Old ELF Turns on Young 'Eco-Terrorists'

May 4, 2004 -- -- The firebombing of houses being built north of Seattle might signal the start of a long, hot summer of eco-terror, but one former activist — who used the ELF acronym decades before the Earth Liberation Front — says he wishes the new generation would learn the lesson that he learned.

The FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and local authorities are investigating fires that destroyed two nearly constructed homes in Snohomish, Wash., and incendiary devices and threatening notes found at two other housing developments near Clearview and Monroe.

No one has claimed responsibility for the firebombing, which did an estimated $1 million worth of damage, or the notes and devices found at the other sites, but investigators say they suspect radical environmentalists like the Earth Liberation Front.

The ELF press office said in an e-mail to media that the actions were most likely carried out by individual members, but the group was not claiming responsibility.

Builder Bill Cadiz, who found the gasoline bombs and threatening notes at the development near Monroe, told ABCNEWS affiliate KOMO-TV in Seattle that investigators asked him not to describe how the firebombs were assembled, but said they were very complicated, unlike anything he had ever seen before.

It appeared that the devices used to burn the homes in Snohomish were assembled on the scene, sources told KOMO, and one builder said an investigator told him the fuses were long enough so that "whoever did it would have time to sit down and have a beer before leaving."

Law enforcement officials have said they expect no letup in the activity of the ELF and other groups they call eco-terrorists, despite several recent arrests and convictions, including the capture of FBI most-wanted list fugitive Tre Arrow, who was nabbed last month when he allegedly tried to shoplift a pair of bolt cutters in Victoria, British Columbia.

Among the suspects arrested was a Southern California college student accused of igniting blazes that destroyed dozens of SUVs at several Los Angeles auto dealerships and at private homes.