Seattle homes set on fire; left-wing ecoterrorists suspected
Has the Earth Liberation Front struck again? KIRO TV in Seattle has live, streaming coverage of a massive fire in Snohomish County, WA. Four luxury homes on the “Street of Dreams” development–long a target of environmental extremists–are burning. ELF left its mark:
Eastman told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News that firefighters arrived to find one home engulfed in flames. Two other homes were burning and a fourth home was smoking.
An incendiary device was left in each home, firefighters said. A total of five devices were found. A device in one home apparently didn’t go off.
The homes were built last summer as part of the “Street of Dreams” project.
He said a passerby heard explosions at about 5:15 a.m. that sounded like gunshots.
KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reporter Michelle Millman said a sign on a fence near one of the homes read: “Built Green? Nope black! McMansions in RCDs r not green. ELF.”
Yes, question the timing. An ELF activist is currently on trial for ecoterrorist bombings at the University of Washington in 2001.
Though she has been an active advocate for the environment, Briana Waters insists she would never condone arson as a means to a political end.
“It’s very dangerous to human lives,” she testified Wednesday in federal court. “I’ve always been someone who feels very strongly about not hurting people in any way.”
The 32-year-old violin teacher is accused of serving as a lookout while her friends planted a devastating fire bomb at the University of Washington in 2001.
The fire is one of the most notorious in a string of arsons that investigators say were perpetrated from the mid-1990s to 2001 by members of the Earth Liberation Front, a loosely organized collection of radical environmentalists.
Waters was one of five people indicted in the arson at the university. She faces a minimum of 35 years in prison if convicted of conspiracy, possessing an unregistered destructive device, arson and use of a destructive device during a crime of violence.
No one was hurt in the arson at UW, but its Center for Urban Horticulture was destroyed and rebuilt at a cost of $7 million. It was targeted because the ELF activists mistakenly believed researchers there were genetically engineering poplar trees, investigators said.
Waters told jurors she had no part in the crime.
Prosecutor Mark Bartlett took issue with Waters’ assertion that she would never consider arson as a way to make political statements.
Bartlett pointed to a 1998 New York Times Magazine article about radical environmentalists which quotes Waters, then a senior at The Evergreen State College, as saying she “totally” supported arson “as long as people don’t get hurt.” Tiffany Tudder, a fellow student at the time, testified that she remembered Waters making that statement.
I’ve written extensively about the ELF/ALF reign of terror on researchers, scientists, and property owners across the country. Their m.o.: Saving the planet by any means necessary. Laws and lives be damned.
***
Flashback: Here’s a Hot Air news segment on Ecoterrorism 101 and the penetration of eco-terror chic in pop culture. What are your children learning about eco-thuggery in school today?
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If our country was sane we would.
1. Hunt them down.
2. Shoot to kill.
These folks are extremely dangerous.
These nuts make me so proud to live in WA state. Not!
Sooo,
how many carbon credits did these clowns have to buy to do this?
If Snohomish county was wise they would develop conservatively, not like the sprawling pockets of million-dollar homes that are appearing all around Woodinville, Bothell, and Monroe. The land can’t take it, the infrastructure can’t take it, and the economy won’t tolerate it forever, either. I’m no tree-hugger, but we need some way to restrict the growth in this county. Growth is inevitable, but it needs to be done smartly, with long-term development in mind.
I just wonder how long before they aim at occupied homes.
So far, they haven’t stopped anyone from building. If they live up to their motto of “by any means necessary” one can only conclude that people are next on their list.
How about:
1. Hunt them down
2. Put them on trial in a Red State
Hey…global warming is bad! I know, let’s start some big fires! That should cool things down in a hurry.
This is throwing red paint on a fur coat on a much larger scale. The animal(s) in the coat are already dead, and these houses were already built! Now you’re going to have the carbon footprint of the massive clean-up operation in addition to that of actually building the houses again.
This reminds me I need to burn my brush pile. Do ELF members make good kindling?
Do they not consider what is released into the the atmosphere when an entire house burns….let alone 4 homes.
