANY way.

[bemildred]

69. So are you willing to at least wait until someone is convicted

and their motives are known before calling it "eco-terrorism" then?

[MaroonVette]

71. Yes, of course

Sadly, all my bookmarks documenting these case are pointing at dead links so now I have to go look them up outside of the web. I will do this because it appears nobody seems to believe that sick-minded people have murdered people by decapitation with piano wire because they were driving ATVs that they eco-disagreed with. As if the Unibomber blew people up just because he liked handcrafted mailbombs.

[bemildred]

75. Here's some "eco-terrorists" for you, they work for the FBI:

After 11 years, Jury Vindicates Earth First Pair

Five years ago, Judi Bari lay on her deathbed still saying the FBI had framed her as an eco-terrorist. A jury agreed Tuesday and awarded her estate $2.9 million.

In one of the biggest civil rights verdicts of its kind, a federal jury said FBI agents and Oakland police officers must pay $4.4 million in damages to Bari's estate and fellow Earth First organizer Darryl Cherney. The two forest activists were injured in a 1990 car bombing in Oakland and investigated as eco-terrorists. Bari died of cancer in 1997.

Darryl Cherney smiles outside a courtroom Tuesday, June 11, 2002, in Oakland, Calif. Twelve years after they were arrested in the bombing of their own car, two Earth First! activists were awarded $4.4 million Tuesday in a federal suit claiming they were framed by Oakland police and FBI agents. After 17 days of deliberations, jurors awarded the money to Cherney and the estate of Judi Bari, who died of cancer in 1997. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
The jury unanimously found six federal agents and police officers liable for violating the pair's constitutional rights to free speech and protection from unlawful searches. They argued that the investigation, which has never cleared them as suspects, undermined their credibility and hurt their ability to promote forest preservation.

An attorney for the FBI agents said the government, which had fought for 11 years to keep the case from going to trial, indicated that an appeal is likely.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0612-05.htm

[MaroonVette]

77. I think Bari and Cherney were set up by the FBI

We have no disagreement here. I still have seen evidence of people either hateful or eco-concerned about off-roaders enough to decapitate them with piano wire on the trails.

The sick piano wire criminals have nothing to do with Judi and Darryl being set up by the FBI.

[bemildred]

78. Sick piano wire criminals have nothing to do with being eco-concerned,

either. To the extent they are not one sort or another of
agents provocateurs (as in the Bari case) they are just assholes,
so leave being ecologically concerned out of it. That's my point.

[doubleplusgood]

84. and I have experienced off-roader hatred

..towards people trying to enjoy the natural environment (without the benefit of the internal combustion engine): while on a group hike in the desert a number of years ago, a dirt-biker made a point of speeding close past our group of hikers & sprayed us with gravel from the trail.

[doubleplusgood]

80. another one: 1985 bombing of Rainbow Warrior (1 death)

state-sponsored anti-environmental terrorism:

http://archive.greenpeace.org/comms/rw/pkbomb.html

On the night of July 10 1985 the Rainbow Warrior had been docked in Auckland harbour for three days while preparations for the protest voyage to the nuclear test site at Moruroa Atoll were finalised.

(snip)

At 11:49 an electric blue flash was seen in the water beside the Warrior, quickly followed by a huge explosion. 'Bloody hell... It's from the engine room,' shouted Davey Edward after he was thrown from his chair against the wall. As everyone raced from the mess, Davey ran to the engine room. He was hardly able to open the door. It was like a huge steam bath, with water hissing in through the gaping hole torn in the ship's side.

Captain Pete Willcox, jolted awake, stumbled down to the engine room. One look was enough. 'Abandon ship, everyone get the hell out of here!' he shouted as the ship keeled over towards the wharf.

Fernando Pereira was worried about his cameras. He called out that he was going below to get them. He was quickly followed by Martini, who couldn't find his partner Hanne Sorensen and was worried she might still be in their cabin. The two men skidded down the stairs together. Martini checked out the cabin in scant seconds and made for the deck again, then the wharf. Fernando was in his cabin when the second blast went off, barely two minutes after the first.

(snip)

By 4 am divers had recovered Fernando's body. He had drowned, trapped in his cabin, the straps of his camera bag tangled around one leg.

As it emerged that the bombing was a deliberate act of sabotage, there was little doubt in Greenpeace minds who was responsible. Two days after the bombing the French Embassy in Wellington issued a statement echoing the flat denials emanating from Paris. 'In no way is France involved,' it declared. 'The French Government doesn't deal with its opponents in such ways.' But within a few days police had arrested French secret service agents Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur as they tried to return their van to an Auckland hire company. While they were held in custody, the charter yacht Ouvea, carrying another team of agents implicated in the bombing, sailed to Norfolk Island and then disappeared a few days out to sea heading north for Tahiti. Her crew was reportedly picked up by the French nuclear submarine Rubis, which turned up in Tahiti on July 22 - the first time a French nuclear submarine had been known to enter the South Pacific.

(snip)

Following claims in the London Sunday Times that President Mitterrand had known of the bombing plan, and implicitly, therefore had authorised it, French Defence Minister Charles Hernu resigned and Admiral Pierre Lacoste, director of the DGSE, France's intelligence and covert action bureau, was sacked. Within days Prime Minister Fabius admitted French secret service agents had bombed the Rainbow Warrior under orders. It was, said New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange, nothing more than 'a sordid act of international state-backed terrorism'.

