ENVIRO-TERROR.(Brief Article)

Sarah Reichard, a conservation biologist with the University of Washington, had her office destroyed by fire on May 21, devouring years of research on the preservation of rare and endangered plant species. Catherine Ives, a researcher developing disease-resistant crops to combat African malnutrition and famine, had her office at Michigan State immolated on New Year's Eve, 1999. What do they have in common? They're scientists, and for a particularly impatient and violent wing of the environmental movement, science and development have become intolerable evils. They call themselves the "Earth Liberation Front." They're confirmed pyromaniacs, apparent scientific illiterates, and according to the FBI, one of the most significant domestic American terrorist threats since the Weather Underground.

They have, in their short career, caused some $40 million worth of property damage, and created a climate of fear for virtually anyone involved in what might possibly be construed by these "defenders of the Earth" as a threat to the environment.

In the course of three years, a mountaintop resort at Vail, Colorado has been burnt to the ground, as have homes under construction in new subdivisions as far apart as Indiana and Long Island. Several Long Island branches of a New York bank were vandalized--windows smashed, ATM machines smeared with glue--to protest the bank's business dealings with a British firm that practices animal testing. In early June, a GM dealership in Eugene, Oregon was set ablaze, reducing some 30 Chevrolet Tahoes and Suburbans to charred hulks. Logging operation across the country have been victims of repeated arson attacks. In Eugene, Oregon, home to a strong cell of ELF pyros, there have been over 140 arson fires since June 2000.

ELF recently posted an arsonist's primer on its Web site. It advises potential firebugs to "guarantee destruction of the target through careful planning and execution." It fails to mention that ...