Once again there is no consideration for the consequences of their actions.
Fourstringfuror, you have a point. Look to SoCal as an example of how not to handle large scale growth.
On the other hand, let’s make sure smart growth doesn’t mean kow-towing to the eco-nut-dorks.
and they didnt have on site security why?
ELF? How fitting for small little people with little minds.
The Street of Dreams is not one location – it consists of several such streets around the greater Seattle area.
fourstringfuror, “restricting growth” means the goverment takes over property rights even more. Who’s going to decide, you?
Growth is inevitable – of goverment and the power they grab.
E‘diots
Lighting
Fires
This sounds like a Monty Python skit.
Patron: Hello, I’d like to register my destructive device.
Clerk: What is it you intend to do with it?
Patron: Oh, just burn down a few houses, maybe a University building or two. I just want to avoid being charged with having an unregistered destructive device if I get caught.
Clerk: Well then, just fill out this form and that will be $50 dollars…
One security company is capable of patroling all projects. If they knew they were “long a target” they should have had security.
Anarchy – complete and utter anarchy.
#9
Saddam burned down 800 oil wells in Kuwait out of ignorance and spite. They burned for 8 months causing the largest ecological disaster in the history of mankind.
Yet liberals believe that the world would have been better off if he had remained in power.
Couldn’t have happened to a better City.
(except maybe Berekley)
I love to see socialist and liberal wacko’s attacking their own.
Do you think we could talk PETA into attacking Moveon.org? or maybe talk Democrats into attacking the NYT?
wishful thinking, ah well….
Well, I knew someone would jump on me for saying that, so rather than take the bait and argue with you, let me say this: I don’t favor taking away property rights any more than I favor taking away free speech rights. However, with the rate at which this region is growing in terms of population, something needs to be done to help developers build smartly and with long-term, realistic goals in mind.
I can tell you this much – it has taken years, literally, for my church (very close to these fires, in Woodinville) to get through the permitting and design process with Snohomish County, just to add a wing to the sanctuary. Meanwhile, I have seen dozens of new home developments spring up, and all within a few miles of my church.
And no, I’m not going to decide anything. Chill.
I’m sure they’re reconsidering their security options now.
The Street of Dreams is in a different location each year. They build 4-6 houses on a gated street, then open them to the public for tours for about 2 weeks. The houses are then sold to private citizens, who then occupy the homes.
So, Street of Dreams should have (at most) 2 sites to secure – the site of this years tour, and the site for next year that is already under construction.
Let this be a lesson to you all.
Don’t forget to spay and neuter you ELFs!
This is what happens when you let liberals run wild. And suffice it to say Washington state has their fair share.
This is exactly how liberals treat Christians. Can’t take out their frustrations on Jesus by killing him twice. So, they come after Christians. Can’t get everyone to buy into your eco-madness, burn down homes that’ll get their attention and help your cause. There are a lot of dangerous idiots out there.
Michelle, another eco-terrorist, Tre Arrow (Michael Scarpiti) was just extradited back to Portland on Friday after 4 years in jail in Canada where he fought extradition back to the U.S. He’s the guy that camped out on the ledge of a building in downtown Portland for several days years ago to protest logging and he’s accused of torching several logging trucks and also several Ross Island cement trucks. Today he’s supposed to appear in court for the first time since he fled the U.S.
http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_022908_news_tre_arrow_extradition.d44dc81.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tre_Arrow
Welcome to Seattle! Famous for lattes, Evergreen State College of Professional Protesters, ELF, Peta, taxation without representation, casinos with mega lighting, the spotted owl, Snohomish and King Counties(two of the most corrupt counties in this state), and the site of some of the most hateful and moronic liberals in the nation. Second only to San Fransicko in it’s population of hypocrites. The home of the famous ELF, whose members, I’m sure, learned their trade from Evergreen State College and hold degrees in protesting.