Charged with murder and arson, on 4 November Mafart and Prieur, just two of a much larger team of saboteurs, pleaded guilty in the High Court at Auckland to lesser charges of manslaughter and wilful damage and were each sentenced to ten years' jail. Their guilty plea ensured that the facts of the police investigation would never be made public. In June 1986, in a political deal presided over by the United Nations Secretary-General, Javier Perez de Cuellar, France agreed to pay compensation of NZ$13 million (US$6.5 million) to New Zealand and 'apologise', in return for which Mafart and Prieur would be detained at the French military base on Hao atoll for three years.

To cap it all, the two spies were both free by May 1988, after less than two years had elapsed, Mafart having been smuggled out

[bemildred]

82. Yeah, forgot that one.

The FBI pulled a lot of that shit on the anti-war people back in
the VietNam days. You never forget. If some asshole suggest some
really loony, violent action, nine times out of ten it's the FBI
spy trying to make a name for himself. All sorts of bullshit about
"tree spiking" in the dustup over the HeadWaters redwoods too.
Lying sons of bitches.

[qanda]

38. One thing I noticed about many of the homeowners

Is that they were mainly minorities. Now, I don't know if that has anything to do with this, but an act of racism seems more likely than an act of ecoterrorism.

[orpupilofnature57]

41. remember a time the media could be relied upon,to get to the bottom..

Instead of the bottom line.What happened unfortunatly is any ones guess.

[qanda]

42. I just found this article from the Washington Post

Dated less than a week ago. Unfortunately it doesn't speak well of the Democrats who are in charge in Charles County-- I suspect they're Zell Miller type Dems.

Also I saw on the news tonight that investigators are not ruling anyone out. But "Ecoterrorist" sounds catchy enough to get viewers so I guess they'll remain the top suspects until further notice.

By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 1, 2004; Page B01

When Edith Patterson moved from the District to Charles County 31 years ago, a real estate agent suggested that the Pomfret Estates neighborhood would be perfect for her family. Because that's where the black people lived.

"You can't say that anymore," Patterson said, and not just because the agent's pitch was overtly racist. Blacks in Charles County are no longer confined to a few neighborhoods.

Charles's black population grew 25 percent from 2000 to 2003 -- the largest such gain for any county in Maryland -- and now accounts for 30 percent of county residents. It is a major part of Charles's transformation from rural crossroads to fast-growing outer-rim suburb.

The county's burgeoning black community, however, has yet to convert its growth into political power. Charles has never had a black county commissioner or state legislator. A new vacancy on the commission has the county's black leaders intent on clearing that barrier.

(more)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23426-2004Nov30.html

[orpupilofnature57]

51. thank you,excellent article

[nashville_brook]

83. it's funny, but regardless of if it was

an eco-terrorist or not, that area will always be known as being somehow cursed or unlucky. it will be harder to get lenders to finance up there or get insurance co's to cover -- maybe the end result in 20 years is that the remaining land will stay undeveloped.

[iamjoy]

61. Why Would Eco-Activist Start A Fire?

I mean, the homes probably had a wood frame. That wood is now destroyed and will mean more trees must be chopped down.

[mcg]

68. A waste of resources, and the fires cause pollution ,don't see the eco-MO.

I can't see any ecological motive.

Where is their evidence that this was ecologically related?

The vast majority of eco-activists do not resort to vandalism. I don't know if any resort to vandalism on this scale. In any group there's likely to be a few wacko characters, it's false to generalize from the very few to the many. I'm rather suspicious of their statement that this might have been done by 'eco-terrorists'. They are really stretching here. It's like they are saying that since a few eco-activists have resorted to vandalism (e.g. graffitti), this arson might have been done by an 'eco-terrorist'. Well, it could have been done by all kinds of people, why say an 'eco-terrorist'? It's much more likely to have been done by a compulsive arsonist, by someone for insurance fraud, or by right-wingers wanting to discredit environmentalists. Or maybe someone had a gripe with the developer.
The right-wingers also want to confuse different meanings of 'terrorism'.
From
http://www.dictionary.com/
one meaning is

'The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.'

while another meaning is:

'the calculated use of violence (or threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimindation or coercion or instilling fear'

They seem to be engaging in equivocation, the "use of expressions susceptible of a double signification, with a purpose to mislead.",
as well as false generalization, saying that since a few eco-activists have done some minor vandalism, an eco-activist was likely to have done this, and better yet, ALL environmentalists are TERRORISTS, they want to kill your babies! I have a relative who asked my mother regarding my father 'He's not one of those environmentists, is he?'. These right-wingers have people brainwashed into thinking that environmentalists are somehow 'bad people'. How is wanting to save OUR environment 'bad'? From a religious perspective, polluting and depleting our earth is spitting on a gift God has given us, it is highly immoral.

I'm also perplexed by the old bumper sticker 'Be a hero, save a whale. Save a baby, go to jail'. How do these issues actually relate to each other? There's a whole lot of illogic going on.

[doubleplusgood]

85. hero/whale/baby/jail thing

Yeah, I always wondered about that. The Religious Right in this country really seems to hate everything about nature, they are always complaining that environmentalist/liberals care more about nature than humans...the old Humanity-Uber-Alles argument. In reality, they are being very materialistic, IMHO. They are utilitarians, in that plants & animals have value only if they are "useful" to humans.

This anti-nature stance by fundie Christians is extremely ironic, since, supposedly their god not only went to the trouble of creating all forms of life in the first place (or in their Fundie-speak, "lovingly created"), but when he had a chance to destroy all life, he ordered Noah to to save every species, not just the "useful" ones.

[HeeBGBz]

76. There was an arsonist blamed as an ecoterrorist in Phoenix

In early 2001. I was living out there at the time.

This story reminded me of that.

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/issues/2001-01-25/news/feature.html