Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Terrorism by flame

I came across an interesting news piece early this morning stating that California State Troopers caught an arsonist in the act of attempting to reignite a fire in an area that had been spared. Many of you out there may ask what the fires in California have to do with terrorism. The answer to this is actually quite simple, terrorists have used fire as tool of terror for thousands of years. In fact, groups in ancient times that we today may describe as either terrorists or guerrilla fighters used fire quite effectively thanks to the invention of greek fire. In present times the groups most commonly associated with the use of fire to further a political message is the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front. Additionally, a terrorist associated with al-Qaeda claimed that he was part of a plot to start wild fires in the western U.S. to cause destruction and monetary damage. Lebanon is also suffering from fires that were started by arsonists attempting to drain the resources of the central government.

Currently I do not have the all the facts or any concrete evidence to back up my claim, but the current fire situation in California contains many elements that were present in past ELF attacks. ELF usually targets Hummer dealerships or construction site that they claim to be infringing on the habitats of wild animals. The fires in California have hit areas that contain many extravagant homes and other forms of decadence. While I cannot and will not say that I am one hundred percent sure that these fires were acts of ELF, it is clear that they were started purposely. The U.S. government is currently offering a reward of 50,000 dollars for information leading to the arrest of the people who started these fires.

2 comments:

Aaron Mannes said...

Thanks for your comment and nice blog. I'm following the fires as well - similar angle.

Contact me directly and I'll give you what thoughts I can.

kegler said...

Nice job, B.J. Keep up the good work. We're paying attention here in Wisconsin.