Home to Boeing. If their reaction to the loss of that contract wasn’t so hilariously funny, it would be pitiful. Seattle and it’s surrounding cities…so hateful toward corporate business, the military, and the U.S. in general, protesting what they call the “outsourcing of our national security”. hahahahaha
Even if you think that is true, that does not mean it is okay to go out and commit acts of ecoterrorism. Freedom of speech is good, that is what you are doing by saying all that. It’s another thing altogether to burn stuff down and destroy stuff. I do NOT think that these people are helping anything with their methods.
The mechanism you want is called a “Free Market” economy, I think. If folks can afford to pay the ridiculous prices and desire to live squished together in cookie-cutter mansions, the developers will build them.
If your local government allows special permissions for builders to circumvent the zoning requirements… it’s time to replace them. No need for further intervention.
#26 Brent
another eco-terrorist, Tre Arrow (Michael Scarpiti) was just extradited back to Portland
That ain’t me, okay?!
Tony,
Hard to replace the Democrat establishment when we can’t get Republicans to even show up at a caucus. We had a total of two voters, including me, show up for my precinct last month. Apathy is rampant.
With a name like “Street of Dreams”, it should probably be burned anyway.
fourfingerfuror, I’m chilled. It’s just personal for me.
Our own local brand of “smart growth” and the Supreme Court “Kelo” case caused the razing of one of the beloved cheeseburger joints in the Twin Cities.
The place was old, dumpy, and the burgers were always perfect. And they made fries the old-fashioned way.
But it was eminent-domained (new verb) for a condo high-rise. I guess because we need more of those.
On March 3rd, 2008 at 11:32 am, fourstringfuror said:
Hard to replace the Democrat establishment when we can’t get Republicans to even show up at a caucus. We had a total of two voters, including me, show up for my precinct last month. Apathy is rampant.
To add:
…and the Republicans in DC only have themselves to blame. Take the Hugo tax break and look at how many Repubs voted for it. Take the McCain nomination being forced on us. Apathy only begins to describe how I (and many other like me) feel. Betrayed would be another good adjective.
I’ve got to say a few things in defense of fourstringfuror.
Firstly though, I am absolutely against gov’t mandating matters best left to privaet individuals and companies. That said,….
Here in SoCal there was zero plan for growth. As a result, the city I live in, Mission Viejo, has a population over 75,000 people, and no police dept. We are not alone: Laguna Niguel, Laguna Hills, San Juan Capstrano, the list goes on. The Reason? The county and state never made sure developers paid any kind of impact fees that would help grow the municipalities as the population grew.
While it’s true that we would pay those fees as we moved in, at least the planning needed to be done, and wasn’t. Now, the OC Sherrif’s office has to patrol each of these areas.
What I think fourstringfuror is trying to say is we just need to make sure planning is adequately done so we don’t run into future problems.
There are more problems here, but you get the idea….
#30
No disputing the apathy, but I think it was more or less due to the party’s canditate selection rather than involvement in politics.
I wrote 6 state representatives and 2 senators last month alone, (going outside of my district to contact the minority as well) on several bills that are of interest to me. Don’t give up hope – we can only affect change from within…
or move to Wyoming!
Obviously following Eco-Sharia Law
BTW fourstringfuror… nice lookin’ car. Hard to tell from the pic size though… RoadRunner?
I feel ya’ – mosque going up near my home… hope they don’t blast the come-n-pray from the minarets; had enough of that in Bagram.
And if another massive forest fire starts, then who’s to blame?
Oh, that’s right…the people who dared to build a home for themselves and their families.
Remember, folks. ELF and other eco-zealots subscribe to the “Just enough of me, way too many of you” mentality.
Which means they want all of us to curl up and die so they can live.
They are dangerous.
Fourstring, I usually agree with you but when you say smart growth, it makes my skin crawl. Just look to Portland for examples of smart growth. What you end up is eco-nuts in charge of the smart growth and they start replacing lanes of road with special bike lanes and bike boxes further restricting an already busy roadway. Remember, cars are bad. So then we can move tax dollars from repairing roads and get rid of bus line in favor of “mass transit” that costs billions of dollars for few to ride. We can then stuff houses so tightly together that you can’t fit a lawn mower through, (lawn mowers are bad). No lawns, they are politically incorrect, what with the herbicides etc. They won’t allow any new growth for homes, just “infill” so you end up with property costs through the roof. Just remember who is going to be pulling the strings when it comes to smart growth.
