Yahoo! News - Eco-Terrorism Suspected in Md. Fires
More on this--was this an act of domestic terrorism?
INDIAN HEAD, Md. - More than a dozen expensive homes under construction were burned down early Monday in a suburban Washington housing development that had been criticized by environmentalists because it is next to a nature preserve, officials said. An FBI (news - web sites) agent said the fires may have been set by environmental extremists. A dozen homes were destroyed and 29 others damaged near the state's Mattawoman Natural Environment Area. No injuries were reported. The damage was estimated at at least $10 million. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Faron Taylor, a deputy state fire marshal, said investigators believe fires were set in at least four of the homes, which were priced at $400,000 to $500,000. Taylor refused to say what led investigators to conclude it was arson.
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Note that the person who wrote the article refers to "environmental extremists," and then whoever wrote the headline used the term "eco-terrorism." There are some fine distinctions made these days over use of the word "terrorist." The folks in Iraq who are taking hostages, sawing their heads off and mailing the videos to Al-Jazeera, and blowing up people standing in line at police stations are called "militants," "insurgents," or "rebels," but never terrorists, even though by any conventional definition of the word they are terrorists. ANow, what about these domestic terrorists (if this was politically motivated arson)? Are they going to be called terrorists, or "extremists"?