Being in South Florida, I know about the uncontrolled growth also. The solution isn’t taking away property rights, it’s controlling the permitting process. There’s a big difference between a guy who wants to build a house and a publicly traded corporation putting up a gated community of 700 homes.
Tony, Wyoming is definitely on my list of good places to live. If only global warming would hurry up and warm their winters up a bit.
Seattle does NOT need more condos. All the apartments in our area are being converted and sold for ridiculous amounts.
Thanks. That was my point.
I don’t think for a minute that these people really have ecology or the earth in mind. They are simply psychopaths who are using environmentalism as a front to hide their sickness.
Fourstring, I agree with you, planning is good. If you go to most planning and community development classes in college, they are being taught social control policies that are opposite of what you and I would agree on what adequate planning is. These are the people that take the class and teach the class. They are utopian socialists that what a “smaller footprint” on everything.
fourstring, nobody forces you to live in a “bad” environment – move. That’s what the fifty individual states are about on a macro level and what a free market is about on a micro level. You get to choose where and how you live. The Peoples Republic of Minnesota has gone stark, staring, mad with taxes and socialism. That’s what you get when you turn your decisions over to “experts”. They turn out to be idiots, after all. I have a couple more years until I retire. Then we leave. Game over. Vote with your feet.
#34–Mission Viejo’s a nice place. Lucky you
.
Smart growth, schmart growth. These punks don’t care about “smart growth,” they want “no growth.” Your average ELFer is a white middle-class kid who had all of the niceties of middle-class life growing up. But he or she gets brainwashed into feeling guilty and the ELFer works out the guilt by trying to deprive other people of the fruits of their labor. There’s nothing environmentally-friendly about burning Hummers or houses. The ELFer doesn’t care about saving trees or critters; it’s all about attacking the free market. ELFers are just Marxist brownshirts.
Don’t get hung up on that phrase “smart growth.” I didn’t realize it had any kind of negative connotation. My point is that development needs to done with a long-term approach, which doesn’t seem to be happening here. That’s all.
I’m just using examples very close to Seattle of what kind of can of worms you can open up when you let the local governments in the Pacific Northwest start planning.
I don’t disagree, but do you agree that there should be some kind of long-term plan?
Absolutely. Agreed. Beware of who is making the plan and their ultimate motives. Danger lurks out there. I am not an expert or authority on planning but I can see what doesn’t work.
Love ya bro.
Love ya bro,
Gotta go,
Make some dough.
Evergreen state college… aren’t those the same nutters that are protesting at the port, and obstructing Army and Marine Corps equipment getting to our frontline troops? IIRC, it is.
Jim C
Yes, Jim, the very same. In the case of the Port protests, they had backing from professors as well as the City Council. In fact, one of them was actively involved.
It’s a very good thing Puget Sound has had a very wet winter otherwise this act of stupidity could have started a major forest fire. Provided my memories about Western Washington’s wealth of foliage is still the same. These eco-terrorist are just as dangerous as the Jihadist they both are afraid of technology, freedom of choice, and want to take us back in time to the days of the caveman.
fourstringfuror said:
If Snohomish county was wise they would develop conservatively, not like the sprawling pockets of million-dollar homes … The land can’t take it,
Uhh, we’re talking about eco-terrorism, here. That comment sounds like advocacy of these ELFs.
I, for one, am tired of the ecology component of WA “conservatives”. Environmentalism is a shill, first and foremost.
Get a grip. First, it was owls, then dams, then farmers/ranchers. Then the climate. Now, it’ll be home-owners.
Yeah, except it’s not. Try reading my other comments first before you tell me to get a grip.
Well, I can tell you one thing – my carbon footprint isn’t as big as ELF’s.
These people are truly scary. One day they will burn a home with people in it. I guess losers is too good a name for these people.
And thank G*d that bozo has been bounced. TJ is nuthin’ more than a bad memory now.
Smart growth. Hmm, like they are doing here in Goodyear Arizona. Building 89,000 new homes and the freeway is still two lanes.
Or one may think of smart growth as they do in So-Cal. Put so many fees and taxes on a property that one cannot afford to build anything bigger than a dog house, provided one can get the permits.
Do tell. I missed that somehow. You would think after multiple emails to him and the Council he would think to reply to my simple request to know the exact nature of his involvement. Guess he was too busy looking for a way out.
KCK – that’s the end-game, don’t you know? No growth, no property rights, just a glorious communist commune where we’re all equally miserable… except for our exalted leadership. They get homes/property/firearms; after all, they were the ones we were waiting for
…….
I am worried about my area (not too many miles from this fire) where dozens of new cookie-cutters are being built. They’re not anywhere near as big as the street-of-dreams homes and less than a quarter of the cost. But, I don’t think they’re any less of a target by the #$%!&@* ELF because they were built on previously-forested land.
While I begrudge Snohomish County for not forcing developers to contribute toward local road improvement (which their homes will be puting more traffic on), I don’t begrudge the development itself.
Btw, anyone care to know why houses are so bleeding expensive up here? Government regulation.
#62
Here ya’ go:
TJ? – Nope… nobody here by that name!
If ELF cares so much about the planet, then why did they release numerous carcinogens and toxins into the atmosphere by burning those large homes, not to mention the wholesale waste of all that dimensional lumber that may have come from old growth timber? What a bunch of hypocrites!
I am so sick of “New Urbanism” and “Smart Growth” advocates telling property owners what they should and shouldn’t do with their property. Talk about facists. Do it their way or else.
Somehow to them it is evil for someone to live in a single family home with a yard and a lawn, and have a 2 car garage. We’re wrong for wanting to drive a car to work instead of taking a 3 hour mass transit ride each way for a 20 minute commute. Instead they want high density multi-family buildings with a “pocket park” every few blocks. Limited parking (1 car/family) or pay a fine, etc. If that is the environment they want to live in, then fine have at it and build that “place in the sun” for yourself.
But don’t try to force your standards on me. I spent my years living in a city apartment and taking mass transit – that was then, this is now. I want a suburban lifestyle for my family so take your holier than thou attitude and shove it.
The hypocrisy of the ELF idiots is immeasurable. The damage to the environment that is created from their firebombing of these structures far outweighs anything that the structures themselves could ever create. The phosgene gases released into the atmosphere from the refrigerants that were exposed to flame, the syanide gasses from the foam rubber and insulations that were burned, the various toxins from the burning plastics and other such articles have lasting effecs once they got into the ground and water supply from the firefighting efforts, as well as getting into the air and atmosphere, as well as the surrounding plant life. They did far more damage to the environment than the builders could have done had the builders purposely det out to destroy the environment.
Add to that, the simple fact that the construction firms are going to rebuild everything, these idiots have DOUBLED the amount of materials used in the construction of these houses. They ultimately have done nothing good, and have made more waste and damages to their cause than any of their so-called foes ever could.
When these ELF morons go and burn cars and SUV’s, what they end up doing is releasing far more pollutants in the 20 or so minutes that the vehicle will be on fire before the Fire Department puts it out, than the vehicle will EVER create in it’s entire life-span on the road.
However, these facts are entirely lost on these insane little terrorists. For some reason, in their minds, a tree is worth more than a human life. It is hard to understand the type of upbringing or family life that would create such aperson that view human life with such disdain, but it isn’t much different than the way Islamists view human life at all. Terrorists are all the same. human life takes a back seat to the ultimate goal, no matter how absurd or wrong that goal may be.
These tree huggers and house burners I would bet to say are for open borders which will increase the population pressures around our large and small cities. Where do these open border folks expect these illegals to live once they get here? The answer is not to burn down houses, boy are they stupid.
What jackass said/thinks that??? Blowing up cop cars is what… just a childish prank? I’m so tired of idiots excusing and giving a free pass to home grown terrorists like this. We should start renting jail space in some foreign countries to house people like this – perhaps in Mexico or Iraq for instance.